Bloodbath in the House of Knives (2009)

Regional horror films are the sort of thing every film gnostic lives for. Well do I remember the days of noting strange titles on drive-in marquees and wondering about their origin. Everyone of us used to know at least somebody who caught The Night Daniel Died on a one-week run or discovered the original Night of the Living Dead at the bottom third of week-end bill. And once in a great while we too might have found something special at 2:30AM on a local TV station. Because having access to this sort of experience is what made you cool among other film geeks.
So I was delighted that Mr. Ted Moehring would elect to send me a DVD-R (in an illustrated clam shell, no less!) of his gallo, Bloodbath in the House of Knives. Made in the isolated town of Boyertown, PA ( and surrounding environs), Bloodbath is a neat little film that shows how people with limited means can still create something to hold the attention. Using a cast of unknowns, it manages to capture the spirit of Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Suspiria.
The plot is complex: a nightclub hypnotist puts a man in a trance. Suddenly, the trancee goes on a rampage, killing a member of the audience before he is felled by a bullet from an unknown shooter. Meanwhile a sinister figure in black and wearing a theater mask is randomly killing people in the town where the movie takes place. And a woman named Ivy keeps getting threatening phone messages from a stalker. Are the killings related? And when is the intrepid police detective going to put it all together?
And there are a number of effect-laden murders, none accomplished with CGI or growth hormones. At least one is quite scary.
Lloyd Kaufman does an excellent job of playing himself. As a matter of fact, I can't think of anyone else who could do such a good job playing Lloyd Kaufman. The only problem is Lloyd Kaufman is supposed to be playing a sleazy lawyer in this movie.
A few other complaints would be the lack of exterior shots. Some local color might have been nice. At least I was able to see the town across from where I live for a few minutes in The Lovely Bones. But I don't recall any news of Mr. Moehring shutting down Boyertown traffic to film Bloodbath.
Good use of lighting, color, and a surprise ending. I hope we'll be seeing more of Ted Moehring.

Further Proof in the Existence of God

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the Al Adamson tribute YouTube channel:


http://www.youtube.com/user/iipAlAdamsonMania

Obscene (2009)

Fascinating film about maverick publisher Barney Rosset. The complex doccumentary details his rise as a poor little rich kid with too much time and money on this hands to the free speech icon he is today. Along the way we see him found The Evergreen Review, turn Grove Press into a cutting edge book company and distribute amazing films. Countless interviews fill in the details. My only complain is the soundtrack draws too much attention to itself. You also get to see the aging Rosset interviewed by Al Goldstein right before the latter was about to have some major legal problems of his own. Not to be missed.

Living Dolls (1980)

Here's a creepy little film which used to be in rotation on the USA Network's "Saturday Nightmares" show. It's about a janitor at a dress store who finds himself trapped in the attic with the mannequins. I worked as a shipping clerk at a similar store some years ago, so it brings back some seriously bad memories.

The Deadliest Man Alive

Floyd Web has been trying to put togather an amazing documentary video for several years about "Count Dante", a martial arts master from Chicago who passed away in the 1970's. You can see the trailer for it by going here. This will be one fascinating movie should it ever be made.

Quo Vadis?

OK, it's been a month since I posted on here and a little explanation is in order. What it comes down to is other demands on my time. I don't have a huge back-log of unused articles I can dump on FOD . When I write one of my capsule reviews the film is fresh in my mind. So I try to stay on top of things.
But what it really comes down to is that there isn't much to write about. Once you've seen The Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women and The Stone Tapes in one month, it's hard to equal the experience. And, if you haven't already noticed, I don't like to write negative reviews. Enough fanboys out there doing that already. It's easy to sneer at all the crap. Not so easy to hunt down such exotic plants as Terror In The Jungle.
I could start reviewing newer films, but I don't care for much made after 1980. As far as I'm concerned, 1980 was the last good year. Afterwards came VHS, thousand channel cable and the last few Drive-Ins closing. It was never the same. I know there are good genre movies out there, I just lack the time to watch enough garbage to find the good stuff. And after reading the synopsis for The Collector, I am less likely to do it.
There's also the matter about what I can say. I've started watching the Sartana Euro-westerns, but what new insight can I add? Shall I adopt a Poststurcturalist Autodidatic Premodernist approach? Perhaps delve into the inner symboliam of the gun? Right. Leave such nonsense for people with too much time on their hands.
I'm not sure what to do. But I'll come up with something

Daddy's Gone A Hunting (1969)

There are movies I waited to see for a long time just because of the way the ad affected me as a kid. Faster Pussycat was one, this movie was another.
Set your time machine back to 1969. I'm sitting in my dad's car listening to the AM radio. On comes this creepy commercial for a movie featuring a man reciting a nursery rhyme. Cut to a woman's scream. I knew at that moment I would someday have to see this flick.
Too bad the movie itself doesn't deliver on the promise of the radio ad. It's basically a thriller from the (to steal a concept from Bill Landis) "endangered child" subgenre. Woman dumps psycho boyfriend when she finds out she's preggers. Woman has the pregnancy aborted. Boyfriend comes after her years later when she has a baby she did want to keep. But she's now married to a powerful lawyer with political ambitions, so she can't tell her new hubby the whole truth.
I will say the final half-hour, involving a hunt for the psycho ex-boyfriend, was pretty gripping. But the actor who played him just couldn't pull-off the cloud of fear necessary for the role