SEXINA (2007) (Wild Eye DVD Review)

SEXINA (2007) 

Label: Wild Eye Releasing

Region Code: Region Free

Duration: 90 Minutes

Rating: Unrated
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 
Director: Erik Sharkey

Cast: Adam West, Annie Golden, Lauren D'Avella, Davy Jones, Allyn Rachel, Peter Stickles

In director Erik Sharkey's private eye/pop music parody Sexina (2007) we have popstar Sexina (Lauren D'Avella) who moonlights as an Los Angeles private eye, she's currently investigating the disappearance of Professor Van Bunson, a rock star turned scientist (Cash Tilton). The plot involves a mad record mogul intent on creating an army of robotic boy bands to top the charts, said record mogul is played by none other than the legendary Adam West of the camp-drenched 60's Batman TV series, which makes him the perfect villain for this camp-drenched slice of nonsense. West proves he's a fun guy with a sense of humor just by agreeing to appear in this movie, though he mostly appears in voice over and lone scenes, a fun behind-the-scenes extras shows him doing his lines in a recording studio, it's very much a Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget sort of role. 

There's a few the subplots at plays aside from the missing scientist, we have Sexina in competition with another popstar, the womanizer douche-nozzle Lance Canyon (Luis Jose Lopez), and the story about an overweight teen's struggle in highschool with body shamers, which doesn't really align with the main feature until the finale, sewn into the storyline through an essay writing contest.  

Lauren D'Avella is fun as sexina, clearly parodying the early teen-star career of Britney Spears, showing off some ample cleavage and wearing skin-hugging body suits with some campy fight sequences - the highlight for me being when a man in a bear-suit attacks one of Sexina's witnesses from out of nowhere! This is all a light-hearted romp, it's hard to hate it because it's just so silly, even though the humor often falls flat, the dialogue is beyond cheesy, and the music is corny - the damn thing even has a Bond-esque theme song sung by Davy Jones of The Monkees fame! 

Special Features: 

- Davy Jones Sings Sexina (5 Minutes) 

- Bloopers and Outtakes (3 min) 

- Deleted Scene (2 min) 

- Behind The Scenes Footage (5 min) 

- Chris Carter plays The Blues (7 min) 

- Trailers (7 min) 

I didn't love it, and I didn't loathe it, the flick has a cheesy z-grade charm that comes through while spoofing on boy bands and pop stars, it just wasn't for me, coming across as an episode of Nickelodeon's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody by way of a CW teen sitcom - if that sounds like something you might enjoy then have it. Interestingly director Erik Sharkey also directed Drew: The Man Behind the Poster (2013) documentary about legendary poster artists  Drew Struzan, and the 2016 documentary Floyd Norman: An Animated Life about the first African-American animator at Disney, so the guy is multi-talented, and multi-faceted, but let's just say I prefer the guys documentaries over this camp-comedy.   

'THE CONTROL GROUP' Begins Its Fiendish Experiments on VOD, Digital HD and DVD from Wild Eye Releasing

THE CONTROL GROUP (2017)  Wild Eye Releasing has announced the North American Cable and Digital HD release of Peter Hurd's The Control Group. Starring Brad Dourif (Child's Play, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Lord of the Rings) as a mad scientist, The Control Group follows kidnapped coeds as they attempt to escape from his grasp. Writer-director Peter Hurd's debut feature is now available on cable and digital platforms, including iTunes, Dish Network, Vudu, Xbox, Google Play, and YouTube. A DVD release is planned for May. Five college students wake up in an abandoned, locked-down insane asylum - with no idea how they got there and no means of escape. They discover that they are the subjects of secret experiments, but these tests have awakened something that cannot be explained by science. The group must now fight to escape both the human and supernatural threats if they are to survive and break out of their prison. The Control Group (Official Trailer) Screenshots

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE (2014) (DVD Review)

ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE (2014) 

Label: Wild Eye Releasing 
Region Code: ALL
Duration: 92 Minutes
Rating: Unrated 
Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 
Director: Jeremy Garner
Cast: Ehren 'Danger' Mcghehey, Casey Vann, Nick Forrest, Sarah Kobel, Mike Bazanele, Todd A. Robinson, Tommy Hestmark

Synopsis: A story of love, leather ... and brutal violence! When the Satan's Sinners, a vicious biker gang, attack a bride and groom on their wedding day, they get a fight they never imagined. Now, armed with some divine intervention and firepower, the murdered groom is out to save his wife any way he can before she is sacrificed to Satan... even if it means dying over and over again until the job is done.

All Hell Breaks Loose begins like a traditional slasher movie with drunken and horny teens around a campfire sharing a tale of a sodomizing spirit when the a group of rough looking bikers roll up on the party and make quick work of the men in the group before kidnapping the young women. The bikers are members of the Satanic Sinners, a demonic group of murderous thugs looking for virgins to sacrifice in a satanic ritual. Unfortunate newlywed couple Nick and Bobby sue are the next to encounter the deranged bikers, who leave Nich for dead and make off with his virgin bride. 

While Nick is bleeding to death on the side of the road after the encounter a whites-suited cowboy comes along and resurrects him, apparently this is God, and he resurrects the dorky dude with the flick of his cigar. Nick enlists the help of a local Sheriff to go after the gang, and the two are gunned down in a bloody mess, poor Nick is but a puddle of goo after the encounter. With the help of a a pervy priest he is once again resurrected and goes after the gang, who are a bit surprised by the tenacity of the dweebie-guy who refuses to give up. 

All Hell Breaks Loose is a ton of low-budget fun, a humorous take on the seedy biker and satanic panic movies of the '70's amped up with an appreciable amount of gore and laughs that is sure to please exploitation cinema fans. The movie has the scratched-up patina that these modern grindhouse movies seem to love, and while it does raw attention to itself more than it should I do love the aesthetic of the movie, though the scratched-up film print stuff can be annoying. 

The movie does not disappoint in the gore and violence department, some of it is digital blood splatter and such, but there is also a fair amount of old school rubber and blood, more than enough to make me happy. A nice array of exploding heads, severed fingers, melted visages keep things good and gory throughout. The acting is amateur but appropriate for a movie that is aping classic schlock and exploitation cinema, the dialogue is way funny, too. The gang members all act tough, spout of tasty one-liners, and laugh maniacally from start to finish, there's no depth to any of them and I am just fine with that, there's also one who fancies himself as a bit of an Elvis impersonator, which is always fun.  Nick Forrest as our dweeby hero turns in a fun performance as the dorky revenger, The pervy priest is awesome, praying for big-titty women to join his flock, comparing AIDS to gluten-allergies, which is all sorts of wrong and awesome. 

Special Features: 
- Director's Commentary 
- Deleted Scenes (2 Mins) 
- Trailer (2 Mins) 

All Hell Breaks Loose was a demonic biker blast loaded with gore, nudity and humor -- what else do you need? A high recommend for those who love '70s exploitation cinema and low-budget horror production, I hope this one finds an audience on home video who can appreciate how much rockin' fun it is - well worth a watch. 3/5 

 

A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT (2013)

A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT (2013) 

Label: Wild Eye Releasing
Region Code: Region-FREE
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 80 Minutes 
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo 
Video: Anamorphc Widescreen 
Director: Benjamin Roberts
Cast: David Chandler, Max Moody, Eve Boehenke, Kaylee Bridge, George McDonald, Mandy Riley 

It is damn rare that I open up a bubble-wrap package and come face to face with  a zombie movie that I am honestly excited to tear into. I am not saying that they're all awful, just that the really good ones which do something different are few and far between. Wild Eye Releasing's release of A Plague So Pleasant sort of caught my attention on just the name alone, but even that stopped me from sitting on it for a week or so before I peeled off the shrink wrap and gave it a watch. With very low expectations I popped it into the player and was drawn in right from the start. It begins as a slightly art school black and white movie centered around a young man named Clay, his strangely persuasive roommate, and Clay's sister Mia. The roommate has a thing for Mia and somehow convinces Clay to put in a good word for him with her, but poor Mia is hung-up on her ex boyfriend... who just so happens to be a zombie. 

In this version of the world zombies are a certain reality, it s established that there was a short-lived zombie apocalypse which lasted all of twelve hours. In the aftermath zombies have become a protected species of sorts, allowed to roam free through the streets and cities or protected in large fenced-in reservations. It is now illegal to kill a zombie, they're more a nuisance than a threat to the living, causing traffic issues not unlike a herd of cows who have escaped the pasture and are blocking the road, only we have shambling Romero-styled zombies instead of heffers. 

We have some strange narration by way of Clay and his roommate, the movie has a sort of Richard Linklatter Slacker (1991) vibe about it at first, offbeat, lo-fi and spunky. Through some poor decision making the zombies are provoked and in an instant the black and white turns to vibrant color and the shambling zombies turn into the Dawn of the Dead remake styled runners out for blood and guts, and our protagonist Clay is the reason why. 

It might not be a classic in the making or even have any sort of cult-classic prospects but at least this slice of zombie cinema offers something a little different and marches to it's own drummer, which I sort of loved, even if I don't see myself re watching it anytime soon, I admired the originality and spunk of the filmmakers. 

A Plague So Pleasant (2013) might have some pacing issues, and some low-budget movie making constraints but it never did lose my attention from the beginning right up to the end, which for a contemporary zombie movie is actually pretty damn special. 2.5/5 

 

A PLAGUE SO PLEASANT Spreads the Infection on September 29th

Wild Eye Releasing has announced a date change for their latest cinematic epidemic. A Plague So Pleasant will now infect home entertainment systems beginning September 29th. A more dangerous strain than recent efforts, the film has been hailed by undead aficionados as "a miraculous accomplishment" (Zombie Guide Magazine), "an Excellent, Original Zombie Movie" (ZMDB.com), and "so much better than the average straight to video zombie travesty" (The Rotting Zombie).

In the near future, zombies have become a protected, endangered species, held in captivity and legally wandering the streets free from harm by the living. But for the loved ones of those who die, sometimes coping is just too much to handle, especially when not everyone feels the dead have a right to exist, and are willing to break the law to rid the world of this new population of the dead.

A Plague So Pleasant (Official Trailer) 

PRESIDENT WOLFMAN NOW ON DVD from WILD EYE RELEASING

Anyone seen this one yet? This has about zero appeal for me but I do have a morbid curiosity. Wild Eye have won me over with a few pretty ridiculous concepts and this might just be crazy enough.. 

Film Festival Hit PRESIDENT WOLFMAN Available Now on DVD Wild Eye Releasing has announced that Mike Davis'President Wolfman is now available to own on DVD following a wildly successful festival run. Since its premiere at the Sydney Underground Film Festival, President Wolfman has been a favorite of audiences and critics alike, with the Huffington Post applauding the filmmakers for delivering "a candidate both parties can get behind." President Wolfman has won awards around the country, taking home Best Script at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival and Best Feature at both the Aliens to Zombies Film Festival and Atlanta Horror Film Festival.

Meet John Wolfman: politician, single parent and werewolf, a man whose (hairy) hands are definitely full. Not only is he trying to stop his opponents from selling the US to China, he also has to solve a series of grizzly murders in the capitol. Add a crazed mad scientist, Smokey the Bear, a Miss Teen beauty pageant and a race against time to save his eight-year-old son Bobby from a murderous Vice President, and you have a movie that will keep you howling from start to finish. Hailed as "perfect for fans of campy horror" by The Washington Post, President Wolfman was made entirely from recycled, stock and public domain footage with a newly scripted, scored and re-voiced soundtrack with enhanced visuals and effects. President Wolfman (Official Trailer) The DVD release of President Wolfman (SRP $14.95) exclusively includes several short films from director Mike Davis, outtakes, a music video and a highlight reel of the production.

THE PERFECT HOUSE (2012)

THE PERFECT HOUSE (2012) 

Label: Wild Eye Rel;easing 

Duration: 84 Minutes
Rating: Unrated 

Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo
Video: Widescreen
Director: Kris Hulbert, Randy Kent
Cast: Felissa Rose, Jonathan Tiersten, John Philbin, Monique Parent, Dustin Stevens, Andrea Vahl

Having just poured through the special features on the new  SLEEPAWAY CAMP Blu-ray I was drawn to this indie horror anthology by the inclusion of Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten who both starred in that camp horror classic and feature prominently in the interviews on the disc. 

What we have here are three short anthology stories with a wrap-around, a very traditional set-up for the format. The wrap-around segment REAL ESTATE features a young couple looking for a new home - they arrive at what appears to be the titular Perfect House and are greeted by a sultry real estate agent (adult film star Monique Parent) in a short skirt who shamelessly flirts with the husband making suggestive comments while laying on a bed - it's very strange. I kept thinking what would I do if I were n that situation - it would be so uncomfortable. The couple love the home but the real estate agent says that the basement is usually a deal breaker and leads the couple to the basement where she points out a few of the houses more peculiar features which leads us on a journey into the stories past and three tales of terror unfold. 

First up is THE STORM - a twisted tale of a family taking shelter in the basement during a powerful storm. The power is out and the basement is lit my a candle where a mother, father, brother and sister sit around a candle waiting out the storm which is howling away in the background. We start to see that this is not a happy group of kin and there are dark family secrets tearing this family apart - additionally there's something in the basement hacking them up one by one. This is a good start to the film that sets a tone in a settings that is effective with some brutal violence, it's nicely done but felt a bit too short - even for an anthology entry. 

Onto CHIC-KEN we have Jonathan Tiersten as John Doesy who abducts, tortures and kills young men and woman from his quiet neighborhood. Knocking them unconscious he keeps them in cages in his basement workshop where he dispatches them like clockwork except for one young woman (Holly Greene) whom has been kept captive for five years to bare witness to his depraved deeds and for the occasional rape release. Tiersten is tolerable as the sadist but the delivery of his monologues are so monotonous - what saved this for me was Greene as the captive who both antagonizes her captor and pleads for the release of death. Some decent low-rent gore including an eyelid peeling with this one but at the end of the day this women-in-cages slice of exploitation is pretty mediocre. 

The meat of the production is DINNER GUEST starring Felissa Rose (SLEEPAWAY CAMP) and Jonathan Philbin (THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD). A family of five are summoned to a neighbors house for a dinner when things turn ugly as the discussion turns to the return of his prized weed whacker which he loaned the father some time ago. Dinner quickly turns into each of the family members tied down and tortured by the man who bares a passing resemblance to Gunnar Hansen at times. Pretty much just a series of torture set pieces as he puts each f the family members through a series of life and death games. Felissa Rose shows some decent acting chops as the screaming/grieving mothers who must watch as her family is decimated before her eyes but can do little to stop the madness unfolding. A lot of violence and screaming but very little tension - with so little build-up or character development I find it hard to care about these characters. 

At the end the wrap-around concludes and there's a brief prologue that would indicate a dark force inhabiting the home that attracts a certain type of murderess home buyer which does little to sweeten by opinion of the film. 

There are a lot of dark subject matter explored but directors Kris Hulbert and Randy Kent don't handle it a bit too bluntly.  It just feels ham-fisted and thrown on screen without a lot of thought going into it and if the execution were just a bit more considered and measured each of these segments would have a deeper impact on me, but it doesn't and at the end of the day I was not impressed. 

It would be hard to properly judge the video quality as the screener sent for review as it was a non-anamorphic DVD-R with choppy video - my viewing felt like I watching a streaming video with a poor internet connection, it was a chore to sit through. No extras on the screeners but retail versions have a commentaries, interview, behind-the-scenes stuff and more.  

As a low budget production this is not awful but the material needed to be fleshed out more - the script needed another pass to maybe get a bit more meat out of it. If I were to evaluate the film based purely on the onscreen violence this would get decent marks but it only scratched the surface of what this could have been with a more thoughtful approach. 

THE PERFECT HOUSE Horror Anthology Coming to DVD with SLEEPAWAY CAMP's Felissa Rose & Jonathan Tiersten

'THE PERFECT HOUSE' 

Starring Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten

Coming to DVD July 22nd from Wild Eye Releasing

Wild Eye Releasing has announced that The Perfect House, the anthology horror film from Kris Hulbert and Randy Kent, will make its long-awaited DVD release on July 22nd. Starring Sleepaway Camp's Felissa Rose and Jonathan Tiersten and Return of the Living Dead's John Philbin, The Perfect House will finally be available to own after a multi-city theatrical tour and screenings at film festivals and horror events across the country.

The film has been hailed as a "love letter to classic and modern horror" (Just Press Play) and having "enough gore for ten movies" (Crosstalk New York). The Perfect House won awards at several fests, including Best Visual Effects and Best Actor at the Underdog Festival and Best Feature at the Scarlet Waters Film Fest.

The Perfect House is an anthology inspired by the styles of three of the most famous time periods and sub genres of horror. Each vignette reveals a dark side to suburban anonymity through three different homeowners of the same house. A young couple are now looking to buy the house, but the violent acts of the previous doomed occupants are reawakened for them to experience. Now they must escape or become part of the legacy of pain that lives in the basement, and possesses anyone who stays too long.

The Perfect House (Official DVD trailer) 

The DVD release of The Perfect House (SRP $14.95) will exclusively include over two hours of bonus features: behind the scenes featurettes, cast interviews, footage from the national theatrical tour, special effects featurettes, and footage and an alternate ending. 

DVD Review: SCREAM PARK (2014)

SCREAM PARK (2014) 

Label: Wild Eye Releasing

Region: 0 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 96 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 

Video: Anamorprhic Widescreen 

Director: Cary Hill

Cast: Doug Bradley, Nivek Ogre, Nicole Beattie, Kailey Marie Harris,

Scream Park (2014) is a low-budget slasher set at the Fright Land amusement park that's about to go belly-up due to poor ticket sales. We have a lot of the classic slasher tropes in place beginning with horny teens drinking and fucking and a semi-virginal final girl among the staff. On this night we have the teen staff and the creepy park manager in the process of shutting down the park when two masked maniacs arrive on scene and soon enough the blood begins to flow. 

The cast is a bit awkward but they do a decent job with the typical stereotypes you've come to expect from a slasher. We have the usual array of young ladies, a douche-nozzle jock, the dork and a punk-rocker straight outta Return of the Living Dead plus guest appearances from Doug Bradley (Hellraiser) and Ogre from the band Skinny Puppy. I never expect much from Bradley outside of his work as Pinhead and his his appearance is mercifully brief. Ogre has a more substantial role as one of the masked-killers and is quite a nasty piece of work who at one point bemuses how he enjoys it when victims struggle as it tightens-up a certain part of their anatomy. 

Of course we get some sex and nudity which I think is an absolute must with a slasher as are the death scenes, so let's talk about the kills. Unfortunately they are not fantastic, you can definitely feel the lack of a budget in the kill department. There's a decent amount of blood but not a lot of gore and the slashed throat scene is pretty awful. A few of the other deaths fare a bit better including a fun deep-fryer death, an ax to the skull and a disemboweling on the roller coaster but overall the deaths are just not spectacular.

A few stiff performances and lackluster deaths however do not completely destroy the slasher fun. Scream Park has some decent atmosphere and a great main theme. Having access to an actual amusement park adds a lot of production value to the film and there's some decent lighting throughout but you can see the low-budget struggles show up onscreen from time to time in addition to some audio issues but none of it destroys the film, the passion shines through with a decent story, setting and finale. 

If you can see past some of the budget shortcomings there's a lot to enjoy with Scream Park (2014), a micro-budgeted indie slasher with a vibe that channels The Funhouse (1981) by way of Intruder (1989). 3 Outta 5  

DVD Review: MURDER UNIVERSITY (2012)

MURDER UNIVERSITY (2012)

Label: Wild Eye Releasing

Region Code: 0 NTSC 

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Duratin: 96 Minutes

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 

Video: 16:9 Widescreen
Director: Richard Griffin

Cast: James Dufalt, Michael Thurber, Sammie Acampora, Nat Silva

Tagline: The Tuition Isn't All That Will Kill You.

Director Richard Griffin yet to disappoint  every film so far has been a blast, spanning the spectrum of genre films. We have the Lovecraftian horror Beyond the Dunwich Horror (2008), the nasty nunploitation Nun of That (2009), the 50's science fiction weirdness of Atomic Brain Invasion (2010) and kinky retro-70's possession shocker The Disco Exorcist (2011). every movie is peppered with cleverness and snappy dialogue, a  sweet abundance of nudity and a pleasing amount of gore. They're low budget but stylish with great lighting and production values, making them very easy on the eyes, not every low-budget horror flick can say that.

This time out Griffin sets his sights on the teen-slashers of the 1980's, a fun pre-credit sequence tells us it's 1983, two horny couples are exploring an abandoned home with a horrific past. They split up with the idea of engaging in some sexual activity when one of  'em hears a sound, a dopey guy with his erection runs off to see what's up and before you know it heads are being lopped off with an ax. We're off to a great start,  the blood is flowing and there's even a fun early twist. Cue an awesome retro-80's song and this head-rolling slasher is underway. 

Our main guy is an awkward freshman named Josh at Greensboro University, which is perhaps the most unsafe college campus ever. The place has been plagued by a series of ax murders for twenty years, the devil-masked murderer has yet been apprehended. It's not exactly a secret that there's an ax-wielding killer on the loose and it's only a matter of time until Josh is attacked, but he survives. In the aftermath he joins forces with a veteran police officer and his cute daughter, that's pretty much the short of the story.

Typical of a Griffin production we have no shortage of fun side characters, very odd teachers, hippies, a pervy roommate, a violent wasteoid, the hard-nosed detective and his cute daughter, none of which are explored very deeply but we do get a decent feel for Josh. In the absence of deeply written characters we some great comic dialogue.

Griffin and screenwriter Lenny Schwartz have a real gift for comedy and the cast deliver every line with a perfect deadpan, loved it. The music s great, a burping 80's synth score with shrieking stingers and droning atmosphere. There's also a cool 50's flashback scene featuring a trio performing a ditty about the pinko commie threat, sweet, followed by some sex, gore and humor in short order. Two horny teens are sexing each other up when the young man's throat slit, when the blood spurts onto her back she tersely asks "did you come already!?!" before noticing her lover is dead, fun stuff. 

The gore is plentiful with a lot of practical effects aided by some digital enhancements, numerous slit throats and  decapitations, the weapon of choice is an ax and while I didn't completely love the devil-masked design of the killers I did love the massive amounts of blood.

Richard Griffin's movies aesthetically are always pleasing, if Lamberto Bava (Demons) had shot the The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1981) it might have looked something  like what cinematographer Jill Poisson does here. Negatives, the ending didn't quite do it for me but there's no denying what an entertaining retro-slasher this is, easily recommended, 

Special Features:

- 2 Audio Commentaries

- Deleted Scenes (3:03) 

- Wild Eye Trailer Reel 

- Easter Egg (1:28) 

Verdict: Murder University (2012), is a fun retro-80's gore and sex slasher with just the right amount of humor. Richard Griffin is a definitely a director to watch out for, if you see his name on a film it's pretty much assured to be a b-movie keeper, kudos to Wild Eye Releasing for picking this one up. 
3.5 Outta 5 

DVD Review: RACE WAR: THE REMAKE (2012)

RACE WAR: THE REMAKE (2012)

Label: Wild Eye Releasing
Release Date: August 20th 2013
Region Code: 0 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 
Video: 16:9 Widescreen 
Director: Tom Martino 
Cast: Howard Calvert, Jamelle Kent, Danny McCarty, Matt Rogers, Corey Fuller, Joe Grisaffi
Tagline: Surprise, Surprise White Guys!

Wild Eye Releasing have been putting some fun sub-Troma atrocities for a few year's now, if you're familiar with their output you've got a leg up on the newbies which means you've either chosen to skip it or just embrace the no-budget schlock. In Tom Martino's Race War: The Remake (2012) Baking Soda (Howard Calvert) is a PCP-swilling drug dealer from the ghetto and when intergalactic drug dealers start turning his customers into zombies with their otherworldly space crack he and his pals G.E.D. (Jamelle Kent) and Da Black Kreacha arm up and fuck shit up!

What a strange movie, an offensive and splatteriffic slice of no-budget schlock filled to the brim with toilet humor, racism and insensitivity. It's not particularly clever in any sorta way, it's just crude in-your-face vulgarity with some gory practical effects, it's quite a bloody affair. The comedy is sophomoric, just a never-ending barrage of toilet humor and crude sexual behavior which wouldn't be so bad if the writing was a bit better, but it's pretty miserable.  

There's a nutty cast of ghetto-character that include about every awful racial stereotype you could imagine, the best part of the film by far was Baking Soda and the bizarre Da Black Kreacha whom make quite a duo, did I mention the cum-guzzling weirdo with a gallon of milk for a face?  

There's no shortage of grisly no-budget head trauma onscreen with gallons of blood spraying from gaping wounds and decapitations but to sit through this 95 minute feature will undoubtedly be a chore, even for the most hardened of schlock enthusiasts. 

The disc from Wild Eye includes a few special features including a rambling group commentary that was a bit to chaotic too enjoy, a gag reel, a fun gore reel and a selection of trailers from Wild Eye. 

A bizarre entry even by Wild Eye standards, if you're in the mood for an offensive slice of trash cinema with no little to redeeming value this gets a weak recommend otherwise I say skip it. There's some camp and cult value here, a group viewing of this with a few friends and a lot of beer would not be entirely devoid of fun. I appreciate Wild Eye's commitment to releasing these micro-budget weirdies that not even Troma would pick-up but it doesn't mean I have to enjoy 'em all. 1.5 Outta 5 

DVD Review: Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 (2008)

BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69 (2008)
Wild Eye Releasing


RATING: Unrated
RUNNING TIME: 135 Min.
DIRECTOR: Keith J. Crocker
CAST: Charles Esser (Helmut Schultz), Steve Montauge (Wolfgang), Tatyana Kot (Natasha), Edward Yankus (Jack Jones), Giordana Jenell (Frieda), Paul Richichi (The Priest),
TAGLINE: A New Era of Nazi Terror


SYNOPSIS: Germany, 1945. Stalag 69, a POW camp ruled by the sadistic SS commandant Helmut Schultz, is nothing but a blood-soaked playground for this perverse Nazi monster who uses his Americana, Russian and British prisoners in cruel and ghastly biochemical weapons experiments and kill-for-sport pleasure. When a group of young wanton USO girls are captured and fall into the hands of Schultz and his battalion of butchers, the shocking brutality is turned up. Now it's up to these rag tag survivors of the camp to strike back against their captors and escape from Stalag 69, alive or in pieces!

FILM: It is thanks to the folks over at Wild Eye Releasing that cult-director Keith J. Crocker is in my vocabulary. His 1997 film The Bloody Ape is a super 8mm masterpiece of trash cinema. It's great example of a film shot on a pocket change budget with a deep love for lo-fi exploitation, fun stuff. 11 years later Crocker set out to film a twisted WW2 Nazi-sploitation epic that became Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69. Nazi Exploitation and WW2 epics are genres I have little experience with. I've never seen the iconic films of the genre like Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975), Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977) or the original The Inglorious Bastards(1978). It's was a short-lived sub genre of exploitation and grindhouse cinema that reared its head in the mid-70's and continued through the early 80's, but it never really caught my attention. The genre seems to be earmarked by sadistic torture, human degradation, racist cruelty, genocide and perversity. So going into Kieth J. Crocker's Nazi exploitation flick Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 I had little to put it up against, but I can tell you it's faithful to the genres cliches. On a more personal note - As a young child I loved the television program Hogan's Heroes (1965-1971). It was in syndication in the early 80's when I was in 2nd grade. I didn't grasp that Nazi's were evil figures. The show depicted Col. Clink and Schultz as inept buffoons and I knew nothing of the Holocaust. I'd always been a doodler and somewhere along the way I started drawing swastikas on my homework ...detention! Needless to say my teacher kept me after class and informed me of my errant ways and my days of adolescent Nazi propaganda came to an abrupt end.

The plot of Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 centers around a POW camp Stalag 69 run by the monstrous Helmut Schultz (Charles Esser) and his sidekick Wolfgang (Steve Montague) whom resembles a more sadistic Schultz from the aforementioned and beloved Hogan's Heroes which itself was based on the WW2 classic Stalag 17 (1953) which Crocker cites as an influence on this film. They are joined in their torturous activities by Helmut's sexy-sadist sister Frieda (Giordana Jenell ). In 1945 the Third Reich is on it's last legs and as Allied forces converge on Stalag 69 the Gestapo has plans to eradicate all evidence of Stalg 69's crime against humanity. It's up to the POW's and a group of USO girls to make a desperate attempt at escape led by the all-American good guy G.I. Jack Jones (Edward Yankos). Also causing a ruckus at the compound is the Russian femme fatale Natasha (Tatyana Kot) who delivers some nasty I Spit on Your Grave (1978) style revenge on her captors.

Stalag 69 is in your face with nudity and not always of the scintillating variety, either. Crocker doesn't want to let us relish in the glory of the naked form and the bodies are scarred, bruised, mutilated and tortured.  It's all disturbing to some degree including the scene where Nastasha escapes the experiments and runs through the forest nude while mowing down Nazis with a machine gun. The torture scenes in Stalag 69 are unnervingly brutal and Crocker and company do an decent job with the gore effects work. It's hard to watch human degradation in any form and Crocker taps into the worst that human nature has to offer and its on display here in all it's shocking glory.
The acting and line readings are suspect and the accents are are over the place. The weakest aspect of the film is the protracted dialogue exchanges and monologues, every character in this film is a long-winded gas bag. Paul Richichi appears in a wrap-around story as a Catholic priest but sadly the outrageous lunacy that made him such an awesome presence in Crocker's The Bloody Ape is not on display and the  climax of the film suffers for it. That combined with the overly long running time of the film made Blitzkrieg a bit of a slog at times. I enjoy Crocker's eye for exploitation shock and awe but he's no Tarantino when it comes to snappy dialogue. The idea of marrying a WW2 epic like Stalag 17 and a mid-70's Nazi-sploitation sounds awesome but the epic running time tried my patience at times.

DVD: The Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69 DVD release from Wild Eye Releasing is presented in a non-anamorphic letterboxed 1.78:1 aspect ratio director's cut with a 2.0 stereo audio mix. Much like Wild Eye's release of Crocker's super-8mm classic The Bloody Ape it is jam-packed with bonus content. A fun commentary plus 16mm test footage. Initially Crocker intended to shoot the film on 16mm black and white, the test footage looks great but proved to be too expensive.

SPECIAL FEATURES

- Commentary with Director Keith J. Crocker, Production Designer Keith Maturro and Actress Tatyana Kot
- Nazis Over Nassau Featurette (38:16)
- Original Schindler's Lust Trailer (7:12)
- Trailers for The Bloody Ape (0:55) and Blitzkrieg - Escape from Stalag 69 (0:50)
- 4 Deleted Scenes (5:49)
- Bloopers (5:47)
- 16mm Test Footage (5:33)
- Cast and Crew Q+A from NYC Premiere (30:27)
- Production Stills
- Short Film Desade '88 (5:56)

VERDICT: Not a prefect film by any means but I did enjoy Blitzkrieg: Escape from Stalag 69. This is a sleazy, shocking Nazi-sploitation epic that pushes the boundaries of human decency and it's hard to fault Crocker for being overly ambitious. Nazi exploitation cinema is a sub genre of grindhouse that is spoken of little and few would dare attempt a resurrection in this day and age. *** (3 out of 5 stars)

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- McBASTARD