The body of early Playboy Playmate and cult film icon (the memorable bad girl of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches) Vyette Vickers was found in her Beverly Hills home yesterday.  Horribly, the body was literally mummified, indicating that Ms. Vickers had passed away and remained undiscovered for up to a year. She would have been (approximately) 83 at the time of her passing. Rest in Peace.

NAKED FIST Naked Fist is a terribly silly film, but for some reason I love it. Even after watching it about 5 times (and poring over bits of it frame-by-frame while trying to edit the damn thing together), I still find it ludicrously entertaining. Oh sure, a lot of it is amateurish, the acting is by and large terrible and the plot full of holes, but it’s never dull. There’s an action scene about once every ten minutes and these are fairly well done. They don’t hold a candle to what was being done in Hong Kong or Taiwan at the same time, but are still better than what you’d find in an American film of this vintage, or even subsequently. There’s very little of the ‘stand still while I kick you’ style later popularised by Jean-Claude Van Damme films, and it’s notable that Naked Fist predates the whole ‘underground martial arts tournament’ craze that exploded in the wake of Bloodsport.

And no nude kickboxing, but there are shirtless gold monks…

18 BRONZEMEN Those wacky Shaolin monks. If legend is to be believed, they came up with any number of ways to school young acolytes in the Ways of Kung Fu. These were ingenious, esoteric and usually very, very fatal to any student who hadn’t quite mastered the techniques required. No legend is more mysterious than that of the Bronze Men. Any budding monk would have to pass through the halls of these dreaded metallic automatons, using all his speed and skill to avoid their deadly crushing blows. But is there some scrap of truth in this ancient and terrifying myth?Um, no.

I know, I know, no one has posted their Corman tribute reviews yet (mine’s coming, honest), but I couldn’t let this pass without note:

Happy 82nd birthday to Roger Corman!

Update: Someone fed me bad information. Why? Why would someone do that? Don’t they know that every time someone falsely celebrates Roger Corman’s birthday, a kitten dies? DON’T THEY?

(It is, however, Ennio Morricone’s 82nd birthday. So the cake and streamers don’t have to go entirely to waste.)

Announcement:

I am sick to death of horror/thriller posters that use some variation of “Some secrets are better left buried” for the tagline.

Thank you.

My occasional crash-course survey of the cannibal genre continues with Mountain of the Cannibal God (1978), in which a schlocky Italian director makes exactly the kind of movie that people mean when they speak derisively of schlocky Italian cinema.  But hey, at least Ursula Andress looks good.

The trailer for the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake is up, and it looks commendable.

I appreciate that this movie takes him back to his frightening, nightmarish roots — the ones he exhibited for about four-fifths of the first movie, and which were subsequently buried under the gimmickry and one-liners of the sequels.

I’m a little worried, though, about the implied revisionism, since it seems from the trailer (though it could be negated in the full feature) that this Freddy Krueger is an innocent, murdered without cause by vigilante justice. That’s absolutely the WRONG tack to take with him. Despite all of the pop-culture charisma that Robert Englund exuded in the role through its many installments, the original Freddy Krueger was the worst kind of human monster: He raped and killed little children. To instead make him a wronged outsider whose revenge is therefore justified in some degree is wrong wrong wrong. Yes, standard issue Hollywood revisionism which makes the good guys bad and the bad guys innocent, but still wrong.

But I may be reading too much into it. I’ll have to wait and see.

Darkstone Entertainment
(via)

OK, on the face of it, not a movie that Liz in particular would seem to be interested in, correct?

Ah, but look closer my friends….

That’s right, Albert Pyun is now such an industry giant that he gets to “present” movies made by other directors!

This is a proud day for world cinema.

For some bizarre reason, The Full Moon Archives Music Collection is available on Jamendo.com, which is a Creative Commons site mostly populated by indie artists trying to drum up some interest with free downloads. That’s right, guilt-free music downloading! This collection contains everything from classic Richard Band themes like The Pit and the Pendulum and Doctor Mordrid (here mislabeled “Doctor Morbid”) to title tracks from Evil Bong and Gingerdead Man 2.

I hope you’ve all been saving your pennies. This weekend in Dallas, an extraordinary collection of horror movie memorabilia will be auctioned, including an original one-sheet for the Lon Chaney version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, an Argentinian poster for London After Midnight, and the jewel in the crown, an original one-sheet for Dracula that was obviously produced before the film was completed and released, as it features a scene aboard the Demeter. There is a serious chance that the standing record for a poster sale, US$443,000 for an original one-sheet for The Mummy, will be broken: the opening bid for the Dracula poster stands at US$100,000. The London After Midnight poster, conversely, starts at a mere US$17,500.

What global economic crisis?

The same auction also carries a series of posters for Mickey Mouse cartoons (including one for The Mad Doctor that I really want), an insert for Freaks (speaking of great taglines: Can a full-grown woman really love a midget – ? Classy, MGM, classy), and a lobby card set for Mad Love. Oh, and there’s also an original one-sheet for Citizen Kane, but who cares about that, right?

[Edited to add: ooh, and an original poster for The Adventures Of Robin Hood, at just US$7,500. Want!]

A transcription of my interview with Lloyd Kaufman can be found here.

Thanks for all the question suggestions, and especially thanks for Fat Guy Loves Dinosaur. There were quite a few other questions in my notes, but his answers were so full and complete that by the time I was ready to ask them he had answered them already.

Lloyd Kaufman of Troma is going to be in Salt Lake City next week for Tromadance (one of the Sundance hanger-on mini-festivals), and thanks to connections at the comic shop where he’s doing a news conference, I’ll be able to swing a short interview with him (five minutes, maybe).

So. What should I ask the man behind the Toxic Avenger movies?

Though nobody comes to this site to keep on the cutting edge of news, we would be remiss if we did not note the passing of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry yesterday at the age of 76.  More than any of other luminaries whom we’ve lost in recent weeks — more than Bettie Page, more (I would argue) than Forrie Ackerman — Ms. Barrett-Roddenberry was an icon of the kind of genre fandom that has infused Western pop culture.  As Nurse Chapel, she gave us occasion to see that the unflappable Mr. Spock was on occasion flappable (and gave hope to us socially-maladaptive types with bad haircuts that hot blondes would nonetheless throw themselves at us).  As the universal voice of Starfleet computers, she infused our conception of computers with a personality that is still absent from our constantly used desktops  (Clippy notwithstanding).  As a partner to her husband Gene Roddenberry, she fostered a view of the future that, though inconsistent, maintained a certain spark that somehow attracted masses.  As Lwaxana Troi, she brought a big shit-eating grin to Commander Riker’s face when she appeared naked for her own wedding, dressed only in earrings and a saucy smile.

Goodbye, Ms. Barrett-Roddenberry.  You go not alone into the next realm; a part of the childhood of everyone in a broad demographic travels with you.

The following is from a press release for the Second Annual B Movie Celebration, September 26th thru 28th, 2008. (Looks like they could have used a copy editor, but…)

*****

The Celebration will feature screenings of over 50 classic B movies, 20 Educational seminars and the World’s Largest Beach Party, featuring the music of The Moon-Rays. And we really need your help getting the word out.

The Celebration will feature screenings of over 50 classic B movies, Many in glorious 35mm. Our Line Up, which has been curated by B Movie Legend Jim Wynorski. The films includes:

SHOGUN ASSASSIN
FORBIDDEN WORLD
DEATH RACE 2000
HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD
THIS ISLAND EARTH
TARANTULA
CARNIVAL OF SOULS
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
NIGHT OF THE COMET
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
THE GIANT BEHEMOTH
QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE
WORLD WITHOUT END
RUSS MEYER’S UP
FROM HELL IT CAME
ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS
NOT OF THIS EARTH(the black and white original)
THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD
EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS
WITHOUT WARNING
SCREWBALLS
GALAXY OF TERROR
HOUSE
THE CRAWLING EYE
ATTACK OF THE 50FOOT WOMAN
PSYCHO
JOURNEY TO THE SEVENTH PLANET
INVISIBLE INVADERS
ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES
TERMINAL ISLAND
NIGHTHAWKS
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND(61)
ONE MILLION B.C.
INVADERS FROM MARS(53)
TO TRAP A SPY
HOLD THAT GHOST
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN
TWINS OF EVIL
THE VAMPIRE LOVERS
LUST FOR A VAMPIRE
THE TIME MACHINE
WAR OF THE WORLDS

Plus The First Edition of Summer TromaDance

A Lifetime Achievement Award to Stuart Gordon
From his 1985 debut as a cult director with Re-Animator to his 2002 H.P. Lovecraft film “Dagon” Stuart Gordon has consistently delivered quality horror to the masses, and is now considered by many of us to be one of the most important exploitation film-makers of the past 30 years.

Other great guests
Tom Savini, Jim Wynorski (of course), Conrad Brooks from Plan Nine From Outer Space , Tom Holland Director of Fright Night, Andrew Stevens Producer, Independent Horror Director Jim O’Rear and many many more.

The Best Hosts, Mister Lobo, Queen of Trash, Will The Thrill, Monic Tiki Goddess

The World’s Largest Beach Party With the Moon-rays
The planets greatest B- Movie surf band will turn this small Mid Western City into a rockin Hepcat beach party. The Moon Rays were born of a concept brought on by the recording of the theme from WGN’s Creature Features TV show andf the rest is legend. Join them in Franklin Indiana September 27th as we see summer out with a bang,

For more information
For further information please go to www.bmoviecelebration.com

I just spent two nights at the Nilbog Invasion, the tribute to Troll 2 that took place (is still taking place, actually) in the shooting location, Morgan, Utah.  You can catch my recaps here and here.  (Say — is that something spelled backwards?)

Note: What I wrote isn’t really a review, but if you need more details, you can check out the Unknown Movies’ review.

I’m really starting to like this website…

Ten Scenes of Brutal Violence Guaranteed To Make You Laugh

The 30 Most Ill-Conceived Monsters

What’s more fun than Richard Chamberlain and Patrick Swayze put together??

 Anyone here seen this? I’m looking at you, Keith Allison!