The Taint - free download today

Anyone interested in a nasty little film, check out The Taint which is available free for download today.

Here's the link:

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FGJCBZAL

For more info on The Taint, check out the website at www.taintmovie.com

Happy Holidays everyone.

Wintry Mix

Here is a nice Wintry Mix I made to help make your winter a little more bearable.

Download Here

1. Simon and Garfunkel - Hazy Shade of Winter
2. Velvet Underground - Stephanie Says
3. The Pixies - Winterlong
4. Duran Duran - Winter Marches On
5. Flaming Lips - Ice Drummer
6. Nico - Winter Song
7. Modern English - After the Snow
8. Belle and Sebastian - Winter Wooskie
9. The Cure - Snow in Summer
10. Nada Surf - 80 Windows
11. Lemonheads - Sunday
12. The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter

Score (1974, Radley Metzger)

Ah, the uninhibited 70's.  Gone were the days when women wore long skirts (and bras) and would only spell out the word S-E-X.  In were the days when you could go to the rough part of town and see guys with expertly groomed mustaches and women with untamed  pubic hair make hot monkey love to bad disco music on screen in a theater filled with trench coats and sunglasses.  Your only care in the world being the sticky substance on the arm rests.  The pornos of the 70's were much different than today - they seemed a little more legitimate I guess.  They actually had a plot and acting (and by acting I don't mean just faking an orgasm).  Films such as Deep Throat, The Devil and Miss Jones and Debbie Does Dallas popularized the 70's porno.  I would add Radley Metzger's Score into this group as well.

Score is the story of Elvira (Claire Wilbur) and Jack (Gerald Grant), a couple who have a gigantic sexual appetite, which includes men, women, couples and telephone repairmen.  They frequently have swinging parties and even a running contest going to see how many people they can seduce (hence the film's double entendre title).  After seducing the previously mentioned telephone repairman (Carl Parker), Elvira goes after the innocent young Betsy (Lynn Lowry).  Betsy and her husband Eddie (Calvin Culver) are invited over for some fun, which is actually a quest to seduce the young couple.  Though who will end up in bed with who?

Score is a funny, sexy, imaginatively shot, erotic film about sexual realization.  The whole cast (5 people!) are all very talented actors who seem very comfortable in the film.  The film was originally a play (starring some guy named Sylvester Stallone as the telephone repairman!) and translates well to the screen.  Though there are some hardcore scenes (including pretty much the whole last 20 minutes or so), the film was tastefully shot and more professional than your average adult film.  Score is definitely not for everyone and depending on your interests, there may be some scenes you fast forward through but overall the film is a winner.  I also wanted to mention the superb treatment given to this DVD/Blu Ray release by Cult Epics.  For the first time since an old mail order VHS do we finally have the fully uncut version of the film.  Several minutes longer than the previous DVD release, this is unquestionably the definitive release of Score.  Also included is a director commentary, a 25 minute behind the scenes featurette and a new 20 minute interview with Lynn Lowry, who horror fans will definitely know from such classics as George Romero's The Crazies (and the remake), David Cronenberg's Shivers, Paul Schrader's Cat People and David Durston's I Drink Your Blood.

RATING: 8/10

Looking for an Extreme Gore Video Mixtape?

Look no further.  Sodomatik Mixtapes feature the nastiest of the nasty.  The gruesomest of the gruesome.  The slimiest of the slimy.  Here's a little synopsis from their site:

Sodomatik Vol 1, the first tape from the Sodomatik video mixtape series, features the most graphic horror and exploitation video clips. It clips the most obscure of splatter and gore movies.  Vol 2 of the Sodomatik series picks up right where vol 1 left off. The tape is just as violent and shocking. It's still in production, so the final tape has not been released yet, and it will not be released for another month at least.


You can download samples and view previews on their site.  For you extreme gore fans - this ones for you!


http://www.sodomatik.tk/

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Blood Freaks!

Mondo Cane 2 (1963, Gualtiero Jacopetti/Franco Prosperi)

After virtually creating the Mondo genre of films with 1962's Mondo Cane, the film makers quickly brought us two more similar films the following year - Women of the World and Mondo Cane 2 (aka Mondo Pazzo or "Crazy World").  Mondo Cane and Women of the World were wonderful documentaries filled with exotic locations, beautiful music, lush cinematography as well as bizarre rituals and practices from many different cultures.  It could be said that Mondo Cane 2 fits this description as well but it seems that the film maker's intent was different.  Read on.

Mondo Cane 2, like it's predecessor, is basically a documentary showing strange and sometimes shocking images from around the world.  It seems though that the notoriety gained by a few scenes in Mondo Cane was enough for Jacopetti and Prosperi (not sure what happened to Cavara) to cut out more of the fascinating and light hearted subject matter of the original and focus on the sick and twisted.  Among some of the segments included are a bunch of guys using their heads (literally) to knock down a metal door, a Monk who sets himself on fire in protest of the Vietnam war, a mortician school, and a horrific view of child slaves who have been forced to wear cruel devices to permanently deform them.

Mondo Cane 2 was a big disappointment compared to Mondo Cane and Women of the World.  Basically everything I loved about those films was gone (save for some great cinematography and exotic locations) and all the elements I didn't like were intensified and became the focus of the Mondo Cane 2.  Though not a fan of seeing real life horrors on screen (I prefer scary, gory and most importantly, FAKE), I was still curious about the Mondo genre and was willing to see what the fuss was all about.  I saw the first Faces of Death film a long time ago and some other similar real (or supposedly real) footage and thought I'd start from the beginning.  After seeing Mondo Cane and Women of the World, I was so pleasantly surprised that Mondo Cane 2 became even more of a disappointment.  Not only were there more shocking, sickening scenes but there were also faked or staged scenes.  Other vignettes in the film were just completely pointless or stupid (a bunch of people spitting paint on a canvas comes to mind).  So other than a few beautifully shot or interesting scenes, Mondo Cane 2 was a pointless disappointment.

RATING:  3/10

Monkey Hu$tle (1976, Arthur Marks)

Some of you might recall when I participated in Blair Week, a collaboration with several other fine film sites to celebrate the works of Linda Blair.  Well the time is here again only now the spotlight is on the brilliant and criminally underrated Yaphet Kotto.  Known to most people as either Parker from Alien, one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's opponents in The Running Man or Dr. Kananga/Mr. Big from the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, Mr. Kotto has an extensive filmography that spans over 40 years.  From Larry Cohen's controversial directorial debut Bone to the gritty police drama Across 110th Street to the dramedy Blue Collar with Harvey Keitel and Richard Pryor, Yaphet Kotto has done it all (he even did a film with Larry the Cable Guy...but we'll leave that one out).  Kotto was also in several classic blaxploitation films including Friday Foster, Truck Turner and ....

 

 Monkey Hu$tle stars Yaphet Kotto as Daddy Foxx, the slyest, hippest and wisest "flim flam" scam artist around.  A young drummer Win (Randy Brooks) comes back to his hometown, out of work and pissed off that his little brother is working for Daddy Foxx.  Two of Win's friends, Player (Thomas Carter) and Tiny (Donn Harper), convince Win to work for Daddy Foxx too and he reluctantly agrees out of desperation.  The rest of the film mainly follows the scams Foxx's team pulls and the other teenage hijinx the kids get themselves into.  The last 10 minutes of the film expose an actual plot not prevalent in the rest of the film.

Based on that last sentence I'm sure you are a little confused.  Looking back at the film, there really wasn't much of a plot to Monkey Hu$tle until the very end.  To be honest, it didn't matter for me because the film was enjoyable enough without a plot.  Fine performances, likable characters, humor and some action make this film a winning blaxploitation story with heart.  Of course Yaphet Kotto is the main character and basically carries the film with his abundance of charisma.  Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite) also stars as a big time hustler (and/or pimp - it doesn't really say what he is).  The young cast are all great and the scenes involving the bumbling cop and one of the character's ass-kicking girlfriend are hilarious.

RATING:  7/10

Below are links to all of the fine sites participating in the Yaphet Kotto celebration:

 

 MONDAY Nov. 15th

Unflinching Eye - Alien
Raculfright 13's Blogo Trasho - Truck Turner

TUESDAY Nov. 16th
Lost Video Archive - Raid on Entebbe
Manchester Morgue - Friday Foster (soundtrack)

WEDNESDAY Nov. 17th
Booksteve's Library - Live and Let Die
Horror Section - Warning Sign

THURSDAY Nov. 18th
Mondo 70 - Drum
B Movies and Beyond - The Monkey Hu$tle
Illogical Contraption - Eye of the Tiger

FRIDAY Nov. 19th
Ninja Dixon - Across 110th St.
Lines That Make Things - The A Team (TV episode)
Things That Don't Suck - Blue Collar

SATURDAY Nov. 20th
Breakfast In the Ruins - Bone
Lost Video Archive -  The Park Is Mine