Mocata's Den of Horror

The '70s and '80s saw quite a few holiday-themed slasher flicks.  One that I find to be quite a lot of fun to watch, especially on its respective holiday, is New Year's Evil .  It may not be the most groundbreaking film, but I think it manages to give its audience what it wants and does it with style.  Also, there are some minor departures from the standard slasher formula. DVD Edition   Let's start with one of the biggest differences from most slashers: you see the killer right off the bat.  Usually, you don't know who the killer is until he/she is unmasked right before the big final chase and face-off.  In this one, you know who he is the whole time, as he does not wear a mask (at least not until very late in the film).  Of course, you don't know his name or his relationship, if any, to the other characters in the film and he does put on some basic disguises in the film.  Still, his face shows up onscreen and you know he is the killer, so there ...

The Beast Within is something of a forgotten gem of '80s horror.  Released in 1982, it features Ronny Cox (who would later appear in Robocop and Total Recall ), Bibi Besch, R.G. Armstrong, and others, including Paul Clemens as the main character, Michael MacCleary, who has inherited some monstrous curse from his unknown father.  Born as the result of an attack on his mother, Caroline (Bibi Besch), on the night of her wedding to Eli MacCleary (Ronny Cox), Michael is raised by the two as if he were any normal child, rather than the result of a sexual assault.  When, in his late teens, Michael starts exhibiting strange symptoms and the doctors are unable to determine the cause, Eli and Caroline return to the town where the attack occurred all those years ago, looking for answers.  Unknown to them, Michael heads there as well, driven by some instinct inside him. U.S. theatrical poster Michael begins to show signs of some personality change, developing an obsession with...

With Halloween rapidly approaching, I wanted to discuss a movie that is good for watching around that time of year.  This year, I want to talk about a cult classic of the '80s, Trick or Treat .  Starring Marc Price (aka Skippy from Family Ties ), this film tells the story of a metal fan who is an outcast at his high school, which is also the school his hero, Sammi Curr, attended 20 years earlier.  After hearing about Curr's sudden death in a hotel fire, Eddie (Marc Price) swings by the local radio station where he talks to the DJ, Nuke (played by Gene Simmons).  Nuke gives Eddie an acetate of the final, unreleased Sammi Curr album, which cheers the distraught kid up.  Eddie listens to the record at home and soon discovers this is much more than a regular musical recording.  Through this recording, he is able to raise the spirit of his hero, Sammi, who begins wreaking havoc on the town, starting with helping Eddie best the assholes who enjoy harassing him at...

Lucio Fulci was an Italian film director who worked in just about every genre there is.  He did sex comedies, westerns, historical/period pieces, gialli, and basically anything else Italian cinema had to offer during his long career.  His directorial credits go back to short documentaries in the late 1940s. Laserdisc edition by The Roan Group However, it wasn't until the late '70s that he would begin the work that would form his legacy, whether he liked it or not. VHS release by Anchor Bay Entertainment 1979 saw the release of his film Zombie (aka Zombi 2 , Zombie Flesheaters , Woodoo , Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us , and many others).  This film would kick off the most celebrated part of his career, with films like House By the Cemetery , The Gates of Hell , The Beyond , and The New York Ripper to follow.  Written by Dardano Sacchetti (who ended up taking his name off the movie) and Elisa Briganti, Zombie was Fulci's first foray into horror.  He had previou...

What can you say about Dawn of the Dead ?  It is one of the most revered of horror classics and arguably, the most beloved of zombie films.  A film that both shoves gruesome gore-filled scenes in your face and presents some still-relevant social commentary about consumerism, Dawn of the Dead was a follow-up to another already classic film, Night of the Living Dead , that managed to stand on its own, rather than just hanging out in the shadow of its predecessor.  It is an American movie with Italian funding, featuring a score by an Italian prog rock group, mixed with various pieces of stock music.  There is a nearly-as-classic documentary by Roy Frumkes that deals with the making of the film, Document of the Dead .  On top of all that, there are multiple cuts of the film, with each having its own group who support it as the best version. The "Ultimate Edition" DVD release from Anchor Bay Includes U.S. theatrical cut, extended cut, Argento's cut, and Document of ...

Aristide Massaccesi, primarily known by the pseudonym, Joe D'Amato, didn't just slog through the foul waters of horror and exploitation, but also delved into pornography, both of the softcore and hardcore varieties.  It is only fitting then, that this was his approach to the cannibal film boom that was happening in the late '70s. Blu-ray edition with slip-case from Severin Emanuelle e gli ultimi cannibali (1977), aka Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals and Trap Them and Kill Them , mixes up the jungle adventure featuring cannibals with the softcore porn elements of an independent woman reporter named Emanuelle, played by Laura Gemser, who played Emanuelle in a number of films, starting with Black Emanuelle (1976), who does whatever she needs to do to get her story, all the while taking the time to have sex with anybody and everybody she feels inclined to do so with.  While she is undercover in a mental hospital, she encounters a young woman who is violent towards nurses...

In the 1970s and 1980s, Italy released numerous movies dealing with cannibalism.  Starting with Il paese del sesso selvaggio (aka Man from Deep River, Deep River Savages, Sacrifice! , and many others), they were initially adventure movies set in the jungle.  The cannibal element was initially a minor subplot, with the later films concentrating more and more on cannibal carnage as the films also went stampeding into the horror realm.  These movies would become notorious for various reasons in the years after their original releases, some getting banned in various countries and most getting cut to ribbons in many countries.  Regardless of any controversial content these films may feature, they are an important part of horror and exploitation cinema.  I am also a big fan of these movies in general, so I am going to discuss some (maybe all), one at a time. First up is undoubtedly one of the most notorious, Cannibal Ferox .  Released in the U.S. as Make Them ...