Those with mysophobia, look away.
That’s the first thing I can really say about Adam Rifikin’s (billed here as Rif Coogan) 1991 opus, The Dark Backward. Watching this movie, you’ll wonder if Rifkin wasn’t somehow the illegitimate love child of John Waters and David Lynch. The collision of Continue reading
Finally got around to watching Death Race 2050.
SO. MUCH. FUN.
My love of Death Race is a semi-personal tale.
As a young lad, I caught the original Roger Corman classic, Death Race 2000 on TV late one night when my parents weren’t aware. I was floored. By this point, I had already sewn the seeds for a love of weird and
cult films due to a) being a tv baby raised the late 70’s/early 80’s, and b) once I’d moved to the NYC market area, that’s about all they showed on weekends. However, I had not yet seen anything quite this raw. Gore, boobies, etc. Dirty heaven for an 8 or 9 year old. As you might imagine, it left a mark.
Fast-forward to 16 years old, well-versed in cult film, Roger Corman was now as fully engrained on my consciousness as David Continue reading
Yes, I’m well aware that Hawk the Slayer is NOT in fact, a Dungeons & Dragons movie. However, it IS more like actual D&D (at the time at least) than that weird movie we did get. A Wayans? Really? Anyway, this isn’t about that movie where we all secretly hoped we’d get to see a topless Thora Birch riding a dragon. No. This is about something far, far….better?
Hawk the Slayer is one of those odd little films that managed to catch your eye while you were perusing the genre racks at your local video rental store (when they were still around). It had an epic-looking poster that looked more like the popular “Choose Your Own Adventure” style books. You were just drawn to it. I was drawn to it. But then, I was a young, impressionable lad at the time, and just learning the ways of the world. Thankfully, the heyday of Sword & Sandal films was just getting into swing and I had a legion of warriors with magic and sharpened steel to lead me. Hawk, however, was just the door man, a “gateway drug” type of movie….clean enough for kids, dirty enough to give them urges towards long hair, leather pants, and Manowar records.
Originally shown on TV in the UK, Hawk the Slayer was picked up for a limited theatrical distribution in 1980. At that time, yes, movies like this were shown theatrically, it was the end of the “good ol’ days” when just about anything could get a theatrical release. A short while later it would end up on VHS and into my grubby little mitts.
I was completely enamored. Here was everything I wanted to see: Continue reading
May all the gods that may or may not exist and the people who worship or denounce them bless Roger Corman. Continue reading
Nerd-Base 