Author: BO

It wasn't exactly a blockbuster, but 1981's "Quest for Fire" became a major hit against all odds. It offered a serious take on prehistoric adventuring, with director Jean-Jacques Annaud pushing to challenge audiences with a film that was rich with atmosphere and passed on English dialogue, laboring to immerse viewers into this world of danger and mystery. It wasn't exact science, but it provided a few dramatic jolts, and "Quest for Fire" was a strange enough offering to encourage ticket-buyers to take a chance on a rare storytelling leap of faith. The feature made money, inspiring others to attempt to recreate such an epic viewing experience, but on a much lower budget and without the polish of a refined helmer. 1983's "Master of the World" steps up as part of a new wave of "stone age" offerings, with the Italian production attempting to recreate the appeal of Annaud's endeavor. Writer/director Alberto Cavallone gets a bit gruesome with his version of early man rampaging, but there's a certain spark of insanity to the effort, which earnestly attempts to deliver event film majesty while dealing with B-movie interests. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1989's "Girlfriend from Hell" is a high camp take on multiple genres. Writer/director Daniel Peterson has a list of tones and acts of exaggeration he wants to cover, concocting a tale about a battle between good and evil that's being waged in the middle of a birthday party. There's religion, horror, action, comedy, and some sci-fi. Sex and violence are present, along with wildly broad performances. It's a bit of John Waters and a dash of Mel Brooks, but mostly remains an oddball collection of ideas in search of some level of restraint. "Girlfriend from Hell" doesn't become the romp Peterson envisions, but it certainly tries to be, presenting a hyperactive (at times) assortment of bigness that seems tailor-made to entertain attendees at high school drama department parties. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Making her feature-length directorial debut, Amalia Ulman presents "El Planeta," which is a vaguely biographical study of a young woman's experiences with love, life, and family while spending time in Spain. Also scripting the movie, Ulman doesn't reach for the stars with the endeavor, which remains small in scale and compellingly intimate, sharing acting duties with her real-life mother, Ale Ulman. "El Planeta" is something of a comedy, with touches of drama, landing somewhere between playful and lived-in, and it remains impressive work from Ulman, who offers assured work with the picture, establishing herself as a talent to watch. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1982's "The Slumber Party Massacre" has a cult following, but it's never been celebrated as a shining example of the slasher subgenre. It enjoyed popularity on home video (can't beat that title) and spawned a few sequels, but it failed to become an iconic offering of horror, mostly due to the limited artistic reach of the original movie. And now there's a remake, or a reimagining, with writer Suzanne Keilly ("Leprechaun Returns") working to bring fresh perspective to an old premise, turning the tables on the male gaze with "Slumber Party Massacre," which tries to provide a more female- centric take on the first film, which was already celebrated for delivering a smattering of feminist ideas. Unfortunately, the SyFy Original do-over is also decidedly comedic, with director Danishka Esterhazy ("The Banana Splits Movie") turning a horror concept into high camp, playing most of the picture as silliness, which instantly eliminates any potential fear factor. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The world of nudie-cuties is highlighted in 1964's "The Monster of Camp Sunshine" (full title: "The Monster of Camp Sunshine or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Nature"), which provides the thinnest of plots to help reach its creative goal: the display of naked bodies. Added to the mix is a subplot concerning the eponymous threat, which introduces a horror element to a picture that's largely about getting female characters out of their clothes. It's a strange combo of easygoing nudism and madman terror, but that very oddness is what makes "The Monster of Camp Sunshine" a passably compelling sit, offering elements of the unexpected as a more pronounced mission of titillation is pursued. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Lynn Ramsay's "Morvern Callar" isn't a story of a young woman's mourning period, nor is it a tale of the pain that remains when a loved one dies. The film is more impressionistic than that, using environments and silent atmosphere to piece together a journey of self for the eponymous character as she evolves from a meek girlfriend and minimum-wage slave to a woman finding a life of her own. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The 1980s supplied a weird range of teen entertainment, with the adventures of aggressively undersexed adolescents in the first half of the decade eventually replaced by slightly more meaningful offerings of emotional connection. The John Hughes-ing of material certainly made things more interesting for the subgenre, but 1987's "Summer School" is quite content to be a comedy with a slightly old-fashioned approach to funny business and characterizations. Director Carl Reiner was in his sixties when he helmed the feature, working to bring his sense of humor and timing to juvenile entertainment, offering a sunny day approach to the ways of unfocused students and the gym teacher assigned to smarten them up during the high school off-season. "Summer School" has its struggles in the editorial department, but the brightness of the endeavor is quite appealing, as Reiner simply aims for humor and performance with the production, bringing in a capable cast and a lively script by Jeff Franklin (who would go on to create "Full House") to make a reasonably good-natured distraction for the summer moviegoing season. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1988's "Dead Heat" is a film that wants to be many things to many audiences, putting director Mark Goldblatt (the celebrated editor of "The Terminator," making his helming debut) in a difficult position of juggling tonality. It's a buddy cop story that involves elements of horror and sci-fi, also taking time to launch a few action sequences, striving to be a celebration of cinematic possibility as many genres are visited. Goldblatt doesn't have a major budget to pull off a few of the wilder ideas included in Terry Black's screenplay, but the general nutso atmosphere of the picture is enough to get it past the finish line. Goldblatt invests in monsters, body horror, and gun play, working to keep "Dead Heat" exciting enough to help distract from its storytelling and thespian shortcomings, and he's mostly successful with screen energy, creating an appealing mess of ideas and moods in search of a more defined dramatic approach. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Everything changed for Troma Entertainment in 1984, with the release of "The Toxic Avenger" providing the company with a hit they could call their own, leading the way to a new direction in low-budget exploitation moviemaking, featuring strange monsters, gross-out comedy, and a whole lot of noise. Before Toxie, there was Troma Entertainment, creators of "sexy comedies," trying to make a small fortune with nudity-laden endeavors that cranked up wackiness to best attract ticket-buyers. 1983's "The First Turn-On" appears like a calculated move from Troma to ride the wave of teen horndog cinema, blending summer camp shenanigans with Penthouse Letter fantasies, looking to reach adolescent audiences without the use of slapstick comedy from the 1930s. It's not a creative leap forward for the company, but "The First Turn-On" is almost a complete idea from co-directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, and that's an impressive achievement for the duo. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Everything changed for Troma Entertainment in 1984, with the release of "The Toxic Avenger" providing the company with a hit they could call their own, leading the way to a new direction in low-budget exploitation moviemaking, featuring strange monsters, gross-out comedy, and a whole lot of noise. Before Toxie, there was Troma Entertainment, creators of "sexy comedies," trying to make a small fortune with nudity-laden endeavors that cranked up wackiness to best attract ticket-buyers. 1982's "Stuck on You" at least makes some effort to be about something more than a random assortment of jokes, taking on the world of palimony suits, recalling the decline of a relationship that was seemingly doomed from the start, with co- directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz laboring to blend legal world woes with a time-traveling tale. And there's plenty of time devoted to Troma's love of the absurd. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Everything changed for Troma Entertainment in 1984, with the release of "The Toxic Avenger" providing the company with a hit they could call their own, leading the way to a new direction in low-budget exploitation moviemaking, featuring strange monsters, gross-out comedy, and a whole lot of noise. Before Toxie, there was Troma Entertainment, creators of "sexy comedies," trying to make a small fortune with nudity-laden endeavors that cranked up wackiness to best attract ticket-buyers. For 1981's "Waitress," co-writer/directors Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman bring their scattergun creative approach to the world of restaurants and desperate women, trying to capture restless New York City energy for this take on chasing dreams and avoiding extreme kitchen messes. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

In 2016, director Thomas Edward Seymour ventured in the lost world of VHS nostalgia, joining his friends and fellow podcasters on a hunt to see what's going on in the world of video distribution and independent production. "VHS Massacre" only offered a few mild pleasures while connecting to the old ways of home entertainment, becoming more of a grab bag of ideas, going the disappointingly random route to provide an entertaining sit. "VHS Massacre Too" isn't really a sequel, with Seymour using some old footage and ideas to cover basically the same ground, with the emphasis here on distribution woes, bringing in filmmakers and commentators to examine the sorry state of low-budget moviemaking these days, where passion runs deep, but collecting money in the industry is next to impossible. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hammer Films chases a different trend with 1963's "Paranoiac," which is an adaptation of the novel "Brat Farrar" by Josephine Tey, reworked to fit a defined "Psycho" mood. The prospect of following Hitchcock doesn't seem to bother director Freddie Francis, who puts in a tremendous effort to keep the feature stylish in its own way, while managing a slightly different concept of family issues from screenwriter Jimmy Sangster. "Paranoiac" isn't big on direct shots of suspense, as Francis hunts for a slightly more disturbing atmosphere for the endeavor, which isn't tightly paced, but offers effects moments of tension and eeriness, handing Hammer a creative success with material that could've easily tanked in lesser hands. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

1982's "Pals" is a coming-of-age story that takes more than a few head-snapping turns during the run time. Co-written/directed by Eloy de la Iglesia, the feature offers a long look at the state of youth in Madrid, where employment opportunities are limited, video games have arrived, and relationships are tested. The picture is similar to "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" in many ways, with the production trying to analyze adolescent concerns with a darker sense of exploration, dealing with issues in a blunt manner, which helps the material achieve a level of behavioral authenticity as small offerings of melodrama compete for screen time. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com