Manson

MANSON Directed By Laurence Merrick and Robert Hendrickson (1973).

The first time I saw this rare documentary which is still only available on VHS was in middle school, it's powerfully depressing and has some of the most idiotic people you've ever seen or heard in your life. All the girls wear punk haircuts and skimpy shorts as they brag about their shotguns and giggle while hurling anarchistic psychobabble your way. The girls cutesy antics wear out real fast. Lots of people have either fetishized these moronic chicks or sampled their dialogue in hardcore songs by Integrity and Poison Idea or industrial weirdos Skinny Puppy. The only reason they convinced half of the actual family members on the lam to participate in this film was because they were all given the opportunity to blab about how awesome they all were. Ah youth, almost all of these people currently wish they'd never met a con artist loser and extreme manipulator like Charlie. The ones interviewed in the film like Steve Clem Grogan aka "Scramblehead", Mary Brunner and Paul Watkins who does the eerie folk soundtrack were all released. Brunner who had a child with Manson, mentions how her baby just plopped out one day without any medical assistance at all! Watkins was a huge snitch and spoke out against the Family early on, he seems disturbed by Charlie's whole deranged concept of love byway of murder. The way Bugliosi breaks down the Helter Skelter concept reminds me of Joe Friday but don't underestimate him, later on he tried to convict GW Bush for war crimes. The whole warped ideology of Manson hearing The Beatles speaking directly to him about The Black Panthers taking over America and exterminating all races besides his appointed group hiding out in Death Valley is almost too idiotic to fathom.

We're warning you with Peace and Love, racial dominance is on your side Chuck

It's really fascinating to hear about how these dopey girls slept with grocery store managers so they could dumpster dive and get the best garbage in order to survive. Manson was basically their pimp and stepped on their necks to live out his messiah fantasy. The older I get the less I understand how any of this even happened, I mean how many drugs can you take before you'd listen to a maniacal dwarf rejected rockstar like Charlie--I just don't get it.

does this Manson caricature I bought on the pier for 5$ look inbred enough? 

Watkins mentions how they were on 30 or 40 acid trips a day, that would probably fry your brain enough to make you fall for any variety of bullshit. They showcase Manson's ceremonial psychedelic embroidered vest with human hair woven in from all of the girls heads and most of their crimes were recorded on it. The girls all enthusiastically boast about this shit like the documentarian is so privileged to hear about it. Later on, Lawrence Merrick was mysteriously killed even before the film was released. The most unsettling part for me was when the narrator talks about how the children born on Spahn Ranch smoked dope, dropped acid and even took part in group orgies! Yikes, these kids, now adults are most likely in intensive therapy I'm willing to believe.

It's actually made from Skunkape's butt hair

Brooks Poston (who joins Watkins on the eerie folk stylings) mentions Dennis Wilson for a couple of seconds and that they're jealous of his mansion. It's quite the opposite, Manson would do anything to latch onto Wilson's fame and the main reason the Tate/ LaBianca Murders were triggered. They were actually searching to butcher Terry Melcher for taking the song "Cease to Exist", changing the lyrics and not paying Charlie his due. There's a really cool documentary about the subject on YT. And there's a funny/terrifying scene in Beach Boys: An American Family, the tv movie, where Dennis' home is taken over by the family and he leaves and never comes back.

I also stole Kokomo from Geraldo's most famous meal ticket, thanks loser!

It gets pretty gross the way Watkins describes the crazy mescaline deflowering virgin's freakout on the beach. It's clear to me that all of these women were being used, in a later interview with Patricia Krenwinkel she even wonders if Charlie ever partook at all and forced all his wasted flunkies to do his bidding.

Nancy Jordan talks about how Manson had bitey sex with her and they do a four shot split screen ala-they told two friends and so on and so on. They talk to Veronica "Ronnie" Howard who says by the time you see this film, I'll most likely be dead because she broke the Tate-Labianca case. She died in 79 a few years later, she was kidnapped and beaten by a gypsy cabdriver, it's not proven however if it was related to her role in the conviction of Susan Atkins. It's pretty sketchy though and that case seems opened ended to me. 

Answer the phone for lesbian dial-a-date!

Atkins, who became a born again Christian in jail and had her leg amputated was released in 2001 and died a few years after. The way they describe her stabbing Sharon Tate's unborn child without any remorse or some dude who blew his brains out while they were fucking as totally "groovy", it's almost impossible to feel any sympathy for her. A lot of these lurid details to to have inspired Roger Watkins to make his film Last House on Dead End Street.     

UGH I don't feel so good I must've eaten too many ladies panties 

I used to have a xerox copy of Charles Manson with a box of celebs on a list that they targeted underneath (it's kind of pathetic to think about now). I love when they describe how they wanted to hang Sinatra on a meathook, skin him alive and sell purses they made out of his flesh to hippie shops! I was actually excited to check out Jim Van Bebber's Charlie's Family (aka The Manson Family) years before it came out and promoted in Deep Red Alert #1.That film threw in scenes from this documentary and went out of its way to make the interviewed subjects look like clowns.

Rocky Dennis post facelift

One of the most irritating bitches in this film is Sandy Good, who brags that their coming revolution will make Nazi Germany look like a picnic. I think if they slipped in some psychiatric drugs or thorazine in with their psychedelic shit, maybe all of this madness would've been avoided. You can obtain this film on a DVD-R signed by Robert Hendrickson for 30$ bucks from the co-director, I'm guessing that no one owns the actual rights to this film. I hadn't thought of this film for awhile until one of my favorite radio shows The Best Show with Tom Scharpling mentioned it, which intrigued me to review it. When I went to TV production school I was obsessed with a couple of things, this movie, the Paul is Dead Beatles theory and made a couple of music videos with the footage, one was for Violent School by The Dead Milkmen.
There have been so many wimpy watered down homogenized TV movie versions of the original story, but this one is the real deal. It's pretty nauseating psychologically and still baffling that this ever happened at all.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

ORDER A SIGNED COPY FROM THE CO-DIRECTOR

Beware! The Blob (1972)

Beware! The Blob (1972, aka “Son of Blob”)

Reviewed by Goat Scrote

     “The Blob” (1958), the original flick, is a pretty decent scary movie. It’s campy by modern standards but it’s got a great performance from Steve McQueen and a unique monster. In case you’re not familiar with the basic premise, the Blob is a gelatinous creature which fell to Earth from outer space. It’s a giant pinkish amoeba which engulfs and eats people, growing larger with each meal. The 1988 remake is much scarier than the original and features plenty of gruesome flesh-melting gore. The puffy 80s hair is another bonus. “Son of Blob” doesn’t really measure up to either one — it’s a really shitty movie, in fact — but I still kind of like it.

I'll bite your legs off!

     This extra-trashy sequel to the original film is mostly enjoyable for the Blob attack scenes, which are hilariously awful. The total goofiness of the movie helps make up for a cliched story revolving around a couple of uncharismatic nobodies. The screenplay was written by Jack Woods and Anthony Harris based on an original script titled “A Chip Off the Old Blob” by Richard Clair. It was directed by Larry Hagman, who went on to play J.R. Ewing in the TV soap opera “Dallas”. They made it into an odd blend of tongue-in-cheek comedy and monster movie.

HANG IN THERE KITTY

     I could tell something weird was going on when the movie started with several minutes of adorable kitten footage. The credits are accompanied by bouncy cheerful theme music which would’ve been right at home in an old '80s arcade game. It’s a really bizarre opening for any movie, but it’s utterly insane attaching it to a scary movie sequel. This flick is chock full of “what the fuck were they thinking???” moments.

     As this story begins, a piece of the Blob has been discovered buried in the frozen north by a pipeline worker named Chester. He has brought it to Los Angeles where he’s keeping it next to the TV dinners in the fridge. When his wife accidentally leaves the container out on the counter, this little Blob fragment thaws and comes to life again.

Follow the simple instructions, dammit.

      A housefly is the first to be consumed. The cute kitten from the opening credits is soon victim number two. Chester’s wife follows them into the great beyond. Somehow, no one hears her screams of distress even though she’s in her front yard. Her husband is watching the 1958 “The Blob” on TV when Son of Blob engulfs him.

      Lisa (Gwynne Gilford) stops by and sees Chester being eaten alive in his easy chair. She comes back with her boyfriend Bobby (Robert Walker Jr.) but the Blob has already consumed all the evidence and vacated the premises. They spend a lot of time trying to convince the police that there is a monster eating its way through the populace, but of course it takes the cops a while to catch on.

I have a strawberry jam fetish. Don't judge me.

     One subplot follows a hiking Boy Scout troop led by Dick van Patten. There’s a funny dialogue between a slightly fey hair stylist (Shelley Berman) and a hippie who wants a haircut. The Blob oozes out of the drain of the shampoo sink and gets them both. Meanwhile, a chubby naked Russian man in a fez is taking a bath with his tiny lap dog. The Blob comes in under the bathroom door, and fez-man tosses his dog to the monster while he escapes out a window! He’s picked up by police while running naked through the street.

so that's what those Frankenchrist shriners do in their spare time

     A group of homeless men are among the victims. Burgess Meredith shouts about how much he hates hippies. Larry Hagman is in the scene too as another vagrant. The third hobo is actor Del Close, who later played the role of the crazy reverend in the 1980s Blob remake.

     If you want to know how the whole idiotic mess plays out, you’ll just have to watch it, but beware! It’s bad.

The Blob gives killer back massages.

The Devils

The Devils Directed By Ken Russell, Starring Oliver Reed (1971)

I was super stoked to find this rare gem at Amoeba records for cheap! Not only was the price right, but it's unbelievable to me that this film seems almost like it's banned in the U.S.! I mean yes, this is still sadly a cripplingly religious nation, we only find this bullshit out during election time when all the religious fascists crawl out of their loony bins. But come on, this is 2016, censorship is practically dead and it's a mystery to me as to why this film is unavailable when any kid can dial-up Cannibal Holocaust on Youtube or Hulu in pristine condition. Who cares though, I have a copy now that looks astoundingly good from the VHS version I had in the 90s. I remember lending my copy to Skunkape, which I got from Chas Balun's VHS catalog of course, when we were both in TV production school together and he didn't seem impressed. He later confided to me that this wasn't the case, it was more along the lines of what the fuck did I just watch and it took him awhile to process it. I'm not Catholic and have always enjoyed it when cinema takes the wind out of the sails of organized religion so I was onboard from the beginning. My oddball childhood in a Christian cult still makes me nervous about overly-religious people. 

Did you just beef, or is that my upper lip?

I love how immediately they establish how all of this really happened (it's based on The Devils of Loudon by Aldous Huxley and John Whiting's adapted play). It's the bizarre tale of Urbain Grandier, who's crime of being lusted after by all the sexually oppressed nuns condemned him to a painful death of being burned alive at the stake. The film begins with Baron Munchausen looking androgynous French men in gaudy make-up and lipstick, who praise the union of Church and State. The effeminate villains are based on the real Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Meanwhile, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) presides over a funeral where Catholics and Protestants have stopped waring and he wants to keep the peace. The King and Loudun have an agreement that states they will not level their city and it's protected from witch-hunters waltzing in and taking over. Although once rumors of demonic possession hit the air, the security granted to the city all comes crashing down.

Lets trade funny hats, mine's hiding those delightful French macaroons

There's so many creepy crawly things to enjoy, beginning with "Dies Irea" (otherwise known as that song from The Shining). It's interesting to note that one of the most terrifying composers Krzysztof Penderecki who's music was used in the Stanley Krubrick film also based an opera on the Devils of Loudun.

Nobodeee knoowwws the trouble I seeen...

Some of the horniest nuns ever led by Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), a psychotic hunchbacked one all seem to worship Reed's character. Just the sight of him sends this freak into a spooky sexual fantasy of flowing red hair as they show her deformed naked spine bursting at the back. Everyone seems repressed and on the verge of a psychotic breakdown--it's all so tense! Grandier (Reed) is very pompous and acts like a megalomaniac, he's just impregnated a topless mime girl and with a mouth full of flowery words basically tells her to fuck off. He lays on some freezing dialogue like "hold my hand, it's like touching the dead", translation: "don't be hitting me up for child support you clown-faced ho." There's some foreshadowing that he ends up paying for later, can this dude help it though, that he's so disgustingly charming I mean? I'm sure all those birthers and bible thumpers probably carry the same kind of infatuation for Joel Osteen.

I know I'm a Juggalette and all but treat me with respect 

Hardly a minute goes by when there isn't something ghastly that bashes you over the head, like two medieval surgeons fucking up and killing a woman by way of wasp stings, crocodile bites and who knows what else in the guise of primitive medicine. Grandier is openly defiant, hated and lusted after by most of the population.

It's time to Crocodile Rock BITCHES!

The convent looks like a mental institution, which is definitely not accidental. I like how there's always a stray dog wandering around in the background in almost every other scene. All females in this movie are nursing a boner for Reed, he's the luckiest rooster struttin around and taking advantage--that sly dog. This movie and The Brood are my favorite roles of Reed's and he's pretty incredible in both, very intense and yet also irrationally calm. 

The nuns sexualizing Christ's pain on the cross reminds me of something Mel Gibson might have wet dreams about. There are many scenes in this movie that are hysterically disturbing, but it doesn't get to that Bill Maher level of religious hatred toward everything Godly like you'd imagine. It's very blasphemous, but I found an underlying current of positivity when Reed's priest character seems to actually have faith in his own interpretation of God. Even though Grandier is really slutty and sins, he still carries a humanist approach to religion and doesn't preach at people, or threaten them if they don't fall in line. He has many flaws, but is a decent leader. The first inkling that everything is about to go down the toilet at the hands of the Catholic transgendered mimes seen in the beginning, arrives with a Flintstones style demolition machine operated by slaves with bloody raw feet in a giant hamster wheel. There's so many incredible flashes of medieval weirdness that are on a Bergman level of cryptic. The depiction of 15 Century France is pretty disturbing and seemingly accurate of the rich shooting Protestants dressed as birds on the courtyard. Who knows, maybe they did that shit, I wouldn't put it past them, it's wilding entertaining and I love almost everything from this time period of witch burning. Ken Russell's film had to be influenced by Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General, since it came out a few years earlier but he claims to have not liked the Vincent Price film for some unknown reason.           

SPRING BREAK!!!!

Gemma Jones who plays Reed's wife Madeline, later on ended up in some Harry Potter films and this is her first role. I was delighted to find out that Graham Armitage who plays Louis XIII had a cameo in the horrid Cannon flick Going Bananas with Deep Roy as a talking ape. Think of that the next time you are terrified by the imagery of this film.

King Diamond was totally wrong though, "Nuns do have fun", these sisters bite on rosaries, put on mock weddings and hump statues, he's definitely not talking about this breed of cloth. I've never seen Vanessa Redgrave in anything else but she's captivating in this film and I dunno if it's just me and even though she's out of her mind, I sort of felt sorry for her. Her lustful obsession and jealously of Grandier's secret wedding with Madeline brings a shit storm of torture down on her head when she convinces the Catholic inquisitors that she's possessed. They start off by anally probing her (her robe is bloody and Ken Russell doesn't show anything going in thankfully).

One aspect I've never seen in a witch burning film shows that the priests have a shred of rationality before they unleash the pain train, this doesn't really mean anything though because once they get going, it never stops, they even pick through her barf for "evidence".       

The two creepy surgeons are my favorite characters, one of them looks like Christopher Guest when he played the 6 fingered man in The Princes Bride. One of the most unhinged male actors in the film who wears purple John Lennon type glasses through-out is Michael Gothard. the way he spits "CONFESS" at Oliver Reed's face and waves a torch at him like the Wicked Witch of the West makes you want to slap off his hippie hair. Sadly in reality, Gothard who suffered from severe depression, committed suicide at the age of 53.

Hold the phone, I think I left an Arby's beef and cheddar on the dashboard of my car

As Grandier and his bride ride off to the edge of the lake and take a nice vacation, some of the most perverted sacrilegious shenanigans get underway. What's even crazier is that all the insanity that goes on there's even a famous deleted scene that was cut (it's on Youtube however). Grandier should've never returned to the city because it's under siege by witch hunters and exorcists who basically use it as an excuse to whip up nuns into a sexual frustrat-athon and Caligula type debauchery rears its ugly ass. There's a perfect moment of levity that always sticks out in my mind when the executioner, who's the only person on Grandier's side, attempts to give him a slice of mercy by telling him "Don't worry, before the fire is lit, I shall strangle you".

before I tie you to that burning pyre can I interest you in taking an executioner survey

Sister humpback even feels guilty enough to try and convince the inquisition that she's made it up, but it's chalked up as evilspeak. I love this film and it's a crime that it's not available, someone get on the ball and release this shit already, in a world where The Green Inferno can play mainstream multiplexes this release should be mandatory. This is the film that all other nunsploits and witch burning flicks should be measured by and it doesn't get any creepier or masterful than this one--go out of your way to see it (if you can find a copy).

Almost Human

Almost Human Directed By Umberto Lenzi, Starring Tomas Milian (1974).

Chas' review of this Italian crime flick in Deep Red issue #3 kind of trashed the living shit out of it, saying it's total bloodless and could play uncut on network TV. I read this critique years after watching the film and thought it was pretty harsh. I even convinced Skunkape that this was almost of good as Street Law with Franco Nero and that might be one of my favorite Italian crime flicks. For a short while I was fixated on the poliziotteschi genre after seeing Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs and Deodato's Live Like A Cop Die Like A Man. Now it's Umberto Lenzi's turn, whom I consider the second banana in cannibal land to take a whack at a police flick. I think this one has enough wretched hard edged dialogue similar to Ferox to convince others who are on the fence about this sub genre that it's worth their attention. Ernesto Gastaldi who wrote 2019: After The Fall Of NY and works mainly with Sergio Martino penned the script for this film.

toss me an orange, so I can do my Brando impression

Tomas Milan plays Giulio Sacchi, a mop topped drunk who drives a getaway car with some crooks in Halloween masks who abduct a kid and then after the job is done gets his guts punched in by his mob boss and grovels like a worm. In the English dialogue version just like in Ferox, everyone is either a shithead or a twat and Giulio's (Milan) boss threatens to "mash his balls".   

The first police flick we reviewed on the site was The Rat, The Cynic and The Fist and I'd been meaning to revisit this one. It's amazing how coherent Umberto Lenzi's direction is in action films compared to his cannibal shit. Ray "Manchester Morgue" Lovelock is in Milan's crew and he's no stranger to this film scene where the scores often outshine the action. The title track by Morricone is monstrous and has a nice heavy driving beat. I enjoyed this film though and didn't feel that it was weak at all. Milan's character is very unlikeable as a wimpy drunk who mooches off his girlfriend then stabs and later shoots first without thinking. Henry "I've appeared in practically every Italian Crime Film is existence" Silva shows up in his resident role as a pissed off detective. It's very bizarre how they use a still from the 1920's Golem on this poster to sell this as a horror film, at the time of course they wanted to milk that Umberto Lenzi association with extreme gore.

Smeagol want the ring, too outdated a reference?

The room tone audio in the English dubbed version is ear splitting for some reason. Silva calls Giulio a psychopath and we cross cut into their secret meetings during broad daylight at various cafes. There are some odd choices in the Deep Red catalog like Violent Protection (which I found pretty watered down) and Black Werewolf (aka The Beast That Wouldn't Die) with Peter Cushing, which I found a total chore. That's just me however and our stable of critics might differ in opinion from mine. I have to wonder though if Lenzi's standard FX guy wasn't available because there are scenes when people are gunned down and there's practically zero bloodspray, that's pretty suspicion for this director. Milan's character gets a little David Hess-like when he crashes a party and threatens to infect everyone with universal love, then pulls down Ray Lovelock's zipper!

They all down some wine (pretty fruity for hardened criminals if you ask me), lock all the topless women onto a chandelier and blast the shit outta them with a machine-gun. If you have weak patience and get bored by methodical pacing or are offended by in your face misogyny than sure, this one might not be for you, but I found it pretty enjoyable. My favorite line is when Giulio and his loser gang threaten Mary Lou at knife point to write a ransom note and he goes "When I get that money, I'm gonna wash my hotdog in champagne"! I mean what kind of goofy fetish is that? I did discover that there is a U.K. food truck service related to this kink, click the link here. Silva's character is pretty reserved, I mean the kind of shit he does in Cry of a Prostitute makes this look like he's taking an upright nap. Not to take anything away from his performance, however and he's still pretty great. Carmine, Ray Lovelock's character is the weak link among the thugs and feels guilty and sympathetic toward their victims.  

Bullshit or not, I got the gun!

Sacchi is the biggest mess of all, he's a completely insecure sociopath and has a short fuse. He's a grimy scumbag who has no regard for loyalty or human life. Shitty bureaucracy gets in the way of Silva nailing Giullio to the wall and it's pretty frustrating. It all ends on a strange note as the police manage to tie up all loose ends anyway, so much for ambiguous endings. Even though there's a lot of pretend cowboy violence, it's still very cold blooded and effective, dramatically that is, not in the squib department. I'd say give it a chance, especially if you're skeptical about Italian crime flicks. There are a few Almost Human related movies and T.V. shows that you should avoid, except no substitutes.      

AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX DVD.

RUBY

RUBY Directed By Curtis Harrington, Starring Piper Laurie (USA, 1977)

 Reviewed By Michael Hauss

Some films I have avoided for years after their initial viewings because of the critical or personal issues I may have had with the film. So when Erok Hellhammer (aka Crankenstein) suggested this film for reviewing purposes I was less than enthused, but decided to do so because maybe the years in passing have tilted my negativity of this one a bit in a more positive direction. Holy Fuck was I wrong! This on a whole may have actually gotten worse if that's possible. The film begins in Florida 1935 and involves the gangland style execution of a man named Nicky at a lake at night, the woman he is with Ruby (Piper Laurie), seeing her man shot down in cold blood, she falls to the ground clutching her stomach, her daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin) was born that night. We flash forward to 1951 and are introduced to a mature Ruby who runs a legitimate business and one by one the old gang members return because she found jobs for them. You see, Ruby was involved with the Dade County gang and it was some of the men she employed who were the ones that killed Nicky, under orders of the gang leader Jake. The old gangsters are being killed off by an unseen force and Vince, one of the old crooks, sends a letter to a doctor he met while in prison. Dr. Keller (Roger Davis) arrives to try and help figure out what's been going on around there. Ruby's daughter Leslie (Janit Baldwin of BORN INNOCENT and PRIME CUT fame) is a mute who seems a bit touched in the head at times, for Christ sakes she bites the doctors hand after meeting him.  It seems that Nicky has returned for some reason and uses Leslie to try and get to his beloved Ruby, who he felt set him up the night he was killed. The doctor tries to help save what's left of the gang before Nicky kills them all.

Go away Carrie, I wasn't masturbating 

Now let's talk about the issues this movie has and why it's such a lousy flick. The drive-in that Ruby owns that must have been the grounds of a ritzy club way back when is playing the film ATTACK OF THE 50ft WOMAN which was released in 1958, with our film currently residing in 1951. The Doctor Keller figure is not a medical doctor but a parapsychologist, which makes him a paranormal investigator,  as Vince says "the guys in the pen used to say you could talk to the spirits," not sure how many prisons in the 1930's employed a parapsychologist and he states that he's another kind of doctor also, I might have been dozing off. Piper Laurie as Ruby Claire, who had a chance to be a star as a singer and an actress, but lost her Hollywood contract through her association with Jake and his gang.

you'll need an Allison Hayes sized extra large coffee to endure this snoozer

Laurie is so over-dramatic in the part, she reminded me of some of the lampooned characters performed by Carol Burnett on her show, where she had skits about old actresses and their over dramatic turns. Laurie is awful and grating in the part, the gun moll tough stuff is hard to get and her either drunken or crazy moments are humorous. One other note is when Vince describes Leslie early in the film as as a quiet girl, when in the movie she's a mute who had never said a word. The film was made to cash in on the hit movie CARRIE (which also starred Laurie) from the previous year and even a bit of the EXORCIST is thrown in when Leslie becomes possessed by her father Nicky and speaks in a deep manly voice, another influence is SUNSET BOULEVARD and the aged star, not coming to grips with her current situation out of the limelight.

They modeled those 80's Glo Worm's after my likeness

The film does have a few worthy moments and when they show Nicky who has returned from the grave, not aged but with the bullet holes and blood still fresh on his face is frighteningly eerie, a returned embodied Nicky instead of as a spirit would have helped this film considerably. The direction of the film is fine, but it's handled in soft focus, that becomes annoying after awhile and takes away from the scares. Stuart Whitman is around as Vince and does a decent job, he's the only really sympathetic character out of the lot. The killings are decent but two impaled deaths are a bit much, but they are done well. The death of Jake with a knife planted in his chest and his wheelchair rolling about is a great realized death scene. The drive-in should have been explored a bit more than it was, but still what's filmed there is very cool, including the first kill of the film inside of the protectionist booth with a death by hanging loops of film. The film took me two successive nights for me to get through and is very boring at times, with that soft, soft focus, kept making me want to wash my glasses off, like they were smudged.

Well . . . David Letterman, do you like this fucking coffee or not?

The film was directed by Curtis Harrington best known for his exploitation films WHAT THE MATTER WITH HELEN (1971, USA) and WHOEVER SLEW AUNTIE ROO (1972, USA). Take it from me, your life's too short to suffer through this. Uncle Leo from the SEINFELD show is there as one of the gangsters, but has precious little screen time, but does end up dead in an odd place.
One last note, Fred Kohler Jr., who's appeared in many b-movies during his long career is along as Jake, who's confined to a wheelchair and does not speak, just sits with hands trembling until his stylish demise. (Editors notes, I've fallen asleep countless times trying to watch this flick and during a Fandor trial patted myself on the back after making it through dozing off half way thru not withstanding, extra special thanks to Mike for suffering through this for us all).

NOT ENOUGH COFFEE ON THE PLANET TO KEEP YOU AWAKE, RECOMMENDED USE FOR SEVERE INSOMNIACS ONLY!

I told you not to eat those Castleberry pit beef drive-in sandwiches Uncle Leo!

Orson this is Mearth calling, I'm trapped in that egg again.