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1973

[BD Review] ‘Sweet Kill’ is a Disappointing Sleaze Flick

Movies
Posted by David Harley on November 11, 2012 @ 4:38pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Reviewed by Patrick Cooper

Eddie Collins is one handsome-ass gym teacher. The ladies find him irresistible and his male students come to him for relationship advice. But Eddie is harboring some deep mommy issues – ones that cripple his dick and force his rage to boil over. When a woman comes onto him too strong, he flips out and runs away. The only way he can get his rocks off is by hiring a prostitute to dress up like his mother. During one sexual excursion with a woman, Eddie accidentally kills her. This act gets Eddie a little stiff in the trousers and low and behold, he’s discovered another way to get off.

And that’s about it. Written and directed by future Oscar-winner Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), Sweet Kill is a lesser release in Shout! Factory’s “Roger Corman’s Cult Classics” DVD series. Besides the novelty of it being Hanson’s first film, I have no idea why they even bothered to release it. It’s not a very good movie and doesn’t display any of the craft Hanson later developed. It clunks from one scene to the next with no heightened suspense or even a hint of drama. 1950′s hunk Tab Hunter is appropriately creepy as Eddie, but his bursts of sexual frustration comes off as unintentional comedy most of the time. The rest of the cast is altogether unremarkable.

There are some fun scenes in the beginning with Eddie creeping around women’s apartments, sniffing panties and hiding behind curtains (his sneakers poke out the bottom – classic!). These scenes suggest he’s a full-blown prowling pervert, but this early deviant activity is ignored later in favor of his mommy issues. We never really get a good grasp on what the hell is wrong with this guy.

Sex scenes are drawn out and boring. After it was poorly received in theaters, Corman asked Hanson to go back and shoot some more sex scenes and edit them in. Then Corman re-released the film under the names A Kiss from Eddie and The Arousers, tricking suckers into seeing it again. In Hanson’s original script, the killer was a woman, but Corman made him change that too. The man is a groundbreaking producer, no doubt, but sometimes questionable as an artist.

The transfer is absolute garbage. It’s presented in fullscreen, but is a widescreen movie. Some scenes are so dark they’re nearly completely black. There are scratches and marks consistently throughout the entire film and overall it just looks shitty. This is really sub-par for a Shout! Factory release. They usually crap out these Corman releases with no supplements, so no surprise there, but this one looks particularly crappy.

This one is definitely for Corman completists only. I think even fans of ‘70s sleaze flicks will be disappointed with Sweet Kill.

[BD Review] ‘Female Vampire’ Kind Of… Bites

Movies
Posted by David Harley on October 27, 2012 @ 12:10pm
Category: Movies / Reviews

Reviewed by Patrick Cooper

The folks at Kino and Redemption Films have been showing the maestro of soft-core sleaze Jess Franco some love on Blu-ray lately. They released a humble disc of his 1975 sadomasochist horror film Exorcism with no features besides the alternate cut (Demoniac). For his 1973 film Female Vampire, they’ve included some special features as well as the less-explicit alternate cut. It’s a nice package for his fans, but the film itself suffers from the drawbacks of nearly every Franco film.

The filmmaker’s muse and late wife Lina Romay stars as the Countess Irina Karlstein, a mute woman who lives with her family’s curse of having to drink bodily fluids to survive. Not blood, cum. Both male and female. She feeds by going down on her victims and once they orgasm she drains them of their fluids and they die. It’s not explained how this kills them, but this isn’t the type of film to sweat over details.

The Countess returns to her ancestral home on the Portuguese island of Madeira, making the locals wary and the men horny. There she lurks around all sexy like, usually with just a cape and boots on, engaging in sexual relations with men and women alike. She finishes them off in more ways than one, if ya catch my drift. She even has a dopey assistant who lures victims to her home. That’s really about it as far as the story goes. There is a weak sub-plot thrown in concerning a writer (Jack Taylor) who falls in love with the Countess, but that flaccid emotional story quickly finds its boner and devolves into a round of deadly oral sex.

The erotic scenes in Female Vampire are excruciatingly long and make up about the first hour of this 100-minute movie. There’s one solo scene with Lina where she’s writhing around on a bed for something like seven minutes. This is after she performs fellatio on the bedpost. Franco films these scenes very clumsily. He erratically zooms-in on crotches and butts like he just hit puberty. As sexy as Lina is, these scenes are nothing but tedious.

Luckily Redemption has included the 70-minute cut of the film, titled Erotikill. This version cuts out much of the sex in exchange for more violence. This version also seems to imply that Countess Karlstein feeds on blood like a normal ass vampire.

For Franco fetishists, this disc is a must-have. It’s a well-made package with some brief, but well-produced features. For those unfamiliar with Franco, you might want to check this out via your preferred method of rental.

A/V

Redemption Films presents Female Vampire in 1080p from a print containing an abundance of scratches, specks, and sporadic brightness fluctuations. No digital tampering has been done, which honestly may have weakened the film’s foggy, natural look. There are audio tracks in English and French, both in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The English dubbing sounds silly, so I recommend watching it in French with English subtitles.

Special Features

Erotikill – a 70-minute, less explicit cut of the film.

Destiny in Soft Focus: Jess Franco Remembers Female Vampire (13:00) – Franco reminisces on the film and his relationship with Lina.

Words for Lina (13:00) – a nice tribute by co-star Jean-Pierre Bouyxou. He tells some anecdotes about Lina, always stressing how great her sense of humor was. He calls her a “guttersnipe.”

Trailers for Franco’s Exorcism, The Nude Vampire, The Rape of the Vampire, Female Vampire, and Requiem for a Vampire.

The Exorcist

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on December 26, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist marries three different scenarios into one extraordinary plot. A visiting actress in Washington, D.C., notices dramatic and dangerous changes in the behavior and physical make-up of her 12-year-old daughter. Meanwhile, a young priest at nearby Georgetown University begins to doubt his faith while dealing with his mother’s terminal sickness. And, book-ending the story, a frail, elderly priest recognizes the necessity for a show-down with an old demonic enemy.

Panic in the Trans-Siberian Train

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on December 03, 1973 @ 12:00am
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An English anthropologist has discovered a frozen monster in the frozen wastes of Manchuria which he believes may be the Missing Link. He brings the creature back to Europe aboard a trans-Siberian express, but during the trip the monster thaws out and starts to butcher the passengers one by one.

Woman with Half a Soul

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on December 01, 1973 @ 12:00am
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A man meets his wife every night–but only at night. Unknown to him, she was killed long before they were ever married. A servant discovers her secret and tries to arrange an exorcism before tragedy can strike

The House That Cried Murder

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 30, 1973 @ 12:00am
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The neurotic and newlywed Barbara (Robin Strasser) finds her husband (Arthur Roberts) in bed with his old flame Eva (Iva Jean Saraceni). Robin doesn’t get mad-she gets even. Using funds supplied by her wealthy daddy John Beal, the scorned bride turns Roberts and Saraceni’s love nest into a dungeon of horror.

The Sinful Dwarf

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 30, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Olaf and his mother run a boarding house and a white slavery ring. They also smuggle heroin to keep the addict girls happy so they do not try and escape. A young couple move into the house and the evil landlords take a liking to the female.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 23, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Little Richie Bridgestone (whose parents are divorced) goes to spend the weekend with his father at his secluded mountain cabin, and witnesses his father being attacked by ‘a creature’ that the boy recognizes as a werewolf. He spends the rest of the film trying to convince his mother, and his therapist that his father is now a werewolf.

Cheondong

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 21, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Poor Bo-ok is bought by Man-seok as a sex slave. In his home, she is mistreated by his three sisters. She comes to rely on a servant, Cheon-dong, as a shoulder to cry on, but Man-seok misunderstands the relationship and has Cheon-dong killed. He returns as an angry spirit to enact his revenge upon the family.

Dream City

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 15, 1973 @ 12:00am
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A married couple of artists move to a utopian town known for its absolute freedom, but behind the surface perversion and violence are spreading.

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 03, 1973 @ 12:00am
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In London in the 1970s, Scotland Yard police investigators think they have uncovered a case of vampirism. They call in an expert vampire researcher named Van Helsing (a descendant of the great vampire-hunter himself, no less) to help them put a stop to these hideous crimes. It becomes apparent that the culprit is Count Dracula himself, disguised as a reclusive property developer, but secretly plotting to unleash a fatal virus upon the world.

Fluch der schwarzen Schwestern, Der

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on October 16, 1973 @ 12:00am
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In this sleasy “erotic horror movie”, a young pretty virgin, Helga (Marie Forså) arrives at a castle in Germany. In the castle’s basement, naked women, led by a bitch called Wanda, perform rites with penis shaped candles, while bongos are heard on the soundtrack. People staying at the castle engage in softcore bonking sessions.

Badlands

Posted by David Harley on October 15, 1973 @ 6:55pm
Category:

Based on the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree of the 1958, in which a fifteen-year-old girl and her twenty-five-year-old boyfriend slaughtered her entire family and several others in the Dakota badlands.

Santo contra la magia negra

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on October 04, 1973 @ 12:00am
Category:

Santo is called by Interpol to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two scientists in Latin America. As soon as he starts his work, there is a failed attempt on his life by a strange voodoo girl, Dejanira…

Ceremonia sangrienta

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on September 10, 1973 @ 12:00am
Category:

The ageing Countess discovers that the blood of a maid can temporarily restore her youth and great beauty. She falls in love with a dashing young soldier but is compelled to kill again and again to maintain her attractiveness and prevent the secret getting out.

Beyond Atlantis

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on August 31, 1973 @ 12:00am
Category:

A band of adventurers invade a native island determined to grab a reported fortune in buried treasure. The islanders are just as determined to keep their sacred treasure. Complications ensue.

Death Ward #13

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on August 31, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Nurse Charlotte Beale arrives at the isolated Stephens Sanitarium to work, only to learn that Dr. Stephens was murdered by one of the patients and his successor, Dr. Geraldine Masters, is not very eager to take on new staff. Charlotte finds her job maddeningly hard as the patients torment and harass her at every turn, and she soon learns why Dr. Masters is so eager to keep outsiders out.

The Castle of Mummies of Guanajuato

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on August 30, 1973 @ 12:00am
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A trio of masked Mexican wrestlers take on a mad scientist, killer dwarfs, and a horde of re-animated mummies in Guanajuato.

Clockwork Terror

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on August 22, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Set in the future, the story follows a nurse who tries to bring her own style of relief to people condemned to die. Her identity is a mystery and she may not be quite what she seems.

Wonnyeo

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on August 14, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Bo-hyeon’s spirit cannot ascend into the afterlife because she died unmarried. Her nanny, also deceased, tries to intercede and arranges a soul-marriage with a living man named Jeong. Jeong, however, is having serious problems with a corrupt village magistrate who is out to discredit Jeong’s family.

Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y el Hombre Lobo

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on July 26, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Jorobado de la Morgue, El

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on July 13, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Paul Naschy plays a hunchback with below average intelligence who works at the morgue. He is in love with a sickly girl who happens to be the only person who is kind to him. Each day he brings her flowers until the day she dies. He never really accepts her death and believes she is just sleeping. The girl eventually ends up at the morgue where she is being prepared for burial. Naschy’s character flips out at the desecration of the girls body and stabs and decapitates the men in the only scene of gore in the movie. The police begin to look for him. This is when the Hunchback meets up with a mad scientist who’s work isn’t accepted by the general society. The scientist promises the Hunchback that he would re-animate the girl’s body if the Hunchback brings him fresh bodyparts from the graveyard and live victims. He uses the parts to create a monster.

Death Smiles on a Murderer

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on July 11, 1973 @ 12:00am
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A man discovers an ancient Incan formula for raising the dead, and uses it for a series of revenge murders.

Encounter with the Unknown

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on July 01, 1973 @ 12:00am
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Three eerie tales based on actual events are enacted in this film. First, three college students play a prank on a geeky classmate, who is accidentally shot and killed. His vengeful mother forecasts the deaths of the three young men she holds responsible, on 7, 14, and 21 days hence. And, one by one, her grim predictions come true. Next, a ghoulish sound emanates from a mist-shrouded hole in the Earth near where a Missouri boy has lost his dog. The boy’s father is lowered into the hole and lets out an agonizing scream! Finally, a senator returning home from a party finds a lost girl on a bridge and learns from her father that she died years earlier!

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