A Friday the 13th Body Count-A-Thon for Your Viewing Pleasure Need a good Jason fix for Halloween? Check out this chronological sequence of all 160 deaths from the FRIDAY THE 13TH films. (Thanks David Z who also informs us that the great Bruno Mattei is once again playing with zombies!)  ¶ 8:36 PM 0 comments links to this post   

  New Reviews at ER
SINFUL (2006)
eI Independent Cinema rips a story from the headlines in this tale of jealousy and murder starring Misty Mundae and Erika Smith.

DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1979)
When you look up the word "exploitation" in the dictionary don't be surprised to see the poster for this sleazy relic from the late, great 70s. Nicholas Worth steals the show so bad he should be arrested.

VIRGINS FROM HELL (1987)
It's Indonesian exploitation a go-go as Crites checks out this flick and its jam-packed extras disc from the folks at Mondo Macabro.

SATAN'S BLOOD (1977)
As titles go it's a pretty good one. Crites weighs in on whether or not the flick can live up to it.

SCREWED (1998)
Tarantino fave Teruo Ishii directs this tale portraying the painful state of creative existence.

Check 'em all out -- plus hundreds more -- at Exploitation Retrospect, celebrating 20 years of putting the sin back in cinema.  ¶ 4:13 PM 0 comments links to this post   

  DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE (1979)
The phrase "They don't make 'em like that anymore" gets thrown around a lot these days. But in the case of Robert Hammer's late 70s sleazeathon DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE it's 100% accurate.

Beefy character actor Nicholas Worth stars as Kirk Smith, though his character is referred to simply as "The Killer" in the opening credits, a Nam vet psycho creep prowling the streets of Hollywood.

While Smith's victims range from nurses and aspiring models to actresses and other LA castoffs, he's fixated on Dr. Lindsay Gale (Flo Gerrish), a psychiatrist who dispenses advice via a radio show on which Smith is a frequent caller. Stopping at pay phones or dialing her up from fleabag hotels, Worth affects an outrageous Hispanic accent and phones in as Ramon, a disturbed individual capable of pretty much anything.

Reminiscent of other 70s tits and blood thrillers like THE TOOLBOX MURDERS and BLOODSUCKING FREAKS, DON'T ANSWER has little in the way of plot. Smith trawls LA's seamy underbelly, gets close to good looking gals and then murders them. In ways that make their tops fly open and bras come off. Like I said, they don't make 'em like this anymore.

Naturally, The Strangler's killing spree attracts the attention of LA's finest, particularly Hatch (outstanding character actor Ben Frank) and McCabe (good looking but hammy James Westmoreland), who crack down on a porn publisher (Chuck Mitchell of PORKY'S and BETTER OFF DEAD fame), bust a whorehouse and kill their one and only lead in their efforts to flush out the crafty killer.

But forget the by-the-numbers plotline straight out of a bad 70s cop show. This is Worth's show and he steals it. Hell, the guy should've been arrested for what he does to the rest of the actors in this film. His performance is an unforgettable mix of hysterics, accents, power lifting (!), and 42nd Street bravado that's legendary among sleaze film fans. Want proof? Check out our interview with SLEAZOID EXPRESS authors Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford. They go so far as to name the flick one of their faves of the Times Square era.

Trust me... you haven't lived until you've seen a shirtless, beefy Worth sucking back cold brews as he asks aloud, "Are you proud of me Dad? Do I measure up?" It's the 42nd Street equivalent of "You talking to me?"

If you've only seen the flick on VHS or a previous DVD release, do yourself a favor and check this freakshow out. Absurdly affordable, the disc features the original, uncut version of the film as well as a commentary by director/co-writer Hammer. A featurette with Worth finds the actor a shell of his former self, but fondly – and not so fondly – reminiscing about his days on this "tits and ass movie."

Buy at amazon.com.  ¶ 9:51 PM 0 comments links to this post   

  20 Years of ER I meant to post this yesterday but Blogger kept getting hung up so I never got around to it. Though the first issue of EXPLOITATION RETROSPECT officially came out during the summer of 1986, in many ways yesterday represented the real anniversary of the zine that begat the website that begat this blog.

I say that because it was October 26, 1986 when Calkins Newspapers ran an article on the front of their entertainment section with the headline "Exploitation Films Captivate Delran Duo." Written by Lou Gaul, the paper's film critic and entertainment editor, the article brought ER to the attention of many who probably would have never heard about it, got us our first fan mail, and made the whole thing seem much bigger than a zine that Lou Goncey and I came up with while we were playing tennis. (That's me below on the right in my Flock of Seagulls glasses. Yikes!)



Frankly, we didn't even know zines existed at the time but it wasn't long before we were getting copies of other drive-in newsletters like SLIMETIME (the pre-cursor to SHOCK CINEMA), Rick Sullivan's classic GORE GAZETTE and many more like HI-TECH TERROR, WET PAINT, GRINDHOUSE and VIDEOOZE. Though I never met many of the editors of the zines we received, others became good friends and still are to this day.

After two decades I'm proud to say that ER is still going strong, with tens of thousands of visitors to the web site every month and a steady stream of new and classic horror and exploitation DVDs making their way to ER HQ for review. Thanks to all the readers, contributors, filmmakers, musicians, zine editors who have made the last 20 years such fun.  ¶ 9:47 PM 0 comments links to this post   

  RATMAN Star de la Rosa Passes Away
Two-foot-four Nelson de la Rosa, a big fan of Red Sox Pedro Martinez during 2004 championship run, is dead at 38.

Nelson De La Rosa, the world's shortest actor whose friendship with now-Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez made him a Red Sox good luck charm during their 2004 World Series run, died yesterday of unknown causes.

He was 38.

The 2-foot-4 de la Rosa fell ill after arriving in Miami on a flight from Chile, where he'd been working in a circus, but forged on to New York on Saturday then on to Providence, R.I., to visit two of his brothers.

When his condition worsened, he was hospitalized.

De la Rosa befriended Martinez and quickly became a familiar face in the Red Sox clubhouse.

Martinez often sat his Dominican countryman on his shoulders or held him aloft for photographers.

"Oh, geez, this is awful news," said Daniel Mann, 42, an actor and entertainer known as Danoe the Clown, who worked with de la Rosa at events in Providence last summer.

"He was a wonderful guy, playful, kind and a real practical joker," Mann told the Daily News. "He'd go up to a big brute of a guy, give him a little punch in the leg and say 'Hey, you - MOVE! He did it with a smile on his face and everybody had to laugh."

"He was especially wonderful with kids," said Mann. "The guy was about as tall as a 2-year-old and I guess children related to him. They loved to take their pictures with him."

Born and raised in a small village near San Miguel, de la Rosa early in life developed a charismatic personality that drew the attention of moviemakers who starred him in the 1988 Italian horror flick, "The Ratman."

Billed as the world's smallest actor, he later became a regular guest on Venezuela's "Sabado Sensacional" TV show, making him a popular figure in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Spain.

In 1996, he shared lines with Marlon Brando in the Hollywood film, "The Island of Dr. Moreau."

The role is said to be the inspiration for the Austin Powers movie character, "Mini-Me."

De la Rosa's body will be sent back to the Dominican Republic after an autopsy and might be put on display in a museum, his agent said.

The actor is survived by his wife, a 9-year-old son, his mother and five siblings.  ¶ 6:48 AM 0 comments links to this post   

  Artie Fires Up the World Series I was traveling this weekend and missed the beginning of the first game of the World Series. It wasn't until yesterday that I found out that Howard Stern regular Artie Lange opened the Series with a sketch about being an obsessive sports fan. If you missed it, too, here it is...

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  Homage? Rip Off? You Decide... As a graphic designer I'm certainly not above being "inspired" by great design concepts, layouts or ideas that I see in magazines, newspapers, etc. But I hope that when I do take inspiration from something it isn't as blatant a lift as the poster below.

Tomb It May Concern scribe David Z posted a link to a poster for the upcoming ECW pay-per-view event (shown below left) over at the Eurotrash Paradise group. As soon as I saw it I couldn't help but notice the glaring, oh, let's call them "similarities" to the poster for the controversial Christmas-themed slasher flick SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT (below right).

Take a look and decide for yourself...

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  Hear What You've Been Missing As a longtime Howard Stern fan I've been telling anybody that will listen that the show on Sirius is better than ever. Now you can hear what you've been missing. Sirius is offering a free online trial next week to introduce Sirius Internet Radio.  ¶ 9:25 AM 0 comments   

  First Look at GRINDHOUSE Tom Savini. Rose McGowan. Michael Biehn. Michael Parks. Danny Trejo. Need I say more? It's the trailer for the PLANET TERROR segment of GRINDHOUSE...

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  Reliving the Thrill of Discovery
Walking out of Sound Garden, a money vacuum disguised as a Fells Point CD/DVD store, I did a double-take as my eye caught a glimpse of a flier for an upcoming show. Touting a double bill featuring pop-punk legends The Hard-Ons and The Queers I had to get up close just to make sure the show was happening in 2006, not 1996.

Sure enough, the bands were touring the States and making a stop at the Ottobar, one of Baltimore's seemingly thriving rock clubs.

After making several trips to DC's The Black Cat to check out appearances by Radio Birdman, The Fleshtones, Woggles, Mooney Suzuki, and even a resurrected Zombies, Smile Hon editor WP Tandy and I were more than happy to hit up a local club for a show.

I'd seen The Queers many moons ago during one of the many shows attended at Philly hotspots like The Khyber Pass, Dobbs (before it became The Pontiac Grille) or some other joint that's probably gone by now. And for a few weeks I labored under the misconception that this would be my first live Hard-Ons show, though Carbon 14 editor Larry Kay informed me that I'd indeed seen the Aussie punk legends back in the mid-to-late 80s when Philly's notorious Serial Killers opened for them at Revival. Likely in the throes of a potent mixture of Thunderbird and Yuengling Porter my memory of said event is fuzzy at best, possibly non-existent.

Ah, the 80s. And 90s. Good times, good times.

But now it's the whatever we're calling this decade and the time was right saddle up and hit an all-ages show for a rousing trip back in the punk rock time machine.

Then a funny thing happened... Toys That Kill, the second band on the four-band bill, stepped up to the plate and knocked one out of the park, blowing both the Hard-Ons (who phoned in a deplorable performance that emptied the floor like a rancid fart) and Queers off the stage.

Sure, The Queers had the night's most rabid following, a veritable sea of teen- and college-age punks bouncing, bopping and slamming to their endless variations on post-Ramones pop-punk riffs. But it was Toys That Kill that showed the best chops, the most energy with their infectious sound that reminded me of Naked Raygun mixed with the Descendents. Check out some audio files from the band here.  ¶ 12:30 PM 1 comments links to this post