2007: The Year Exploitation Movies Broke, Again?

As if Grindhouse weren't enough to look forward to in 2007, I stumbled across this most exciting news blurb while reading the Fangoria post posted by Dante that inspired our last blog entry. Normally I'm not really in favor of re-making classic films that don't need to be re-made but even I can't wait to see what this dude does with The Wizard Of Gore; the fact that Crispin Glover plays Montag is the goopy, congealed icing on this surely bloody cake.

Speaking of HG Lewis - which is always a good thing, right? - the other day I was looking through the Kommandant's mighty vinyl archive and I was surprised to stumble across this Blood Feast / Two Thousand Maniacs soundtrack LP. (Pictured at right.)

You might be surprised to think that after 11 years of marriage I would find anything surprising in my husband's many collection(s); but if you have a spouse like mine - you know, the kind of spouse who regularly frequents record bins at flea markets & thrift stores and / or who has many collections - maybe you wouldn't. By the way, I suppose it's technically my vinyl archive as well; since we're married and all. Plus all of the vinyl records I came into the marriage with are filed in somewhere amongst the many stacks. But I don't know… much like the kitchen, this area of the house kind of seems to be mostly his domain to me, as he spends the most time and effort stocking and tending to it. I do frequent both areas for recreational purposes though. (PS: don't worry about me; I've got my own areas of the house.)

Of course, after unearthing it I had to listen to it. And, as one might imagine, it was pretty awesome, and hilarious, and awesomely hilarious. Fortunately for those of you who are not married to a person with a vinyl fetish, someone (whoever owns Birdman Records I guess) had the forethought to put this stuff on what appears to be an easily accessible CD, The Eye Popping Sounds of Herschell Gordon Lewis, which features all of the tracks from the LP plus a selection of other assorted musical gems from other assorted HG Lewis movie gems like She Devils On Wheels and Suburban Roulette. Interested parties can check out some samples of this fine release here.

The Grindhouse vs. The Underground

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm starting to get a little excited about the prospect of this upcoming Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino venture, Grindhouse. As some of you may know, I have a bit of a love / hate thing - and, sometimes just a hate / hate thing - with ol' QT but this film very well might be enough to bring me over to the dark side. If you haven't heard about the film(s), check out this article from today's New York Times.

While perusing said article I also learned the IFC channel has been showing some sort of series of "grindhouse" films, as part of their aptly named Grindhouse series, Friday nights at midnight. Of course, Comcast doesn't carry the IFC channel so we can't watch it - oddly enough, I even had trouble loading the IFC's website - but if your carrier does, check it out & let me know what I'm missing.

I'm assuming this is IFC's answer to The Underground, TCM's Friday night B-Movie series hosted by part-time rocker, part-time movie maker, full-time sexy bitch Rob Zombie. And before we totally get off the topic of Grindhouse, the movie, according to Fangoria Mr. Zombie's contribution is what looks to be an awesome trailer for a movie that will sadly never, ever be made (unless Grindhouse does really, really, well), Werewolf Women Of The SS. Thanks to Dante @ Exploitation Retrospect for blogging about this, and therefore alerting me to it's existence.

Anywhoo, Comcast does carry TCM and I have to admit, the Kommandant & I often find ourselves in bed with the TV on around 2 AM on a Friday night, so we've caught a few of their offerings and can attest, they've shown some good stuff on there. Many of these fine films have been reviewed on our own humble website; The Fall Of The House Of Usher, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Mudhoney and Wild Guitar, to name a few. This past Friday night they even went so far as to dare show two of the Kommandant's favorite so-bad-they're-"good" films, the mind numbing double feature of Billy The Kid Versus Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter; the latter of which also has the distinction of being dubbed "The Worst Film Of All Time" by BMB / c14 contributor Peter Santa Maria.

Via this series we've also caught a couple of flicks we'd always wanted to see but never actually got around to seeing, like The Conqueror Worm and The Honeymoon Killers. (Both highly recommended.) I think The Underground is on a hiatus of sorts during the month of February (in lieu of the channel's 31 Days Of Oscar programming) but returns on March 9th with I Bury The Living.

From spider babies to switchblade sisters; new this week at the buffet…

As promised in our last update / blog post, this week we are pleased to present the first official peek at the contents of carbon 14 #29, our salute exploitation auteur Jack Hill, So Hard To Kill, So Easy To Love. We'll be very, very pleased when the issue is actually back from the printer and out in the mail, but that's not gonna happen for another few weeks. Anywhoo, on behalf of myself & the Kommandant - enjoy!

Cheerleaders, satanic and swinging; new this week at the buffet…

Last week the BMB "staff" was saddened to hear of the passing of Yvonne De Carlo; best known to us, and most of the world, as Lily Munster of TV's The Munsters. With this in mind I decided to honor her memory by watching (and writing a review of) the first movie that always pops into my head whenever I think of movies featuring Yvonne De Carlo, aside from Munster, Go Home, Satan's Cheerleaders.

Also new to the menu this week we have another, decidedly different, take on the pom-pom genre, The Swinging Cheerleaders; directed by none other than Jack Hill. This review was originally due to appear in the next issue of carbon 14, as part of our salute to the cinematic genius of Jack Hill, but it wouldn't fit. Plus, in all honesty, I didn't think the movie - unlike so many of his other films - had much cinematic genius to it. On the other hand, I hate to see a review go to waste. Speaking of c14, tune in next week for the full column, AKA the first official peek at the contents of #29.

Hustlers, Riders and Mob-ettes; new this week at the buffet…

It is now the second week of January 2007 and, as promised in our last posting, we are back from our brief holiday hiatus and ready to resume our regular schedule of regularly scheduled updates. So let's dig in, shall we?

First join the Kommandant for a nonsensical double feature of '70s sleaze that'll take us from the jungles of the Philippines, where we'll get hustled by the ladies of the Hustler Squad, to the hills of California where we'll be taken for a ride by a pair of ruthless, sadistic, jive talking Wild Riders.

Then join me as we head off to an undisclosed location and get saddled up to cruise alongside an unusually manicured group of hog straddling female animals on the prowl, The Mini-Skirt Mob.