DVD Collectors Online

Eaten Alive, a review by Jimmy

Title : Eaten Alive (1980)

Overview
A girl risks her life and plunges into a jungle hell in search of her missing sister. Throughout her perilous journey, she must fend off hungry cannibal tribes and avoid being served up as a sacrificial lamb for a good old-fashioned suicide cult!

My Impression
One of the first Italian exploitation film that I've bought on dvd and it's always a pleasure to rewatch this one. Very good cannibal exploitation film, not as good as Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal ferox but a top one. In fact this movie loose a lot of point when you realized that it recycle footage from Man from Deep River, Jungle Holocaust and Mountain of the Cannibal God (not that the footage is that obvious with the exception of the killing of the Me Me Lai character, but it's easy to spot if you have seen those movie previously). The story is a mix of two different subjects : Cannibals and isolated religious cult (an obvious reference to the Jonestown cult massacre of 1974). I think that this amalgam gives more depth to this movie compared to the other cannibal exploitation film (except for the sublime Cannibal Holocaust). The movie had a good cast like most of the Italian film with a mix of Europeans an Americans stars like Janet Agren, Ivan Rassimov, Mel Ferrer, Paola Senatore and, of course, Robert Kerman who give a much better performance in this one than in Cannibal Holocaust. You can even catch, if you know them of course, Gerald Grant (great in Radley Metzger's Score) and Jake Teague (his most known role for most of you is probably Mr. Biddle in Debbie Does Dallas).

Great Italian exploitation film, but of course this type of cinema isn't for everybody.    

Rating :

(From Jimmy's 2009 Horror Marathon on October 4th, 2009)

Blood of Dracula's Castle, a review by Jimmy

Title : Blood of Dracula's Castle (1969)

Overview
A chilling, blood-curdling tale about a young couple that inherits an old castle but finds it already inhabited by a crusty butler, an obsessed killer and a couple of vampires, who kidnap and sacrifice young girls in order to live on and on....

My Impression
This is an Al Adamson's movie so it's weird and way too complicated for its own good. So here we go a couple of vampire (Alexander D'Arcy and Paula Raymond) with the help of the shapeless Mango (Ray Young) capture young girls for their blood (yeah they are blood drinkers not biters). Also living in their castle (who isn't their anyway since they rent it) with them are their butler (John Carradine) and a psychotic killer (Robert Dix) but only when the moon is full. They live an happy live untill the moment or a young couple (Gene Otis Shayne and Jennifer Bishop) inherit the castle and want to kick them out. I forgot sometimes they sacrifice a young girl to the God Luna when the moon is full. The synopsis is the only interesting part since the acting is really bad wich is surprising since the cast include a lot of veteran actors, nothing exciting happen at all (the most exciting moments happen in the beginning when the couple is at Marineland and we see the dolphins, the walrus and the sea lions), the vampires are incredibly easy to kill and the movie print is very at the end of the line (lots of green scratches, red spots, faded colors and jump cut). The only saving grace of this film are Robert Dix and John Carradine. To make the thing even worst Rex Carlton, the producer of this film, kill himself in 1968 (the film was made in 66, but released only in 69) because he was unable to to reimburse the money he borrowed from the mob...

I think you can pass this one

Rating :

(From Jimmy's 2010 Horror Marathon on October 2nd, 2010)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

2.08 One Good Man (1996-02-08)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Frank Siracusa (Story By), Kathy Slevin (Screenwriter), Jeff King (Screenwriter)
Director: Malcolm Cross
Cast: Paul Gross (Constable Benton Fraser), David Marciano (Detective Ray Vecchio), Beau Starr (Lt. Harding Welsh), Daniel Kash (Detective Louis Gardino), Tony Craig (Detective Jack Huey), Catherine Bruhier (Elaine), Maria Bello (Mackenzie King), Robert Clothier (Mr. Potter), Karl Pruner (John Taylor), Katayoun Amini (Angela Vecchio), Johnie Chase (Mr. Klein), Ann Medina (Alderman Farrell), Marvin Karon (Warren Knoop), Domenic Cuzzocrea (Dennis), John Jarvis (Suburban Man), Sam Moses (Mr. Mustafi), Robbie Rox (Al Grosso), Kevin Rushton (Thug Rushton), Helen Richmond (Ms. Krezjapalov)

Another humorless episode. And that in a series, where the humor is the best thing in it. I had forgotten that the second season was this serious. But when I remember correctly, all the fun episodes are still to come.

Rating:

(From "Due South" marathon on August 14th, 2009)