Invasion of the Bee Girls

1973

★★★ Watched

Amusing mix of pastiche and legitimate sleaze that only loses it's step in a less humorous back half. Yet what that section lacks in chuckles it makes up for in honest to God artful oddness. William Smith is an undervalued treasure. [35mm]

Cannibal Ferox

1981

★★★½ Rewatched

"You get off on ecology...eh, you twat?"

Possibly the meanest in a subgenre of already sadistic son of a bitch motion pictures. Crammed with animal torture, rib-poking racism and ending on an ironic note that makes you think you just endured the world's worst practical joke, it's Italian exploitation to the bone. But Lenzi's disco fuck you alternative to Deodato's soaring fatalism is so competently cruel, it's hard not to ire the picture's commitment to completely creeping you out.

The Last Match

1990

½ Watched

The Super Bowl of boredom.

Blood Games

1990

★★½ Watched

"Don't let her knockers hypnotize ya!" -- George "Buck" Flower

Out of time rednecksploitation transmission that is shockingly competent and gets meaner as it goes along. Sweaty centerfolds beat up their mountain men attackers while trying to avoid weirdly spliced reaction shots. Not so much rape/revenge as the rapists are actually avenging one of their own, resulting in idiosyncratic survival horror. [35mm]

Skatetown, U.S.A.

1979

★★★ Watched

Horshack wears a studded dog collar. Swayze intimidates a crowd by taking off his belt. Marsha Brady does a bunch of coke. Flip Wilson plays Flip Wilson. There's a DJ who shoots magic lightning from his fingertips. All while on roller skates. [35mm]

The Six Thousand Dollar Nigger

1979

★★★½ Watched

"I used to make my living making love to white women."

China Girl

1987

★★★★½ Rewatched

Ferrara's best looking film outside of KING OF NEW YORK. When he blends the heightened with his street level eye for unique interior texture, it adds a layer of chic grunge funhouse that sets his pictures apart from their 80s exploitation brethren. The blues and blacks are so cold, punctuated by fire, blinking flashes of orange and red. Canal Street Shakespeare.

Penitentiary

1979

★★★★ Watched

Seldom Seen is such a great character. The rest is amazing, too. But Seldom Seen is my favorite part of this near perfect piece of exploitation. [35mm]

Massacre Mafia Style

1974

★★★★★ Rewatched

Gross. Insane. Super violent. Crudely constructed. Brimming with a unique world perspective. This is the best kind of outsider art.

Roar

1981

★★★★ Rewatched

You should all be fucking dead.

Punk Vacation

1987

★★½ Watched

“I don’t think this is the time to discuss racial stereotypes in the media!”

The Doll Squad

1973

★★★★ Rewatched

It feels kinda radical to make the FOX FORCE FIVE movie the same year we saw the third iteration of Bond. Bravo Ted Mikels.