Action U.S.A. (1989)

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Ah…  The good ol’ U.S.ofA.  It’s a sort of cool place, right?  I mean, we are THE country in the world that most people in other countries care more about than their own.  You don’t have to go too far into the rabbit hole of YouTube to find a Canadian guy, British guy, German guy, or a French Canadian guy to see they will release screeds and commentaries about the United States and what’s going on over here.

Then there was the 80s.  If you were around in the 80s, there were a few things that you probably knew:

  1. REAGANOMICS!
  2. COCAINE!
  3. USA! USA! USA!
  4. ACTION!
  5. Fuckin’ Commies trying to take over our country and stuff.

So what better way to celebrate all of that than to close out the decade with a movie called Action U.S.A.? Continue reading “Action U.S.A. (1989)” →

Deadly Prey (1987)

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I’m a little surprised it has taken me this long to get to a David A. Prior movie, but here we are!  This week’s B-Movie Enema is going to tackle Deadly Prey from 1987.  There’s lots of interesting elements to talk about here.  But we should start with Prior first.

Prior was born in 1955.  In the early 80s, he made the movie Sledgehammer which has the distinction of being the very first shot-on-video slasher film that was distributed to the masses.  In relatively quick succession, he was making films that would have limited theatrical releases, but had lots of life on cable and in video stores.  Before making this film, he met David Winters (more on him shortly).  Winters would finance a couple of Prior’s movies like Killzone and Killer Workout (both movies I’d very much like to cover here).  After those films, Winters and Prior would form Action International Pictures (AIP) to release two more Prior films shot back-to-back – Mankillers and Deadly Prey.

David Prior often worked with his little brother, Ted Prior.  Ted became pretty well known for being a buff action type star.  Ted had roles in almost every AIP film that David was heavily involved in beyond being a producer.  Interesting note about Ted, he was briefly married to a female bodybuilder who was part of the original cast of American Gladiators (Raye Hollitt aka Zap). Continue reading “Deadly Prey (1987)” →

‘Gator Bait (1974)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema!  It’s getting cold outside, but you know what we can do about that?  We can go down south and visit the sweaty swamps where a barefoot poacher by the name of Desiree stalks the area and wrangles alligators.

Did I mention our barefoot poacher is Claudia Jennings?

It’s high time for us to take a look at the film most people seem to remember her best for – ‘Gator Bait! Whenever I see someone talk about Jennings online and asks people what their favorite films of hers are, inevitably, there will be many, many answers of “Gator Bait!” in the comments.  Absolutely, positively, without a doubt, both this movie and the 1988 sequel ‘Gator Bait II: Cajun Justice, stood out on the video store shelves.  It’s hard to resist the siren call of the redheads that graced both movies’ boxes. Continue reading “‘Gator Bait (1974)” →

Lovely But Deadly (1981)

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Sometimes you just need kung fu girls fighting a drug ring in their school.

That’s what what we have this week – Lovely But Deadly.  The film was made by David Sheldon, and he’s had a pretty good, long career as mostly a producer or executive.  This is only one of three movies he directed (one of which he was not credited for), but he does have some pretty good writing and producing credits worth mentioning.  To start, he wrote the movie Grizzly, and its long-to-finish-sequel Grizzly II: Revenge.  He’s been involved with the films Abby, Devil Times Five, Sheba, Baby, The Evil, The Manitou, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and a whole slew of blaxploitation flicks.  Dude got around, but mostly got around the behind the scenes side of things as he doesn’t actually have a lot of actual on-screen credits.

Sure, many of his movies deal with animals having enough of our shit as human beings.  This time around though, he decides to take it back to school with a tale of a cheerleader, nicknamed “Lovely”, who decides to go undercover to expose a drug ring after her brother overdoses and a bunch of kids get hooked on the junk.  Also, she knows kung fu.  I cannot emphasize that enough. Continue reading “Lovely But Deadly (1981)” →

Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)

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Oh boy, do we have a LOT to talk about in this new B-Movie Enema. article.  Oddly, the movie itself, Joel M. Reed’s controversial Bloodsucking Freaks from 1976, doesn’t really have a lot to discuss in terms of what is seen on the screen (don’t worry, I will be calling play-by-play nonetheless).  No, there are two topics in particular to discuss in much greater detail.

I’m not entirely sure where to start with this, so let’s start with the director, Joel M. Reed.  He unfortunately passed away in a care facility in New York City just earlier this year.  He’s one of the many unfortunate casualties due to the global pandemic that is COVID-19.  He’s likely known best for making this movie, which drew the ire of many, many people when it was released.  The release of the movie also had a couple alternate titles like The Incredible Torture Show and Sardu: Master of the Screaming Virgins.  However, almost everyone knows this movie by the title Bloodsucking Freaks.  That’s the name applied to it by Lloyd Kaufman when Troma came along to take over the distribution of the movie.

That began a long relationship with Kaufman that lasted up until Reed’s passing. Continue reading “Bloodsucking Freaks (1976)” →

Friday the 13th Part X – To Hell and Back (1995)

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Ah, the fan film.  Pretty much from the moment home movie equipment became available to laypeople in the 1950s, people were shooting home movies.  Aside from the basic recording of familial moments like Christmases, birthdays, Jimmy’s first orgy with Sally from across the street and that busload of Yugoslavian carnies passing through town that one summer, and the like, people liked making their own big, Hollywood adventures.

My grandpa liked making a bunch of silly movies with my mom and aunt and my oldest brother.  My other two brothers had a Super 8 camera in the 70s and 80s and made lots of home movies.  This wasn’t quite like the VHS camcorders and digital cameras that came in my day.  Oh no…  Most of the time it was silent.  If you wanted sound, my brothers had to painstakingly overdub their dialog while watching the movie through a projector.

Fan films existed pretty much from the get-go too.  In the 50s, I’m willing to bet lots of families dressed their little kids up as Bogey and Bacall or Superman and Lois.  Shit, my brothers made a movie called Grime as a take on the immensely popular Grease.  Their movie starred hunky heartthrob John Travoltastein.  Anyway…  Horror, established sci-fi properties, and superheroes tend to be general go-to genres for fan films nowadays.

And this is what we have here – 1995’s Friday the 13th Part X – To Hell and Back starring a bunch of teenagers.

Continue reading “Friday the 13th Part X – To Hell and Back (1995)” →

Inseminoid (1981)

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Okay, so maybe last week I closed out one tradition on this site, but I still have a lot more that I can draw from!

That’s what’s up this week as, yet again, it’s time to check out a Norman J. Warren joint!  This week’s movie is one that I often see a lot of negativity float about on social media sites and groups I belong to.  I don’t care, I think this is a perfect example of the strangeness in one of Warren’s movies.  I’m going to talk about Inseminoid.

But, here’s the deal.  This movie is actually quite well liked in a few circles.  First and foremost, it impressed Roger Corman who nearly hired Warren for movies he was producing.  It was made on a shoestring budget, but that actually works in its favor as the cave where they filmed the scenes for the scientists doing their excavation produced the perfect effect Warren wanted.  He also got a boost when the famed Shaw Brothers from Hong Kong provided half the budget.  It was a little bit of a tortured set though.  The cave provided little light and air, and it would often be damp and cause quite a few injuries to cast and crew.  On top of that, Robin Clarke, an American actor cast as one of the more important roles, didn’t get along with Norman.  The two clashed often. Continue reading “Inseminoid (1981)” →

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

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Happy Halloween, Enemaniacs!

There are a handful of traditions on this website.  The first has always been the October theme month of horror or monster films.  That started with the very first five posts way back in 2014.  When the blog returned from a lengthy hiatus in 2016, I continued the idea for October, but started a new, second tradition – the Halloween special post.  However, to say that was started in 2016 isn’t exactly true either as October 31, 2014 was the original release date of my first Jess Franco review, the really bad Oasis of the Zombies.

Another tradition on this blog is to often mention the influence of the old Roku channel Bizarre TV.  I talk about it a lot.  It was, without a doubt, the primary influence for me to get off my duff after a somewhat crappy time in my life filled with loneliness and despair to get back to my one true love – writing this blog.  Not only that, but it led to one last tradition on this blog.  That last tradition was to celebrate the final six films that ran on Bizarre TV for months at a time before the channel finally going off the air forever.  We’ve reached the final entry of those final days of one of the finest channels on the history of Roku.  This year’s Halloween Special Post goes to The Slumber Party Massacre. Continue reading “The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)” →