1981 was a banner year for slasher cinema.
Michael Myers got into the franchise game with Halloween II. It turns out Jason Voorhees wasn’t dead at the bottom of Crystal Lake and he picked up right where his mom left off in Friday the 13th Part 2. And beloved one-off slasher classics such as My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler, and The Burning all took their turns staining the silver screen red in ‘81.
One other slasher film from that year has managed to make a modest name for itself in the intervening years – Joe Giannone’s Madman. This other, other camp-set slasher of ‘81 actually shares some fun history with The Burning. Believe it or not, Madman was conceived as a Cropsey film and the production had to tweak itself when they caught wind that another Cropsey-based horror film had just beaten them to the production punch.
So while The Burning got to keep Cropsey,...
Michael Myers got into the franchise game with Halloween II. It turns out Jason Voorhees wasn’t dead at the bottom of Crystal Lake and he picked up right where his mom left off in Friday the 13th Part 2. And beloved one-off slasher classics such as My Bloody Valentine, The Prowler, and The Burning all took their turns staining the silver screen red in ‘81.
One other slasher film from that year has managed to make a modest name for itself in the intervening years – Joe Giannone’s Madman. This other, other camp-set slasher of ‘81 actually shares some fun history with The Burning. Believe it or not, Madman was conceived as a Cropsey film and the production had to tweak itself when they caught wind that another Cropsey-based horror film had just beaten them to the production punch.
So while The Burning got to keep Cropsey,...
- 9/22/2023
- by Tyler Eschberger
- bloody-disgusting.com
April’s horror and sci-fi home media releases are ending in a big way, as we have a lot of genre goodness to look forward to with this week’s 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD offerings. In terms of new titles, Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall is arriving this Tuesday on a variety of formats, and both Gia Elliott’s psychological thriller Take Back the Night and Dead by Midnight Y2Kill are headed to DVD as well.
Arrow Video is giving Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys the 4K treatment this week, and Vinegar Syndrome has several titles headed to 4K this week, too, including Scanner Cop, Scanner Cop II: The Showdown, Madman, and a Schizoid/X-Ray double feature. Severin Films is showing some love to the Ozploitation flick Stone with a Special Edition release, and Agfa/Bleeding Skull are putting out Emily Hagins’ Pathogen on Blu-ray, too.
Other titles headed home on...
Arrow Video is giving Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys the 4K treatment this week, and Vinegar Syndrome has several titles headed to 4K this week, too, including Scanner Cop, Scanner Cop II: The Showdown, Madman, and a Schizoid/X-Ray double feature. Severin Films is showing some love to the Ozploitation flick Stone with a Special Edition release, and Agfa/Bleeding Skull are putting out Emily Hagins’ Pathogen on Blu-ray, too.
Other titles headed home on...
- 4/26/2022
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
It’s icky, drippy and grindingly gross — and will make your forehead itch — but Abel Ferrara’s Bowery-set dime store horror opus has withstood the test of time. It’s a decent enough psychodrama, if one can set aside all the psychological-philosophical booshwah that’s leaked into horror criticism. Oops, Savant’s guilty of that too.
The Driller Killer
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101, 96 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, Harry Schultz, Alan Wynroth
Cinematography Ken Kelsch, Jimmy Spears
Film Editor Jimmy Laine, Orlando Gallini
Original Music Joe Delia
Written by N.G. St. John
Produced by Rochelle Weisberg
Directed by Abel Ferrara
As some may have noticed, I’ve mellowed on the output of low-budget and independent horror efforts from the 1970s. While I was in film school bending my own tastes toward high production values and artistic merit, some crazy young filmmakers,...
The Driller Killer
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video
1979 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 101, 96 min. / Street Date December 13, 2017 / 39.95
Starring Abel Ferrara, Carolyn Marz, Baybi Day, Harry Schultz, Alan Wynroth
Cinematography Ken Kelsch, Jimmy Spears
Film Editor Jimmy Laine, Orlando Gallini
Original Music Joe Delia
Written by N.G. St. John
Produced by Rochelle Weisberg
Directed by Abel Ferrara
As some may have noticed, I’ve mellowed on the output of low-budget and independent horror efforts from the 1970s. While I was in film school bending my own tastes toward high production values and artistic merit, some crazy young filmmakers,...
- 1/3/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Gaylen Ross, Tony Fish, Harriet Bass, Seth Jones, Jan Claire, Alexander Murphy Jr., Tom Candela, Frederick Neumann, Michael Sullivan, Paul Ehlers, Tom Veilleux, Stephen Clark, Vicki Kenneally, Shelley Mathes, Lori Mathes | Written and Directed by Joe Giannone
Regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of the slasher genre. A lot of the times, I am just bored to tears. I would much rather watch a giallo when it’s at its most convoluted, than a ‘classic’ slasher. That being said, I’m a fair guy. I believe every film should be watched at least once before you offer your opinion. Thankfully, the lovely folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have been sending over many films that I have never heard of and films that I wouldn’t usually check out. Last year they released the slasher classic, Graduation Day. I was pleasantly surprised by the film...
Regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of the slasher genre. A lot of the times, I am just bored to tears. I would much rather watch a giallo when it’s at its most convoluted, than a ‘classic’ slasher. That being said, I’m a fair guy. I believe every film should be watched at least once before you offer your opinion. Thankfully, the lovely folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have been sending over many films that I have never heard of and films that I wouldn’t usually check out. Last year they released the slasher classic, Graduation Day. I was pleasantly surprised by the film...
- 7/15/2015
- by Mondo Squallido
- Nerdly
It's difficult to locate all that much depth and artistry while picking through the "rape/revenge" films of the 1970s. The psychological hook is obvious: rape is horrific, revenge is cathartic, and the nastier they are, the more the audience will feel some sort of impact. That's how it works in theory, anyway, "Mainstream" Hollywood films like Deliverance and Straw Dogs dealt with on-screen rape in shocking but relatively artistic fashion, whereas exploitation films like Last House on the Left and I Spit On Your Grave were more intent on "rubbing your face" in the ugliness of the subject matter.
Falling somewhere in between those two camps is 1980's Ms. 45, which is both ugly and aggressive (like those indie films) and oddly, sometimes disconcertingly beautiful, powerful and tragic. What starts out as a nasty but familiar story (a mute young NYC woman is raped (twice!) in one day and...
Falling somewhere in between those two camps is 1980's Ms. 45, which is both ugly and aggressive (like those indie films) and oddly, sometimes disconcertingly beautiful, powerful and tragic. What starts out as a nasty but familiar story (a mute young NYC woman is raped (twice!) in one day and...
- 12/9/2013
- by Scott Weinberg
- FEARnet
If youre a diehard supporter of the outrageous Maniac Cop franchise weve got some awesome news for you. Both Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac Cop 3 Badge of Silence are coming to Bluray in Collectors Editions courtesy of Blue Underground. Maniac Cop 2 will street on November 19th with a new 4K highdefinition transfer from the original negative supervised by cinematographer James Lemmo in 169enhanced 1.851 widescreen with Dtshd 7.1 Master Audio (plus the original Dolby Surround track) enhanced for DBox motioncontrol systems.
- 9/2/2013
- Best-Horror-Movies.com
If the project was meant to demonstrate the range of the leads, it succeeds, but financial rewards are likely to be restricted to video.
After borrowing money from a Mafia don for a botched heist, Sal (Dennis Farina) and Charlie (Leo Rossi) hightail it for the San Fernando Valley. After Sal has a stint as a limo driver, the pair finally hook up with Marty the Greek (John Kapelos), a transplant from back East, who puts them onto a simple break-in.
The job, however, leads to murder, crooked politicans, and a million-dollar payoff, a sudden introduction to crime's big leagues for these small fry.
The film gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the contrast between the pair's New York attitudes and the indifferent L.A. environment -- Marty the Greek spouting health food adages, for example -- and provides a consistent source of humor. However, despite some memorably sarcastic deliveries by Fran Drescher, who plays Sal's skeptical girlfriend Valerie, the film doesn't budge much off that line.
The action scenes are OK. In fact, there is a lot of competence on display here; the film just needed to be larger, wilder and more uninhibited.
WE'RE TALKIN' SERIOUS MONEY
CINETEL FILMS
Director James Lemmo
Producer Paul Hertzberg
Coproducers Leo Rossi, Lisa M. Hansen
Writers James Lemmo, Leo Rossi
Director of photography Jacques Haitkin
Editor Steve Nevius
Music Scott Grusin
Color
Sal Dennis Farina
Charlie Leo Rossi
Valerie Fran Drescher
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
After borrowing money from a Mafia don for a botched heist, Sal (Dennis Farina) and Charlie (Leo Rossi) hightail it for the San Fernando Valley. After Sal has a stint as a limo driver, the pair finally hook up with Marty the Greek (John Kapelos), a transplant from back East, who puts them onto a simple break-in.
The job, however, leads to murder, crooked politicans, and a million-dollar payoff, a sudden introduction to crime's big leagues for these small fry.
The film gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the contrast between the pair's New York attitudes and the indifferent L.A. environment -- Marty the Greek spouting health food adages, for example -- and provides a consistent source of humor. However, despite some memorably sarcastic deliveries by Fran Drescher, who plays Sal's skeptical girlfriend Valerie, the film doesn't budge much off that line.
The action scenes are OK. In fact, there is a lot of competence on display here; the film just needed to be larger, wilder and more uninhibited.
WE'RE TALKIN' SERIOUS MONEY
CINETEL FILMS
Director James Lemmo
Producer Paul Hertzberg
Coproducers Leo Rossi, Lisa M. Hansen
Writers James Lemmo, Leo Rossi
Director of photography Jacques Haitkin
Editor Steve Nevius
Music Scott Grusin
Color
Sal Dennis Farina
Charlie Leo Rossi
Valerie Fran Drescher
Running time -- 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
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