Back with some more movie reviews. I have watched quite a few since the last blog, but sitting down and writing about them often takes more time than I have. I should be able to crank out way more blogs in the coming months though, thanks for reading
Pink Flamingos (1973)
Sweet baby Jesus, I had heard about this movie for years but never saw it. It's an early no budget John Waters movie and he went all out on the weirdness. Divine, the 300 pound cross dresser, performs one of the most disgusting acts ever committed to film. Yet I could not look away, I had to be able to say I watched this film. Divine is challenged to prove she is the filthiest person alive and is competing with a couple who kidnap female hitchhikers and impregnate them to sell the babies to lesbians. Sex with chickens, close ups on a guy who moves his butthole to music, white slavery, and more. Hey it's tagline is "an exercise in bad taste" so you can't really be surprised.
Still though the film is more than tasteless shock cinema, it does have a social commentary on fame and the lengths some people will go to achieve it. Love or hate it, you cannot deny Pink Flamingos was revolutionary
Buy the dvd
Innocent Blood (1992)
This John Landis horror / gangster mashup was his last great film, in my opinion anyway. After this he directed the train wreck that was Beverly Hills Cop 3. Anne "La Femme Nikita" Parillaud stars as a sexy vampire who decides a mob war is the perfect cover to eat some "Italian food". Unfortunately she doesn't properly dispose of the mob boss and he becomes a vampire too.
Starring Anthony LaPaglia, Robert Loggia, Don Rickles, and Chazz Palminteri there are also cameos from Tom Savini, Frank Oz, and Linnea Quigley. Quality cinematography and some great shot on location Pittsburgh scenery. There are decent special effects and Parillaud looks good (and gets naked a lot). I saw this movie when it was new, and i have to say it still holds up.
Buy the blu ray
The Mansion of Madness (1973)
Juan López Moctezuma, director of Alucarda, directed this trippy Mexican horror film. The plot is pretty basic, the patients of an insane asylum take over the hospital and run it their way. Its got torture dungeons, strange religious rites and a guy who acts like a chicken and lives in a pen.
I saw one review where the reviewer said it was like Heart of Darkness meets The Island of Dr. Moreau. Its also got a very Fellini / Jodorowsky style to it. And it reminds me a bit of Ken Russel's The Devils. If you like weirdo surrealist art films you may enjoy it, the final scene in the dining room is great with dozens of mental patients all doing their own weird thing at the same time. An examination of madness out of control, it was loosely based on a Poe short story.
Buy the dvd
Thanks for reading