I first discovered this slasher satire (recently released to DVD by Legend Films) during one of its many runs on cable in the early '80s. I recall liking it at the time, but I was a college kid with a fondness for beer, so I probably watched it through a hop and barley flavored filter. There's an obvious Airplane influence, though the laughs never flow as freely and the premise runs out of steam early on. The film's nostalgia appeal is probably its biggest selling point these days, and viewers watching it for the first time will probably wonder what all the fuss was about. Still, I'm glad I had a chance to reacquaint myself.

Since it was released in 1981, it's interesting to see how many of the sub-genre's cliches were already in place. The horror begins on Jaime Lee Curtis's birthday, as a randy young babysitter named Judy receives threatening phone calls from an asthmatic-sounding character who calls himself The Breather (voiced by Richard Belzer). Soon her boyfriend arrives and both of their fates are sealed when they decide to have sex (this IS a slasher film after all). The two are done in by the clever and deadly application of a paper clip and a garbage bag. Like all good slashers, The Breather has a trademarked look, though the green rubber gloves and galoshes just don't have the same impact as a goalie mask.

There's a lot to be said for truth in advertising, and few people could come away from a film called Blood and Sex Nightmare (due for release on August 5 from Bloody Earth Films) with the outraged cry: "I was expecting a carefree romp with Sandra Bullock!" Yes, this one delivers on its promise of blood and sex (often at the same time), but is that enough?

Amy (Julia Morizawa) has just returned to her boyfriend Nick (Andy McGuinness) after traveling to Japan for her father's funeral. Despite having been together for some time, the two have not had sex yet because Amy doesn't feel ready. Nick suggests they spend some time at Pleasure Mountain Adult Retreat, a getaway resort for couples (or any number of people) looking to spice things up. The retreat is a simple affair consisting of small cottages, but the other guests are an entertaining bunch with one couple doing bondage photography and a threesome acting out a bizarre sitcom fantasy complete with canned laughter.

For a movie that's taken this long to make its bow on DVD way back onto DVD after being out of print for years, 1996's Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie is a disappointingly barebones disk without so much as a trailer for an extra. MST3K without extras, however, is still MST3K, and for this B-movie junkie that's something pretty special. The film was, of course, based on the then current TV show running on Comedy Central which eventually jumped over to the Sci Fi Channel where it ended its 10 season run (11 if you count "Season 0" which ran in Minneapolis only) in 1999. Basically, you take a guy, strand him in space and stick him in a movie theater with two robots to make fun of cheezy old movies. More often than not, hilarity would ensue.

I'm not certain that this DVD's release was intentionally planned to come so quickly on the heels of the latest Indiana Jones film, but this horror flick from 1965 (just out from Legend Films) does deal with skulls and stars not one, but two future denizens of the Star Wars universe (anyone recognize Grand Moff Tarkin and Count Dooku in the picture above?). I suspect it's more coincidence than anything, but there are enough elements present to make fans of classic horror utter "why, what have we here?" The Skull was directed by Freddie Francis and stars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, with a brief appearance by Michael Gough (Alfred from the Tim Burton Batman movies), all of whom were veterans of Britain's Hammer Films, the studio that set the standard for gothic horror from the mid 1950s through the early 70s. This is not a Hammer film, but is in fact a product of Amicus Productions, another British studio that is best known today for its anthology horror films like Tales From the Crypt and The House That Dripped Blood.

As they say (or at least they should), there's always room for giallo. No, it's not a gelatinous dessert, but an Italian film genre generally identified by its use of gory murders, mystery/police procedural elements and strong sexuality. "Giallo" is Italian for yellow, and the genre draws its name from a series of lurid murder mystery novels that sported yellow covers. Delirium (Delirio caldo), which was recently released by Blue Underground, is a modestly interesting example of the form made downright fascinating by presenting the drastically different Italian and U.S. cuts on the same disk.

Starting with the Italian version, this 1972 film stars Mickey Hargitay, former Mr. Universe, ex-husband of Jayne Mansfield and father of actress Mariska Hargitay. Hargitay plays Professor Herbert Lyutak, a psychologist aiding the police in their investigation of a serial killer who has strangled several women, or that's what Lyutak wants people to think. In reality he is the killer, with his violence against women serving as an outlet for his rage and frustration over his sexual impotence. His wife Marcia is played by the stunning Rita Calderoni, an actress I've seen in a handful of films, though I'm just now noticing a striking resemblance to a slightly older Anne Hathaway. Marcia still loves her husband despite his sexual inadequacies. She offers to let him strangle her as a form of gratification and she is given to graphic sexual dreams/fantasies involving other women, her husband and a dungeon. Meanwhile, there's a copycat killer on the loose, murdering women in the same fashion as Lyutak.

Now here's a dubious distinction: 1982's Boarding House ("Where the rent won't kill you, but something else will"), just out from Code Red DVD claims to be the first horror film to be shot on video, and this little oddity actually played theaters for a time. If you've never seen old school video tape blown up to 35 millimeter and projected on the big screen, you would be surprised at just how hideous the final product is. I saw the Rolling Stones documentary/concert film Gimme Shelter which was transferred this way, and I was amazed how grainy and washed out the image was. Code Red has made a smart decision going back to the original video materials rather than using the version that had been transferred to film, as was done with the old Paragon Video VHS tape (a release that the filmmakers insist was done illegally). The video version isn't perfect either, but this is probably the best this film will ever look.

When people talk about killer vehicle movies (and they do), John Carpenter's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's Christine usually heads the list, with Maximum Overdrive and maybe even Killdozer making their way into the discussion at some point. Plus I've always suspected there was some kind of demonic motivation behind Herbie in The Love Bug. Personally, I remember seeing The Car before any of these. The TV spots tantalized me during the film's 1977 release, and I eventually caught the movie on television in the early '80s. Now we've got a brand new DVD from Universal to fill the void left by the out of print version from Anchor Bay.

James Brolin stars as Wade Parent, a single father who works as a cop in a small southwestern town where the only type of criminal you usually find is a jay walker. He's been romancing a local school teacher named Lauren (Kathleen Lloyd), and he's just about got his two cute-as-a-button daughters (one of whom is played by Kyle Richards, who played Lindsey Wallace in the original Halloween) convinced that it's about time Dad got hitched again. Now, however, we've got bodies piling up, thanks to a mysterious black car of indeterminate design (although one poster over at IMDB reports that it's a modified 1971 Lincoln) with no license plates and opaque windows. The first victims are a pair of bicyclists and a hippie with a French horn who's so annoying that, despite being run over four times, could easily have done with a few more swipes.

Once again, Mondo Macabro gives us a taste of what they call "the wild side of world cinema" with this Indonesian scare-fest from 1979 that streets on May 27.

The wedding of a town leader's son in Indonesia is marred by what is believed to be black magic. The bride is overcome by nightmarish visions of skeletons, snakes and walking corpses and falls into a fevered state of dementia. Kohar, the groom, suspects that a woman named Murny is responsible, claiming that she loved him but he had no interest in her. What Kohar does not tell the angry mob is that he had seduced Murny, taking her virginity and promising to marry her, only to wed another. While Murny certainly has motive, she knows nothing of black magic -- but Kohar and the mob burn her house down and throw her off a cliff just the same. Her life is saved by an old hermit who encourages her to take revenge on those who tried to murder her. Since they accused her of black magic, the hermit figures "let's be all ironic and stuff" and trains Murny in the dark arts.

On Drainiac's audio commentary, writer/director Brett Piper explains that the original 2000 DVD release of this film was essentially unfinished. This new version, which arrives on DVD from Shock-o-Rama on June 24, is newly derived from the original negatives (yes, this baby was shot on 16 millimeter film) with sound and special effects enhancement. Since so much effort went into making this nearly unwatchable revised version, I have to suspect that viewing original imperfect release might very well be lethal.

One of the first clues to the disaster that is Drainiac is the box cover. It's a pretty cool illustration of a slimy creature crawling out of a sink drain and reaching for the viewer, though it's obviously not a photo and doesn't represent anything actually seen in the film. Furthermore if you've ever seen any other movie from the Shock-o-Rama catalog (like Piper's other flick Bacterium, which I reviewed here), you know darn well they could never afford to do this kind of creature effectively.

Sick Nurses, just now hitting DVD from Magnolia Pictures, is a Thai film known in its homeland as Suay Laak Sai. Directors Piraphan Laoyont and Thodsapol Siriwiwat are obviously familiar with recent Asian horror cinema as this one is very much in the image of The Ring, The Grudge and others. Production values are quite good, and some of the scares rank pretty high on the creep-o-meter, though the story is a cookie-cutter tale of ghostly revenge.

A group of nurses and Dr. Taa have a lucrative business selling bodies from the hospital they work at (a hospital, incidentally, that never seems to have any actual patients). One of the nurses, a girl named Tahwaan is engaged to Dr. Taa, but she catches him having sex with her sister Nook. When Tahwaan threatens to expose their corpse selling business, the others murder her to keep her quiet. As Ae points out, legend has it that the dead return for the one they love the most seven days after death. True enough, Tahwaan is soon back from the grave sporting that emo hairdo on steroids that all Asian ghosts seem to have these days and greenish black skin. The first time we see her in her spectral form, she quite memorably comes crawling out of a handbag.