Monsters & Maniacs (1988)

Scream Queen Brink Stevens (Slumber Party Massacre) is our host on this late 80's horror movie Compilation. Unlike most of the other (seemingly countless) vhs horror compilations of this time, Monsters & Maniacs is more of documentary. Its not a very good documentary but Brink Stevens goes through the history of horror cinema while clips from Universal monster movies play. She also goes into some back story and trivia facts on the films which makes this compilation more documentary then just plain eye candy.

Writer, director Ted Newsom has done dozens of these vhs docu/horror compilations and although Monsters & Maniacs is very discombobulated he attempts to follow a timeline. We have tons of Bela Lugosi footage lots of Frankenstein and Boris Karloff nostalgia. Don't forget King Kong and the countless adaptions and remakes. Then we creep into Hammer Studios and we get our share of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Of course Vincent Price has his screen time in here and George A. Romero's Night Of The Living Dead is described as the turning point in graphic horror. The brutality of Herschell Gordon Lewis Blood Feats appears and brings us into the Slasher genre but it intertwines with oldies like Hitchcock's Psycho and Francis Ford Copola's Dementia 13. The one thing that I found weird is that even huge box office hits were thrown into the mix. Movies like The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby get screen time and I can't picture the rights being passed on due to financial issues. Either way Monsters & Maniacs is another time passer for movie buffs and monster maniacs. For a better and more gory time check out Terror On Tape (1983). Monsters & Maniacs is more for completest or anyone who wants to see em all.

The Sci-Fi Boys (2006)

This 2006 Sci-Fi documentary runs at about 80 minutes and during that time we have interviews with cult legend such as Peter Jackson (Bad Taste, Dead Alive), Roger Corman (A Bucket Of Blood and Death Race 2000), John Landis (American Werewolf In London), Rick Baker (The Howling) and many more.

Forrest J Ackerman, the writer and creator of Famous Monsters Magazine has a lot of screen time with many interviews and footage of his ridiculously huge home collection of props and memorabilia from science fiction films throughout history. A large portion of the documentary revolves around Ackerman and just about everybody in the movie was influenced by Ackerman and his contribution to the genre fan-boys. However most of the film was about the great Ray Harryhausen and his special effects work. I almost felt that the whole movie could have just been about Harryhausen with the amount of discussion time they gave him. There are also a bunch of short films created by young Sci-Fi nerds in the 50's some of which are pretty interesting to look at. One of which involves greaser werewolves. The documentary comes to a end with c.g.i. which I find pretty consistent to what computers have done to these sort of movies in the first place.

Sci-Fi Boys wasn't a bad watch for what it is. Especially if you only pay two bucks for the dvd as I did. Check it out for a closer look at silly animatronics and stop animation.

The Atom And Eve (1966)

Not quite a Atom Age scare flick but still gets the unintentional laughs out of a modern audience. This mid sixties short film is a ten minute advertisement for the leading atomic power plants in New England America and really plays like a documentary on nuclear power. We have a girl singing and dancing and striking a pose as she models the height in fashion. We see old time televisions on display as well as air conditions. Atom And Eve is kind of boring with very few laughs. I think even Mystery Science Theater 3000 would have trouble making fun of this one with the exception of our dancing girl.

Schlock! The Secret History Of American Movies (2001)

What we have here is a 90 minute documentary on Exploitation flicks from the 30's to the 70's. It touches upon many of the important exploitation genres and starts with the drug scare films like Reefer Madness and moves its way onto the "Teenage pictures" movies like I Was A Teenage Frankenstein and I Was A Teenage Werewolf. From here they go on to explaining the importance of poster art and titles. Its not long before American International Pictures and Samuel Z. Arkoff and Roger Corman are explaining their roles in the exploitation world.
Vampira appears and discusses the repression of sexual freedom in the 50's and the need for a darker sex icon. Next up we have Sexploitation greats like Doris Wishman and her take on the Nudist Camp films.

We get the great David Friedman and his view on the general boredom of the Nudist Colony films and the death of the Nudie Cuties and the birth of the new mean spirited Roughies. Schlock! spends quite a bit of time on the violent Roughie films and Sexploitation in general. It briefly goes into the birth of the gore films with Mr. Friedman and H.G.Lewis, with discussion of Blood Feast but doesn't go much further then that.

I felt the only downfall of the documentary was that it didn't explore the exploitation subgenres deeply enough. Rape/Revenge flicks were never touched upon neither were Blaxploitation movies or Biker films, etc.

Still Schlock! is a cool documentary that shows the birth and death of Exploitation movies with the destruction of the drive-inns and its loaded with cool interviews from greats like Forrest J Ackerman, Dick Miller, Harry Novack and we get lots of cool clips from Exploitation movies while poster art fills the screen of hideous monsters of scantily clad women. Schlock! is a perfect time passer for fans of these types of movies.

Philosophy Of A Knife (2008)

Philosophy Of A Knife is one of the most relentless and mentally trying films that I have ever tried to sit through. Its a four and a half hour long splatter-fest depicting the atrocities and human experiments lead by General Ishi and his Japanese scientist known as Unit 731, a top secret military unit doing research on biological warfare.

Philosophy differs from other films based on the exploits of Unit 731 in the fact that the film has no social message or standpoint. Those familiar with movies like Men Behind The Sun are aware of how grizzly and disturbing these experiments were but at the same time those other films tend to be a patriotic Chinese cry of dispaire. Philosophy is the exact opposite and is a much deeper film. Its part documentary with narration explaining the war and Japans scientific advances. We have interviews from a man who was there as an interpreter and the film also claims to have uncovered facts that were previously unknown to the world. Then the rest of the film is pretty much all reenactments of the experiments that went on in Unit 731. For me the films down fault was that they tried to add in a small story line about a Japanese soldier who is falling in love with one of the Guinea pig, prisoners. I felt it was a waste of run time and the film was long enough without it. Then the director chooses to shoot entirely to much snow footage which does break up the horrible torture scenes but really doesn't serve much purpose and causes the film to run even longer then necessary.

On the other hand Philosophy Of A Knife is one of the hardest films to sit through and I would never recommend trying to sit through the whole thing in one sitting. The film should be seen in two parts in order to keep the viewer from sinking into a depression. Its almost impossible to explain the cruelty that takes place in this movie and after watching it the movie from beginning to end its really hard to have any respect for fellow man. Some of the most disturbing scenes in the movie show a syphilis rape scene forced at gun point and the aftermath of a uncontrolled case of the sexually transmitted disease. We also see a prisoner who has a giant cockroach shoved up in her vagina and is later skinned alive in search of the filthy bug. We have a horrible scene where a boy is striped naked and brought out into the freezing cold where he is tied to a post and has cold water dumped on his body until he completely frost bitten. Then he is brought back to the lab where they put his limbs into hot water and his skin falls off until he is pretty much a skeleton. Children are sewn together, We get a disgusting abortion scene, veins and main arteries are sliced open with medical tools so the military can see how much time a soldier has to bleed to death when hit in vital areas. The torture goes on and on with gas chambers, torture by electricity, decapitations, dismemberment's, radiation and basically any other awful atrocity that you can think of.

After being subjected to the full 4 hours of these experiments I personally couldn't help but feel like I was tortured myself. If there is anything that Philosophy doesn't do it is glorify the violence. I have heard many call this movie a modern exploitation film with over the top gore. I don't know if I can agree with this statement because I felt the opposite. I felt the agony of those torture scenes and really couldn't wait for the film to end. It was just to much to handle and I have came back and watched the movie in full more then once to see if I found it as disturbing as the first time. The answer is yes. The movie seems to take a bit of your soul every time you see it and for that reason I feel that it is an important piece of cinema that needs to be seen. Now if you will excuse me I am going to go vomit!

Hated : G.G. Allin And The Murder Junkies (1994)

This documentary follows G.G. Allin the all time madman of rock & roll and his band the murder junkies right to G.G.'s death. The movie starts off explaining how G.G. just finished up a three year stretch for assaulting a young girl and he chose to skip parole and go on tour with his band for this documentary. While the band is on tour we have the great privilege of watching G.G. beat himself and his fans to a bloody mess. We also get to see him roll around in his own shit (yes his feces), rub it on his face and eat it. Sometimes he throws it at his audience and others he might masturbate with it. Some call him a maniac, others call him an artist. Whatever your view is on the man, you cant ignore him. We also get to see him drink a prostitutes piss and puke all over himself, get a blow job from a man. We watch him stick a banana up his ass, throw chairs and other foreign objects at his audience and eventually we see him in his casket.
The film states that G.G. Allin a performer with a message to a sick society. I don't think anyone can argue that statement. G.G.  himself states in the film "My message is a message of rebellion. Its the message of the streets. I take the streets and I put it on the stage.". Hated is the best documentary ever made about G.G. Allin and anyone who is a fan of his music/message/mission should have seen it. For those who are not into G.G. the documentary would surely shock them and they will likely either seek out his music or they will be pleased he is dead by the films final.

Death Riders (1976)

Death Riders is an interesting documentary about a group of young men, ages ranging from 17 to 23 who travel the country and perform death defying acts. These men blow themselves up with dynamite, crash cars at high speeds, jump motorcycles, flip cars and all sorts of other insane stunts involving moving vehicles.
Death Riders opens up with a text stating that this film is real and all of the stunts within the film is real and many people have lost their lives performing these stunts. Then it states "This film is dedicated to all of those who lost their lives performing these stunts".
During the 90 minute or so documentary we do see some accidents and some of the Death Riders are hurt and even hospitalized. However the point of this film is not to watch people being mangled. If that is what you are looking for, not only should you seek help but you should also find another movie. On the other hand Death Riders is a intense look at young men who live their life to the fullest in a time where this sort of thing was acceptable entertainment. Americans just don't go to the town fair and watch maniacs blow themselves up with dynamite anymore. Instead they sit home and watch Jackass, a group of young men who hit each other in the nut-sack. During the hour and a half run time, you really start to feel close to some of these guys and its a big thrill watching them perform some of these acts. I also really liked some of the music in this one. Its pretty much all country but its down right nasty, gritty country. One of the better songs was done by someone who goes by the genius name of Tommy Cash. The song is called Broken Bones and its just as bad-ass as the Death Riders themselves.
The Death Riders also travel around with a clown named Squeak. Squeak helps keep the "Thrill shows" entertaining and moving along at a nice pace. He does the same for the movie with silly acts and some black-face makeup. The camera work is also pretty impressive for a low budget documentary. This ones perfect for anyone who likes dare-devils and car crashes.

Blood Of The Beasts (1949)

Animal lovers might want to skip this one because its a pretty nasty flick. Blood Of The Beasts is a 20 minute documentary about a slaughter house in France from director Georges Franju who would later go on to do the great Eyes Without A Face. This is a odd one because it is a down right shocking look at animals being slaughtered and mangled and it is all shown in great detail. The camera holds nothing back as the narrator speaks over the ghastly footage. However aside from being a shocking gross out flick there is a sense of art to it. It's almost like a early Mondo flick in the sense that the narration is suggestive in a sort of sarcastic way.
Durring the 2o min. of hell we have a horse who gets a sort of pick axe to the head and then is drained of its blood and skinned alive. The horse is then sawed in half by a man who looks like he might be a serial killer. We then have some cows being ripped apart and a bunch of sheep are decapitated with one hell of a sharp knife. The butchers cut the heads off and throw them across the room and the heads land in a big pile. Blood Of The Beasts has thick steam that comes from the blood soaked ground. It must have been cold during the filming and the steam is from the rivers of blood that these men work in all day. I am not exaggerating either, These men stand ankle deep in blood.
This early shockumentary almost smells of death and it isn't the easiest of sit through but its a great little flick to gross your friends out with., especially if there are any vegetarians in the room.
"I strike you without hate because man needs to eat every day."

Another State Of Mind (1984)

This is a pretty cool documentary on two California punk bands Social Distortion and Youth Brigade traveling across country in a school bus and doing gigs. The band members were ranging in age from about 16 to 21 and these young punks had a lot of balls. By the end of the film everything pretty much goes wrong for them. Their bus breaks down, their hungry, broke and they start fighting. The thing that's so cool about this movie is the honesty to it all. By the end of the film even their friendships are falling apart "were not as good of friends as we used to be. Or at least not at the moment." We also get to see a cool show from Minor Threat where their mic. goes out and the audience has one big sing along. As the bands travel from city to city they meet all kinds of cool kids who allow them to crash at their houses and are willing to feed them. It really shows how the scenes may change but a movement the same. Kieth Moris from Circle Jerks does some really cool interviews but my personal favorite part is in Montreal with a interview with some street punks. You can really see the hard living that these kids have endured. There are parts i can do without, like these kids in a swimming pool talking about dancing and some lame goth kids crying. The movie does have lots of laughable moments even by Mike Ness, doing his make up and being all emotional. One cool scene with Ness takes place while all his friends are sleeping and hes sitting up writing the song Another State Of Mind. Overall its a cool interesting flick especially if you're into 80's L.A. punk or Social Distortion or Youth Brigade.

Manson (1973)

Out of all the Manson family documentaries I have ever seen, I think this one might be my favorite. This one is so good because it has a mix of typical documentary, interview stuff and a sense of art to it. The main reason I like this movie so much is because it was filmed only 3 years after the murders happened and Charlie Manon and some of the family were behind bars while others were still living free in the streets of California and open for very fresh interviews and for this reason we see and hear much more from the girls and the Family then Manson himself. The film also has this sense of danger to it, where Squeaky and the girls are almost threatening the film makers and the rest of the world while the freely wave knives and point guns at the camera's. One of my favorite interviews is with Clem (a Family member), It is so obvious how much influence Charles really had on him. He talks and acts just like his leader and he has some really interesting things to say. We don't get to hear anything from Tex Watson but do have a excellent speech/rant from Charlie near the end. The film also has these really cool psychedelic scenes where the camera pulls in and out of focus on naked hippies and horses while euphoric music plays. My personal favorite segment is when they talk about Susan Atkins aka Saddie Glutz and her sadistic confessions. Saddie is one sick chick but it sure is interesting to hear the stories. So arm yourself and get prepared for the revolution with Manson (1973).

Splatter : Architects Of Fear (1986)

So I have this friend and we had this on going game where we would sneak the worlds worst movies into the other persons collection. I found this one shoved into a shelf of VHS and was actually dumb enough to put it on. Have you ever watched a movie and just felt totally embarrassed for everyone who was involved with it and even a bit for yourself? It doesn't happen often but that is exactly how I felt after watching this 1986 piece of crap. The movie (if you can call it that) is a sort of special effects documentary on some bogus-ass movie that I pray to the world is never made. The acting is god awful and so is the 80's haircuts. Perhaps the most shameful thing about Splatter, is that its supposed to be a documentary on gore but the F/X are out right awful. There is one part where a girl loses her arm in a elevator and that looked pretty good but the rest of it should be flushed down the toilet. Another thing that made me wanna smash my own teeth out was this character Fang who pops up constantly. Fang is supposed to be the comic relief but hes just annoying with his stupid 80's humor. I really didn't need Fang because to me the whole damn movie was a joke. The movie also throws in some bare vagina's and a really bad action sequence. God nothing can save this movie but I'm trying to save the world from it. Don't watch Splatter : Architects Of Fear!!!