The Curse of the Alpha Stone (1972)

 

Okay, so we're finally getting around to this one.  This is the one that really started it all for me - the mother of all sleazy B-movies.  It was around 1985, and I'm at a mom-and-pop video rental store, and I'm not having any luck finding anything.  I wasn't in the mood to rent Trading Places or Heaven Help Us yet again; so, I grabbed this box with the intriguing looking cover. Maybe it would be a cheesy sci-fi movie in the vein of Logan's Run or Colossus: The Forbin Project.  Nope - not even close.  What I got blew my fucking mind.

Losing My Virginity (2019)

 

Two tragic tales of good girls gone bad.  As if straight of Valle De Lagrimas or Casos Reales fotonovelas, the stories are over-the-top with lots of sleaze; they often dealt with the self-destruction of formerly saintly females.

A Passion for Murder (1997)

 

When you think about it, it's kind of odd how the makers of these erotic thrillers stuck to the formula so diligently. It's a genre with its roots in the detective noir films, which had their roots in Raymond Chandler type stories.  But when it came to late-night cable thrillers, there was no room for any degree of creativity.  The sex scenes had to be filmed a certain way - a forced classiness with alto sax or jazz guitar noodling in the background.  Always obvious red herrings, a studly gumshoe, dangerous dames, a lame shootout ending, etc.  You know the drill.  

Passion Before Midnight (2003)

 

(AKA Sex, Secrets and Lies) Standard paint-by-numbers erotic thriller... heavy on the erotic, light on the thrills.

Bare Witness (2002)

 

I watched my share of erotic thrillers back in Cinemax's golden age.  However, I don't hardly remember any of them as the films within the genre all run together - they are so much alike, even the titles don't provide any distinction.  But I do remember this one as Angie Everhart used to be a big deal just a few years prior, Full frontal nudity from her, however brief, makes this rather memorable.

Jane Street (1996)

 

Gabrielle Hall is a nude ghost who tries to warn a woman about a dangerous relationship.  

Olalla (2015)

 

In Maleficarum (2011) Bolivian actress/writer/director Amy Hesketh sort-of blew our minds with the most degrading and brutal performances since I Spit On Your Grave.  So, it behooves us to give another one of her controversial works a shot. This odd vampire tale is inspired by the Robert Louis Stevenson story and, as you might predict, contains a lot of nudity from Hesketh.

Witchcraft 14: Angel of Death (2016)

 

Well folks, I think we've come to the last of the Witchcraft series on VZ1.  Yes, there's two more; we're so close... but I just can't.  This was so unbelievably awful - and not in a fun way like in previous episodes.  Let's just have a look...

Witchcraft 13: Blood of the Chosen (2008)

 

The thirteenth installment of the Witchcraft Series features another coven of deadly dames.  These girls have a habit of removing both their tops and men's throbbing hearts.

Witchcraft XII: In the Lair of the Serpent (2002)

 

Well, we may have jumped the shark with this one.  Yeah, it's been bad up till now, but it's been the fun kind of bad for the most part. It just feels flat; plus none of the actors from the previous episodes return.  Let's have a look at the first swing and a miss for the loveably bad Witchcraft series. 

Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood (2000)

 

We continue the Witchcraft Series which had a bit of a digression in Episode 10 which took place in London.  This time we're back in LA with Spinner returning. This episode features three drama students who can't keep their tops on who get in league with the devil.

Witchcraft X: Mistress of the Craft (1998)

 

So we left off at Part 9 of the Witchcraft Series.  This time we're in England where a group of female vampires works with Hyde to summon a demon and rule the world. 

Awkward Thanksgiving (2014)

 

Well, Henrique Couto's Scarewaves (2014) and Devilish Tales (2019) interested me enough to try out another of films. Rather than his usual horror flick, this is a holiday film... so, yeah, let's give it a whirl. 

Maleficarum (2011)

 

A Bolivian film featuring the Spanish Inquisition doing what they do best. Amy Hesketh is naked and mistreated for nearly the entirety of the film, and it's so extreme I found myself wondering, why would anyone go through this for a movie? 

Devilish Tales (2019)

 

Another horror anthology from Henrique Couto, who gave us Scarewaves (2014).  About as cheaply made as you can get, but you have to admire the vision - you can tell he's horror nerd himself and really puts his heart into it.

Erotic Karma (2012)

 

A douche-bag professor is run over by a car, and his ghost possesses various students and faculty. He happens to be a horny lunatic, using his ghostly powers to bang both women and men!

Art of the Dead (2019)

 

Another Rolfe Kanefsky jam; this one about a set of paintings which cause their owners to go mad, each corresponding to the Seven Deadly Sins.

Deadly Crush (2018)

 

A woman is seduced by the ghost of a Native American criminal; featuring William Sadler and other familiar faces. It's a movie that seems like it would be a paint-by-numbers PG-13 horror-thriller, but goes down some dark and sleazy avenues you might not have expected.

Online Crush (2010)

I can't help it; I enjoy these cheesy erotic movies which are tangentially about computers and social media [such as Sex@students.edu (2001) Access Denied (1996)].  This film centers on sexual tringles around a site called "facefriends". 

Pickaxe (2014)

 

A paint-by-numbers slasher movie which is surprisingly well-done.  But no, the slasher doesn't look anywhere as good as the poster.

How Good Is My Goddaughter 2 (2019)

 

(Original Title: Qué buena está mi ahijada 2)  A follow up to the wonderful 1986 film featuring Lina Santos and Alberto Rojas.

Dark Fantasies (2010)

 

A psychology professor has developed a device which can connect two individuals' dreams....  wet dreams, to be precise. 

Bus Party to Hell (2017)

 

A sleazy over-the-top take on Race with the Devil, one of my favorite movies, by Rolfe Kanefsky, one of my favorite modern B-movie directors. Should be a doozy. 

Trophy Heads (2014)

 

I wasn't old enough to enjoy seventies grindhouse theaters, but I did enjoy the hell out of Scream Queens in the glory days of VHS. This Charles Band flick features a couple generations of scream queens, from the Linnea Quigley-Michelle Bauer days to the Jacqueline Lovell-Denise Duff days. 

The Turnpike Killer (2009)

 

Supposedly the film's entire budget came from drug money; if you've seen this film, this sounds reasonable. It's yet another movie inspired by Maniac (1980).

Night of Something Strange (2016)

 

A zombie movie with a grotesque sexual twist - about a group a teenagers on their way to spring break fun find themselves battling the horny undead.

She Kills (2016)

 

A comedic homage to grindhouse films in the vein of Black Dynamite.  A woman is raped and takes her revenge on her attackers. Featuring disco, cannibalism, kung-fu, and a demonically possessed vagina.

The Dead Bodies in #223 (2017)

 

How many movie plots involve normal guys having to contend with a dead hooker in their hotel room? We all remember Very Bad Things (1998), but there are many more, including this slow paced indie film from 2017.

Return to Splatter Farm (2020)

 

A zero budget slasher sequel to the 1987 low-budget film (which seems unnecessary, considering almost no one has heard of it). 

Spaceship Terror (2011)

 

A spaceship crew is trapped aboard a death ship; imagine Saw or Hostel, but in space... and with a much smaller budget.

Blood Demon Rising (2017)

 

We've covered our fair share of sleazy exploitation films from around the globe on VZ1.  One area that's perhaps been neglected are films from the past decade. We've not neglected them entirely, but they've certainly taken a backseat to previous decades. Part of that is intentional - I grew up in the seventies, and so genre films from around that decade are going to appeal to me the most.  However, I feel like I don't really know or understand the exploitation films currently being churned out.  It doesn't seem right to spend years exploring trashy films, while more-or-less ignoring the ones still carrying the torch. So, we'll try to amend that - and to that point, let's have a look at this satan flick from 2017.

The Witch's Sabbath (2005)

 

A coven of witches must decapitate 666 people before Halloween when the Dark Lord shows up.  That's a tall order - can they do it? 

Blood of the Tribades (2016)

 

This film tries very very hard to be a Jean Rollin film.  It doesn't come close to succeeding, but I commend the effort.  It's the story of a plague ridden world set in 2000 A.B. (note that is not a typo) where the afflicted men scourge the land of vampire women to please the Lord Bathor (a name they must say ten thousand times in this film).

Don't F*** in the Woods (2016)

 

I don't necessarily want them to put the slasher genre to rest, but at least come up with something new. I feel like Wes Craven fucked everything up by making the genre so self-referential.  What followed was an endless parade of self-conscious slasher films.  This movie thankfully forgoes the self-awareness, but adds nothing whatsoever to the genre except for a title which is basically click-bait for streaming sites. 

Blood Scarab (2008)

 

Glut was a successful writer for cartoons (Go-Bots, Transformers, Spider-Man) for decades. He even penned some episodes of seventies favorites such as Land of the Lost, The New Shmoo, Shazam! and Dynomutt. Glut also wrote the Empire Strikes Back novelization, a ton of comic books (including Vampirella) - and in the 2000s he started writing/directing erotic horror films which captured the Famous Monsters of Filmland he'd been a fan of forever.  Glut's other horror erotica:The Mummy's Kiss (2003) Erotic Rites of Countess Dracula (2001), Countess Dracula's Orgy of Blood (2004), and Blood Scarab (2008), 

Bag Boy Lover Boy (2014)

 

I had no idea there were so many movies about photographers who are serial killers.  My god, just look at the Killer Photographer label, and you'll see how many VZ1 movies contain this trope.  Ridiculous... but it's getting to the point where we've covered so many, we might as well try and see them all!

This Old Woman is a Beast (1992)

 

(Original Title: Esta vieja es una fiera) It's been a while since we looked at a Mexican comedy, and I'm anxious to get back to our old friends Alfonso Zayas, Maribel "La Pelangocha" Fernández, Gioconda, Victor Manuel Castro, et al. It's a later comedy, so things have been toned down a bit since the eighties which served up one randy punch after another.

Deadly Punkettes (2014)

 

Sort-of a Josie & the Pussycats with a ghost story tacked on at the end.  From Jared Masters who gave us the refreshingly revolting Slink (2013).