past oral no mad @retro.social Emacs enthusiast, builder of software, repairer of hardware. I like difficult music, weird keyboards, old computers, and coin-operated machines.
Evilspeak (1981)
Evilspeak (1981)
This early-80s also-ran horror flick has it all: A possessed computer. Bullying. Spaniards. A boys' military academy. Satanic black mass. A dispute over a crowbar. A nude woman devoured by pigs. Revenge decapitation. Latin. A wildly inappropriate bikini contest featuring female teachers with their students in attendance. A basement full of corpses. Levitation. What more could you want?
Keep an eye out for Charles Tyner (Uncle Victor from Harold and Maude, playing essentially the same character) and Richard Moll (Bull from Night Court).
Hell High (1987)
Hell High (1987)
A better-than-expected, little-known B horror flick that manages to transcend its very limited budget. Four misfit high schoolers decide to terrorize a teacher for no good reason and get more than they bargained for.
It's not \good\, and there are some very silly parts, but it's much, much better than you'd expect.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuJ7Bj9uStc IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091192/
@bmoviebonanza Too bad, images from Mastodon don't work -- you can click the fediverse logo to link back to my original post.
More links: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058072/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Giant
No idea if images come through from Mastodon, let's find out!
Starman: Evil Brain From Outer Space
Starman: Evil Brain From Outer Space
A schlock sci-fi B movie made by editing together a few of the Shintoho "Super Giant" films. Super Giant was a series of Japanese superhero films which were heavily inspired by (read: blatantly ripped off) Adventures of Superman. The original films were released in 1958 and '59, but this didn't reach the US (with English dubbing) until 1966.
Available on archive.org.
Roger Corman, Pioneering Independent Producer and King of B Movies, Dies at 98
Roger Corman, Pioneering Independent Producer and King of B Movies, Dies at 98
RIP
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/roger-corman-dead-producer-independent-b-movie-1235999591/
Cyber Vengeance (1997)
Cyber Vengeance (1997)
A baffling, incoherent shitshow of a film. Our main guy is a cyber guard at a VR prison, whose hobbies include complaining about anachronistic martial arts moves and ignoring his girlfriend. Most of the cast looks precisely 23 years old and brings big The Producer's College Roommate energy. The soundtrack is bizarre and wildly inappropriate. Some semblance of a plot finally develops around halfway in, when Our Hero discovers that prisoners are being put into a different VR thing (which is somehow worse, I guess?), where they attempt to get their Cyber Vengeance. A ludicrous, nonsensical trainwreck. 4/5 stars.
@LaurenceWolse An Andy Sidaris classic!
Here's a GIF I made of my favorite moment from this film.
@ThomasLongBottom @Che_Donkey A ton of low-budget flicks seem to get released under multiple names.
@MisterBigFart Watched this one today, phenomenal. I think my favorite part is when they show photos of murder victims, but you can see they're just headshots of some women. Probably actors who auditioned for the film.
@ChicoSuave Literally didn't even look at the poster before I was downloading a copy.
@MisterBigFart This is one of those movies where I read the title and immediately go watch it. It's told me everything I could possibly want to know about the film.
@Outtatime @LaurenceWolse I completely agree. The Illuminatus! ripoff aquatic Nazi zombie premise is really the only knock on an otherwise competently made flick that succeeds on its own terms. I thought the part where the marooned heroes are drawn to the record player was a dang fine moment.
@Anorack This movie was wild, feels like the first ten minutes got bolted on after production ended because the film didn't come out long enough.
@Anorack So yes, this is a cash grab piggybacking off Alien (and maybe a bit of Battlestar Galactica), but IMO it's a pretty respectable pulp sci-fi film that transcends its limitations and is enjoyable on its own terms. Sid Haig turns in a respectable performance, Ray Walston is terrific, and the ending is pretty great.
Also, James Cameron (yes, THAT James Cameron) was production designer and second unit director.
And: what an amazing poster.