Vice Academy (1989)

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I like to think of this subgenre, particularly in the 1980s, an American tradition.  Certainly it was nothing new to either the United States or other countries before the decade or even to this very day, but there was something pretty special about the American landscape of both horror and comedy in the 1980s.  It was the decade of slashers and Porky’s ripoffs.  But, maybe more important, it all falls back onto an idea I’ve discussed numerous times before – you had to stock video store shelves and late night cable TV time slots.

That brings us to director Rick Sloane and this week’s screwball comedy, Vice Academy.

Sloane is probably best known for his sci-fi throwback/boner comedy/creature feature Hobgoblins.  I’ve covered that over at Film Seizure on an episode of my weekly Monster Mondays show.  That was a movie I’ve seen a few times when it first made its way to cable, and several times when it was literally eviscerated by the crew of the Satellite of Love on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  While I love that particular episode of MST3K, I’ve always enjoyed the quaint attempt at a Gremlins clone as well as the general quirkiness of the mixture of a lot of 80s tropes that are at play in the movie. Continue reading “Vice Academy (1989)” →

Nashville Girl (1976)

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I think it’s safe to say that just about everyone has had a dream of being the hottest new country music sensation, right?

No?  It’s just me?  Come on, guys, I cannot be the only person who ever thought about running away to Nashville, Tennessee, wearing a short skirt, pretend that I’m only about 18 years old, and use my looks to make it big in the world of country music.  Really?

You may say that you’ve never thought about it, but I can smell a lie like a fart in a car, dear Enemaniacs.  But, hey…  Maybe that bug just hasn’t bitten you yet.  I guarantee that after watching this week’s B-Movie Enema feature, Nashville Girl, you will have a new life dream.

Country music is a fascinating beast.  It’s a genre of music that I just cannot abide.  I’m a rock and roll guy through and through.  Yet…  I really like southern rock.  My favorite singer/songwriter is Tom Petty and, despite being heavily influenced by The Birds, he’s undoubtedly a southern rocker.  However, there is an element of country music that I really do have some appreciation for. Continue reading “Nashville Girl (1976)” →

Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)

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Let’s get back into the depths of Full Moon Features!

In the 90s, Full Moon was killing it.  They were pumping out movie after movie after movie thanks to the boom of video stores and cable television.  You could make a handful of movies very inexpensively and, instead of the promotional costs to get the word out about a featured film in theaters, processing prints, making the deals with theaters to show the movie, etc., all you had to do is mass produce VHS tapes.  It would also be easy to sell your movie to HBO and Showtime as well.  The profit margin was much higher and you could turn that money right around into more movies for video stores and cable TV.

And, hey, and if you add a little sexy shenanigans with a pretty lead actress – even better!  That’s certainly what we have for you this week.  Another direct-to-video Full Moon selection with a little bit of sexy and a little bit of demon.  It’s 1994’s Dark Angel: The Ascent! Continue reading “Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)” →

Showgirls (1995)

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I mean…  Sure.

Why not cover 1995’s NC-17 rated, all pomp and circumstance but failed at the box office with a whimper Showgirls?  This is directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas who had previously teamed up for one of the all time greats in the world of erotic thrillers with 1992’s Basic Instinct and again right away with 1993’s Sliver.  Verhoeven was always a big fan of the big musicals from studio MGM and wanted to make one himself.  Eszterhas was in one of the worst moments of his life.

This is what you can accomplish with a little hope to make a big musical while your writer buddy is in the deepest dumps of his life.  The film obviously is not what most would expect from this duo.  Eszterhas has often stated that there were clearly mistakes made.  Plus, that whole thing with him being in a dark place meant he wasn’t being as clever or witty as he normally could be.  He admitted both he and Verhoeven were probably operating on a great deal of hubris after Basic Instinct was such a success.  Continue reading “Showgirls (1995)” →

Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties (1978)

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I love Jess Franco.  I do.  He started off in the 60s with films like The Awful Dr. Orloff and The Diabolical Dr. Z, the latter being a film I covered on this blog before.  These were black and white flicks that were beautiful and moody and incredibly artistic in style.  Once the later part of 60s came along, he transitioned into much more erotic fare.  He started doing things like Vampyros Lesbos as well as many full on X-rated type stuff with his muse and second wife Lina Romay.

Guess what…  I love that stuff too.  He’s just got a great flair to his movies that register as both incredibly artistic and deeply sensual.  Of course, the aforementioned The Diabolical Dr. Z is one of the finer films ever covered on this blog as it is incredibly well shot.  He also directed my favorite Ilsa film too – Ilsa, The Wicked Warden.  Now, yeah, you can say that isn’t fair because it wasn’t meant to be part of the series, but I’m counting it goddammit.  He also did one of the worst movies on this blog – Oasis of the Zombies.  I won’t get too hung up on that, though.

No, this week’s new B-Movie Enema will intersect his 70s eroticism with his muse Lina Romay.  This week, I’m watching Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties. Continue reading “Two Female Spies with Flowered Panties (1978)” →

Escape from Tomorrow (2013)

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Disney.

With a single word, this mega company can conjure up many, many feelings.  For many, it’s animated features.  For some, it’s an iconic mouse.  Others think of family vacations when they were little or, once grown, special times they have with their little ones.  Some believe it’s everything wrong with the world.  Some, like director Randy Moore, apparently believes it is a person, place, and thing that is so fake and full of shit, he wants to be sure he makes a whole movie to drive home his disdain, and then go on a press tour to make sure people know he’s above all this Disney fakeness.

The movie was Escape from Tomorrow.  The gimmick is the guerrilla style filming inside both Disney World and Disneyland which is mostly what this movie has to stand on seven years on from its original release.  Why is filming inside Disney Parks such a gimmick to begin with?  Well, the place is absolutely crawling with intellectual property.  Disney is fierce about litigation when it comes to their shit.  There’s another reason why this movie was deemed risky, but I’ll get to that momentarily. Continue reading “Escape from Tomorrow (2013)” →

Cats (2019)

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Holy crapatini wowzers, of course I was going to write about 2019’s Cats.  Look at this fucking nightmare fuel.  How could I not do this???

Look at this…

And…  Holy shit, Dame Judi Dench?  You are an Oscar winner and James Bond’s boss, goddammit!

And the fuck is this?  Who is Rum Tum Tugger?  Why was he so important and only in, like, a single scene?!?

Continue reading “Cats (2019)” →

Nightmare (1981)

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Welcome back to B-Movie Enema, my lovelies.  This week, we have a peculiar little exploitation slasher flick from the early days of the gory mass murderer days – Nightmare.  There’s a positively interesting story behind this movie.  However, this is yet another of those Bizarre TV watches.  It is indeed part of the “final six” – the final six films that ran on repeat for several months until the Roku channel disappeared forever.

In the event that you ever watched that channel or curious about these final films, they were (in the order that I reviewed them on this blog up to this point) Werewolf of Washington, Zombie Nightmare, Slaughterhouse Rock, and Doom Asylum.  The final film of this grouping, Slumber Party Massacre, will be my special Halloween article, so that’s something to look forward to, I suppose.

I talk about the defunct Bizarre TV because it really is what re-energized me to start this blog up again after I took almost a year and a half off from writing it due to a bad case of fuckititis.  If it wasn’t for me watching that non-stop, and for the dearly departed Mistress Rhonda tirelessly providing awesome horror and exploitation, I don’t think I would have been able to jump back into this.  So, if you want to blame something for this guy’s thousands and thousands of words of bullshit, I guess you can blame that. Continue reading “Nightmare (1981)” →