Tag Archives: Julie Strain

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Sorceress (1995)

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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. 

Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Psycho Cop 2 / Psycho Cop Returns (1993)

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 Psycho Cop 2 (1993)Psycho Cop 2 / Psycho Cop Returns (1993) by #AdamRifkin

w/ #RobertRShafer #BarbaraNiven #JulieStrain

A psycho cop decides to kill everyone who he thinks has broken the law.

“Something old, something new, someone bloody… and the man in blue!”

#Horror
#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

Confession: I’ve never seen the first Psycho Cop (1989) movie. I’ve always imagined that it was a ripoff of Maniac Cop (1988). Someone gave me an old VHS copy of Psycho Cop 2 (1993) back in the late ’90s. Truth be told it was a former video store owner who had closed up shop and was getting rid of old tapes. How could I not do my part to help? I brought home a boxful of ’90s movies that I’d never seen before. Most of them were trash, but I remembered enjoying this one quite a bit and adding it to my personal library. Fast forward a couple of decades and I really couldn’t remember much about it. I’d enjoyed seeing it on my shelf over the years, but for some reason I’d never had the urge to revisit it. Last week I decided that it was time to put it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test…

Psycho Cop 2 (1993) – or Psycho Cop Returns as it’s sometimes called – was directed by Adam Rifkin, who made films like Detroit Rock City (1999), The Chase (1994) and one of the segments in the awesome anthology Chillerama (2011). He also made a pretty nifty film called Look (2007), which was shot entirely from the perspective of security cameras. It works surprisingly well, and should be much better known than it is – but I digress…

Psycho Cop 2 is more like a slasher film than Maniac Cop – and as anyone who knows me can attest, I love slasher films. The plot goes something like this: a bunch of office workers throw a bachelor party and a psycho cop shows up to punish anyone who is breaking the law – which is pretty much everyone, since the whole party is against the rules. There are strippers, including relative newcomer and future star Julie Strain, and there are ridiculous, gory murders. Put simply, this movie really delivers the exploitation goods – and it’s all done with tongue firmly in cheek. It’s fast paced, funny, and just plain fun.

I can’t help but notice that it gets a higher rating on the IMDb than the original Psycho Cop, and I can believe it’s a better movie. Maybe one day I’ll watch part one and find out for sure. In any case, I believe that Psycho Cop 2 is entertaining enough to warrant repeat viewings.

So what’s the verdict?

As you can probably guess, I believe that Psycho Cop 2 (1993) is #Trash of the highest order, which means that it’s #Terror to me (although I wouldn’t exactly call it scary). I use the word #Terrror interchangeably with #Treasure – and I will certainly continue to treasure my VHS copy of this movie for years to come.