Change Your Image
Alan Fare
Reviews
It Came from Over Yonder (2008)
Slapstick For The 21st Century
I picked up a copy of this flick the other day at a convention and watched it the next day. The lead actor was the one who sold it to me, and he warned me to have a few beers before I watched it. I didn't take his advise and watched the entire film sober. Now I wish I'd taken his advise, as my sides were hurting afterward from laughing through the whole experience!
Just looking at the DVD box, you know it's not going to be an epic. But if you're a fan of adolescent toilet humor made just for the fun of it, this can be a great way to spend 81 minutes with a bunch of equally nerdy friends!
Though there is no nudity or graphic violence, I wouldn't advise showing T.C.F.O.Y. to anyone under 14. The subject matter is all in good fun, but very dirty in content. I'm 43, by the way, and laughed like I was 13 at every gag!
Jan-Gel, the Beast from the East (1999)
A fun way to kill 90 minutes
I've seen probably thousands of early Z-grade horror films in my day, not to mention hundreds of newer ones. Jan-Gel, Beast from the East is one of the better of those $5 budget horror flicks to come out in the recent past.
The thing I really liked about Jan-Jel is that it isn't the least bit offensive and really captures the essence of "fun" schlock horror that so many current no-budget horror films tend to avoid. It's fun to watch, it has a fairly interesting story to tell, and you wouldn't have to explain owning it to your mother (other than the fact that Conrad Brooks wrote, directed and starred in it).
I got a good laugh and enjoyed what the cast and crew did with what they had. This is no Lord of the Rings, but it is worth a look for fans of classic Z-grade horror.
Mutilations (1986)
Just keep repeating- it's only a bad movie...
Any faithful aficionado of truly bad film should find MUTILATIONS to be a near "Crown Jewel" that surpasses the vacuously mind-numbing dreck passed off as "bad film", raises the bar on too-bad-to-be-true production values though it's mind-warping psycho-nuttiness makes a case for itself. A simplistic masterpiece of ultra-low budgetry gone wild with creativity. When an astronomy professor and his students go on a field trip to investigate a possible meteor landing and reports of cattle mutilations in the same area, they find more than what they expected. Before they even make it to the suspected site, they are greeted with a near-skeletal, but still living, cow and an unfriendly space craft. Does this stop them? Noooo! They follow the leads to the home of a reclusive religious freak who babbles on about the end of the world and hideous monsters from space coming to Earth. Armageddon strikes, for this old coot anyway, shortly after when the alien space craft makes a landing in his living room!
The rest of the film is filled with the professor and his students battling the hilariously bad giant aliens. Kudos to the FX though, the aliens are both inventively done and disturbingly entertaining. This is no STAR WARS, but if you enjoy an over-the-top low budget mind blower this flick just may be your ticket to the loony bin!
Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987)
A rare find for Z budget movie lovers
C. M. Turner did it again with TALES... and this time it was even better! Rather then try to carry the entire running time of a movie by holding onto one story, Mr Turner throws out four stories to make it more interesting (?). Shirley Jones returns as the mother of a dead son who returns from the other side with a book, TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE. As she reads the stories to him they come to life on the screen. You just have to see it to believe it but this is one feat to ever make it into the public market. I am a die-hard bad movie enthusiast and I love this flick so if you don't like it, don't say I didn't warn you.
The Creeping Terror (1964)
This movie is the symbol of freedom.
Where else but in the good ole U.S.A. could a group of people make a movie like THE CREEPING TERROR, get it shown in theatres and on TV (repeatedly), and people admit to liking it publicly? I've loved this flick since the first time I saw it back in the 70's on late night TV and still hold it in high regard as one of the worst movies I will ever love. The carpet and vacuum hose monster that moves at a mall walkers pace seems to have no problem getting victims to into it's mouth, not just to be eaten but to be analyzed and biological info sent back to it's home planet?!? A.J. Nelson must have been dropped one too many times as a baby to make something this bad... and hilarious!
Sofi (1968)
An (almost) lost classic
SOFI is one of the crown jewels of cinematic achievement that was nearly lost forever but has found it's was back into the world. A few companies still offer it and for that we can be thankful. Tom Troupe is exceptional as the single character seen for the entire 92 minutes of SOFI's running time as he descends into hopeless madness in his own private hell of not being socially fit to win his chief clerk's daughter's love. Troupe brings Gogol's short story DIARY OF A MADMAN to vivid life in a heart rendering performance that has to be seen to appreciate. If you have a love for great drama this is a wonderful film for you.
Paura nella città dei morti viventi (1980)
Better than ZOMBIE
I saw both THE GATES OF HELL and ZOMBIE in the theatre upon U.S. release in the 80's and felt that G.O.H. was the better of the two. What this movie lacks in visuals is more than made up for in sound effects, especially the intestine puking scene! Regardless of what people say about the end of the movie, I say Fulci got the last laugh because people are STILL talking about it! Definitely worth a look (and listen) for anyone who has the guts, they're laying all over the floor!