by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 02.05.10 in All Horror Films > Comedy > Exploitation

Street Trash represents the height of horror absurdity, a film in which almost every taboo is not only explored, but satirised. Few horror films have such a brazen attitude to such subject matter as rape, castration, and out of control vagrancy. The vagrant community the film depicts is a vile cesspool. We feel not an ounce of sympathy for the street trash of the title. They are either homicidal, rapists, or thieves. …

by: Letitia
Posted on 01.22.10 in All Horror Films > Exploitation > Torture

It takes a lot for a horror movie to disgust me. I like gore. I like blood. I like violence. I think that gore and blood and violence satisfy a human need to see what’s really happening inside our bodies, to see what’s taboo.  But to this day, Deadgirl is one of the few horror movies that has truly disgusted me. Maybe this disgust could have worked for the film, could have …

by: NYCalling
Posted on 01.15.10 in All Horror Films > Cult/Erotic > Exploitation

Made only, oh, almost twenty years after the initial biker-exploitation wave of the mid to late sixties, this insane film from Spain and Sweden is still worth a look. I guess this is a combination Spain and Sweden productions, which in my mind should combine Ingmar Bergman and Luis Bunuel. Instead, it’s like the fevered dream of a exceedingly violent biker on acid. It’s so over the top  that the violence and …

by: NYCalling
Posted on 01.06.10 in All Horror Films > Cult/Erotic > Exploitation

Tagline “Don’t cross him or he’ll cut you down to size”
I usually recommend this film when people ask for a good introduction to Grindhouse or exploitation films. It’s not great, it’s pretty technically inept, and it’s really kind of ludicrous.  Still, this film delivers the goods, albeit a little sneakily. The film doesn’t quite live up to the title, which is one of exploitation films finest, but it’s still worth tracking down …

by: Letitia
Posted on 12.20.09 in All Horror Films > Cult/Erotic > Exploitation

Wes Craven’s first movie, Last House on the Left, begins with an idyllic shot of ducks on a lake, a cozily autumnal country road, and then a shot of a solidly middle-class house. The camera then focuses on a girl, Mari, our main character, as she showers. The camera work here is gauzy and romantic, much like the opening of Brian DePalma’s Carrie, where the camera lingers lovingly on girls’ bodies. In …

by: Shaun Anderson
Posted on 11.24.09 in All Horror Films > Exploitation > Giallo

As the title might suggest Strip Nude For Your Killer is not the most sophisticated and intellectual cinematic experience. This is the Italian giallo at its least auspicious and most self-consciously exploitative. In many ways this is the flip side to the formal eloquence of Dario Argento or Mario Bava, a film in which the visual style takes a back seat to nudity and perverted sexual relationships. The director Andrea Bianchi makes perfunctory nods …

by: Letitia
Posted on 11.24.09 in All Horror Films > Exploitation > Thriller/Suspense

If you take Funny Games (2007) as a critique of violence in American films, as director Michael Haneke has claimed he intended, then it’s a hypocritical failure—a two-hour exercise in luring the viewer with violence and then critiquing the viewer for being lured. Fortunately, the English version of Funny Games (a shot-by-shot remake of Haneke’s original German-language version), has much more going on than a tired critique of violence.
It’s hard to …

by: KFear
Posted on 11.10.09 in All Horror Films > Cult/Erotic > Exploitation > Torture

Exploitation films walk a fine line between complete sadistic trash to amazing works of artistic imagery. Directors already know that they have crossed the line in terms of what is appropriate or socially acceptable for everyday film goers, and it’s true, most films, such as I Spit on Your Grave and Last House on the Left, do come across as a bit overbearing in terms of rape, torture, and murder, but …