From its humble beginning on KTMA Minneapolis to its final incarnation on the Sci-Fi channel, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 spent ten years teaching us how to enjoy the worst Hollywood has to offer. Unfortunately, after its cancellation by the Sci-Fi channel, MST3K episodes became harder and harder to find. Boxed sets containing four shows each began being released, but it wasn’t until the release of the twentieth anniversary edition that the show really seemed to find its home with Shout Factory.

Shout Factory’s MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Volume XVII (available March 2010) features four of the show’s best episodes, two with MST3K’s first host, Joel Hodgson, and two with Mike Nelson. THE CRAWLING EYE, THE BEATNIKS, THE FINAL SACRIFICE and THE BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z are the features that Joel, Mike and their robot pals lampoon, and each is fun in its own way.

I could talk about the movies themselves, but if they were great films then MST3K wouldn’t have shown them. So instead, I’ll talk about the special features on the boxed set. Each disk comes in its own case that has a re-imagining of the film’s movie poster featuring robot hosts Tom Servo and Crow. Tom and Crow also appear in the computer animation videos that run on each disk’s menu screen. Usually animations on a DVD menu are just there to fill space on the screen while the viewer chooses to press play or chapter select. The menus on the Shout Factory disks, however, are much more entertaining, and feature skits based on the films (I especially like the one on THE BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z).

Each of the disks also features some impressive special features. THE CRAWLING EYE, which was the show’s first episode on The Comedy Channel, has an interview with the Joel Hodgson talking about the early days of the show and that first episode. THE FINAL SACRIFICE features an interview with the film’s star, Bruce J. Mitchell. THE BEATNIKS has a rare convention appearance by Trace Bealieu (the original voice of Crow) and Bill Corbett (Crow 2.0). The two discuss everything from building the show’s unique props to why you should never take your robot puppet home with you! THE BLOOD WATERS OF DR. Z has the fewest unique features with only some promos, trailers and stills. However, the afore mentioned DVD menu skit for this episode helps make up for the lack of other features.

THE MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Volume XVII boxed set is a real treat for fans of the show. The special features, cool packaging, and fun animated menus all complement the entertainment value of the original MST3K episodes the set features. So if you’re wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts… just repeat to yourself “It’s just a show, I should really just relax” and check out the MST3K Vol XVII DVD boxed set from Shout Factory. But remember to pick up some wine to go with all the cheese in these films!

Diving into the world of independent cinema is a veritable game of roulette, you are almost always unsure the outcome of the game but you always hope for the best. Some times you win and some times you lose, but you enjoy the vice because of that thrill in not knowing. In my time writing for Rogue Cinema, as well as at my own website, I have learned that you ultimately can't judge anything you receive on the basis of its outward appearance. In the case of The Waterhole, which I was thoroughly unaware of before popping it into the DVD player, I was completely oblivious to just what this little number might hold in store for me. Granted, I had the film's website via an e-mail and I could have watched the trailer but where would the thrill in that be? The minimal artwork gave the impression that this movie did indeed have something to do with a bar of some kind, so after seeing how generally young the cast were in the opening seconds my mind immediately went to the "college comedy", but that's about as distant a staple as you could possibly get with The Waterhole. You can't judge a film by first appearances and that remained abundantly clear to me as this intense and emotional dramatic film began to play out in front of my eyes. The Waterhole is a comedic drama that deals in the failures of life as much as its successes, and although it's not a perfect flick by any stretch of the imagination, it is very well made and features some of the best performances I've seen on the truly independent circuit in quite some time.

Miller (played by Patrick J. Adams) is your average, directionless, twenty-something who spends the majority of his time down at the local bar. He hangs out with his two best friends and has a good time watching life go by. When he discovers that his girlfriend of quite some time has been cheating on him, he breaks it off with her and sinks into a solid state of depression. Spending every hour fighting against sobriety, he starts to spread his bitter attitude to anyone willing to listen to his complaints. One of his friends has recently bought the bar that they spend their time at and his other buddy has decided to propose to his longtime girlfriend, seeing their happiness just progresses Miller's attitude. When the trio's good friend, who has been missing for several years, Cracker (Joey Klein) just walks back into their lives all of a sudden - he brings with him a "anything can happen" dynamic. However, will it be for the better or worst?

Director Ely Mennin isn't exactly a new kid on the block within the film industry, working for over a decade on various sets in various positions, he as well as his cast and crew bring with their film a lot of mileage; as well as ability. The performances, from all members of the cast, are universally on the good side. There's really not a single person here who didn't at least come off looking "good", which is something that tends to be more of an exception within the indie film community, rather than the rule. Standing out is Patrick J. Adams, as our leading man, who confronts his own emotional demons as well as the turmoil of the end of a relationship with a girl he truly loved. Similar to Jon Favreau's Swingers in that sense, but with Adams coming off as infinitely less whiny. I also really enjoyed the character of Cracker, played to perfection by Joey Klein. The character brings with him both chaos as well as redemption, and whether our characters are willing to listen up to that redemption is something entirely up to them. The characters, and the situation found in this script carry an iteration of emotional depth that continually spirals into something very touching and inspired.

Shot on what is no doubt a very modest budget, The Waterhole is a very well made feature. It looks crisp, clean and very polished. It at times follows a relatively conventional line that it never seems to tread across. Where you expect it to be more brash and daring, coming from the world of independent film, it doesn't leap out to you. However, after all is said and done, I commend it for not being conventional and force feeding us the ending that you would have expected. This is where the project really takes its stand. It is ambiguous, but strong and I commend the filmmakers for that. I do recommend The Waterhole for fans of more serious dramatic work and those wanting something to sink their teeth into, from a characters emotional level. I think there are some names involved in this film that may break out into bigger things within the next few years! You can read more about the feature from the website

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Massacrator... do I really even need to go further into detail? The name alone writes the review. You take a "Massacre" and you mix it with "The Terminator" and you have Massacrator. A four minute short film, it's not something I can really dissect for you without giving away the entire plot. However, I will give you the general idea: taking a cue from The Terminator, we find a tough guy transported to our reality (kinda...) wearing no clothes. He finds a biker in an alley and immediately punches his head completely off. With his foe decapitated, he takes the biker's clothes and motorbike and sets off to find the person he has been sent to "terminate". The target turns out to be a young woman with an attitude and a love for exercising. When The Massacrator breaks into her apartment, she flees the scene however and stumbles upon the grave of Elvis, who rises from the dead! He then uses his magic powers of rock & roll to cause his motorbike to rise from its grave right next to his. Now this young woman is on the lamb with the King of Rock, will he be able to save her?

It's a short that is as crazy as it sounds, maybe even more-so. Detailing all of that wild stuff mentioned above, but done so in a hyper-kinetic and adrenaline fueled high speed mix of editing and gonzo photography. Within the first 35 seconds of the short, we're given our first decapitation. From there, the movie goes into a high speed pursuit that lasts for the remainder of the short. A strange silent film with only music blaring over the audio, we watch as The Massacrator drives his stolen motorbike from the freeway into the house of our Sarah Connor-esque character in 0.5 seconds. It is as if Japanese director Shinya Tsukamoto got together with (director of Six-String Samurai) and the two decided to make something as wild and as violent as they possibly could. It certainly succeeds in doing just that. A strange, wild and fun ride. If you get the chance to check it out, take the four minutes and enjoy it for the insane burst of cinematic energy that it is. I sincerely hope that we get to see more from director Pierre Ayotte!

What Into the Pit: The Shocking Story of Deadpit.com will mean for viewers who haven't spent a lot of time in the world of internet based film journalism, might actually be vastly different than my own personal experience with this particular documentary. Into the Pit for me as a viewer, was a lot like taking a look in the mirror and seeing myself now and actually what I hope and aspire to be. Not necessarily in any kind of social form, but The Creepy Kentuckian and Uncle Bill are far more tuned into the film community than I have ever been. However, that is changing as of recent. I've been involved in my own podcast, I've been pursuing interviews and I see how the guys from deadpit.com do these things now. So I see myself, that brazen fan from a small town that generally doesn't share any kind of similar interest with those around me - then I see these two guys doing essentially the same thing that I have been doing for the better part of a decade now and they come from a similar background. When the title refers to the "Shocking" story of deadpit.com, I think it refers mostly to their success that they have found and the massive interviews that they have been able to pull off. However, ultimately it's just an amazing story that these two guys from this incredibly small town were both such huge horror fans and have went on to do such big things within the community. As someone from both the south and a small town, I can tell you that meeting other horror or cult movie fans is not an easy thing. In all of my life I have only met one other film geek at this point and it was in passing. So, I have to agree, that the circumstances came together that these two gentlemen could meet - it truly does make for a shocking story.

Into the Pit tells the story of two Kentucky based horror fans who started their own internet radio show. Going by the alias of The Creep Kentuckian (Wes Vance) and Uncle Bill (Aaron Frye), their show has a very down-at-home appeal to it. The two Kentuckians share very thick southern accents which have endeared then with their audience and have made their unlikely success story all the more amazing. With simply a love for horror binding these two friends, they took what was a small time production and gathered attention from the entire horror community as they scored interviews with such high profile names as George Romero, John Carpenter and many, many more. The two gather together on a weekly basis in order to record the radio show, but tensions have been rising lately due to Aaron's goal of becoming a substance abuse counselor which is steadily drawing closer. Wes wants to continue on their path to success but Aaron feels the urge to actually do something with his life that will ultimately make a difference. As much as he loves horror, he questions the importance of what they do.

Before popping in the DVD, I was vaguely familiar with Deadpit and had already seen the trailer for the film through their website, but I can't say I knew exactly what I was getting into. From the starting point, I was surprised by the quality of the production. Even after seeing clips from the trailer, I think I had relatively low expectations for this. An indie documentary based around a website and radio show? Surely this will be a cheap, shot on low-rent equipment, fluff piece meant to blow up the website or the creators egos. That is not the case at all with Into the Pit. For one, the documentary looks GREAT and comes across as very slick. Using horror clips, such as those from Friday the 13th, and digital effect shots - the documentary is far more polished than you could even expect. Also, aside from focusing on the origins of this website and how fun these two guys are (and believe me, they are characters!) there's the interesting dynamic going on between Wes and Aaron due to Aaron's eventual goal of being a substance abuse counselor. There's actually a story going on with these two and it's nice that the film focuses on that, rather than just being a generic "behind the scenes". You could argue that ultimately, the "story" seems a bit unresolved, but I think the trip that the film takes you on is ultimately the greatest reward you can gather from the story. That two guys from this rural southern area could not only discover filmmakers such as Lucio Fulci and Rugero Deodato, but go on to become such large voices in helping to get the publicity out there about their work - it's a great story for horror fans!

Featuring interviews with Lloyd Kaufman, Tiffany Shepis, Uwe Boll, Betsy Palmer, Kevin S. Tenney, Harry Manfredini and PJ Soles. Also featuring cameo appearances with John Landis and Kane Hodder, this feature is stacked with celebrity commentary. So, for those not interested even yet, you get to hear Uwe Boll talk an incredible amount of smack on his critics once more, which as you may already know is always pretty hilarious! Into the Pit, regardless of your experience with this particular radio show - is a thoroughly entertaining documentary. It's slick, looks great and comes across as being fair with its subjects but not to the point of being fake or phony. It was such a fun picture and it certainly gets my seal of approval. In fact, I've been touting its graces since first seeing it with all of my podcasting friends. Definitely check this one out!

From director M. Legend Brown and Poor Child Films comes this somber 15 minute short that covers varying directions within the realm of adolescence. A simple film with aspirations for high drama, Arthur, Autumn & A Violin is about a young girl named Autumn who is rebelling against her father and refuses to speak in front of him. So, every day she goes down to the business district to play the violin with Arthur, an elderly black man who guides her in playing the violin. The two sit outside of buildings and play for money so that Arthur can survive. However, Autumn's father hates Arthur and will do anything to put a stop to this situation and and hear his daughter's voice once again. Arthur, having moved away from his daughter's home and residing on the street, thinks the world of the young Autumn and looks to help her express herself through music. With her father becoming more relentless in his question to end this relationship, what will it take to break Autumn's silence and what will bring each of these families back together?

Although Arthur, Autumn... may not be an overly complex film, I do have to credit the filmmakers for doing a fine job in crafting an independent short that doesn't look "cheap" by conventional standards. It is shot on digital video apparently, but it looks absolutely gorgeous in the levels of detail that the camera picks up. There are also a few stylish and interesting framing choices made throughout that ultimately give it a nice visual appeal and aesthetic. I think if there's an issue I have with the short, it's that the time we spend with these characters doesn't seem long enough to really get inside of their emotional state. I do think that it can be done in this format, however the way the project breaks down its as if the drama is heightened to such a degree at the very start that it ultimately implodes upon itself rather than explodes with the audience. There is a big payoff towards the end that is supposed to feel like a moment of great relief as we see the end result of the drama that came before, but the establishment of these characters as real human beings and their burdens just seems a little forced. The performances were not terrible, but if maybe the father character was tuned down a little at the start - his gradual movement into obsession could have come across as more rewarding.

It isn't a bad short mind you, it certainly shows some promise on the part of the director and I'd say that many pieces of the cast really worked in their roles. I particularly enjoyed the young actress who played Autumn and the older gentleman who played Arthur. These two had chemistry working together and really helped seal the project together. The sequence between Arthur and his daughter where he tentatively talks about being a part of her life again is also another really solid scene of dramatic content.

In the end Arthur, Autumn & A Violin is a step in an interesting direction for the filmmakers and works as a nice experiment in both drama and crafting a visually engaging film. I'd be very interested in checking out more from the director! You can read more about his work at the official site http://www.poorchildfilms.com.

Joe (Philip Denver) is a screenwriter who's had his work stolen out from under him and is then set up for a murder he didn't commit, all by a producer named Harry Goldsman, who he just happens to look almost exactly alike.  Joe decides to take revenge by kidnapping the producer, assuming his identity and bringing some quality and integrity back to the Hollywood film industry, while at the same time, living the life he feels has been stolen from him.  A life of money, importance and recognition...even if it is in someone else's name.  Unfortunately for Joe however, Harry's Russian auto mechanic and his right hand man at the office, Jeff Mannings (Cameron Haines), both sense that Harry doesn't seem like himself, and after a bit of spying, come to realize...they were right, which leads to a conclusion where at last, all is revealed.

This film was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but mostly I found it to be generally rather entertaining, and at times, even amusing.  Joe / Harry (Philip Denver) did a great job playing dual roles, even though he did play them in a rather similar manner.  The rest of the cast was equally good, and while there was an air of cheesiness about it all, it only served to add to the fun / noirish nature of the film.  Yes, this film was intended to be a modern film noir type of a film, but I actually think it would have worked even better had it been converted to black and white and done a bit more in that style.  The story elements are there to have pulled that off without trying to make it seem like it was trying to be a full on retro style noir film.  It could have worked quite well.  Still, it works pretty well as it is too, even though there are a few problems here and there.

One of the more notable characters in the film is the Russian auto mechanic Boris Mishken (Seth Correa).  He does the accent rather well and comes off as believable.  A bit cheesy, but still believable.  You could almost imagine that this guy was in the Russian mob before he came to America to open a garage.  The character was fun and well played, and while his part in the story didn't make a whole lot of sense, it didn't really matter all that much because it was a cool character.  I say his part didn't make a lot of sense because he was apparently tight with Harry Goldsman.  Now really, how many people are actually tight with their auto mechanic to the point where the mechanic would go into spy mode to find out what's going on?  Harry struck me as the kind of a guy who had no patience for the peons who he felt were beneath him, so I can't see him being all that tight with an auto mechanic.

What I liked about this film is that the story sort of winds and weaves its way around in a somewhat slow but methodical manner, and yet, it never becomes boring.  It almost seems like it could sort of tip over that edge into the void of boringness (is that actually a word?) now and then, but never quite does.  It manages to stay at least somewhat entertaining throughout, with some aspects of the film being more entertaining than others.  For instance, one thing I found particularly amusing was that the photo Joe had of Harry had been accidentally reversed when it was processed, so Joe ended up piercing the wrong ear when he went to add an earring to match the one Harry always wore.  That in and of itself was funny, but when he went to Harry's house and met up with his drunken wife, she noticed that the earring was in the wrong ear and started giving him crap about it being the "gay" ear, which I found highly amusing.

Technically, the film was ok.  It wasn't spectacular, but it wasn't bad either.  The visual quality could have been better, and yet many of the shots were nicely set up and well executed.  The sound quality was decent throughout much of the film, and yet there were spots here and there where it could have been better.  The lighting was generally good, with all the scenes clearly visible, which had the unfortunately side effect of making the viewer realize how the visual quality of the film could have been better.  It's not horrible by any means, but yes, it could have been better if they had used a different camera.  The editing kept things moving along at a nice pace.  The film never dwells on any one scene long enough to become boring or to feel like it's starting to drag, which is good.

Overall, when you look at the problems and compare it to the quality of the story and the overall entertainment value, the result clearly falls on the side of my being able to recommend this film.  The story is rather fun and the threads of it all wind up in the same knot at the end.  Could it have used a bit more work here and there?  Sure it could have.  Does it really matter?  Not really.  As I've said many times, the real question at the end of any film is, "Did I enjoy it?", and the answer in this case is a definite yes.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out the film's website at http://www.deathofhollywood.com.

Brandi (Kelly-Ann Tursi), a 20 year old girl who's sick of being broke and has dreams of making it big as a real estate investor, meets a guy named Chi Trang (Paul D. Nguyen) who gets her into the one hour fantasy business.  The service provided is one hour of anything you want as long as it doesn't involve her getting nude, having sex or kissing.  Other than that, she'll act out whatever fantasy the customer wants for $150 an hour.  This involves some incredibly bizarre stuff, and having to deal with that, plus the pressures put on her by her manager / friend / pimp Chi Trang, have basically turned her into an emotionally dead and highly frustrated person who just wants to save up enough money to get into real estate investing so she can escape this life and move on to something better.  Throw in a guy who tried to stab her and ended up killing her manager, and another guy who totally scams her and takes all of her savings, and it's really surprising that she didn't just commit suicide.

This film says it's based on a true story.  I'm not sure how accurate it is in relation to the real story since I don't know the actual story its based on, but it's really unimportant in terms of this review, as I'm only going to be talking about this particular film and not making that real story / film adaptation comparison.

It's been a week or two since I've watched this film, so I've had time to reflect on it some since then, which have led me to some conclusions about certain characters, and left me with questions about others.  Sometimes, as with a film like this one, you need that cushion of time in between the viewing and the writing of the review, so as to properly assess what you've seen.  So what is my conclusion?  Well...

The girl who played Brandi, Kelly-Ann Tursi, played the character as basically emotionally dead.  The only emotions she seemed to have left were frustration and despondency.  While she did a great job playing the character like this, it also made it very hard to actually care about the character.  She was so one-dimensional and almost robotic that it was hard to really identify with her or to even care much about what happened to her.  I wanted to see some spark of humanity there that would make her struggle for a better life inspiring and would really make you pull for her to succeed, but I just didn't see it, and as such, I didn't care.  Now mind you, I'm only talking about the character itself here, not about the actress who played her, as I'm assuming this is how it was supposed to be played.  Kelly-Ann Tursi did a fine job of presenting the character as it was intended to be presented and I have no complaints about her performance at all.  I just wished there had been something underneath in the character itself.  Some spark of life that made me want to care.  It just wasn't there at all.

I thought the relationship between Brandi and Chi Trang was rather interesting.  There was a level of friendship there, and of him caring about her well being and making sure she was safe, but there was also that aspect of the pimp / whore relationship where he'd get angry if she didn't take good care of a client.  He had a dream as well.  He wanted to make it big in the music industry, and was going to use the money she made for them to achieve that.  The relationship was complex, and actually, I thought it worked quite well in the context of the story.

Joe Morgan Woodward, who played Roger / Infant Man, was another notable character.  This guy had some serious issues, and every time he was shown having his fantasies fulfilled, they became more and more bizarre.  Wanting to be treated like a pretty little girl, wanting to be treated like a baby, wanting to be forced to eat a sandwich out of a dog bowl after Brandi urinated on it, etc...  He handled the character amazingly well, and it eventually got to a point where it would make your skin crawl every time you saw him in a new scene.

Joe Luckay played Bobby Richards, who at first seemed to be a mild mannered and even a rather shy kid from Montana.  What he really was though, was a scumbag con artist / thief with a gambling problem who took advantage of Brandi's desire to find a better life away from everything she was going through.  He seemed like a nice kid, but when he turns and you find out who he really is, you end up feeling like you could put a bullet in his head with no regrets whatsoever.  Joe really played the character well to have pulled off that sort of a turn, and deserves kudos for his performance.

While the story in this film is generally solid and coherent, there were some things that either confused me or just flat out didn't work for me.  Most of them were minor and not worth mentioning, but the one big problem I had were the scenes in the diner.  Brandi couldn't manage to sleep at home, so she would go to this diner at night and pay them twenty bucks or whatever to hang out in a booth and fall asleep there.  The diner's owner couldn't stand having her around and only tolerated her there at night, but wanted her gone by the time he came in in the morning.  Now a few things bothered me with this part of the film.  The owner's animosity toward her is never really explained, nor is her relationship with the waitress who works there at night, who also seems to not give two squats about her but tolerates her anyway, and yet, they seem to have some sort of a friendship or something on some level.  That waitress character is never really explained in any real way, and while she seems as emotionally dead as Brandi, Brandi seems to care about her for some reason.  There really should have been better story development there to explain what was going on with this aspect of the film and the characters involved.  It all just ended up rather confusing and didn't seem to have much of a point to it other than adding two more crappy people to the story for her to deal with and to give her a place to crash at night.

Another smaller problem I had was the fact that Brandi, both emotionally and personality-wise, was little more than a cardboard cut out.  I mean just totally flat and emotionless.  So why were people paying $150 to spend an hour with someone like that?  How could she have any return customers?  It would seem to me that if you're going to be in that business, you'd have to act like you actually wanted to be there fulfilling the customer's fantasies rather than acting either like you were pissed off about something, or like you'd rather be anywhere else, doing anything else.  I certainly wouldn't pay that much to have someone act like that toward me.  Hell, I could get that on any street corner for free.

Something else that bothered me was that I couldn't figure out why the hell Brandi was keeping the money she saved in an envelope in her apartment.  She was big on getting into real estate investing, which meant she had to have even a little bit of business sense, and yet she couldn't even open a savings account?  That would have been the first thing I'd have done.  Keeping the money in her apartment made no sense at all.  Still, if it was based on a true story and that's what happened in the real story...it's still dumb, but I can understand why it was like that in the film.  It also had to be like that so she could get it stolen later on in the movie, but still...dumb!

As far as the technicals go, the film was very well made.  The camera shots were nicely set up, the sound was generally good, although it could have been better in parts of the diner scenes, and the editing moved the story along at a nice pace, never dwelling longer on any particular scene more than was necessary.  The lighting was good as well.  Even in the darker scenes, the action was clearly visible, and at no time did I have to wonder what was going on in the dark.

One Hour Fantasy Girl is a drama with some twisted elements to it, and as such, will be more appreciated by people who like those kinds of films.  It does have some problems, but looking at the film as a whole, both good and bad, I don't have any problem recommending it, albeit with the caveat that it does have a few issues with the characters and story.  While I may seem to have put a lot of emphasis on these problems in the review, truth be told, most of them would end up being minor for your average viewer.  As a result of being a movie reviewer, I tend to watch films with a more critical eye, so I pick up on the problems more than a casual viewer would.  The casual viewer probably wouldn't even notice or think about much of what I've mentioned here, but more critical viewers would.  So if you're a casual viewer, this is a film definitely worth checking out.  For the more critical viewer, you'll notice the problems, as I did, but I would submit to you that it's still worth seeing.  There are some very interesting aspects to the story that run at a deeper level and will make the film worth your time to see.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, check out the film's website at http://www.onehourfantasygirlmovie.com.

Christine Nguyen is back as Bikini Jones, in the latest soft core sex comedy from Retromedia, Bikini Jones and the Temple of Eros.  In this latest film in a series of sex comedies that seem to be pouring out of Retromedia lately, Bikini Jones makes a deal with the CIA to track down a golden idol which will lead to the land of Moronica and the Temple of Eros, where there exists a tiara that will make anyone who wears it, the Queen of Moronica.  Attempting to thwart her in her efforts is Evilla Cruella (Penthouse Pet of the Year, Heather Vandeven).  She wants the Tiara for herself so she can become Queen.  Evilla is assisted by her right hand man Drago (Frankie Cullen) and a buxom red headed spy named Carol (Rebecca Love).  On Ms. Jones' side, she's aided by super spy Mark X (Tony Marino), and an official in the CIA named Mr. Martin (Ted Newsom).  Brynn Tyler and Jayden cole also make minor appearances, but are just in it for one sex scene each and aren't actually notable characters. (Though they did a great job!)

This, like the other Retromedia films I've reviewed recently, Bikini Frankenstein and Twilight Vamps, is just a plain ol' fun movie.  The humor is stupid (which is why it's funny), the acting is cheesy (which is why it's so great), the girls are hot (which is always awesome) and there's a sense of fun that permeates every aspect of the film.  What I really love about these films also is that the production quality is absolutely wonderful on them.  Everything from wardrobe to set design to the CGI work all look great.  The camera work is highly professional looking and the sound and music are always spot on.  It's pretty common to think of sex comedies as just cheap, low rent productions that only exist to show sex scenes and women's breasts, but these films really break that mold, and anyone who goes into them thinking that way, is going to be in for a really pleasant surprise.

Something else I really love about these films is that they have a running cast of regulars.  Christine Nguyen, Frankie Cullen, Tony Marino and Ted Newsome have been in all of them so far. (I have their latest one coming for review as well, but I haven't seen the cast list for it yet.)  Seeing these same faces in every film creates a sense of familiarity and makes you smile as you discover what characters they're playing this time around.  They become comfortable staples of the films, and you really miss them when they're not there.  For example, Brandin Rackley (who is just heart stoppingly gorgeous) was in the first two releases, and I really loved her acting.  Her character in the Bikini Frankenstein was incredibly fun and she played it amazingly well, however, she wasn't in this film.  After seeing so many of the familiar old regulars returning, I was disappointed that she wasn't in it.  I was kind of surprised they didn't use Jayden Cole to play the role of Evilla Cruella as well.  I think she'd have been great in that part, especially since she's so tall and imposing.  Still, Heather Vandeven did a great job in the role and I look forward to seeing her, Rebecca Love and Christine Nguyen in Retromedia's next release, Housewives From Another Planet, which I'll be reviewing right here in next month's issue.  I must say, I'm really looking forward to it!

To say that I've thoroughly enjoyed this new batch of films from Retromedia would be an understatement.  Why?  Because they're more than just sex.  There's actually an entertaining film going on between the sex scenes, which are enjoyable in and of themselves.  Like all of these films, the fast forward button is your friend.  If you're in the mood for the sex scenes, great!  Be sure to watch them.  The women are hot and the scenes are very professional and well shot.  If you're more in the mood for the story and want to skip the sex scenes, then by all means fast forward through them.  They really have no bearing on the story at all.  It's kind of like being at a buffet.  You can pick one item, the other item, or load your plate with both if you should be so inclined.  No matter what you choose though, you're definitely going to enjoy it, and I'm very happy to enthusiastically recommend not only this film, but the other releases, Bikini Frankenstein and Twilight Vamps as well.  It's great to see films like this breaking the stereotype, and hopefully we'll see a lot more of these entertaining gems coming out of Retromedia in the future.

There's no information about this film yet on the Retromedia website, but if you'd like to check out their website anyway, head on over to http://www.retromedia.org.

A group of college kids go on a spring break camping trip, only to be stalked and killed one by one by a creature straight out of Irish mythology...a banshee.  The creature can make them hallucinate, appearing as anyone it's seen, and it can kill with its shrieking howl or it's unbelievable speed and strength.  In an effort to survive, the remaining campers make their way to a rural farmhouse where a guy and his nephew are holed up.  The creature already killed the guy's wife.  They had attempted to get away, but the creature appeared as the wife in front of the car, causing the man to grab the wheel and force them off the road, causing a severe crash.  They've been sealed up in the farm house ever since just trying to survive until they can figure out a way to either get away or to summon help.  Now, the the remaining college kids have arrived looking for shelter, and they must all work together if they're going to survive.  But will they?

I've looked around at some different reviews and ratings for this film.  I had kind of figured what I'd find, but I was curious, so I checked it out.  Not surprisingly, the general concensus on this film is that it's not very good.  On IMDB it only has a 3.4 out of 10 rating.  Other ratings I saw for it were similar.  However, I'm going to buck this trend.  I've never been afraid of disagreeing with the crowd and their general opinions, so that's exactly what I'm going to do here.  I actually liked this movie.  Now mind you, I didn't say I loved it, but I did like it, and I certainly liked it enough to recommend it.  So what did I see that others missed?  Well...

I guess I'll start with the characters.  The college kids were all basically throw away,  cardboard cutout characters, except for one.  Lake (Tony Walcott) was actually a really fun character.  He was like the comedy relief, and he had one of the funniest lines I've heard in a movie in a long time, which I won't spoil here.  The uncle, Jack (Kevin Shea) was also a great character, and his nephew Rocker (David McCarthy) wasn't bad either.  The uncle had a bit of eccentricity of about him, while his nephew was rather stoic and played it low key and rather normal, even though he was a rock musician.  Still, despite most of the characters being throw aways, they weren't generally as annoying or as two-dimensional as the characters we so often see in films like this.

Then there's the monster.  It was mostly CGI, but it was really well done and looked great.  The ways it would stalk and kill its prey were creative and really added a huge level of tension to the film.  I wish more films had monsters that added this level of suspense and terror to the story.

Something else that really struck me as well was the set design and costuming.  Everything and everyone looked exactly the way they should have looked.  I'm not sure how big of a consideration it was in the grand sceme of getting this film made, but whoever did the set design and wardrobe did a great job.  The film was dark and suspenseful and everything visually just seemed to fall into place.

The production quality was all quite good as well.  The camera work was great, the sound was clear and understandable throughout, the CGI and other visuals were all very well done and the editing kept everything moving along nicely, without getting too hung up on any particular aspect of the story.

So basically, I liked it.  I know a lot of people didn't care for it, but I did.  I almost wonder sometimes if people who are really into horror almost become snobbish about it.  They have these pre-conceived notions about what makes a great horror film, and they're so busy looking for those elements that they forget to just relax and enjoy the film on its own merits, and then when the film doesn't meet up to their standards, they actively go out of their way to tell everyone it wasn't very good.  I would never even consider painting all horror fans with such a wide brush, but I would be willing to bet that a certain small percentage of the horror buffs out there fall into that category, which is why films like this have a hard time getting a fair shake.

This film was shown on Chiller, which for those who don't have it, is basically the SyFy channel for horror.  Was it made specifically for that channel like the SyFy original movies are made for the Syfy channel?  I have no idea.  I think the general concensus on the Syfy original movies is that many of them are cheap and sucky with crappy CGI, some are pretty decent and a few here and there have even managed to be really good.  This movie is similar in quality to those SyFy originals, but is actually better in many ways.  It has that kind of a feel, to it, but the overall quality is really very good.

With any film, the only thing that really matters is, did you enjoy it, or do you feel like you wasted your time.  It could be filled with technical problems or other issues, but in the final conclusion, all that really matters is wether or not you actually enjoyed watching it.  Setting aside everything else, the enjoyment factor is what tips the scales on whether a film can be recommended or not.  In this case, I happened to enjoy this film quite a bit, and I have no problem at all recommending it.  I think if I was to give it a rating out of 10, like the IMDB rating, I'd put it at around a 7.5.  It's not perfect, and many of the characters could have been made more interesting, but for what it is, it certainly deserves a better rating than the 3.4 it has on there currently.

If you'd like to find out more about this film, you can check out its MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/bansheemovie.

Brimstone Media is a company that was founded by Kevin J. Lindenmuth in the early nineties.  While the folks at Brimstone cut their teeth on low-budget horror indies, the last few years has seen the company go more “legit” by producing several serious documentaries for viewing on PBS as well as other channels.  But now, Brimstone Media is again delving back into independent horror films with an ambitious slate of products in both pre-production as well as post-production.  Twisted Tales was Brimstone’s second full-length feature way back in 1994.

Twisted Tales is a mystery/horror anthology composed of three film shorts.  Lindenmuth gives us a very creative “wraparound” story; instead of a silly host popping up with stupid narration to tie the stories together, and instead of using one theme for each story, this time the same location is used to tie the various stories together.  Each story begins with a year (1991, 1990, and 1989) and tells the story of various residents that occupied the same apartment.  Because each main character eventually dies, the apartment is able to be turned over rather quickly, apparently with no one the wiser that this particular location is rather unlucky…

The first story, “Nothing but the Truth,” is directed by Rita Klus.  It is about Joey, a blustery liar and braggart that can’t help embellishing every story he tells.  We all know (and hate) characters like these, but Joey’s embellishments become so bad that they actually come alive.  So when Joey is mugged by one lone guy, he can’t help but tell his friends that there were three muggers and one had a baseball bat.  Leaving the bar after telling his story, lo and behold, he is attacked by the same three muggers he created in his story.  This time the beating is so bad that Joey tells his friends that there were eight muggers.  After his friends leave, he walks downstairs only to be confronted by his imaginary muggers.  He manages to lock himself in the closet where he realizes his mistake and starts trying to convince himself that no one is outside the closet door.  As the beating on the door slowly ceases, Joey is relieved to realize he has a unique ability to change his future… or does he?

Reminiscent of Cronenberg’s “The Brood” (where mental patients created physical manifestations of their anger), this short isn’t too bad.  Every viewer has had to deal with a “Joey” and we can easily identify with the character.  It helps that the character is played perfectly by Freddie Ganno, who creates a balance between Joey’s boisterous and obnoxious machismo and his lovability as a loud but ultimately lovable lunk.  While the plot was fairly predictable, the ending had a nice little twist to it I wasn’t counting on.  There are two main problems with this short.  First, there isn’t much action.  There are a couple of muggings, but they are quickly over with Joey not putting up much of a fight.  That leaves a lot of talking in the ensuing 20 minutes and a great deal of whining by Joey himself and the putzes that still hang out with him.  I also think the script could have fleshed out Joey’s power (or problem, depending on how you look at it) a bit more.  It might have been more fun if Joey had embellished some other stories that then came true.  I think the script had a great deal of potential, but unfortunately had to be shortened in order to fit into the anthology format.

The second story, entitled “The Shooting” is directed by Mick McCleery and is a mystery about a teen named Tommy who kills his abusive brother only to have the brother to continue the abuse from beyond the grave.  The ghost pushes and prods Tommy to the point that Tommy pulls his gun in front of a cop, forcing the cop to shoot and kill him, thereby allowing the ghost to have his revenge.  Of course, there are some psychological aspects to this story, namely the question of whether there really is a ghost or has Tommy created the “ghost” as a coping mechanism for the murder he committed.  The answer is never made clear, which I think is the strong point of this film short.  The viewer must make his or her own decision as to what actually happened, and either explanation works well.  Again, there isn’t much action and this talky little short comes across more as a character study than a scary story.

The final section of this anthology is directed by Kevin Lindenmuth himself and is called “Hungry Like a…Bat?”  The story involves a young man who was unfortunate enough to be bitten by both a vampire and a werewolf on the same night.  Since he has both sets of characteristics, neither vampire nor werewolf will have him, so he is forced to live on society’s fringes.  It is also unfortunate that he happens to be a nice guy, so it isn’t fun for him to kill.  Needless to say, he doesn’t get out much and is basically a loner.  Enter the lovely new neighbor who moves in next to him and seductively begins to woo him.  He tries to resist, but finally succumbs, only to find out that she’s a demonic succubus out to kill him.  But the tables are turned on her because she didn’t realize she was attacking a member of the undead!

This final tale is told with a great deal of humor, which is done fairly well.  Lindenmuth realized that he didn’t have the budget to create the Next Great Werewolf Transformation, so he wisely turned to humor, using rubber werewolf and gorilla masks and hands, giving the film a cheesy 50’s sci-fi feel.  There is also some cartoonish blood and even some fairly stylish black-and-white flashbacks that reminded me of Romero’s Martin (also used in the second story as well).

Overall, this isn’t a bad sophomore effort.  The acting ranges from very good to pretty terrible and the film suffers from some fairly pedestrian plotting, but while I’ve seen better, I’ve also seen much worse.  It is clear that these filmmakers have talent and I’m interested enough to look up some of their later efforts to see how they developed.  Some of the actresses have gone on to do some television work.

There is also a terrible (and terribly funny) theme song that is so bad it’s good and will give any viewer a belly laugh—kind of reminds me of the theme song for the original The Blob.

If you like cheesy horror or you’re a sucker for anthologies, you might want to give this one a try.  You can rent it from some of the larger online stores or you can purchase directly from Brimstone Media’s website, which can be accessed by clicking here.