We end our Sunday SHOCK Theater with a real doozie, the 1988 Dutch film The Vansihing (Spoorloos).  Directed by George Sluizer, The Vanishing is regarded as one of the top 10 scariest movies of all time.  What makes The Vanishing so intense is not that it’s got a ton of gore or hoards of unstoppable monsters.  It’s frightening because it’s all too real and it strikes at inherent fears that lurk inside us all. 

Adapted by the novel The Golden Egg, The Vanishing  is about a young Dutch woman named Saskia Wagter (Johanna ter Steege) who disappears from a rest stop along a highway in rural France.  Her lover, Rex Hofmann (Gene Bervoets), cannot accept her disappearance and embarks on an obsessive search for her spanning years.  Soon Rex’s quest becomes laughable to everyone but two people; himself, and the individual who knows where Saskia is.

The writing and performances in this film are top notch, and the last hour of the film will have you on the edge of your seat.  So come join us for a haunting experience that will stick with you for quite some time; this Sunday, 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live….See you there friends…

Last year, a few of us got together and watched an hommage to the blaxploitation horror films Insane in the Brain.  It was by far one of the best times I have had watching a Netflix streaming movie.  Zombies, pimps, big afros, and really bad acting. What else could you want?  Well the truth of the matter is such films actually existed and this week my friends I bring you one of the finest in all its glory: Sugar Hill.  Realease by AIP, makers of such fine classics such as Blackula and Scream Blackula Scream, Sugar Hill tells a familiar story for the times. 

When her boyfriend is brutally murdered by some white gangsters, Sugar Hill decides not to get mad, but BAD!   Calling upon the help of aged voodoo queen Mama Maitresse, Sugar asks her to call upon Baron Zamedi, the Lord of the Dead, for help in gaining a gruesome revenge.  The evil Baron agrees to raise an army of the dead, but in exchange for her very soul.  Will Sugar Hill get revenge on the man?  Or will Baron Zamedi get the last laugh as he drags her soul to eternal damnation?  I don’t know about you sucka, but I can’t wait to join my Robot Panic friends this Sunday at 7:00 PM CST on Xbox Live to see some funky zombie action!!!

I had heard about this movie from G4 a little less than a year ago, so I was somewhat suprised when I found it available for Netflix streaming.  Having heard some good things about the movie, I decided to check it out.  About half way through the film I had to turn it off; NOT because the movie was so terrible that I didn’t want to waste more of my life on it, but because it was one of those films that has to be shared in order to be fully appreciated.  That being said, I am calling for a Robot Panic Netflix Viewing Party this Sunday, September 26th at 7:00 CST to watch this film! 

Bitch Slap is an action adventure starring three incredibly hot women who kidnap a corporate pawnbroker and take him to a remote hideaway in the desert in order to retreive a large sum of money from an underground kingpin.  The movie stars Julia Voth as a stripper named Trixie, Erin Cummins as a female spy, and America Olivio as the tough gal Camero. None of these women are innocent at all and each has a hidden motive to be searching for the cash.  The film is very stylized and has some very obvious throwbacks to the sexploitation films of the 1960s and 70s.  If you are fans of films such as Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, or Dragstrip Girl you will immediately be pleased with Director Rick Jacobson’s attempt here. The acting isn’t nearly as bad as it is in those films, but the over-the-top violence and sexual overtones left my jaw on the floor for the hour or so I watched.

Now this film probably won’t make Mitch’s Summer Film Festival list, nor is it going to win an award of any kind. It is simply, a sexy B-movie in the style of Kill Bill that is best viewed with a group of people so they can make comments about what is going on onscreen. So look for me (Ryker XL) this Sunday at 7:00 PM and we’ll experience Bitch Slap together!

Oh, I am pretty sure the consumption of alcohol before vieweing would enhance the experience greatly. So please, drink up!

October, Halloween, ghosts, and the ZomBOOsical. All these things make a guy like me want to get his scare on, and so off to the Netflix cue I go. 

Based on a recommendation from the Drunken Zombies and the fact that it was the talk of the Toronto Film Festival, Phneri and I decided to check out the indie film DEADGIRL.  At its core, this movie is a zombie movie, but then again it’s not.  It’s disturbing and yet thought provoking, artfully filmed and well thought out; and yet so very hard to watch.  It’s for these reasons that I am torn on recommending this film, but discussing it is a must for zombie fans and so a thread I shall start. 

Ricky and TJ are two very lost teenage losers.  They are ridiculed by their peers, shunned by their parents, and not far from kids I knew in high school. They are representative of the awkwardness of the teen years.  One day they decide to skip class and drink a few beers at an abandoned mental hospital.  They kick over chairs and break some stuff until they venture deep into the basement where they find something unusual.  There, barricaded behind a door is a woman, chained to a table and covered with a plastic sheet.  TJ and Ricky freak out at the sight of what must be a dead girl when they notice that she is still breathing.  Ricky wants to call the cops, but TJ recognizes that there are opportunities to be had with a woman tied to a table and that losers like them should take advantage of that.  Ricky gets pissed and leaves TJ and the mystery girl behind. 

The next day TJ pleads with Ricky to come back to the hospital. There is something he needs to show him, something he can’t explain as Ricky would never believe it.  Ricky reluctantly agrees and back to the Asylum they go.  Here TJ explains that while he was trying to have his way with her, the mystery girl kept trying to bite him, and so he broke her neck.  But there on the table the girl lay, very much alive.  TJ takes out a gun he stole from his Dad and shoots the girl.  Ricky screams in horror only to see that she indeed is still breathing.  TJ explains that she is obviously not human and that they should continue exploring with her.  Ricky agrees, only if TJ can keep this a secret.  The secret eventually gets out, and to the worst person imaginable: Ricky’s teenage crush, JoAnn.  What follows is a twisted tale of a teenage fantasy gone astray and the horrifying mess that is left in its wake. 
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Last night I eagerly logged into to Xbox Live in hopes of getting a Batman Arkham Asylum nightcap when I saw my good friends Skreesha and Phneri online and watching a movie I have never heard of.  I had dabbled with Netflix party, sharing quick 20 minute episodes of “Bullshit” before, but never an entire movie.  So, I sent a quick message to Skreesha asking what the heck they were watching.  Moments later I was invited to watch their movie in a party, with Moe joining soon after.  What followed was 80 minutes of movie fun that has to be one of the better times I have had on Xbox Live. 

The movie we were watching was “Insane in the Brain.” At first one might think that it has something to do with the Cyprus Hill song of the same name; however nothing could be further from the truth.  “Insane in the Brain” is a spoof of both zombie movies and the “blaxploitation” films of the 70s.  For those unfamiliar with these films, they were known for their (mostly) all-black casts, over-the-top blatant sexuality, and bloody violence.  Movies such as “Superfly” and “Foxy Brown” featured tight, scanty outfits , tailored 70′s-style suits, big afros, sex, violence, drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and, let us not forget, the tricked-out “pimpmobiles.”  As popular as they were, they soon faded largely due to pressure by the NAACP.  

It is this cultural icon that director Chad Hendricks pays homage to in this horror-comedy.  The movie opens as several zombies (four to be exact) rise from the grave proclaiming their need for “Brains, more brains.”  The zombies find a party at a pimp’s house and start killing hookers.  It’s then that we realize that these zombies aren’t looking for brains so much as they are looking for a good piece of ass.  As the hooker body count rises, two cops arrive in a black Cadillac to investigate.  Detectives Sloan and Goldie are dressed in iconic 70s garb including platform boots, and a big afro with a comb!  The detectives interrogate the hos and soon realize that they are dealing with a group of horny zombies.  After much consternation, and some beer and weed, they come up with a grand plan to eliminate the menace!  Detective Sloan leans a funky cheer as he, his partner, and a bunch of hos attack the graveyard.  Classic!

 The film was produced for only $10,000; and you can tell by the way they recycle shots and re-use the zombie mask and gloves the monsters wear.  It was very cheesy, but unlike many bad movies, this one never takes itself seriously.  The dialogue is straight 70s and reminiscent of “Undercover Brother.”  The film provides a bucket full of laugh-out-loud moments that were only enhanced by the MST2K banter of our Netflix party.  All of us sat and tried to outdo one another with a witty comment about the dialogue or sparse sets.  In short, it was a simply awesome!

 After the show we all sat and looked for other bad movies that we could enjoy such as “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus,” or “Tokyo Zombie.”  But alas, I fear that whatever we decide to watch next, it will pale in comparison to the experience provided by this film.  So with Halloween approaching, and our need to enjoy all things zombie, grab a friend or two online or in your living room and give “Insane in the Brain” a look.  It’s an experience you won’t soon forget.