Williamson’s Trek to Nowhere. Death Journey review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

In the midst of my own journey as I move north to face new challenges (and to move in with my fiance), I find the time in this busy futuristic lifestyle of packed boxes and neglected rest to sit and watch Fred Williamson’s 1976 Death Journey released by Code Red DVD.  I adore Code Red; their fans get what they ask for as Code Red’s ears are surely open and ready to receive the intake of rare and outrageous selections.  However, Death Journey marks my very first concern for the DVD label as I’m not sure what pinpoints to be very unique of this example of blaxploitation besides being very bland.

When two New York City lawyers fear their case against a crime lord will die with the rest of their murdered witnesses, they hire Jesse Crowder, a former cop whose mercenary tactics are undesirable but effective.  His $50,000 mission is to escort Finley, a former account of the crime lord, across the country to testify, but at every turn, trouble lies and waits for Jesse and Finley.

Watching Death Journey was painful.  I hate to admit that, but the truth must be told.  Being exposed to various convoluted stories, my mind has become a complex web of complexities.  This back-to-back sequel to No Way Back, also released in 1976, bares a simple-minded story and executed in a simple-minded way.  Pointless exposition describing their every action boggles down the flow of the plot and the obviously bad choreographed fight scenes reveal the faux blows, the dimwitted edited and the placing of the shot directly on a downed villain to show that he has been knocked out by Crowder’s martial arts skills.

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Dig the Evil out of your Ears! Scream of the Banshee review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Lauren Holly.  Oh, sweet Lauren Holly.  My, my how have you tripped and stooped to such films that are way under your more gifted talents (or assets for that matter).  From your Turbulence flight of terror to your sweet, Angel Boris lookalike sweet piece of round booty in Dumb and Dumber to your short-lived stint of empowering women roles in NCIS and, now, you’ve dropped to so called “originals” presented by the After Dark collection.  Whats next, Lauren Holly?  Will we see you next on Soap Operas and Nickelodeon shows?  Scream of the Banshee, part of After Dark collection, should be considered as a Nickelodeon TV show!

A university professor and her understudies are sent a mysterious package with no return address.  The contents of the box are that of a gauntlet, a suited metal armor that covers the forearm and hand.  A note with the gauntlet directs them to Section 3 where a box has been hidden behind a deteriorating wall.  The professor uses the gauntlet to open the box releasing a ear-piercing, blood thirsty terror that will haunt them and kill them if they so much as scream!

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Homeless Bum vs Evil! Hobo With A Shotgun review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Just last night I was sparing with one of my editors for another review horror website about meaning behind the term “grindhouse.”  My editor believes that no such word should exist and the entire meaning behind the term is just a loo to generate business for studios looking to recapture a 70’s ultra-violent culture with in a cinema medium.  Whereas I believe the sleazy retro-fierce genre still lives and breathes today, spanning over 40 years.  Every genre goes dormant for some time; the zombie genre went dormant all through the nineties before making a ridiculous comeback at the turn of the millennium.  Whether me or my editor is right or wrong, the facts are undeniable that violent, exploitive and gruesome movies are still being produced today and being labeled a “grindhouse” film is still up for debatable grabs.  Hobo with a Shotgun is one of those violent, exploitive and gruesome films made in modern day.

A traveling hobo rides the rail into a wretched town filled with homeless exploiters, pedophile Santas, disrespectful murderous punks and a crime lord named The Drake and his two merciless sons Ivan and Slick.  All the Hobo wanted was peace and to gain enough money to buy himself a lawn motor from the local pawn shop  Instead, the town got to him pushing him over the edge causing him to buy a single barrel, pump-action justice delivering shotgun!  Even if you jay-walked, the Hobo took vigilantism one shell at a time.

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Darabont’s TV Evil! Buried Alive review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

Being a nostalgia fiend has some advantages.  I’m not just rehashing old material you’ve probably seen or read a billion times before, spewing the muck and bile that’s been regurgitated and swallowed down again only to be regurgitated once more.  Hardly do you see another, run-of-the-mill review about Scream, Friday the 13 VIII: Jason Takes Manhatten or Bride of Chucky.  Most horror fans are familiar with the bodies of these works; my realm of interest scratches at the indie circuit and those lesser known films that, perhaps, folks are aware of but never seen, or have witnessed them in the past and their minds can’t piece together what that film was in the present.  The latter happened to me with an old Frank Darabont TV movie Buried Alive.  You know Darabont, right?  He only did some of the most prolific work of the last decade and half adapting works from Stephen King and kicking off the hit AMC TV show The Walking Dead!

Clint Goodman lives a humble town with his high maintenance wife Joanna.  Her love for Clint has been long gone ever since he constructed, what he thought, was their two story dream home in his home town.  Joanna strings along an affair with a city doctor; they plot to kill Clint with a fish secretion that causes a fatal heart attack.  When Joanna pulls off the caper, she collects what she thinks is her dues:  sells the house, sells the business and is ready to leave town to start her new life.  However, Clint awakens.  Trapped inside his own coffin, he manages dig himself out, discover Joanna’s dastardly doings and plans his own revenge against his wife and her lover.

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Werewolf evil? More like Puppy Love! Face of the Screaming Werewolf review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on

My mindset on vintage horror flicks goes a little something like this – they’re without a shadow of a doubt all classics.  There will be always be films that are more popular and stand out more than other black and white labeled pioneers of earlier film-hood, but the question begs, have you’ve ever seen a horrible horror movie from the Lon Chaney Jr. or Boris Karloff days?  Before tonight, I can honestly say no.  Then, I had to go and watch Cheezy Flicks version of Face of the Screaming Werewolf starring Lon Chaney Jr. and was directed by three directors.  Remember what I’ve always said about having multiple directors – the shit never works!

Dr. Redding and his team use hypnosis on a Cali girl named Ann Taylor in discovering ancient forms of life in the Yucatan pyramids.  When him and his team go exploring through the deep dark tunnels of the ruins, a living-ish breathing-ish mummy attacks them, but falls when the team fights back.  They also discover a more modern individual also mummified for unknown reasons.  Dr. Redding takes both mummified subjects back to America, but is soon killed and the modern mummy is stolen when Redding attempts to showcase his finds.  When the modern man is revived by a bolt of lightning (Frankenstein reference anyone?), his uncanny secret of being a werewolf is revealed when the full moon just happens to be out at the same time as his revival.  The werewolf and the mummy are both reanimated and walk the city, stalking and killing innocent folk.  Who will stop them?  Hell if I know.

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