Tag: vinegar syndrome

Alien from L.A. (1988)

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From Bill Rebane last week to Albert Pyun this week.

Welcome to another B-Movie Enema article – the 328th if we’re counting, and… I do. This week, we’re going back to good ol’ Cannon Films to peel back some layers on a peculiar little sci-fi film from the late 80s – Alien from L.A. Now, why is it peculiar? Well, it’s because it doesn’t take itself very seriously. It’s almost a comedy in how our lead character, Wanda Saknussem (what kind of name is that?!?), acts with a nasally, dorky voice. But it’s played by the mega-hot Kathy Ireland, so isn’t that funny?!?

But, more to the point, it’s, yes, an ALIEN from Los Angeles that Ireland is playing, but not in the sense you’d think. No, she doesn’t go to outer space or accidentally stow away on a spaceship or anything like that. She actually gets into the center of the Earth and finds an underground civilization that isn’t too far off from what we have up here. It’s more like when you call someone who immigrates from another country an alien. So, yeah, it is a little different than we normally see, but it kind of makes it a much more interesting and subtle Cannon movie.

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Blood Harvest (1987)

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This week’s B-Movie Enema feature is one I’ve wanted to do for a while. Maybe more accurately, the film’s director is a guy I’ve wanted to feature for some time. This week, I’ll be getting into 1987’s Blood Harvest.

Without a doubt, the chief thing that will gain attention will be the fact that this stars the very eclectic novelty musician Tiny Tim. We’ll be getting to Tiny Tim momentarily. However, I would argue that this might just be the most interesting of all the films directed by Wisconsinite Bill Rebane.

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Wonder Women (1973)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

Aw man… This week’s B-Movie Enema is a bit of a treat. Now, normally, you’d probably think, especially if you know me or read many of these stupid posts I make, you might think I’d make some sort of joke that I’m watching Wonder Woman and talk all about comic books and how much of a fuckin’ nerd I am, only for it to stop cold, me pretend to have a conversation with the voices in my head or my B-Movie Enema: The Series co-star Nurse Disembaudee or whatever.

You know, this blog’s equivalent to a movie preview’s record scratch sound effect when a dumb joke happens.

But no… There’s more awesome to talk about that shouldn’t get ruined by that dumb gag I often do. Instead, we’re going to get right to the awesomeness that is 1973’s Wonder Women. This stars two big time folks in the forms of Nancy Kwan and Ross Hagen. But also there are a couple other recognizable folks I’ve talked about in the past.

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The Candy Snatchers (1973)

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Welcome to the 299th B-Movie Enema article!

This week, we have something that isn’t too common a thing around these parts – a movie loosely based on a real life event. The Candy Snatchers is a 1973 exploitation cult classic about a trio of kidnappers who snag a girl and ultimately bury her alive while waiting for their ransom to be paid. We’ll go into more about the actual movie in just a moment. First, I want to talk about the real world connection this movie has.

In 1968, college student Barbara Mackle was sick during the 1968 flu pandemic at a motel in Georgia waiting for her mother to pick her up so she could care for her at the family home in Florida. Someone knocked on the door of the motel wearing a policeman’s cap. This man claimed her boyfriend (and later husband), was in a terrible car accident and was injured. Mackle let the “officer” in, but it was actually Gary Krist and accomplice Ruth Eisemann-Schier (posing as a man). The couple kidnapped Mackle and buried her in a ventilated box outside Duluth, Georgia while they attempted to collect ransom. After three days of being buried alive, Mackle was recovered after Krist left a tip with vague directions on how to find her. Aside from pretty bad dehydration, Mackle was alive and went on to show no other ill effects of being kidnapped. Krist and Eisemann-Shier were both arrested later, Esimann-Schier was deported to her native Honduras after spending 4 years in prison and Krist spent the next 40+ years in and out of prison.

While there is much more to learn about the Barbara Mackle kidnapping, one more item of note, Ruth Eisemann-Schier was the first woman to ever appear on the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.

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Olivia (1983)

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Last week, we talked about an Italian actor-turned-director’s film, this week, we have a German actor who turned into a rather notable director.

1983’s Olivia comes to us from Ulli Lommel. Lommel was an actor in the 60s. In fact, one of his earliest films was one of Russ Meyer’s – Fanny Hill. But he would work many times over with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who was a particularly controversial filmmaker himself. Fassbinder made a lot of avant garde films and passed away young due to a drug overdose. However, Lommel produced a 1970 movie of Fassbinder’s called Whity a surreal western about a mixed race servant who kills the family he works for and runs away with his prostitute lover. Whity won many awards in the German equivalent of the Oscars.

By the end of the 70s, Lommel moved to America to make American movies permanently. By 1980, he jumped into the slasher craze with The Boogeyman. While the reviews were mixed, and there were many comparisons made to John Carpenter’s Halloween, the movie was a huge success. It was banned in the United Kingdom as a Video Nasty, and was later re-evaluated as a movie that seems to utilize a lot of Lommel’s own fears he had as a child. Boogeyman II was released a few years later. Like the infamous Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2, the sequel uses many flashbacks to the first to help fill its runtime. Boogeyman II is pretty much unilaterally disliked.

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Penitentiary II (1982)

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Let’s go back to the story of Martel “Too Sweet” Gordone for this week’s new B-Movie Enema.

Some time ago, I covered the first story in Too Sweet’s trilogy. This week, we pick up where the last left off with Penitentiary II. As seen at the end of the first film, Too Sweet won the prison boxing tournament and was released. However, there’s a bit of a caveat with that freedom as we’ll see in this week’s sequel.

As with the first, Penitentiary II is written and directed by activist and leading member of the L.A. Rebellion, Jamaa Fanaka. Fanaka would ultimately make three films in the saga of Too Sweet Gordone. However, this film has a couple other notable actors appearing in it.

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The Severed Arm (1973)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

This is gonna be a bit of a palette cleanser from last week.

This week’s new B-Movie Enema is gonna look at the 1973 horror revenge movie The Severed Arm from writer/director Tom Alderman. While this is a somewhat inconsequential horror movie from a low budget/indie standpoint, there are a few reasons why I wanted to take a look at it. Before that, though, who is Tom Alderman? Well… I don’t know. Alderman only directed one other movie that sounds like a possible porno (Coed Dorm), and wrote one other movie (The Master-Piece! – which does seem to have a cool poster). Aside from that, it seemed he came and went relatively quickly.

But why am I covering this movie and how do I know anything about this? Well, first and foremost, this was a movie I watched on the beloved Bizarre TV channel on Roku. I may have completed the ultimate tip of the ol’ hat to that now defunct channel, but I’m not done talking about the movies I was exposed to there. It was a movie that played a few times there and I was lucky enough to catch it.

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Blood Games (1990)

Published on by Geoff Arbuckle2 Comments

In the long history of the “fans of a losing sports team goes on a revenge-fueled murder spree against the winners” genre, none are better than Tanya Rosenberg’s gripping classic from 1990, Blood Games.

In fact, this movie is so perfect, it’s the only movie Tanya Rosenberg ever made. After Blood Games, she was like, “Yup. I did it. I can do no better, and I should not even try. Suck it, Goodfellas. I made the best movie of 1990.”

Or so I imagine she said all that. I really don’t know. It is entirely possible she’s not even a real person. There is no additional information about her that I can find. I don’t even think this Vinegar Syndrome release of the movie even has any special features talking about her. For all I know, Tanya Rosenberg was created in an exploitation movie lab for the sole purpose of making Blood Games.

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