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Reviews & Commentary by Adam Groves
NARCO SATANICO
Mexi-madness containing all the things one might expect from a south-of-the-border trash fest, starting with the Big Three: sex, nudity and gore
POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN
This profoundly bizarre 12 minute short was made back in 1983, yet has become quite popular online (with good reason!)
VIOLATED ANGELS
A ground-breakingly gruesome example of avant-garde “pinku” (adults only) cinema
MADNESS (1969)
The concept of an insane asylum as a metaphor for modern civilization didn’t originate with this Estonian import, but the film did provide this particular movie model with a quintessentially Eastern European highlight
ZEIRAM
An inexplicably popular example of Japanese Tokusatsu (live action special effects based cinema) that I say is mid
PETER SCHLEMIEL: THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SHADOW
An admirably succinct fantasy classic that recalls Franz Kafka and the magic realists
BETTY BLUE
A sprightly account of a tragic love affair that was made into an enormously popular 1986 film. The book’s better.
APE RAPE/WANTON WITCH
A Jim Harmon two-book compendium, one a routine potboiler and the other a gross, irresponsible, morally indefensible piece of unalloyed filth that (needless to add) I greatly enjoyed
TRUCKER FAGS IN DENIAL
A one-shot comic book, scripted by the late JIm Goad, that’s sure to offend absolutely everyone
MANIAC SIREN
From the always-irrepressible Ramble House, here’s a compendium of two early 1960s sleaze novels by the late pulp meister Jim Harmon
HORRORS!
A strong, if quirky and outdated, horror media overview from the 1960s
IN DEEP WATER
A most compelling true-life account involving a shipwreck, sharks and near death on the open seas
SURREAL LIVES
A most welcome history of the Surrealists, marked by richly detailed, narratively informed prose
CANNIBAL WORLDS
A knowledgeable and wide-ranging tome that more than delivers on its promise of being the most comprehensive tome on Italian cannibal cinema of the 1970s and 80s
HOLLYWOOD ANIMAL
This 700-plus page memoir by a Hollywood insider was to the aughts what Julia Phillips’ notorious YOU’LL NEVER EAT LUNCH IN THIS TOWN AGAIN (1991) was to the previous decade
Clive Barker on Kickstarter: A Good Idea?
Clive Barker’s upcoming anthology, currently being hawked on Kickstarter: legit or not?
Smut, Paris and Ed Wood
Two not-quite-classic Paris-set smut novels, one written by Ed Wood
ANDRIESH vs. ASHIK KERIB
About the first, and last, film made by the late Sergei Parajanov
Spider-Man Pondered (and Found Wanting)
All about Spider-Man’s appeal, his latest film outing, Sam Raimi and Roger Corman
THE ODYSSEY…and Everything Else
My feelings about Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY? I say it’s a blast, although I have some reservations…