Category Archives: Trash Or Terror Tuesday

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Paranoid (2000)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

Poster art for Paranoid (2000)Paranoid (2000) by #JohnDuigan

w/ #JessicaAlba #IainGlen #JeanneTripplehorn

A fashion model is abandoned at a party in the country, where she’s drugged, abused on video and chained to a bed.

“Forbidden Passions Can Be Deadly”

#Crime #Horror #Thriller

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

It sounds like a good time, but Paranoid (2000) is an odd movie. It starts off by generating some genuine suspense and a general feeling of dread. I certainly felt afraid for the main character, Chloe, played by Jessica Alba, as she seemed to be getting herself deeper and deeper into a very creepy situation. But at some point in the middle of the film, it flatlines and becomes a strange waiting game. Chloe (and the audience) is left waiting for the bad guys to make up their mind about what they’re going to do with her. The movie almost becomes more of a quirky crime comedy, featuring oddball characters that could almost be sympathetic – if they didn’t all seem to be doing something a little bit shifty.

So what’s the verdict?

Paranoid (2000) is a mild Terror (primarily for the first half hour) that suddenly suffers a strange tonal shift into indie-movie Trash. There is some nudity (although not featuring Jessica Alba), almost no violence – and no gore. So while it might be trash, it’s not the fun kind. It does have a few entertaining moments, so it’s not a total write-off – but having sat through it twice in twenty years (or so), I think I can now pass Paranoid on to some other sucker who thinks it looks intriguing.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: The Forsaken (2001)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

DVD cover for The Forsaken (2001)

The Forsaken (2001) by #JSCardone

w/ #KerrSmith #BrendanFehr #IzabellaMiko #JohnathonSchaech #PhinaOruche #CarrieSnodgress
 
A young man hired to drive a car cross-country picks up a hitchhiker who turns out to be a vampire hunter.
 
“The night… has an appetite.”
 
#Horror #Vampires
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

Somewhere along the way I picked up a DVD copy of The Forsaken (2001), knowing nothing about it. I recall being pleasantly surprised by it, so I added it to my personal library. Fast forward a few years, and I couldn’t remember anything about it. So, I figured I might as well put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

Once again, I was pleasantly surprised by it. The review on the front of the box compares it to The Lost Boys (1987), and that’s not a completely ridiculous thing to say, as it involves a gang of vampires and a relatively cool soundtrack. It even features a couple of songs by Nickelback before they took the world by storm (I know that some will say this is a minus, not a plus, but I will make no such judgment).

The cast features Brendan Fehr, who is from Winnipeg (my home town), where he appeared is a movie called Hand (1998). I should probably be featuring that one on #TrashOrTerrorTuesday, as it is undeniably trash (and not the good kind) – but unfortunately (I mean very, very fortunately) I do not own a copy. But seriously, if I did own a copy (and I might actually buy it for a decent price – what’s wrong with me?) I would probably have to feature it on #MadeInManitobaMonday. But I digress…

The Forsaken is a much better movie than Hand. It’s not as good as The Lost Boys, but who would expect it to be? The cast is solid – and that includes former Winnipegger Brendan Fehr. I should mention that Fehr has appeared in other movies I like, including Disturbing Behavior (1998), Christina’s House (2000), and Silent Night (2012). Most would probably know him from Final Destination (2000) and Roswell (1999-2002).

In The Forsaken, Fehr plays a vampire hunter who is searching for the vampire who once bit him (to stop himself from turning). He believes it might be one of the gang that he encounters with Kerr Smith’s character, Sean – who is trying to deliver an expensive car across the country and attend his sister’s wedding. Much violent action ensues…

So what’s the verdict?

The Forsaken (2001) is a moderate Terror. It has great action, some legitimate suspense, and a few moments that could be described as scary. There is fair bit of nudity – and some sexy vampire antics – as well, which perhaps adds a touch of Trash to the mix (but this is the good kind of Trash). All in all, I enjoyed The Forsaken quite a bit (for the second time), and I will be keeping the DVD in my collection.

https://twitter.com/AngusKohm/status/1443067441081458688

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Undead or Alive (2007)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

DVD cover for Undead or AliveUndead or Alive (2007) by #GlasgowPhillips

w/ #ChrisKattan #ChrisCoppola #NaviRawat

Two misfits rob a corrupt sheriff as a plague of zombies begins to sweep the country.

“Guns don’t kill people. Zombies kill people.”

“A Zombie Western Comedy … no really!”

#Comedy #Horror #Western

 

Undead or Alive (2007) is another example of a movie (like last week’s Cult (2007)), which has been sitting on my shelf for about a decade – and which I certainly did watch before putting it there – that I basically have no specific memories of, in terms of plot and content. I recalled it being a zombie western, but other than that – nothing. So, I decided to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

Right off the top, they seem to be blaming the zombie plague on Geronimo – who they claim put some kind of curse on white people. Later in the movie, they even refer to the zombies as Geronimonsters. This didn’t quite sit right with me. I have undoubtedly written my fair share of politically incorrect humour in my time, and maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but I felt that Geronimo deserved a better (albeit fictional) legacy than this.

I must have bought Undead or Alive during the time that I was thoroughly immersing myself in Westerns. I was writing my own epic Western play (an exploration of the history of Western Canada, in fact), and I wanted to soak up as much old west atmosphere as I possibly could. I was also watching a lot of zombie movies because, well, I like zombies – and we were in the midst of a huge zombie resurgence at that time (post Dawn of the Dead (2004)  – which was released, coincidentally, while I was in rehearsal with my brand new  zombie musical – but that’s another story).

Undead or Alive probably intrigued me because it was a combination of two of my current obsessions, Westerns and  zombies, and in theory it’s a brilliant idea. In reality, Undead or Alive just made me want to re-watch Blazing Saddles (1974) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985) – both far superior movies. I feel that Undead or Alive was lifting ideas from The Return of the Living Dead (like shooting zombies in the head doesn’t seem to work), but it was nowhere near as funny. The zombies in Undead or Alive were not that different from regular Western bad guys. They keep on riding horses, shooting guns, and having conversations. This is not what I generally look for in a zombie movie.

Undead or Alive is by no means a terrible movie. It’s well made, with decent action and gore. Unfortunately, the script is not as clever as it needs to be. The movie really aims for comedy much more than horror, and the comedy just isn’t good enough. A person looking for an effective satire of Western conventions would be far better off watching Blazing Saddles, Cat Ballou (1965), or Destry Rides Again (1939).

So what’s the verdict?

Undead or Alive (2007) is neither Trash nor Terror. It simply isn’t good enough, or bad enough, to be one or the other. It’s just floating somewhere in the middle, not particularly interesting enough to be worth multiple viewings. Having watched it twice in ten years, I don’t think I’ll need to be doing that again. It might be an acceptable time passer for those who haven’t already seen it. But I doubt that anyone will love it as much as I love Blazing Saddles (1974) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985). And in the future, I will be watching those movies instead of this one.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Cult (2007)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

DVD cover art for Cult (2007)Cult (2007) by #JoeKnee

w/ #TarynManning #RachelMiner

While researching a local cult, four college students uncover the existence of a supernatural power that may take their lives…and their souls.

“Once You’re In, There’s No Getting Out!”

#Horror

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

I picked up a DVD of Cult (2007) in a bargain bin somewhere, and I must have watched it, but… coming across it on my shelf, I had no memory of it whatsoever. So, even though it’s a little more recent than a lot of the movies I choose for this honour, I decided to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

I could try to describe the plot, but that would only give me a headache. Basically, a bunch of students decide to do a project about a weird cult that had a big murder suicide incident a few years back in their home town. Their professor seems a bit concerned about this, and says “Let me know if you find anything like…”

“Like what?” the head girl, Mindy, says.

“Just let me know if you find anything.”

Well, what are the odds that this project is going to unearth some weird secrets, perhaps having to do with this very student, Mindy’s past? And what are the odds that this attractive female professor is going to turn out to be seeing Mindy’s father – and therefore have inside information about this student’s past? And why is this student so determined to keep digging into this cult, even after one of her friends, and fellow students,  is mysteriously murdered in the shower (one of the faint highlights of this movie, by the way) -and that her death was seemingly somehow predicted by a book that this Mindy is reading?

Confused? I know I am. And I watched the movie (twice, apparently).

So what’s the verdict?

Cult (2007) is Trash. There was no terror, in my opinion. Perhaps somebody, somewhere would have found this movie scary or suspenseful, but not me. There is a bit of gore. Several of the female cult members (and maybe people who are possessed by cult members? Or maybe just controlled by the cult leader?) stab themselves in the eyes as a tribute to Kwan Yin, who was blinded and murdered by her father many years ago in China (or something like that).

Cult seems like a movie with trashy sleaze potential, especially when a bunch of female cult members, wearing some kind of funky white lingerie, gather around to performa a ritual of some sort, but sadly, it’s all just foreplay for eye-stabbing. And if you stare at this movie long enough, you might just be tempted to join in.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Garden of the Dead (1972)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

Poster art for Garden of the Dead (1972)Garden of the Dead (1972) by #JohnHayes

Formaldehyde sniffing prisoners are killed during a breakout. After burial, the inmates return from the dead to exact revenge on the prison guards who killed them.

“filmed in DEAD color”

#Horror #SciFi #Zombies

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

Some friends and I rented Garden of the Dead (1972) back in high school. The poster, which was featured on the VHS box, looked so damn amazing that we were convinced that we were about to watch the greatest zombie movie since Dawn of the Dead (1978). A mere fifteen minutes into the movie, everyone in the room wanted to stop the tape and move on to something else. I, already a completist at such a young age, argued for continuing to watch “in case it gets better.” My friends allowed it to keep playing until about 30 minutes in and then they ejected that tape as fast they could and smashed it into a million pieces (okay, I may be exaggerating slightly – but they wanted to smash it, believe me).

Garden of the Dead was, without a doubt, the cheapest and shoddiest looking movie that any of us had ever seen at that point in our lives. For years it was legendary among our gang. We would reference it from time to time, whenever we needed a measuring stick for badness. “Oh it’s bad, but it’s not Garden of the Dead bad,” would be something we might have said. Even so, I always felt a little guilty about not finishing the movie…

More than ten years later, a friend who worked for a video distribution company gave me a bag of DVDs that he thought I might appreciate. They were mostly “bad” movies, he said, but perhaps they were “bad” in an enjoyable way. I was surprised and intrigued to see that Garden of the Dead was one of them.

Watching it again, as an adult (and finishing it for the first time), I was surprised by how much better it was than I remembered. It no longer looked as cheap and shoddy to me – as I had seen much cheaper and shoddier movies by that point in my life. It wasn’t exactly good, but it seemed on par with many of the drive-in type movies that I enjoy to watch on a Friday night. So, much to my surprise, I put the Garden of the Dead DVD onto my shelf where it has remained for almost twenty years now. I was a bit nervous that one of my high school friends would see it there and accuse me of betraying the old gang, but… I was prepared to tell them that it was better than we had thought. Still, I never got around to watching it again. So, I figured it was time to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

The front gate of the "prison" in Garden of the Dead (1972)

The front gate of the “prison” in Garden of the Dead (1972)

Garden of the Dead is bad. I think my expectations were so low when I first re-watched it as an adult, that I was pleasantly surprised by it. It’s still not as cheap and shoddy as it had seemed back in high school, but it’s pretty cheap and shoddy. The “prison” consists of a few old shacks in the middle of a desert-like area, surrounded by a fence made out of barb wire and plywood. It would not effectively keep anyone from leaving.

The warden wears a suit, as if he’s attending a board meeting in a corporate head office, but he’s in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of prisoners and guards. Why would he bother to dress up?

The prisoners get high by sniffing formaldehyde (not sure if that’s a thing), and I guess that’s why they return from the dead (they’re pre-embalmed?).The movie clocks in, mercifully, at just under an hour. If we had known that back in high school, maybe we would have kept watching – but I doubt it.

So what’s the verdict?

Garden of the Dead (1972) is Trash. It has a few moments of inadvertent humour, which might make it watchable for die hard aficionados of bad movies. I don’t think that there are any moments of legitimate terror or suspense. And it’s not really trashy enough to be a truly fun watch.

Oddly enough, the DVD is introduced by Son of Ghoul (a horror host), and he says that it’s the kind of movie that makes you want to smash the TV after watching it. Not a bad description – and if that makes you want to watch Garden of the Dead, then you probably should. I, having already seen it three (well, two and half) times in my life, will not be joining you.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Final Stab (2001)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes & DVDs comes…

DVD case for Final Stab (2001)Final Stab (2001) by #DavidDeCoteau

w/#JamieGannon #MelissaReneéMartin #ErinnHayes #BradleyStryker

A game with fake blood and knives becomes a nightmare when someone starts slaughtering teenagers.

“The Reality of this Game… is Murder”

#Horror #Slasher

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

Final Stab (2001) was made by David DeCoteau, who used to live right across the river from me. I know this because my friend Ian happened to live in the same building. And when I say right across the river, I mean in winter time I could walk across the ice and make it from my apartment door to Ian’s in under five minutes. When the river wasn’t frozen, I had to use the nearest bridge, so it took more like ten or twelve minutes. I went there to visit Ian one day, and as I  buzzed his apartment number, I noticed another name on the directory: D. DeCoteau. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it, except that I had heard that David DeCoteau had recently moved to Winnipeg after making The Brotherhood III: Young Demons (2003) here.  Could D. DeCoteau be David DeCoteau, I wondered?

VHS box for Robot NinjaA while later, I listened to the commentary track on the The Brotherhood III DVD and, from what DeCoteau said, I could tell that he was, in fact, living in my buddy Ian’s building. How cool was that?

I first read about DeCoteau when read J.R. Bookwalter’s B-Movies in the ’90s and Beyond. At the time, DeCoteau was working in Hollywood for Full Moon Pictures, and also making and distributing movies under his Cinema Home Video label. He produced movies like Bookwalter’s classic Robot Ninja (1989). In those days, I found reading about guys like Bookwalter and DeCoteau to be inspirational. 

And now one of them was living across the river from me!

Alas, he moved to Montreal a couple of years later. And my buddy Ian moved to a place that was a 35 minute walk away. Nothing gold can stay, I guess…

But why am I not talking about Final Stab (2001)? 

Possibly because it’s not that interesting (sorry, Dave). It was apparently made as a fake sequel to Scream (1996). It was supposed to be titled Final Scream, but Dimension Films threatened to sue, so they changed the title to Final Stab (which was a reference to the fictional movie Stab in the Scream movies). As low budget Scream rip-offs go, it’s actually not bad. It has enough interesting twists and turns to keep me interested, but ultimately I’d rather just watch Scream (or one of the official sequels).

Poster for Dr AlienSo, what’s the verdict?

Final Stab (2001) is a very mild Terror, with a few hints of Trash. I enjoyed it more the first time I saw it, 15 or 20 years ago, but it was interesting to see it again now. I think twice, however, is probably enough.

It should be noted that I have enjoyed other David DeCoteau movies much more. Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988) i and Dr. Alien (1989) for instance. And Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991) is one of the best films in the series, in my opinion. Those ones will be staying in collection. Final Stab? Not so much. 

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Dead 7 (2000)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…

DVD box art for Dead 7 (2000)Dead 7 (2000) by #GarrettClancy

w/ #JanetTracyKeijser #TanyaDempsey

A group of friends are killed one by one after discovering numerous dead bodies of drug dealers while out on a hike.

“Your Ultimate Fear Has A New Number!”

#Horror #Thriller

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

I think that the only reason why I kept this DVD in my collection is that it was released by Brain Damage Films, which according to Wikipedia “distributes a variety of horror and shock exploitation movies in many formats, including DVD, Blu-ray, and cable, satellite, and Internet video on demand.” They were a fairly new company when I bought this movie, and I was curious to see what kind of films they were making/distributing. I’m pretty sure that Dead 7 (2000) did not particularly impress me, but it was kind of okay, and I felt like it might be worth keeping as an example of a Brain Damage Films movie. Perhaps I thought that other Brain Damage Films movies might be better, and I would decide to collect their entire catalogue. I’m not sure. Needless to say, I never became a Brain Damage Films collector, and I’ve only seen a handful of their movies over the years – and none of them have become personal favourites. 

So, why is Dead 7 taking up valuable space on my movie library shelf? That is the question I asked myself, right before putting it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

The description of the movie is inaccurate. It’s not about a group of friends who stumble upon some drug dealers bodies and then get killed off for knowing too much. This is about a couple of drug dealers killing some guys (who cheated them in some way) and dumping their bodies into a hole. Meanwhile, coincidentally and unknown to them, their girlfriends are wandering around the same wooded area looking for some leaves for a school art project (or something like that). Also in the area is another girl from school, and her mute brother. The drug dealing assholes toss the mute brother into the hole with the dead bodies because he may have seen them. Since the poor guy can’t speak or make a sound, he can’t call for help and let anyone know that he’s down there.

Fast forward several months (?!)

Someone starts killing the asshole drug dealers and their girlfriends. SPOILER ALERT: It’s the dead mute kid who’s been rotting in that hole for months.

Dead 7 is not much of a horror film. It plays like a cheapjack crime film for the first two thirds. The “horror” really only starts happening in the final act – and it’s pretty tame. 

So what’s the verdict?

Dead 7 (2000) is trash – and not the good kind that delivers laughs, gore and sleazy entertainment. There are a couple of slightly sleazy scenes involving the drug dealers and their girlfriends, and some rather unremarkable gore – but all of this stuff happens in the final 20-30 minutes of the movie. You have to sit through a lot of nothing in order to get there. All in all, I’m not sure how I allowed myself to sit through this movie twice – but I won’t be doing it again. Perhaps someone, somewhere, likes this movie more than me. They can have it.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Virgin Terror (1978)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…

VHS box for Virgin Terror (1978)Virgin Terror (1978) by #AlbertoNegrin

AKA Enigma rosso or Red Rings of Fear

w/ #FabioTesti #ChristineKaufmann

A detective investigating the murder of a teenage girl begins to focus his suspicions on the three girlfriends of the victim, who call themselves “The Inseparables.”

“Sweet sixteen … they’ll lose more than just their lives.”

#Horror #Giallo #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

Confession: I knew that I liked this movie before putting it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test. I even wrote about it briefly in a post about giallos a while back. However, it’s a VHS tape that I frequently notice on my shelf but haven’t watched in a long time. So, I figured it was time to refresh my memory…

Virgin Terror (1978) is a giallo, and it reminds me of other gialllos like What Have You Done to Solange? (1972) and Who Saw Her Die? (1972). It’s probably not quite as good as those two, but it’s still a worthy entry into the genre.

I won’t summarize the plot, as I feel that it’s best to go in not knowing very much at all. But if you’ve seen other giallos, like the ones I mentioned, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into.

So, what’s the verdict?

Virgin Terror delivers the goods in terms of violence and sleaze, so I would have to say that it is both Trash and Terror. I would say it’s a moderate to seriously valuable treasure, in fact. I am operating a slight disadvantage, however, because it turns out that my VHS copy is an edited version of the film. It’s about five minutes shorter than the uncut version – which I have never seen. So, I am partly guessing that there is more sleaze, more violence, and more gore that what I got to see. I enjoyed it well enough as it is, but I’m assuming that it would be even better uncut. So…

My VHS tape might looking a little more like trash to me now. I may have to upgrade to a better copy of this film at some point. But for now, it’s a keeper.

https://twitter.com/AngusKohm/status/1420274087314829312

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Movie House Massacre / Blood Theatre (1984)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…

The VHS box for Movie House Massacre / Blood Theatre (1984)Movie House Massacre / Blood Theatre (1984) by #RickSloane

w/#MaryWoronov

An old movie house plagued with a history of unexplained tragedies is reopened with bloody history repeating itself.

“When the movie starts … the terror begins!”

#Horror #Slasher
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

Movie House Massacre (1984) got panned in every movie review book I read back in the days before the internet rendered those books somewhat obsolete (although I still love to flip through them and read the opinions of reviewers I trust). As a result, I avoided renting this one for a number of years – but when I found a cheap VHS copy for sale in a bargain bin, I simply couldn’t resist buying it. For one thing, it had Mary Woronov in it, and I’ve been a fan of hers since first seeing Eating Raoul (1982). For another thing, I believed it to a be a slasher film, and I’ve always thought that slasher films are kind of like pizza: even when they’re bad, they’re still pretty good.

Of course, the older I get, the more I prefer good pizza to bad pizza – and yes, there is such a thing as bad pizza that really isn’t good at all. More to the point, watching Movie House Massacre for the first time in decades has to led me to question whether or not it is in fact a slasher film. It seems to be more of a weird supernatural story. There are some slasher-like killings, but not enough to sustain it – and most of them happen in the very final moments of the film. The first two thirds of the story seems more like a bad attempt at comedy. Mary Woronov is the best thing in this film, and she did make me laugh a couple of times, but she really doesn’t have enough to do (just like Linda Blair in last week’s #trash-fest).  

So what’s the verdict?

Movie House Massacre / Blood Theatre (1984) is #Trash. It’s certainly not scary – and that would be perfectly okay if it was funny, but it only manages an occasional laugh or smile. Mary Woronov completists might want to see it, but… I enjoyed it much more the first time I watched it, after my expectations had been sufficiently lowered by all of the bad reviews I had read. Perhaps if I am negative enough here, I will give other people the same opportunity to be pleasantly surprised by it. So with that in mind…

Don’t watch this movie. It’s a “grindingly bad slasher” — James O’Neill, Terror On Tape. Not only that, it’s “too sophomoronic and leadenly unfunny to work.” — L.A. Morse, Video Trash & Treasures. If that isn’t enough to dissuade you, it currently rates a 2.9 on the IMDb. This movie is bad pizza bad. Don’t waste your hunger on it, when there’s much better bad pizza to be had.

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Sorceress (1995)

Posted on by

It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…

Poster art for Sorceress (1995)Sorceress (1995) by #JimWynorski

w/#LindaBlair #EdwardAlbert #JulieStrain

An attorney excels due to his wife’s black magic. But another sorceress gets in the way.

“She gets what she wants. She keeps what she gets. She never lets go.”

#Horror #Thriller
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

I’ve been a fan of Linda Blair since first watching The Exorcist (1973) on late night TV when I was 12. I suppose this explains how I came to have a copy of Jim Wynorski’s Sorceress (1995) in my personal collection. Not that I dislike Jim Wynorski or his films. I thoroughly enjoyed movies like The Lost Empire (1984) and Chopping Mall (1986). But Wynorski has made over a hundred films during his long career, and many of them lean toward the soft core, R-rated, erotic entertainment variety (Pleasure Spa (2013), Hypnotika (2013), Sexipede! (2014) to name but a few). Nothing against these sort of movies, but they strike me as something best stumbled upon late at night in a motel room – not prominently displayed on my home library shelves.

Sorceress (1995), in spite of a stellar cast, is basically one of these kind of movies. There are many long, drawn out sex scenes involving Julie Strain and a couple of the other actresses. Linda Blair does not participate in any such scenes (perhaps having left that part of her career back in the 1980s). Linda is still the best thing in this movie, as far as I’m concerned, but she really doesn’t have enough to do (as so often seems to be the case in her later films). William Marshall, most famous for his performance as Blacula in Blacula (1972) and Scream Blacula Scream (1973), is even more wasted in this film. 

So what’s the verdict?

Sorceress (1995) is #Trash. I don’t think there is a serious scare or a suspenseful sequence anywhere in it. Don’t get me wrong. #Trash can be entertaining, and if you are a fan of 1990s erotic thrillers (minus the thrills), you might be entertained by this film. If you are a fan of Julie Strain, you will have ample opportunity to admire her. To be honest, I didn’t even know who she was when I bought this movie back in the ’90s, and I will never be as interested in her as I am in Linda Blair and other classic scream queens of the 1970s, ’80s, and earlier. But, as they often say, there’s no accounting for taste. 

I will not be continuing to display Sorceress (1995) on my shelf, as I doubt that I will ever get around to watching  it again. I would rather enjoy Linda Blair in films like Chained Heat (1983), Savage Streets (1984) and Hell Night (1981). Those movies might also be #Trash, but they are trash of the highest order – and they are treasures to me.