Category: 1980s

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle5 Comments

I think we all knew this would happen some day. After all, B-Movie Enema likes slasher movies from the 80s. I like Jason movies in particular. Twice before, I’ve tackled the exploits our of maniacal hockey fan. In October 2017, I wrote about my favorite of those exploits when I covered, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Then, three years later, on November 13th, 2020, I looked at the little movie that could, the fan-made (by teenagers I remind you) Friday the 13th Part X: To Hell and Back.

I think I proved I like the undead modern monster. But now… Oh yes, my lovelies. It’s time to tackle one of the two films in the Friday the 13th franchise that sticks in a lot of people’s craws. The time has come to look at Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

Yup… That one with the promise to be truly fun and interesting, but settled on a misleading title instead.

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Circle of Power (aka Brainwash, 1981)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle4 Comments

Welcome back to B-Movie Enema. This week, I’m going to talk about that thing we all love to do in our free time – training retreats! Woot woot! How exciting! Yaaaaayyyy – being forced to give up a perfectly good weekend to be bored out of our minds at a seminar!

Yeah, this movie goes by a few names, but the most common are either the original title, Brainwash, or Circle of Power. It also had the names Mystique and The Naked Weekend. This was based on a narrative nonfiction book called The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. That book was written by Gene Church and Conrad D. Carnes and was published in 1972. Basically, it’s about the practices that went on during a four-day training weekend for executives run that involved folks from companies run by one William Penn Patrick. More on that later.

After this movie came out, the writers did a follow up called Brainwash – likely in conjunction with the film’s title. The appeal was that there was this brand new phenomenon called “encounter group training” that began to crop up in the 60s and 70s. This could help people with various business skills or interpersonal communication or even with relationships. Oftentimes, these were kind of viewed as someone, who was seen as something of a guru, trying to train others to think and react the same way to situations. In a lot of ways, this not only evolved for business practices into the 80s but, for personal stuff, think of your Tony Robbinses or other self-help folks who ran seminars.

The book helped expose some practices. This movie came out during a huge explosion of controversy that dropped at a particular event. These things will be covered here in just a moment, but let’s start by talking about our star of the movie – the recently departed Yvette Mimieux.

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Aenigma (1988)

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Luci Fulci is back… Or, as I suppose the bumper stickers and various other memes would say, “Fulci Lives!”

Welcome to B-Movie Enema. This week, we’re looking Fulci’s 1988 Carrie-esque thriller, Aenigma. 1988 was a curious year for Fulci. That was the year that his sort of sequel Zombie 3 was released. But Zombie 3 wasn’t really his movie. He got very ill at the start of filming and had to leave and directing duties shifted to Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso. The result? Well, it was kind of goofy, but mostly worked. If for nothing else, it was a fun watch.

Fulci would recover and ended up making Aenigma. He would say this was one of his more favorite films in some time. Fulci’s body of work is curious because, while I like most of his films for various reasons, he is good in spurts and spots. I love Zombie. I love his “Gates of Hell” trilogy. The Devil’s Honey is phenomenal. But this movie, this was the director’s own pick for his favorite during the latter part of his career.

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Hide and Go Shriek (1988)

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In 2021, I was able to return HorrorHound Weekend in Cincinnati for the first time since it was here in Indianapolis way back in September 2019. Part of my enjoyment of attending those shows is finding tables that are selling DVDs and Blu Rays. Sure, Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, Full Moon Features, Troma, and Synapse are all there. However, it’s one table in particular that I always make sure to visit. At this table, you’ll find all sorts of old, out of print, or forgotten films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I spend a lot of money at this table each and every show.

That’s where this week’s B-Movie Enema feature, Hide and Go Shriek came from. Is there anything really special about this movie? Not really. It’s a late 80s slasher. There were a ton of those in that era. It doesn’t really star anyone of note. By god, the name of the director is Skip Schoolnik… That sounds like a damn cartoon character! The cover of this copy makes it uncertain if the woman is scared because the killer with the foot tattoo is about to find her or his feet stink and she’s reacting to that funk.

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Savage Beach (1989)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema’s Andy Sidaris Month!

You know what was part of my decision to kick 2022 off with this theme? It’s January, it’s cold. It’s gray and nighttime comes way too soon in the day. Andy Sidaris is a perfect thing to watch during these cold, dark, and lonely days. He takes us to sunny, beautiful, and sexy Hawaii in most of his films. That’s certainly what we have in line for this fourth film in his Bullets, Bombs, and Babes series – Savage Beach.

This time around, our favorite agents, Donna and Taryn, are transporting an important vaccine when they are forced to land on a remote island full of sandy beaches and tall palm trees. Nearby, there is a sunken World War II era Japanese ship that is just loaded to the balls with treasure. Our blonde bombshells are not alone on the island either. There are deadly bad guys looking for the sunken treasure too!

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Picasso Trigger (1988)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle1 Comment

Welcome to yet another new year and a new slate of B-Movie Enema goodness. I decided I’d kick off 2022 with a whole month dedicated to our dearest friend, Andy Sidaris. To be fair, this is a little bit of a makeup for how much I’ve neglected poor Andy. Sidaris should be covered as much as possible at a website called B-Movie Enema, and, thus far, I’ve only done so twice. Once for Malibu Express waaaay back in 2016. Then, a second time for the world renown Hard Ticket to Hawaii last year.

So the fuck am I doin’ around here? Where’s the Andy? Where’s the beefcake, the cheesecake, the fun, and the explosions?

January 2022 will be Andy Sidaris Month, goddammit! We’re just going to keep ripping through his boobtacular action series picking right up with the third film in the BBB (Bullets, Bombs, and Babes) Series with Picasso Trigger. This movie sees the return of the incredibly lovely duo of Dona Spier, as the appropriately named Donna, and Hope Marie Carlton (one of my faves from this series), as Taryn. It also introduces yet another Abilene, Travis, played by Steve Bond (cool name, can’t be real).

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Ghostkeeper (1981)

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So we’ve come the end of 2021. Was it better? Did you have a good time in 2021? I mean, 2020 was pretty shit. 2021 started real rough. I think we corrected course just in time to get back in the muck again. Sure there were deltas and omicrons and probably even persei 8s. But did you take care of yourselves? I mean it, my dear Enemaniacs, I hope you took care of yourselves. I hope if you had to recover from 2020, you did so. I hope if you tried to do something to better yourself in 2021 you were able.

We’re closing out the 22nd year of the 21st century with a film from the 20th.

This week’s film, Ghostkeeper, is a somewhat appreciated moody spirit movie from Canada with some traces of The Shining. Now, I know we’ve had a sketchy history with Canadian horror, but I’m promised that this is an atmospheric movie. It also at least starts on New Year’s Eve. That’s kind of awesome because there aren’t too many movies I can cover that run congruent to the day.

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