ABELARD — THE CASTRATION
From Germany, a failed attempt at artsploitation that was completed in 1975 but not released until two years later—and then promptly forgotten!
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
This 1990 cheapie was supposed to be the late Tobe Hooper’s “comeback”–it wasnt!
THE MANGLER
In light of the untimely August 26, 2017 death of director Tobe Hooper, here’s a look back at one of his late period films
THE SUNS OF EASTER ISLAND
This ambitious French science fiction drama from 1972 can be viewed as the little-known forerunner of CLOSE ENOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
LOFT
Like director Eckhart Schmidt’s earlier film TRANCE, LOFT is steeped in 1980s new wave culture, which can be taken as a good or bad thing depending on one’s point of view
EL HOMBRE SIN ROSTRO
This 1950 Mexican horror fest is notable for its similarities to PSYCHO, which it preceded by a decade
GENERAL MASSACRE
A Belgian-American co-production from 1973 that makes a fumbled attempt at artsploitation in the guise of a hard-hitting anti-war statement
RITUALS
This Canadian made DELIVERANCE wannabe may be frustratingly little known, but it’s one of the finest films of its type
KUSO
2017’s gross-out movie of note, a freeform exercise in sub-Cronenbergian excess with a satiric thrust and overall fixation on bodily secretion
HANNA D.
A Euro sleaze-fest that occupies a most rarified category: that of cut-rate rip-offs of 1981’s CHRISTIANE F.!