Tag Archives: badfilm

BAD MOVIE PAGE: DIAL: HELP (1988)

 DIAL: HELP (1988) – Category: A neglected bad movie classic that deserves a Plan 9- sized cult following. 

This 1988 horror film from Italy (but dubbed into English) deals with a young model, played by Charlotte Lewis, who finds her life turning hellish when she begins being tormented by living phones … yes, living phones. As always with me, I love to laugh at bad horor movies like this that are NOT trying to be funny, but are so disastrously bad and have such ludicrous premises that they are unintentional comedy classics. Remember my reviews of movies like Death Bed, about a killer bed; Deafula, about a deaf vampire and The Lift, about a killer elevator? Lump this flick in with those. 

Hardcore horror fans will be stunned to learn that the man behind this laughable mess is none other than Continue reading

24 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

NEW YEAR’S EVE BAD MOVIE: NEW YEAR’S EVIL (1980)

The best thing about these seasonal bad movie reviews of mine is the fact that they save a lot of time by being appropriate AND already done. From 2010 it’s a repost of my review of the laughably bad holiday horror film New Year’s Evil.

New Year's EvilNEW YEAR’S EVIL (1980) – Category:  Enjoyably campy bad movie  elevated by kitsch-value in the casting    This is another of those holiday-themed slasher movies that followed in the bloody footsteps of the original Halloween. See my review of the Thanksgiving slasher movie Slasher In The House for more on this odd sub-genre.

Our cups runneth over with kitsch-casting in this little honey. ROZ KELLY, “Pinky Tuscadero” herself, stars as Blaze, an alleged punk rock icon who hosts an alleged punk rock (but really New Wave) concert being televised on New Year’s Eve.

Kelly is Continue reading

12 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

HOLIDAY SEASON BAD MOVIE DOUBLE FEATURE

As the Christmas holiday season for 2011 rapidly nears its close, here’s Balladeer’s Blog’s repost of my two annual Christmas turkeys, The Christmas Martian followed by Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. 

THE CHRISTMAS MARTIAN (1971) – Category: A neglected bad movie classic that deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following.    Santa Claus Conquers The Martians gets all the attention, but this almost forgotten Canadian film from the 1970′s is one joyously weird acid trip of a movie! And for that “old-school”  bad movie feel the lips don’t match the dialogue, dubbed into English from the original French. (Yes it was made in that part of Canada!)

A spaceship even Ed Wood would be ashamed of, idiotic characters, a delightfully bad song and special effects that would have been outdated 10 years prior to filming highlight this movie that is perfect for Yuletide. The plot, such as it is, features Continue reading

32 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

BAD MOVIE PAGE – ELVES (1989)

 ELVES (1989) – Category: Enjoyably bad movie but not fun- bad enough for my highest rating          Last Christmas season I reviewed the underappreciated Yuletide turkeys The Christmas Martian and Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. (see my Bad Movie page for those reviews) This year I’ll address the horror film Elves, which will have you laughing like crazy but unlike a film like Santa’s Slay, it’s not MEANT as a comedy.

Where to begin with this film? We’ve got Dan Haggerty as a washed up ex- store detective and drug addict working as a department store Santa Claus, we’ve got Julie Austin as rebellious teenager Kirsten and our special-effects elf (seen in photo) as our title menace. Yep, right off the bat something to love about this Continue reading

10 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

THANKSGIVING DAY BAD MOVIE: SLASHER IN THE HOUSE

Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of holiday classics that get trotted out each year here’s a special Turkey Day encore of last year’s review of the laughably bad Thanksgiving Day themed slasher movie from the 1980’s. Until someone makes a horror film about a guy in a Pilgrim outfit slashing people this is what we’ve got.

SLASHER IN THE HOUSE (1981) – Category: Enjoyably campy bad movie  elevated by kitsch-value in the casting   The success of John Carpenter’s Halloween in the late 1970’s launched a frenzy of holiday-themed slasher movies trying to cash in on that film’s success. The most infamous, of course, was the Silent Night, Deadly Night series with the slasher dressed as Santa Claus (and its notorious tag line “You made it through Halloween, now try and survive Christmas!” ), but other holidays got a customized slasher flick, too, like New Year’s Eve (the hilariously bad New Year’s Evil), Valentine’s Day (the original My Bloody Valentine) and Mother’s Day (in a movie of the same name). It even got so Continue reading

20 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

THANKSGIVING EVE BAD MOVIE TREAT: THE TURKEY MONSTER MOVIE “BLOOD FREAK”

I first reviewed Blood Freak in the summer of 2010, but considering how its premise makes it appropriate to the Turkey Day holiday I’ll rerun it like they used to rerun The Wizard of Oz every Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

BLOOD FREAK (1972) – Category: A neglected bad movie classic that deserves a Plan 9-sized cult following      This film is so comparatively well-known that I considered not including it, but it’s one of my all-time favorites so I’ll include it but just keep the entry short. The lead character in this movie is a biker named Herschell. It’s possible his motorcycle is called Shlomo but I don’t have a second source on that. (Sorry, I was channeling an old Borscht Belt comedian again) No, the director Brad Grinter admits he named the character after  legendary splatter film genius Herschell Gordon Lewis. Herschell gets a job at a turkey farm and at one point eats a turkey (and when I say “eats a turkey” I mean he literally just sits down with a knife, a fork and a whole cooked turkey and wolfs it all down)  treated with experimental chemicals by two mad scientists and … he turns into a man-sized turkey monster with Continue reading

17 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

BAD MOVIE PAGE: BLOOD HARVEST (1987)

 BLOOD HARVEST (1987) – Category: Enjoyably bad movie elevated by kitsch value in the casting     As if 1960’s folk singer Tiny Tim wasn’t creepy enough in real life here he is in the 80’s slasher flick that is famous purely because of his presence in it … in clown makeup (AAAAAH!). This review will start off with a major spoiler, so stop reading right now if you actually want to watch this thing as if it was a real movie.

Tiny Tim is NOT the slasher in this film. I often wonder how many copies of this flick have been sold over the years based purely on the fallacious word of mouth that the psychotic- seeming Timster supposedly played a Jason Voorhees style slasher in this movie. Blood Harvest starts out letting the audience THINK Tiny Tim, or Marvelous Mervo as his character is named, is the killer as he hoists a dead body up like a side of beef while singing an eerie parody of a nursery rhyme. We also get a few scenes of Mervo talking to dead bodies and positioning them on furniture like a macabre version of a little girl’s tea party.

Anyone with an eye for movie cliches, though, can tell early on that  Continue reading

27 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

A VERY BLAXPLOITATION HALLOWEEN

Blackenstein

Blackenstein

When it comes to the tasteless but enjoyably bad blaxploitation horror films of the 1970’s it seems like the lion’s share of the attention always goes to Blacula and its sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream with a little attention left over for Ganja and Hess, since it features the African American hero from the original Night of the Living Dead in one of his few screen appearances.

In honor of the Halloween season Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at some of the neglected blaxploitation horror movies, all of which deserve to have a larger audience than just me and my fellow bad movie geeks. It’s in the spirit of my recent list of The Eleven Most Neglected Bad Movie  Classics For Halloween, but for this list I’ll go in descending order:

Blackenstein movie poster1. BLACKENSTEIN (1973) – This was one of the first flicks to try and cash in on the coattails of the surprise hit Blacula. A mad scientist named Dr Stein is conducting unspeakable experiments in human genetics. A Vietnam vet who has lost both arms and both legs in the war is Dr Stein’s next guinea pig. He restores the man’s limbs but Continue reading

273 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies, Blaxploitation, Halloween

THE ELEVEN MOST NEGLECTED BAD MOVIE CLASSICS FOR HALLOWEEN

Laughing at bad movies is one of the greatest pleasures in life. Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are very familiar with my Bad Movie page where I focus on various film flops that I feel deserve larger audiences because of how dementedly enjoyable they are. Since it’s the Halloween Season this list will present eleven of the most neglected bad horror movie classics, many of which deserve Plan 9- sized cult followings. These are short takes. For my full-length reviews of these and other cinematic turkeys see my Bad Movie page. https://glitternight.com/bad-movies/

MORE HALLOWEEN MOVIE TREATS: MEXICAN MONSTERS https://glitternight.com/2011/10/31/a-halloween-mexi-monster-bestiary/

BLAXPLOITATION HORROR: https://glitternight.com/2011/10/26/a-very-blaxploitation-halloween/

11. THE LIFT (1983) – A killer elevator is the unique menace in this joyously absurd horror film from the Netherlands. A heroic elevator repairman tries to stop the bloody reign of terror of a sentient elevator which the movie’s ads described as “the perfect killing machine”. (?)

10. ATTACK OF THE BEAST CREATURES (1983) – The surviving passengers and crew of a sunken luxury liner find themselves on an uncharted island full of ponds and streams that dissolve human flesh. The island is home to the title creatures, who are Continue reading

45 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies

BAD MOVIE PAGE: HOMEBODIES (1974) – THE INFAMOUS “OLD FOLKS ON A KILLING SPREE” MOVIE

 HOMEBODIES (1974) – Category: Enjoyably bad movie with a weird premise        This is the film that is always known to me and my fellow bad movie geeks as “the killer fogies movie”. When a group of elderly citizens in their 70’s and 80’s face eviction from their decrepit neighborhood to make way for high- rises they strike back under the leadership of feisty and frightening Mattie, played by Paula Trueman, seen at left.

Homebodies has that nice blend of badness and tastelessness that I love in a horror film. I’m not trying to sound hostile to the elderly, since we will all end up facing the same problems some day, but the Continue reading

72 Comments

Filed under Bad and weird movies