FIST OF THE NORTH STAR

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Ultra-Stereo

Low-budget Americanization of the Japanese manga 'Hokuto no Ken' - already the subject of an earlier anime feature and TV series - in which a mystical warrior (British-born martial arts expert Gary Daniels) defends the survivors of an unspecified global holocaust from an evil warlord (Costas Mandylor) who intends to rebuild the planet in his own image. Photographed by A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET's Jacques Haitkin through layers of murk designed to conceal a multitude of budgetary deficiencies, and 'distinguished' by flashy editing and gymnastic camera-work designed to conceal the lack of a comprehensible plot, Tony Randel's unconvincing future noir trades the visionary outlook of the original graphic novel for the same lumbering, humorless approach which typified this particular subgenre before US producers *finally* learned how to imitate their Asian counterparts. Though brutal in places, particularly during the final confrontation between Daniels and Mandylor, the film actually *downplays* the gory carnage of its source material, which will disappoint those expecting a more faithful adaptation.

A popular figure in this kind of DTV potboiler, Daniels was clearly hired for his fighting skills rather than his acting, and he's upstaged throughout by many of his co-stars (including Chris Penn, Melvin Van Peebles and Malcolm McDowell). Thankfully, Randel makes a virtue of Daniels' handsome face and muscular torso, and there's an unmistakable whiff of homoerotic tension in the aggressive relationship between Daniels and his equally handsome nemesis.


This was so bad... so typical Hollywood low-budget, post-apocalyptic tripe, that I aborted it after about 20 minutes. Nowhere close to as entertaining as the original anime series.

The sets were cheesy. The acting was horrible. The fights were on the verge of comical... comical in the bad way, not the good way as the original was. I mean the fights were downright hilarious in the original anime. But in a GREAT way!

The manga/anime went on for a LONG time. So much of the plot has to be crammed into a short amount of time that much of the detail has to be dropped on the floor never to be seen. That's one of the main issues with ANY live action version of a manga/anime.

As far as character development... forgetaboutit! Again, there is only so much time in a movie. I'm sorry, but to be honest with you, I have simply lost interest in the short Hollywood movie format since having discovered the joy of long-term anime!

There is nothing to recommend this interpretation. Save your time.


Well well well... Everybody who has watched the anime knows that the authors "copied" their characters from real-life people...Ken from Stallone (say in Cobra); general Falco from WWF wrestler 'rugged' Ronnie Garvin; the 'nanto hawks' from wrestlers Powers of Pain; thug Zeta from wrestler Zeuss (he even got the Z on the bald head in the anime etc )... In the cartoon Julia is a celtic beauty with reddish hair (the last part of the series)... Here we have mestizos with slanted eyes... Many fight scenes look like a bad Van Damme movie and the 'Okuto' high-speed, close range hits look more like metro-sexual guys cat fighting than otherwise. Daniels might be the next Bruce Lee for all I know, and PROBABLY knows his moves since he's been a pro, but in this movie he's worst than most C grade Hong Kong movies. The rest of characters aren't worth mentioning. SFX are very mediocre barren a couple.


Take Malcolm McDowell who dies quickly, rather like the plot of this film. He is the only star in the film. I did recognise Chris Penn but I don't know what I've seen him in before, possibly Reservoir Dogs. Wrestling fans may recognise a brief appearance by Leon White also known as WCW and WWE Superstar Big Van Vader. His fight scene is most likely the best and well organised fight in the whole film.

This is a manga comic or anime film that has been made into live action and it was obviously a really bad idea.

No script, bad story, really bad acting and some really bad fighting scenes. I really wish I hadn't bothered watching it.


I was really disappointed with this film. I saw it back in 1996 on the Sci-Fi channel and remembered it being not half-bad. Upon watching it again, I found it to lack many things. I never watched the Anime or read the comics because I am just not into that stuff, but, from what I have read about it, the Anime sounds like it wipes the floor with this poor production.

Kenshiro is the hero of the story played by Gary Daniels for some reason. It's funny, I thought Kenshiro was suppose to be Asian, but whatever. Lord Shin, the lead bad guy also played by an American, kidnaps Kenshiro's girl Juliet and leaves Kenshiro for dead after brutally injuring him. What you think would be a classic good vs. evil story gets very boring as nothing happens until the end, and at that point you have already lost interest.

I had thought this movie was going to be extremely violent due to the fact that the Anime is suppose to be viciously violent, but, this movie lacks any real action or violence, minus about 3 or 4 scenes. Instead, what we have is a movie that feels like the end of a really bad Trilogy that doesn't exist. Perhaps, if the movie were cast better and had a decent script it would have worked better. And Tony Randel as director was very disappointing considering this is the same guy that directed Hellraiser 2 (one of my all time favorite films).

The only plus side of this movie was a pretty decent soundtrack and Chris Penn. The soundtrack was very good considering the movie was very boring. Chris Penn did a cool job with his character and was probably the only real highlight of the film.

I guess I need to watch the Anime, even if I don't really like Anime. I would suggest staying away from this movie only if you really like Gary Daniels. 4/10


I do not consider myself a die hard fan of the anime version of Fist of the North Star, although it does have its moments. This version, though, really shows that sometimes anime needs to stay anime. The acting is terrible. The guy who plays the main character does not capture the essence of Ken from either the animated movie or the manga. The fight scenes are weak, even for a b-movie like this. I do not expect a live-action version to capture the graphic brutality of the anime, but this movie does no justice to the original idea of these super-human martial artists. In the end what really kills the movie is that is too buried in cheap, live-action reality. Where the anime and manga transport you to a post-apocalyptic world that is both disturbing and fantastic, this movie always feels tied into shoddy sets and lame costumes. Save yourself any money you might waste on this movie (which is not much considering the movie can be found for a few bucks in bargain bins everywhere) and dig up the anime for a real treat, as well as an attack on the senses.


I love the anime version. I knew this one would be a train wreck, but had to check it out. The fights bored me to tears. The guy playing Kenshiro looked too much like Kevin Nealon in a bad wig for me to take seriously. The fact that Downtown Julie Brown was the best actor in the mess should be enough to warn you away. Kenshiro's head-exploding move looked like something out of hot shots part deux. A for effort, but they just weren't up the task.


Saw this was on by accident on cable and decided to watch it (having already seen the anime film of the same name, which I enjoyed).

Mistake... BIG mistake.

The violent content probably would preclude younger viewers from seeing it and yet they would possibly be the only ones able to appreciate the simplicity of the plot. The people in the film (I refrain from calling them actors) should watch out for termites their acting is so wooden.

I didn't actually become ill so I gave it 2/10.


This honestly is the worst show I have ever seen on TV. Ever. And I watch a lot of TV. It basically deals with a bunch of trashy, low class and obscenely crass women competing for the "love" of washed up rapper Flava Flav. I hope most people watch it for its unintentional or even intentional comedic value, but even that is disgusting, as I wish it wouldn't even get those ratings. All the actions and everything else seems to be scripted out an stereotyped. They most likely consciously play into their stereotypes to make the show more interesting. Even the names are trashy. Hoopz? Come on, seriously. This is bad, even for VH1. I challenge anyone to not watch this show, even to laugh at it, so it can get put off the air and Flava Flav will lose his money again and be even more washed up. What a horrible show.


To even the score I jumped from D.O.G. - THE BOUNTY HUNTER" right here. I enter another room in the same mental cellar. Flavor, what makes you tick these days, it's not your clock. Your clock is gone. To quote the German band Die Sterne": Was hat Dich bloss so ruiniert?" (="What has only just brought you that low?").

Man, your PE-records were like lead on my turntable; in the late 80s, early 90s I couldn't turn them off! And now? You used to be one major influence on my political education, and now ... (sorry, it'll get ugly now but you asked for it) you abandoned all self-esteem and present yourself as the "brainless bimbo", that all the white racist-pigs tend to see in your skin; are you fraggin' out of your mind? That the show is probably a fake doesn't make it any better, rather worse.

You wanna get laid... Okay you wanna get laid, get the gal-reel served on a silver plate and also get paid for it if possible. I can relate to that... somehow. But does the whole world gotta know and watch? Okay I admit: that's their idiotic decision. But you didn't spend all your millions to survive on such a lobotomized format, did you? Do you suffer of a profile-neurosis? Well, I probably do, for writing a comment on such a brainless show and hope, it might bring you back to the Mic. Poor riddle me...

Your sound was a vision, your records my gyro, you aborted the mission, now you're channel zero!

By the way, you got a colored POTUS lately, you noticed? Mission accomplished and ... oh great, you're still in bed.

GET IN YOUR FACKING GILLIE AND GO!


I have a some problems with this show, first:

1. Flavor Flav has seven kids, is in his late 40's and is messing around with all kinds of crazy women half his age. 2. Flav decided to bring NY back and then dumped her 3. He wants ten kids 4. In the FOL 3 reunion he decides to go back to the mother of his 7th kid 5. why do the women on this show embarrass themselves by acting so crazy 6. the women on this show give their race a bad image 7. the women are crazy for wanting a short man twice their age . flav sleeps with these women and then eliminates them 9. why would these optimistic women want a 49 year old with 7 kids 10.the women act like they have no home training


i thought this show was awful cause new york didn't win and she was the one who went back for flavor the second time when she could of had someone else her mom was right she was the only one who really loved flavor not that dumb face ugly girl he chose gross what a fat hag gross new york is way hotter and sexier she is way more than the other girl flavor you made a bad choice you just better hope new yorks mom don't come after you but i hope she does just playing but why didn't you pick new york she is all you need telling you the truth she really loved you and you made her go home again after again sad but i guess thats you and whats up with the grills at the end i think its cute but i still think new york should of been wearing them


I'm a big fan of Jack Lemmon's dramatic roles but not this one. The movie is about Lemmon and his estranged son played by Robby Benson, who has a deep hatred for his father. After learning Lemmon is dying, Benson tries to make thing right with his father. 125 minutes of Benson talking about how bad of a father Lemmon was, combined with Lemmon's corny jokes, does not not equal a good movie


"Tribute" stunk to high hell. Jack Lemmon is capable of brilliant work but he can be lousy when he goes too far over the top with slapstick humor (loved that chicken suit, Jack) and I defy anyone who doesn't need serious help to watch the last scene without groaning audibly and reaching for a barf bag. This continually annoying and exasperating ode to putrid schmaltz contained all the phony, forced emotions that the likes of Aaron Spelling made famous with such horrible TV shows as "Loveboat." In addition, the actor who played Lemmon's son was such a vile little creep that we actually hoped someone would run him over, yet we were supposed to care that his dad never gave him enough personal attention. By the way, was the girl who gave this jerk a tumble just a tad too sugary and sunny for words and are we seriously supposed to believe that she would stick around for dose after dose of his whiny nonsense? How's about the whore with a heart of gold? Do you know of any prostitutes who get thrown surprise parties hosted by all their satisfied johns? How frigging ridiculous. And was that woman doctor a total pain, or what? At the conclusion, when Lemmon smooched his "son" full on the mouth and then dropped his pants, the reaction shots (especially hers) were just plain sick. This one was a real stinkeroo, a 'tribute' to phony emotions, bad acting, and a rotten script. Don't bother unless you need an emetic.


I am a lover of history, and historical films, too, but Ju Dou has a lot of faults. Most of all this movie fails in story telling, by using weak characters and weak plot development. The only areas in which this film deserves the 10, given by many reviewers, in in cinematography, setting, and costume. One reviewer compared this movie to a Greek tragedy, but I don't know of any Greek tragedies that have endings as bad as this one. The only characters that seem to develop in a normal way are the uncle, Jin-shan, and his wife, Jo Dou. The attention that was paid to this awful relationship overshadowed the lack of detail paid to the characters in the rest of the movie.

Jo Dou is the only character with a healthy motivation, and her fall is the "T" in the tragedy here. "Uncle" is only motivated by his drive to have an heir. His ancestor-worship calls attention to this, and thus the movie can be taken as religious criticism.

Nephew Tian-qing's character was extremely weak, and only flourished in a single act of challenging his uncle. This, coupled with his physical unattractiveness caused the move to be difficult to watch, in spite of the color themes. I don't really understand much about Chinese color symbology, but this is a plus. In one scene, a customer comes to order cloth, 15 yellow (tradition) and 3 red (luck, fire, and energy). There is a lot more yellow than red. This is the main point I think the director is trying to make.

Tian-qing's weak character is probably the main thing that made this move hard for me to watch. Second to that is the treatment of the autistic son, Tian-bai. One gets the idea from watching this that in society, and Chinese society especially, some people feel that their children are dropped from trees, and that the only way a child can develop a personality is from encountering other children and playing with them. "Uncle" finally gets a retrieve, when he develops a notion of parenting. This calls attention, perhaps, to the "dirty little secret" not being confronted in our society about autism - that it really has a lot to do with neglecting children. The details of Tian-bai's upbringing that lead to his murderous behavior are almost entirely eliminated from the story.

At this point the movie goes upside down, the Uncle's develops moral superiority as well as ownership of the child, and for Tian-qing and Ju Dou, everything is downhill from there. I might revise my opinion of this is there was a list of "top-ten downer movies of all time".


Zhang Yimou directs this film about a forbidden love that is kept secret for fear of public retaliation. The cloth-making subplot allows for some very bright, beautiful colors; and the lead actor and actress are pretty good. The first hour of this film was enjoyable and engaging as a realistic drama.

Unfortunately, the final half hour takes a decisive turn to the ridiculous. It's beyond comprehension why the filmmakers felt the need to insert a poorly-acted, psycho child into this storyline, and no reason is given for his completely outrageous behavior. The first 10 minutes of "Halloween" and the entire "Children of the Corn" series come to mind.

It is at this point where Ju Dou completely loses its touch with reality, as if Wes Craven took over the final few days of shooting. Only in the world of B-grade horror can a child laugh hysterically after dragging a cripple to drown in a vat of clothing dye, or beat his father over the head with a two-by-four for no apparent reason whatsoever. It is not an understatement to say that this movie has one of the most absurd, out-of-place endings in the history of cinema.

In fact, every single scene with the child made this film unwatchable to the point of inducing anger. One of Yimou's worst.


1st watched 4/5/2003 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Andrea Bianchi): Godfather-like Italian movie without good acting, directing or writing. The title will fool you(at least the U.S. released video title-Cry of a Prostitute) because this movie has very little to do about a prostitute except that she is a minor character that pretends to be the wife of one of the many `Don's' in this movie. This is just a way to get people in the U.S. to rent the video. The story is actually about a man who plays the game with many mafia-type gangs and ends up being the top honcho in the end. It's very obvious where this movie is going, but there was some interesting things like seeing the actual reason for the family feuds(centering around the mis-treatment of a handicapped boy in one family) that became mafia's and seeing the reality of their real business's that become crooked by entering drugs into the business. The emotionless Henry Silva does an ok job in his part but most of the acting was not memorable. Watching this makes me want to see the Godfather, to see how much better it is in it's storytelling and acting. Not a good reason to give this a thumbs up, though.


This silent film is included in Laurel and Hardy film collection, and it only features on of the pair, but I had to see what he was doing before he got with his partner. This was part of a little Our Gang comedy series starring the "Rascals", and it is June, the month of weddings, where little Mary (Mary Kornman) has a pretend wedding to a little fat kid (who almost resembles Hardy), and the little black kid causes a little trouble throwing a black polish covered shoe after the other kids have laughed at the "couple" kissing. After getting away the black kid walks with his dog past Professor Clements (George B. French) displaying his flea circus, with the marvellous flea Garfield performing. Garfield jumps into the fur of the black kid's dog, as he walks away to greet Skooter (Scooter Lowry) of the newly moved Swiss Family Robinson, and he manages to drop their fish bowl, causing fish to jump on the floor, into his mouth, and over the baby brother. The Professor extracts another flea from another dog, and he notices that Garfield is missing, and he offers a dollar to the kid who finds his prize fleas. The black kid's dog manages to knock over the flea circus table, and the fleas get into his fur, and some he shakes out to go up the leg of a police officer (Ollie, as Oliver Babe), forcing him to paint a new pair on his britches. Kids are all over getting fleas from wherever they can, including in other dogs, in trousers, and in amongst a man's beard which is set on fire by the light of a magnifying glass. The Professor leaves rejecting all these fleas, and the kids have to get ready for the wedding of Mary's sister, but they quickly advance to the food table. The black kid's dog shakes some fleas around the musicians, and when the black kid is picked up crawling around by his legs, he manages to drop the jar filled with all the kids' caught fleas. Sheldon the groom (Jerry Mandy) is already nervous, and he twitches even more with fleas up his trousers, concerning the Bride (Martha Sleeper) and the Justice of the Peace (James Finlayson, without his trademark moustache). Soon all the weddings guests are scratching themselves as the fleas scatter, into trousers, on noses and in moustaches, forcing the bride, groom and the man marrying them to go outside. The kids manage to find a bug spray canister which the spray on all fleas they can find, one protects themselves with a gas mask, and the film ends with a man posing as a statue scratching himself as an artist tries to paint him. Also starring Charley Chase as Mustachioed wedding guest and Charlie Hall as Musician. The kids are annoying, there might some small giggles in the film, but ti isn't one I'd want to see that often to be honest. Okay!


'Thundering Fleas' has been marketed on video as an Oliver Hardy and Charley Chase film. In fact, Hardy shows up only briefly (as a burly cop) but has some funny moments. Chase is glimpsed in only a tiny bit role, hiding behind what appears to be Chester Conklin's moustache. (From Chase's brief days at Mack Sennett's Keystone studio.) The best performance here is by James Finlayson: clean-shaven, but sporting an odd bit of lip-liner pencil that makes him look as if he's wearing Little Richard's moustache!

Technically, this is an Our Gang comedy, starring some of my least favourite Hal Roach brats: ugly Mickey Daniels, hideous Joe Cobb and untalented Scooter Lowry. At least Mary Kornman and her sister Mildred are excellent here (as the bride's younger sister and flower girl), wearing prettier frocks and more elaborate hairstyles than usual. James Finlayson's son Alexander shows up as a boy in the wedding party. Long-time Laurel & Hardy nemesis Charlie Hall is seen briefly, but has almost nothing funny to do.

Here's the plot: the kids collect some fleas, and then the fleas get loose at Martha Sleeper's posh wedding reception. There's one very unpleasant gag sequence early on, when the kids harvest fleas from the beard of a sleeping man, accidentally setting him on fire when their magnifying lens works as a burning-glass. I couldn't help being reminded of real-life occasions when juvenile delinquents have deliberately set fire to a tramp or homeless person as a 'joke'. In this movie, when the burning man jumps off a quay into the water, the scene is shot in a manner that emphasises the danger he's in, rather than playing for comedy. I just couldn't laugh.

Several shots are badly framed. SPOILERS COMING. Near the end of this movie, there's a crude and unfunny animation sequence, depicting a flea that doesn't look remotely flea-like. This is followed by a gag that might have been funny if done properly. The fleas get loose near a statue of the Discobolus, and the statue comes alive and starts scratching himself. This gag MIGHT have been funny, except that I could clearly see the actor playing the statue (in body paint) fidgeting slightly before he was meant to start moving, so I knew that the 'statue' was alive all along.

There's a lot of itching and scratching in this movie, but not much to laugh at. My rating: just 2 out of 10.


This is a very early Our Gang comedy, yet oddly when the film begins it says it stars James Finlayson and Charley Chase. Chase is barely in the movie at all and beneath a huge mustache it's hard to see that it's him. Finlayson does have a much larger role, but it's really the kids who are the star of this trifling comedy.

The kids are somehow interested in collecting fleas for their own flea circus. At the same time, one of the gang's sisters is getting married so they all tag along for the free food. Unfortunately, they bring along a jar filled with fleas. Given the premise and title of the film, it's not a spoiler to say that the fleas get loose and cause the wedding to be a disaster--with everyone itching like crazy. Not exactly subtle humor and not terribly funny.

In a small role, look for a pre-Laurel and Hardy solo performance by Oliver Hardy as a cop. It's not much to speak of, but if you're watching the film anyways, look for him.


First of all I went for this film with no expectation. Until half of the film I don't know what this whole movie is about. Then Reema Sen's role introduced. Simbhu failed to convince us Reema as school student and she has an awful screen presence. The things Reema doing to check whether Simbhu is in love with her or not is too ridiculous and some time disgusting too. And Climax.... Just for sake of finishing the film and nothing much to say about it.

The only thing which makes us relief is the music. Even the background score makes us think that something is going to happen next even though nothing interesting after that.

Towards my point of view this film sure gonna loose some money because Simbhu spent more that he should. I read an interview of him that he will become the next "SHANKAR" and what I am saying is being "SHANKAR" means not dancing with more than thousand people around you. It is more than that.

Simbhu should sit down and think more on developing the story than his screen presence as a director. I think even SUPER STAR RAJINI did not had such "Build Up"s than Simbhu in his films...

Simbhu still have a long way to go and as a result he should TALK LESS.


oh god..please save the people who has seen this "comical acting, fatuous direction, futile story, insane dialogues,etc" which gave a non-stop unbelievable maligning experience till the end..people watching this will go into an irrecoverable coma..it was an harrowing experience..

the director-what is he trying to make, it looks as though he was completely out of his mind..the viewers will not condone this piece of work..unfortunately this movie has the same director, story-writer, and also the leading actor..at least this time the blame goes to single person..simbhu takes the sole responsibility for making life difficult for viewers..he has given importance in exposing extreme vulgarity..

music-this is the only good thing about this movie..it has some good numbers and good background score..but it doesn't make this rubbish watchable..

nayanthara and reemasen - i pity them both..i feel that they would have done much better for any other movie..they were doing skin show in this entire movie..reemasen's acting was terrible..nayanthara has and always done glamorous roles..she does it so as to hide her acting inabilities..

bottom line-what more to say..if you want to be peaceful please avoid this like dog sh**..if you want to terrorize yourself you are most welcome to watch this A-hole at the highest level..

actually i would like to give it zero on 10..

but the rating is 1/10


Wow!I am quite disappointed that this could not compete with his recent sh*t called 'Kaalai'(The Bull-It was even more pathetic) Vallavan-has no story,screenplay and direction.It only has a good original score by Yuvan Shankar Raja.If he hadn't been there,the movie would have fallen flat.Even when he is there the movie still falls flat.

A youngster falls in love with a girl 3 years older than him,and thinks its no mistake.He even has sex with her.After knowing that he is a young boy the girl gets annoyed and refuses to marry him.Now another female who had a crush on this guy in high school enters and kidnaps a friend of this guy.How he convinces the older girl and marries her,deceiving the crush is the story.Okay,we can't call this a story but unfortunately this is what we have as a story.Now there is cheap and vulgar scenes which is more or less pornography,comedy which makes you weep,acting which makes you puke and horrifying punch dialogues to stab you over and over.Simbu is there to give you goosebumps!I wish I could rate this movie in minus infinity,sadly IMDb allows me rate 1 star as the lowest.

Are you nuts?Are you a dumbo?Are you a bozo?Watch this movie.(I did because some nutcases recommended me this movie)

Watch a tom and jerry episode,funny videos or even old photo albums.Try to miss this movie by all means.Otherwise you will repent on doing a life-time mistake.


I cannot understand...Simbu does not have any originality. ..He acts and copies Rajini's style, then copies Kamal's style .. then copies Vijay's style and then last but not least copies his dad's style. Does it mean he is more like a mimicry hero. ..who has no originality and just copies everyone...He wants to be like everyone and never wants to be like Simbu.....It is so annoying and boring to see the same crap. .. If the same portrait of Rajini, Kamal and Vijay are going to be always there, why see a dummy instead of a real one. Maybe Simbu should accept himself and act his own style instead of having no originality and copying everyone.

Renu


If this is supposed to be a "porn" movie it is the funniest one I have ever seen. Reminds me of the old Keystone cop and Sinbad The Pirate movies. Love the character Emperor Wang, such a dildo. Have seen the original Flash Gordon and all the cartoons and this sorta kinda resembles them. This movie is hilarious, great fun!!!


Well, special effects were quite good for the times. I had heard this was a porno film, but what I saw was much like Euro soft-core. Admittedly it seemed to be cut, but the version I saw was 1:26 whereas the DVD promises 1:30. So, 4 minutes of cuts get this down to an "R"? Anyway, the film, like many sex movies, aims for camp. It hits, sometimes. It misses a lot, too, or else I am missing the jokes. Quite possible, as I don't remember having seen any of the "Flash Gordon" serials. Overall, I can't recommend this one.


This movie was one of the first made after the MPAA rating system replaced the Hayes code, and people could make porn commercially. Originally, it got an X rating, and they trimmed it down a bit to give it an R.

Basically, it parodies the Flash Gordan serials of the 1930's, with stop-motion animation monsters and cheap space ships. The jokes aren't really funny, the sex isn't very passionate, the acting is awful and the special effects are cheap. Yet, oddly, it is unintentionally funny. The scene at the end with the jive-talking giant monster is probably the best part.

worth watching for a laugh... maybe once.


For years, I've read of this soft-porn parody of Flash Gordon since it was advertised as one of several midnight movies listed as being at the (now defunct) Cinema 8 at the (also folded) Bon Marche Mall. While I've had it on tape for years, I've only now gotten to seeing it. The verdict: While there were some amusing scenes and dialogue and maybe some good nude scenes, I found most of it a bore. The acting, direction, and script had such an amateurish feeling that after a while I just simply wanted it to end. I did like many of the stop-motion creatures that recall Ray Harryhausen and his mentor Willis O'Brien at their most creative. I guess overall, this was too silly for my tastes. Worth a look at least once is all I can recommended for Flesh Gordon.


Flesh Gordon is probably one of those films you have to see, just to say you've seen it.

Apparently some versions of the movie are soft porn; the video release I saw certainly wasn't, and was just basic titillation. The film itself has better effects and direction than you'd probably expect, though for a sex comedy it's neither sexy nor funny, so fails in both its attempted genres.

Some bits amuse, though there's a tastelessness that borders on the offensive. Okay, the crude homosexual jibes weren't that big a deal in the 70s, but surely cracks about rape were never acceptable? The film even goes one better by combining the two, and having lesbian rapists. A pre-credits narration - explaining how the film is a homage and there to cheer up people feeling depressed - makes the whole thing seem a little too full of its assumed self-importance.

It's not all that bad, and William Hunt has his moments as Wang, though strangely for a nudist send-up of 30s serials it's also quite tedious. 4/10.


thankfully ive only seen this movie the one time and that was Plenty enough for me. .it was SO stupid, it wasnt funny.. i would advise NO one to rent this movie..if its available on video.. save Your money and rent either the one with Buster Crabbe.. or the one with Sam Jones..

it was so dumb and i know it was just a take off from the original.. what the heck were the ones that made this stinker thinking?? it made NO sense at all.. just shoot this lousy movie into outer space..


Cheap, silly porno spoof of Flash Gordon. Flesh and Dale Ardor with Dr. Felix Jerkoff (ho ho) go to the planet Porno (where else?) and face off against the evil Wang and try to get...something. I don't know. I got bored and fell asleep.

I saw the extended DVD version. There's no hardcore stuff but tons of nudity, a fairly explicit lesbian sequence and (surprisingly) a gay sequence! The jokes are all terrible, stupid sound effects are heard throughout, lousy music and terrible acting across the board. And, seriously, Jason Williams really should of worked out more seeing he's nude most of the time and is the hero. This movie thinks it's really funny--but it isn't.

There is some excellent stop-motion animation monsters here but they're pretty brief and not enough to save the movie.

Might be funny if you're dead drunk. Rock bottom--DO NOT SEE!!!!


Cast of giants appears in this ridiculous mixture of the Exorcist, Godzilla, Little Big Man, and Leprechaun. There is nothing good in the movie at all, except that it is so stinking bad. The greasy little monster that crawls out of Susan Strasberg's back is a powerful shrimp (shrunken and disfigured because of the multiple X-Rays done when trying to figure out what was going on with this goiter gone bad). This evil manitou means to destroy the world. It is a native American Monster, and therefore, only a Native American medicine man can stop it. Chief Bromden from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is willing to take on the challenge.

I saw this movie with a friend of mine about 20 years ago and we still laugh about it. I also saw "Ordinary People" about the same time. It won the academy award for best picture and is a good movie. I can hardly remember the movie now.

There is a place for bad movies. I give this a ranking of 2 out of ten because of the fact that it offers a lot of unintentional laughs. Otherwise it would definitely be a zero. It's not "Plan Nine From Outer Space," or "Robot Monster," but it isn't bad for a horrible, but memorable poor flick.


Yet another one of those whacky cross bred horror movies that scared me senseless as a kid but upon seeing again is a total crack up. In a nutshell a woman grows a goiter on her neck that happens to be home to an evil Indian medicine man. Wha wha wha what?? She's hospitalized and Tony Curtis mills around and the slop and glop-ola both start flying in abundance. Mr. Manitou is one heck of an ugly character and like I said when I was little he was enough to make me pull my blanket over my eyes. Nowadays I'd punt that annoying little navajo right out the hospital window. Far from a great piece of cinematic chiller but worth it for it's sheer absurdity and a great scene in which a stunt woman tumbles down some steps and her head busts through all the rungs on the banister on the way down. She's fallen and this movie can't get up. 3/10


Whatever the merits of the best-selling novel may be, this cinematic adaptation is a disaster at nearly every turn, often making a potentially disturbing story a laugh riot, instead! Strasberg plays a woman afflicted by the cinema's most annoying peach blouse....er, make that a huge knot on the back of her neck, which is getting bigger and bigger with each passing day and confounding all the doctors examining it. In desperation, she turns to her ex-lover Curtis, a false medium who reads tarot cards to little old ladies while wearing a fake mustache, a velour robe that has the signs of the Zodiac printed on it and quite possibly the tightest jeans in the history of the movies. The couple rekindles their romance and she is admitted to the hospital while Curtis scrambles for answers. He turns to an old pal, a mystic played by Stevens (in Light Egyptian makeup and a curly, chestnut brown fright wig) and her husband (played by former child star, now rotund and bearded, Corcoran.) They hold a séance at Strasberg's home where her aunt (Sothern) makes a brief appearance in Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday Mister President" wig and enough foundation to cover all the clowns in the Ringling Brothers Circus. When that blows up in their faces (literally!), they try Meredith, a craggy and fussy old anthropologist who, for reasons best left alone, has a curly, blonde wig among the artifacts in his attic! (What is it with this film and bad wigs?!) Meredith refers Curtis to a present day Medicine Man (Ansara) who is reluctant to help out a paleface woman, but does anyway when he realizes the severity of the incident. It seems that an ancient evil spirit from the Native American realm has burrowed itself in Strasberg's neck and is about to be reborn!!!! Unfortunately for everyone, she's had so many X-rays to find out what's wrong that when he comes out, he's dwarfed and deformed, though still quite powerful (as demonstrated by his stripping the skin off a live human male and freezing the entire floor of a hospital, one hapless nurse right along with it!) Ansara tries to hold him at bay with some colored sand and a couple of sticks being tapped together, but ultimately, it falls to Curtis and Strasberg herself to make inroads at stopping him. This horrendous, yet compulsively watchable, film has a plethora of classic bad movie moments. A few highlights include: Curtis gyrating around to canned disco music as he pours himself a beer into a wine goblet, Stevens attempting to keep a straight face in the light of her ludicrous role (she eventually exits the film altogether without explanation), Sothern's home being trashed, yet her false eyelashes never move a tad (she barely registers in this film at all, a person would have to hit "pause" to get a decent look at her!), surgeon Cedar being forced to cut himself with his own scalpel by the unborn ancient hobgoblin, a nod to the 70's disaster cycle in which a hospital office shakes and rattles as if it were unused footage from "Earthquake" and the heinous space effects when Strasberg's room becomes an inter-dimensional playground (complete with her doffing her hospital gown and taking on the creature TOPLESS!) Most nutso of all, though, is the brief contribution from Tuttle. Like Nolan, who has a bit during the opening credits, she plays one of Curtis's easily-taken-in customers. Looking not unlike Clara Peller from the "Where's the beef?" Wendy's commercials, she is overtaken by an unseen force and begins spouting an old Indian mantra. Then she rises up magically and levitates down the hall, finally getting hurled violently down a flight of steps (or rather, her blatantly obvious MALE stunt double does!) The whole thing is just too bad for words, not aided by Curtis's unwelcome self-satisfied smugness and sarcasm in his role. When he barely bothers to keep a straight face, how can an audience invest in the already hard-to-take story? Strasberg, daughter of the legendary Method actor Lee Strasberg, does manage to register the necessary level of agony and torment for her role and Meredith has fun with his cameo, but most everyone else seems embarrassed to be there (and most of them should be!) This is not to say that the film isn't fall-down funny during many points, which is its primary selling point today.


Dreadful! I remember seeing this film like it was yesterday, not 20 years ago. It was 1978, John Carpenter's "Halloween" had just come out and my friends and I were feeling that horror films were entering a new, fresh beginning, a renaissance. We were awaiting each new horror film with giddy anticipation. Then "The Manitou" came out!

This has got to be Tony Curtis's worst performance ever. I remember the whole audience laughing at certain scenes. Not that it is all Tony's fault, the writing induces most of the laughs all on its own. There is a scene late in the movie where Curtis talks about the "Manitou" or Indian spirit in a typewriter(!!!) that sent the theater into hysterics.

If you want to know just how bad a horror film can be, rent "The Manitou" and you'll find out!


It was impossible for me to turn this off and leave it off. I kept going back to see if it could possibly get any worse. It did not disappoint me. Now, I have to admit to everyone right here that I have not seen every movie ever made, so I cannot definitively say that "The Manitou" is the worst movie of all time. I can however, say that it is without question the worst "big budget" type movie that I've ever seen. And yet I had to watch it to it's finish. It was truly mesmerizing in it's badness.

A short outline of the plot would make no sense here, and now that I think of it, a long outline would make even less sense so I won't attempt it. There were so many wonderfully absurd lines of script that it was hard to keep track of them. Keeping in mind that this was made in the technologically challenged late 70's, one of my favorite lines was when Tony Curtis' character asks the hospital administrator about how much computer equipment is available that might be used to kill the evil spirit. When he asks, "That stuff has a lot of electricity in it, right??", I burst out laughing for at least the 20th time.

As the credits rolled, I wondered exactly how much money did it take for Curtis to sign on to this project. To go from one of the greatest comedic performances of all time in "Some Like it Hot", to, well...this, is difficult to justify. I guess the sunset years of an actor need to be financed too, as is evident by a cast that also contains Susan Strasberg, Ann Southern, and Burgess Meredith. I certainly don't think any of them should feel embarrassed by making a film like this, I just hope they all got paid enough.


That's a reverse scale to mean that it is so awful that it is actually fantastic. So my score of 1 means it is super entertaining. Get this: Tony Curtis's girlfriend finds a little lump on her back that ends up being a psychotic Oompa Loompa American Indian Shaman. Totally inept and unintentionally funny Exorcist rip-off, but sooooooooo dang funny. The Vista in Hollywood is actually showing this thing as part of a "So Bad It's Good" film festival on March 30th at midnight and apparently Stella Stevens is going to show up to say hello and impart some anecdotes. I think I will be checking that out...on the big screen where it belongs, baby....


When I watched this on television years ago it simply screamed made for television movie to me. The quality of the film, the incredibly cheesy story that tries in vain to be serious and the stable of actors one expects to see in a made for television movie. However, it was apparently a film that got a film release and that is kind of sad considering how weak the film is as a horror movie. You would expect more blood, more frightening scenes, this one just does not have it at all. It seems almost like a lifetime channel movie of today in its production values and plot. The plot is simple enough to explain, seems a demon like creature called the manitou is growing on Tony Curtis' wife and he must try to stop this evil entity before it is to late. I also recall it being some sort of Indian legend and there may have been an Indian in the movie to help out, but do not quote me on that one. In the end a very light and frothy horror movie that does not contain really all that much to justify that R rating.


WELL, then...what can I say about a movie I used to think was one of the coolest supernatural Indian thrillers I'd ever seen? For starters, I was eighteen in 1978 when THE MANITOU was released. And of course, special effects that were considered "state-of-the-art" back then, look more than a little cheesy now. I mean, look at SUPERMAN, which came out the same year. Granted, there will never be anyone better than Christopher Reeve (sorry, Mr. Routh), but those effects? BAAAAD, sport, real bad. And they didn't get all that much better in SUPE 2. Not that they sucked back then, but considering what's possible today....EHHH.

But back to our feature presentation. The casting did nothing but increase the cheese factor exponentially, I'm afraid. The list reads like all the people who didn't get cast in THE SENTINEL. But it WAS the Seventies, and where were all those fading "Golden Age of Holly- weird" stars finding most of their work? In horror and sci-fi, of course. And so it goes.

Our movie goes something like this: psychic con artist Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis) is happily living in San Francisco, plying his trade and bilking money off of rich little old ladies (our two featured marks being Jeanette Nolan and Lurene Tuttle). Harry is used to selling the 'sizzle' without the steak, and has never really believed in the faux tarot card readings he haphazardly gives. Until old flame/former fellow con Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg) comes back into his life. She's just as beautiful as ever, but now she's a girl with something extra...a tumor on the back of her neck that's growing at an alarming rate. And it seems to have a mind of its own...

Her doctors (Jon Cedar and Paul Mantee) can't figure out what it is or how to retard its growth, and whenever they try, "really weird s***" starts to happen. Like when a surgeon is forced to carve up his own hand with a scalpel. And one of Harry's elderly visitors goes levitating to her death, but not before uttering a phrase that Karen has mumbled in her sleep: "Pana witchi salatou."

As Karen grows worse, Harry is forced to turn to his old mentor, Amelia Crusoe, (Stella Stevens) who does believe in all the hocus-pocus. Amelia conducts an explosive seance with a medium friend, Mrs. Karmann (Ann Southern), and through the seance and some research, courtesy of a specialist in Indian folklore, Dr. Snow (Burgess Meredith), they discover that Karen's "tumor" is actually the manifestation of a demonic Native American spirit, which is ready to be reborn.

This roundabout path finally leads to the door of modern-day medicine man John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara), who grudgingly offers to help. Until he makes an even more startling discovery. Karen's got a "manitou" on her back, alright, but not just any old shaman. She's become the host for Misquamacus, a 400-year-old shaman and the most powerful who ever lived.

Now Harry and John must face off with him in a fight to the death, not just for Karen's body and soul, but for the fate of the world itself.

Gee, from the way that sounds, I sure as hell would like to see it! Only problem is that they've already made it, I already have, and it just sounds so much better describing it than what you actually get on-screen. In classic fashion, if you can still find Graham Masterton's novel (which made the best-seller lists back then), when you read it you'll discover that what was great in print didn't necessarily come across that way on the big screen.

Curtis was doing pretty much everything to pay the bills about this time period, so although he's not exactly phoning it in as Harry, he's also got this look like he's going over lines for his next gig in his head, even while he's doing this one. As co-writer/co-producer and co- star on this, Jon Cedar's presence as Karen's surgeon speaks for itself.

And Michael Ansara? One of the better character actors who ever worked in Hollywood, he was one of those "go-to guys" like Jack Palance and Anthony Quinn, who could virtually play any nationality. So, not that I don't think the guy has talent, but it's kind of hard to take him seriously as a Native American medicine man, because when I look at him, all I can see is the Klingon General Kang, whom he played in the STAR TREK: TOS episode "Day Of The Dove."

As for Susan Strasberg...well, she is a knockout, and she doesn't have much to do except play a second-generation copy of Linda Blair in THE EXORCIST, while looking like Quasimodo's girlfriend. And then she gets to 'camp it up' at the end, with some visual effects that look like what George Lucas left on the cutting room floor while making STAR WARS.

And as it usually goes for Seventies schlock like this, don't blink or you'll miss the appearances of the rest of the cast. The most memorable actors out of the rest of the bunch would be Tuttle, whose character has one of the better death scenes, and Meredith, who I could swear is channeling Mr. Magoo as he plays the professor, (watch him closely and tell me I'm wrong!)

Yeah, I still have a soft spot in my heart for flicks like this, because without them, I wouldn't be the salivating, drooling horror/sci-fi/fantasy geek I am today. But I've really got to be honest. Movies like THE MANITOU make better time-capsule artifacts than they do flicks you would intentionally go out and rent, or sit down to watch on a Saturday night...unless you were really, REALLY bored.

I don't say this very often, but I wonder if anyone out there could do a decent remake of this one? It might be interesting...


This may have been an awful movie, but I honestly appreciate it. I haven't laughed this hard in a long long time. I mean, the movie is about a 400-year-old medicine man who is reincarnated into a woman's back. If you don't know, a medicine man is a mystic in an Indian village. A doctor and such. A good guy. In this movie, however the medicine man that's growing in the woman's back is part of the occult and black magic. This message is made very clear when an old lady starts yelling, floating 6 inches off the ground, and throws herself down a flight of stairs, completely taking out the railing. But it gets better. Knowing that the situation is out of his hands, our dear Harry heads over to South Dakota to get the help of a real Indian. Here he finds "John Singing Rock". John agrees to help in exchange for tobacco. The Native American stereotypes are overwhelming in this movie. Throughout the movie this bulge on Kerin's back is getting bigger and bigger. The last 45 minutes or so are unbearably funny. Kerin finally "gives birth" to the medicine man. (It tears out of her back.) It turns out to be a naked midget that pretty much just stands there looking scary and disgusting. This is where all hell breaks lose. The hospital turns into an arctic cave. My favorite part is when the nurse's head flies across the room. Good old Harry discovers that he can temporarily get rid of the medicine man by throwing a typewriter at it. In the last ten minutes the hospital room turns into a galaxy of some sort. The special effects are amazingly bad. Suddenly Kerin's shirt falls off and a fully exposed Kerin kills the Medicine Man by somehow shooting lightning bolts at him. At this point everything goes back to normal. My favorite line is when after an entire movie about this medicine man, John Singing Rock goes "He got away!" and Harry goes "Who did?"


How can you not love a film where the invitations to the South African premiere were printed on barf bags? Especially when it has a pitch as insane as The Manitou, which sees Susan Strasberg growing the foetus of a 400-year-old reincarnated Native American medicine man in her neck and calling on Tony Curtis' psychic for help. Of course, Curtis being a phony he seeks help himself, first from Stella Stevens' gypsy and then, deciding to fight fire with fire, Michael Ansara's medicine man. Ansara gives a surprisingly good performance considering the material, but even his Indian magic isn't enough to fend off an evil Felix Silla from summoning the Devil himself, who can only be defeated by turning on every computer in the hospital at the same time and Susan Strasberg getting her tits out in a vaguely New Age Meets 2001 finale. Despite the synopsis, unintentional laughs are in short supply, although a sequence where one of Curtis' elderly customers is possessed, floats down the hallway and throws herself down the stairs is a mini-masterclass in ineptitude as it fluctuates between failed attempts at humour and laughable attempts at drama. Still, any film where the co-writer is blown up on screen and where a frozen nurse is accidentally decapitated isn't entirely without some merit.


Awful(and I mean AWFUL)horror flick using Native American folklore and undermining it for unintentional laughs is an embarrassing statement about Tony Curtis' career(this is the same actor who starred in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS & SOME LIKE IT HOT). He plays a supposed fortune teller named Erskine(mostly working cash from wealthy old widows)whose lady love Karen(Susan Strasberg)has a growing fetus on her back(!). Come to find out the fetus(which is growing at an alarming rate)is actually the spirit of a powerful medicine man, Misquamacas! During a séance thanks in part to orchestrator, mystic Amelia(Stella Stevens, dressed in blackened face paint with gypsy garb)who was Erskine's teacher in the Tarot arts, the spirit of Misquamacas reveals himself which leads them to the home of Dr. Snow(Burgess Meredith, playing this doctor very quirky and evading with a sense of senility)who wrote a book on Native American folklore which mentions spirits invading the body of innocents so that could emerge into reality. Snow tells Erskine their only possible route to saving Susan is fighting fire with fire by calling on a living Native American medicine man. Erskine, after being rejected by other medicine men, gets deep-voiced John Singing Rock(..out of all the names the filmmakers could've come up with actor Michael Ansara is stuck with this one)to lend him a hand. We are informed through Singing Rock that Manitous(those spirits)can manifest themselves in anybody or thing. So even X-Ray machines have manitous(I kid you not). After, Singing Rock calls on the spirits of wind, trees, and just nature in general, his circle of dust surrounding Karen's bed seems destined for crossing since that thing growing in her back emerges from the skin as a Native American midget with a vile visage. Misquamacas calls on various demons to kill hospital personnel, makes the hospital operation room floor into an icy fortress, shakes Dr. Hughes'(Jon Cedar)room with Erskine, Singing Rock and others resembling lottery balls ready for plucking, and turns Karen's room into a place of stars with only her bed & Misquamacas visible. In a major climactic battle, when Misquamacas calls on the main Satanic demon to assist him, Erskine's love will help the computers' manitou spirits(!) within the entire hospital send volts through Karen's fingers(with her naked body exposed)with mankind's possible existence hanging in the balance. Whatever.

The absolutely preposterous premise and horrendously awful special effects sequence in the major battle towards the end will surely make this a cult classic. No matter how terrible any film is, it's sure to find an audience willing to accept it into their arms with love. Not me. It's terrible in every conceivable way imaginable. I can not, for the life of me, understand why Curtis and Meredith would step foot in such a things as this. Using Native American folklore can certainly work in the horror genre, but in this flick it's embarrassingly over-the-top. I mean the scene where the midget Misquamacas spirit "exits" Strasberg's back I couldn't help but laugh..it's supposed to be horrifying, but winds up being jaw-droppingly hilarious. The scene where one of Curtis' clients is lifted off the floor, by Misquamacas, and sent down a flight of stairs while spouting Native American gibberish has to be seen to be believed. The effects sequence in Cedar's office where the floors twist is a show-stopping highlight because it is just so eye-openingly farcical. But the ending takes the cake..Strasberg firing bolts from over-powered computers possessed with spirits shooting at a midget Indian with scary eyes and a nasty cackle. The whole flick is played so straight, I just felt pity for all involved. How does a cast "get up" for a film like this? I think all who participated in this should have had electro-shock therapy, because they were certifiably insane.


I first saw this movie visiting my uncle in Florida for the summer when I was 10 years old. I'm sure I watched a fair number of TV shows and movies that summer. I remember none of the shows or movies - save this one. Unfortunately, I saw this and have remembered it these nearly 30 years - but only because it was so God awful.

It started out weird enough and got my attention. A lady develops a tumor like bulge on her neck, a shrink's patients start freaking out, surgeons and doctors can't treat the woman but it just got weirder and weirder while the actors tried to keep a straight face. Over the top acting, bad special affects and a bizarre plot that just not translate to the screen make this watchable only if you also enjoy seeing car wrecks.

The finale was pure 1970's cheesy special effects that make the old Star Trek sets look high brow in comparison. I have been haunted by this horrible piece of film making for most of my life and fear that the memories will remain with me forever. If you have not yet experienced the crappiness that is the Manitou - save yourself - and rent anything else.


This movie had its moments. It had a pretty cool seans (spelling correct?) scene where they summon some indian spirit. It was quite a pleasure to hear Lalo Schifrin's music. It had few moments that really made me jump and few moments where I was really involved in watching the film. Tony Curtis was OK, not very good though. One thing that I learned is that everything has a "manitou", even man-made objects. Overall this movie was just average for me. I gave it a 4 out of 10. Plot was interesting, acting was mediocre (except the guy who played the indian who helpes Curtis was great), Music was pretty good, make-up was good. It had some cheesie sfx.


NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDRA has almost everything to be a successful epic: distinguished cast, impressive sets, good production values; the only thing missing is a real epic feeling. In emphasizing the personal story of the imperial couple, the director neglected the epic grandeur of the tale and period to the point that the result resembles a claustrophobic stage play full of talking heads rather than a real movie that shows EVERYTHING that happens in the story=thousands of soldiers, thousands of civilians, the endless landscapes of Russia, etc. This is a Shakespearean tragedy that demands GRANDEUR, but is instead filmed as if it were one of those bourgeois plays by Chekhov about silly provincial families wasting their time and lives in silly provincial towns. There are so many opportunities for GRANDEUR: the astounding Battle of Tsu Shima--one of the grandest battles in naval history--which ended the Russo-Japanese War; the huge battles of the Great War--Tannenberg, the Brusilov Offensive--; the civil war between the Reds and the Whites=all these would have made dynamic and exciting cinema! Apparently the budget for the movie was exhausted in hiring the all-star supporting cast, for the epic events of Nicholas' reign are merely suggested by symbolic gestures: a few soldiers marching here, a few civilians demonstrating there, photographs of Wilhelm II and Franz Joseph I to represent the enemy at World War I, etc. Franklin Schaffner evidently thought that he was directing a stage production, where representing mighty battles and broad vistas was impossible. How could that happen?! The director of such perfectly exciting movies as THE WAR LORD, PLANET OF THE APES (1968) and PATTON should have known better! All in all, a sadly wasted opportunity; what could have been a brilliant epic worthy of David Lean turned instead into a solid but stolid plod.


Fact 1: over the years, there have been a number of reported sightings of a strange creature seen along Bray Road near Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Fact 2: in spite of the claim that this movie is "based on actual events" nothing in this movie (except that it's set on Bray Road near Elkhorn, Wisconsin) is even remotely similar to any of the sightings. Based on the reports of those sightings (which are intriguing in a fun sort of way) the most this creature is reported to have done is chase a couple of cars and maybe killed some cattle. The producers of this movie used those reported sightings as the opportunity to produce a gore-fest with a smattering of topless women thrown in for good measure. If you like heads being ripped off, and bodies being torn open (and topless women!) then you'll like this. If you prefer the sort of horror movie that leaves that stuff to the imagination then you probably won't. I like horror movies - but more for the atmosphere than the violence. This one failed on that count, and on several other counts as well. Let's point a few failings out.

(1) I figured out about halfway through the movie who they were going to identify as the werewolf, even though it made absolutely no sense because the person (who shall remain nameless in this review for fear of spoiling the "suspense" for others) did seem otherwise occupied during several of the attacks. (2) Where did the grizzly bear that was shot and killed come from? There ain't no grizzlies anywhere near Wisconsin! (OK, yes, even the characters in the movie were confused about that.) (3) The cryptozoologist becomes convinced that this is a werewolf (and that it would take silver bullets to kill the thing) on the evidence of one piece of video? True, the video was pretty clear, but surely a real scientist (even a cryptozoologist) would have been more skeptical than to use the old Sherlock Holmes line "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever's left ... etc. etc." Surely they hadn't reached a point where a supposed scientist would conclude that a werewolf was the only possibility. (4) Why didn't the werewolf attack the woman in the house after finishing off her husband? That was never explained. (5) At the end of the movie, as we're set up for the sequel (say it ain't so!) the cryptozoologist says that there's another full moon in 15 days. OK. The werewolf is linked to the full moon, as often is the case. Well, the werewolf has been out and about up to this point, so there must have been a full moon. And now there's going to be another full moon in 15 days? Has the moon's rotation around the earth become faster? (6) Finally - I mean, there are more, but I'll stop with this one - the folks of rural Wisconsin aren't portrayed in a very positive light - thus the closing "dedicated to the great state of Wisconsin" seems a bit ironic.

Did I like anything here? Actually, I thought the werewolf makeup and overall film quality was not bad, and the acting from a little known group of actors was overall pretty decent with a couple of exceptions. Still - 3/10


A nice little and a little too easy going indie' B-movie, The Beast of Bray Road, is, allegedly, based on factual reports of sightings, circa 1989, of the legendary sasquatch and werewolf myth, or cryptozoology as the scholars would pronounce, and wild as the beast itself, the over active imaginations of the peoples' of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Directed and written by Leigh Scott (b.1972), aka Scott Slawner, brings his extended family together for another outing, this time to do battle with modern folklore and superstition. Released by Asylum Home Entertainment, whose category embarks on the wonderful B-movie drive-in genre as Snakes on a Train (2006), Vampires vs. Zombies (2004) and The Fanglys (2004), all straight to video, and all for sale at the bargain basement bin at your local video rental shop. Most here, at least, have worked together in other projects, Jeff Denton (as Sheriff Phil Jenkins), working in Leigh Scott's Art House (1998), Sarah Lieving (here as Kelly), and Andrew Lauer had played against said director in the T.V. movie H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005). Ms. Noel Thurman (playing Sheriff Pamela Fitske) in Mr. Scott's The 9/11 Commission Report (2006).

Mr. Scott's movie is very light comedy; too many weak points to be taken seriously, The Beast of Bray Road could be taken for a Saturday morning T.V. matinée parody at best. If it were not for the gross out flesh eating scenes and, once, light nudity and some coarse language, but not often. We can forgive Mr. Scott for trying too hard, but try he has and he has, forgivingly, done reasonably well. The attention to detail can be somewhat lacking, sadly, and it is this that has The Beast looking a little too unprofessional and unfortunately this gives it its comical look, the desired effect perhaps or a bad dose of laziness and complacency.

The beasts makeup, on the other hand, is impressive, and done by Eva Lohse, regrettably, the only highlight of the movie, and not really seen enough, and Dizzworks Design too played their part. Ms. Lohse is credited as key makeup artist and having worked on Rent Control (2002), Employee of the Month (2004), plus many others as Dead Men Walking (2005) and Dracula's Curse (2006), which coincidently has five members of The Beastco-starring.

The poor attention to the editing, again by Leigh Scott, has given The Beastmore plot holes than Emmental cheese, we are left scratching our heads and left feeling the efforts are rather curdled in the process and that this could, if at best, have been a half decent movie. This could, and to be fair, be down to a lack of proper funding, if so then the parodying of the major American beer companies and their logos that are seen in "KELLY'S Roadhouse" might be understandable.

The clichéd character development, too, is feeble and the lack of originality only separates its need to be taken seriously. All in all The Beast of Bray Road is a group of new family and old friends making movies, if it doesn't workout, then fine, lets make another. If one should hit the jackpot and stir up peoples imaginations then all the better for them, but in the meantime The Beastwill remain an okay movie, but it will never walk down the road of being a good movie.


I love horror movies and when this came out I was determined to watch it because I live only 40 minutes down the I system from Bray Road. As far as movie quality, it was definitely in the same league as the original Friday the Thirteenth. Is that good? The plot was manufactured, the acting was watch-able but not memorable, the camera work was OK, a moderate amount of gore. After watching it I still couldn't convince my teenage kids to take a midnight drive with me down Bray road on Halloween 2005. I thought that would have been fun. Instead, we just put in another video. Where's the sense of adventure in teenagers these days? To live so close to a place of possible frightening fun and not want to go there?


At the start of "Beast", a young bar patron drifts away from her friends after closing hours and is stalked and mauled to death by a werewolf. The beast grabs her, tears her apart, and howls into the sky. I enjoyed that. But, for no reason, director Scott feels that even though we had that good opening signaling grand things, we could have done without it for another thirty or forty minutes, which in common sense land is a large portion of a film that doesn't even hit the two hour mark, and that makes zero sense.

There's also mainly vapid characterization, plenty of padding including sex scenes, particular focus on sister journalists who have a web log, and a comedic barroom brawl included for no other reason but to pad the movie. Meanwhile, you'll be wondering if the monster is still lurking about, or just fell asleep waiting for victims to get out of that bar that's featured quite prominently.

Does anyone have a shop in that town, or is the main economic base that one small bar? You know that when a horror film is turned into "Roadhouse" for an instance just to keep the story going, it becomes painfully clear that you're not watching anything resembling entertainment. Also featured are a funeral that looks like it was held in a backyard, a town filled with an endless supply of women who look like they came off an open audition for "Hustler", the most inept inactive sheriff, and characters that constantly re-appear due to an obviously menial cast.

So, it's been confirmed to me. Even when The Asylum isn't ripping off another movie, they still suck. "Beast of Bray Road" could have been a fun movie had they actually had creature action and not so much utter stupidity and poor storytelling. Otherwise, this isn't even a fun monster movie.


I have to wonder what movie some of these other reviewers watched.

This story in this movie was terrible, actually confusing Bigfoot with werewolves. One bit of dialog for the purpose of exposition was a wooden little piece where a deputy tells the sheriff, (para-phrased) "Must be the beast of Bray Road. A monster in the 1800s wiped out everyone out there."

"Is this true?" asks the sheriff.

"Oh, absolutely" confirms a nearby nurse. ROFL

Its not quite funny bad, just bad and wooden.

I have to admit that I didn't watch this entire movie. It chased me off soon after the wretched conversation just recounted. Save yourself and watch a Murder She Wrote rerun instead. LOL


How many times have you heard "based on true events"? Clichéd, a few scares, attractive young women, blood and a bit of gore...and yes a creature on a killing spree. In a wooded area in Wisconsin people are missing, getting ripped in half and some having their guts devoured. A local sheriff finds himself looking for a creature leaving DNA of both man and wolf. What you get to see of the beast is not all that bad and like a lot of cheesy horror fare...the finale is the best sequence of the movie.

Among the cast members: Jeff Denton, Sarah Lieving, Tom Nagel, Tom Downey, Christina Rosenberg, Marija Polsley and with Joel Hebner playing the beast of Bray Road.


Based on the true story of a legendary wolf-like creature inhabiting the woods near a small Wisconson town, this movie proves to be the weakest werewolf movie I have seen in a long time. Following a spree of mysterious mutilations taking place in their town, the local sheriff's department decides to exploit the case as a werewolf hunt in order to spark the public's attention. The new sheriff, on the other hand, teams up with a zoologist and attempts to kill the beast. With the exception of several decent disembowelment's and a cool looking creature, The Beast of Bray Road feels just like another straight-to-video snore fest that follows a familiar premise and leads up to a very predictable conclusion. If this movie is based on the same concept I think it is, than it did a horrible job of presenting it in an even remotely believable way unless, of course, there really is a town out there where the drunks roam the woods alone at night while the bartender leaves her post for a quick snack every night. Lame.


The Beast of Bray Road (2005) is another one of those movies that has a very good premise but the final execution is awful. A variation of the "10 little indians" theme here as a mysterious beast of lore is running around the countryside gobbling up people like pac-man scaring everyone witless in the area. The local authorities and a few do-gooders try their best to stop the terror but will it be enough to stop THE BEAST OF BRAY ROAD!!

I tried my best to enjoy the movie because I love a good werewolf story. But this one wasn't that enjoyable. The only bright spot is the cute bartender, man she's hot. But other than that don't waste your time unless you really like bad movies.

Not recommended


Evisceration like the sound of it? There's plenty!

There is a scene where the sheriff and 'crypto zoologist' are in the woods - 'listen - I don't hear anything - that's what I mean, no birds, no insects, something scared them off...'

If you listen, you can hear birds above the obvious noise of traffic from a local highway.

Too gory for the young, too campy for the intelligent.

Sam Raimi beware - someone is trying to bump Evil Dead from the #1 campy horror slot.

Light hearted fun, bad acting.


Where are the parents who gave birth to these imbicles? Probably all dead from busted livers and car accidents? With as much sleeping and drinking and "couple action" depicted in this film, one or two itsy bitsy youngsters are bound to pop up sooner or later. It would have been a suspenseful scene if one of these oversexed morons brought the farm defending an infant instead of drinking and throwing themselves at the first attractive body. Where's the out of shape beer bellies by the way? The closest we come is a scene with a truly nasty TV-watching twit complaining about his wife who's taken out by "the beast", well in that scene I felt it was doing me public service. And in the following scene there's no realistic follow up to the loss emphasizing how much a jerk the guy was.

I could cover one IMDb page with complaints about this flick if I turn to the depiction of the police so it's best that I stop the rant here.


Well I just got done watching this movie, thankfully for free on the SciFi channel. I must say I feel sorry for anyone who actually paid to see this movie. Although I have learned to not really expect much from the weekend Horror movies on cable, this one is really near bottom of the barrel material. The beginning was okay, and could be considered somewhat good by horror movie terms. However there was very little building on almost any of the characters in the movie. While Phil Jenkins, does have some background/build, mostly from just a couple scenes where he revealed some information about his past; as well as Pamela's constant nickname of "big city" for him. All of the other characters just seem like cannon fodder. There to be picked off at a moment's notice. I wasn't impressed by the gore in this movie either, it wasn't in the least bit frightening. That of course, could be the effect of seeing a few hundred different horror movies. I think this movie was mostly just slapped together hurriedly with a second rate script and mediocre actors. The acting in the scene where the girl gets out of the car and is crawling across the ground while being "eaten" by the werewolf is actually laughably bad. The attempt at a good plot twist at the end was pretty lame and very predictable if you've seen any kind of horror/suspense movie similar to this one. The fact that evil thing turns out to be the main character's love interest is pretty dried up in terms of plot twists. It also seems to come very suddenly, without any building whatsoever. My overall view of this movie is that it should definitely be avoided at all costs. Unless you're an absolute die-hard werewolf or random horror fan, don't bother with this movie.


This film is special. It's everything you could expect from a film shown on the SciFi CHannel, and more. This includes: Bad plot, bad acting, bad writing, and tons of nonsense. I'm talking REALLY stupid stuff. The aspect of this film that appeals to me is this: Every single stupid thing characters have done in bad horror flicks for the past fifty years is compressed into this film in this film. I'm talking a butt-load of clichés. I however like the fact that they don't wait till the end of the movie to show you the monster. It was cool when Spielberg did it in Jaws, but now every talentless director thinks it'll give his film suspense, but it's just irritating. This is a great film to watch with your friends and heckle the $#!+ out of. Worse than anything Uwe Boll could have created. Enjoy!


Just watched it on the sci fi channel and being a former resident of the area it was depicting I am insulted at the portrayal of the men being redneck illiterate drunks and the women being oversexed bimbos. recalling a previous comment on this film by someone from Chicago saying thats what he recalls thats what women are like there, well that area is mostly resort area and it is the Chicago women who are like that not the locals.

enough of that the film gore was overnessesary and the story was predictable and stupid, and the only thing based on the legend was the title. I have family that live across a cornfield from the actual bray road. it is a back road that leads to back roads. there is nothing there but farms.

this movie is a waste of time unless you enjoy unessesary gore no story and bad acting


The ridiculous looking creature from the NIGHT OF THE DEMON makes his return as a shaggy sheepdog thing in the Asylum's pseudo-werewolf story, The Beast of Bray Road.

The ruination of the horror genre continues in this latest offering from the Asylum. Everything that you've come to expect from the Asylum is here. Poor acting, tired and pathetic storyline, a complete lack of talent in everyone involved. I wish I could say I was surprised by the shoddy production of the movie, but I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the Asylum logo.

In fact, I couldn't even get this stupid movie to play all the way through on my DVD player. Around chapter 11, the whole thing degenerated into a bunch of green pixels. I felt like I was watching THE MATRIX with a really bad audio track. I took the disc out and cleaned it, but whoever the Asylum is getting to author their DVDs is obviously doing it on their home computer. I should probably be thanking them for almost saving me from another dismal flop from this horrible production company.

After chapter skipping and searching several times, I did finally get to see the whole movie. Let me break it down for you, so you won't have to go through this excruciating experience. This is basically the story of a local Sheriff who's trying to save his small town from a werewolf. He teams up with a Cryptozoology professor and a local hunter to go find the thing. It's really just a cruddy remake of that old movie with Corey Haim, SILVER BULLET. They even stole some shots, doing a montage of the hunters as they melt down silver and make bullets for their machine guns. The only difference is that the final reveal in this one is that the werewolf is the local bartender that our Sheriff has fallen in love with.

If you are a fan of werewolf movies, you should stay as far away from this piece of dung as possible. It might sully your love of lycanthropy. It really is a beastly movie.


I lived and worked in WI in Delavan, the town around where many of the sightings took place. No one was ever killed in WI. Dogs went missing and some people thought they saw a wolfish creature with some roadkill. This movie does not even begin to touch on anything realistic about living in WI and calling it based on a true story just ticks me off. The beast in the movie looks cheesy and the story is just junk. I was disappointed and border line offended. If your going to make a movie about WI maybe spend a few minutes there first. First off all the sightings have always been late summer, early fall. There has never been property damage or cattle mutilations like they discuss in this movie. The could of touched on some of the funny real things that happened like the local pet shelter selling werewolf hunting permits, or the fact that a man was arrested with a gun and tools to break into peoples homes on Bray road and tried to use the defense that he was werewolf hunting to get off with no charges. It would of made for better padding of the movie then the junk they used.


My view on it might be a little basis for the simple fact that I live in rural Wisconsin, about 15 minutes outside Walworth county.

First I was actually offended that they're showing the town it took place in as wide spot in the road where all the woman have to do is whore themselves out, the men beat the women and work of cars, that is when they're not at the bar. The writer/director said in the featurette that he was making it as white trashy as he possibly could. I understand the making of another world to create this film but it had such a bad ring to it.

The movie starts out strong but the pacing for the rest of the film wasn't great. The blatant stupidity of the police with blood evidence and dismissing getting a DNA test was frustrating and wholly unrealistic. The gore was good for the most part, even if a little over done. Some of the lead performances where great but the supporting roles really fell apart. The costume wasn't fantastic but was used effectively.

Over all it wasn't great, I feel like I wasted some time and money. If you're really into werewolf films, I'd recommend it. If you're looking for a scary film, try something else.


Bad writing, bad acting combine with high school cinematography to make this a waste of time and money. I rented this joke in a moment of insanity and regretted it ever since. Leigh Slawner grabs the credit for this drivel, and he's welcome to it. This little joke should have finished his career, but didn't, which is a real shame. The film is disjointed beyond belief and has no redeeming qualities. The only reason I gave it a three instead of the -10 it richly deserves is that there is a remote possibility that there may be a film out there somewhere that is actually worse than this. I'm not holding my breath.

Bottom line: Don't waste your bread renting this dog.


I saw this movie two days ago,In hope to show an investor, examples of independent films thank god I had Napeleon Dynamite on hand,a true sample of what an ultra low budget should look like.I can be a forgiving viewer when it comes to independent films.I've watched my share of garbage-amateur-horrible-z-grade horror, but Leigh Slawner's: The Beast of Bray Road Flats must be the worst ever! If there ever was a movie, which deserved to be shelve this must be it.I was very well surprised by the extremely low quality of the movie,considering the fact that this movie cost more to make than Napeleon Dynamite.

I was curious to hear the commentary of the filmmakers,to see what minds were involve in this project and all I can hear were fourth graders making fun of their home movie.

I am wondering why this piece of garbage was ever made. The characters are so lame you have no motivation to cheer for anyone.To any one who suffers from insomnia, I recommend this film as a great sleeping aid and if you want to punish your kids for doing wrong, this would make a great tool for punishing them or make a criminal talk.

Most bad movies have a certain good in them (usually comedy), but alas, this movie beats out anything else thrown at it. Instead of causing laughter, it caused pain.

It seems as though the director duct-taped a broken mic to the top of his camera and hoped it would capture anything, all I can hear were cars during intimate moments, Because of this, One can barely understand the dialog. The camera guy was terrible because he doesn't know what a polarizer filter is for,and the lighting was bad at the bar scene that I had to increase the brightness on my TV.

The only positive thing about this movie was the ending credits and when I tab open on my DVD player.


This is such a substandard, poorly acted, written and directed with no sense of reality. I have no idea how did it get any award.

People in ESL classes look more like upper class Mexicans, the main actor himself look more like a substandard American playboy who pretends not knowing any English. Dialogs are empty, saying too many things and slightly reminds you of a bad Latin American soap operas with exaggerated acting. Posh mother cleaning house just to find "pregnancy test", far from reality. I personally liked her wig and erotic sleeping attire near the end of the movie.

In fact i don't wanna waste any time talking about this movie, I am highly disappointed with this movie.


Recently I saw this movie at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and I didn't like it. the thing is that I didn't care for the story (if there is one) for me it's was way too boring. First of all Maria Conchita Alonso is a famous for just being famous, but she is NOT a good actress or worst yet she is not an actress And I don't get Kuno Becker I never liked him when he used to do telenovelas and I don't like him now, he's not handsome or talented or nothing at all. So don't waste your money with this movie, it's not worth it, I think it's time for the latinos to do other kind of movies, something we can all feel proud, and stay away from this kind of stories that are just boring


Another formulaic and soppy dino-quest with absolutely awful songs. The insistent preaching of the series is thankfully toned down, with the emphasis on a slightly more exciting adventure that recycles the perils of the previous films, like falling rocks and sheer drops. A villainous crocodile and bird add a mildly dark tone, to not much effect. It's all slightly something or mildly something; without the sophistication and layers that make, say, Pixar's films so engaging for all ages, this is strictly kids' stuff, and curiously old-fashioned to boot. I suppose an hour of pleasant entertainment won't do them any harm, but make sure they clean their teeth afterwards.


After the excellent Land Before Time 3, this fourth film comes as a disappointment. It involves Littlefoot and his friends setting off into the land of the mists to find the cure for his grandfather's illness. Also thrown in is a female young Brontosaurus. The concept of ignoring or forgetting friends for the sake of innocent love is the only interesting thing this sorry mess has to offer. It lasts the same amount of time as the other Land Before Time films but seems longer due to the plodding, uninspiring plot.

Another major problem is the film's villains, the weakest yet. Instead of dinosaurs all we get is a rather uninspiring crocodile and an even more uninspiring bird which wants to kill Littlefoot and company for reasons best known to itself.

The one really good thing about this waste of time is that you don't need to have watched it to understand the next film in the series and can therefore skip this pointless plodder and move straight on to the far superior Land Before Time 5.


I have to admit I didn't sit through the whole ghastly long presentation of the Oscars, but I think the fact that I found myself utterly unable to watch if all says enough for me to be able to comment. The whole thing was completely boring, totally unfunny and looked like it was barely keeping the audience interested, let alone me. Billy Crystal was not a good host. Well, he was confident and everything, but nothing he said was funny (although to be fair somebody else probably wrote it). I'm not sure if the audience has no sense of humour, or if they just felt obliged to laugh so as to not be rude (most likely). The laughs started to wear thin though and it was embarrassing to watch. It made me cringe. Okay, so there were some highlights: an emotional tribute to Gregory Peck, a nice interview with Keisha Castle-Hughes, and some great winners (the main four: Sean Penn, Charlize Theron, Renee Zellweger, Tim Robbins) and Johnny Depp being present. Unfortunately though, there were some crap presentations (a hideous Scarlett Johansson wears too much make-up and informs us that make-up can make us look gruesome...quite ironic...John Travolta and Sandra Bullock, both of whom I like, had to give some stupid speech about rehearsals and being earlyha ha?). All the Lord of the Rings New Zealand jokes were rather lame and I don't think Return of the King deserved to win all of those; it just did a clean sweep because it's a well-made, huge-budgeted and fantastically-promoted blockbuster. Overall, I would have to say that the Oscars are highly recommended if your idea of fun is to watch rich arrogant twits in fancy clothes pat each other on the back and make totally lame and cringe-worthy attempts at jokes.


Last years academy awards was a classic year because ...

A ) Steve Martin was a brilliant host and

B) There were some shock winners

This year`s awards were very boring because ...<br /><br />A ) Billy Crystal wasn`t as good as Steve Martin and

B ) There were no shock winners

Before everyone writes an angry private message to me I will point out that in no way was Crystal bad it`s just that I didn`t find him all that good apart from his New Zealand one liners and his plea to Bill Murray not to walk out . As for the rest of the jokes during the ceremony can someone please tell Owen Wilson and Jim Carrey they`re not funny.<br /><br />As for the Oscar awards themselves I was absolutely delighted to see RETURN OF THE KING pick up all the Oscars it was nominated for ( But I can`t help thinking Andy Serkis deserved a best supporting actor nod for Gollum ) and the academy recognising this film for being the masterpiece it is was the closest we got a surprise winner , everything else was so predictable with the only real contest being between Bill Murray and Sean Penn for best actor. Penn won much to the heart breaking disappointment of Murray . I couldn`t help noticing Francis Ford Coppola seemed disgusted with the result , I doubt if Penn`s next starring role will be a Coppola production

In terms of shocks and presentation I do hope next year`s ceremony will be an improvement and we get to see Steve Martin in a cheeky mood

As a footnote we in Britain get to a see a slightly different Oscar show . In the American presentation there`s ad breaks while over the pond we get to see Johnathan Ross interviewing guests for their opinions during the ad breaks . This year his guests were composed of Rob Brydon , Roni Ancona and Alistair McGowan and what this trio`s connection to Hollywood is I have no idea and none of them had either interesting or funny to say . If the BBC insist on flying over guests to LA to talk about movies could they please use people with a passionate interest in movies . There`s hundreds of people who contribute to this site wondering why they weren`t invited


How did director John "Twins of Evil" Hough sink to this dull, ponderous, by the numbers, 80's American horror fluff? Oh dear!

The last 15 minutes picks up and opens up a suitably macabre world, but there is nothing here really. Low gore, rushed deaths and ending, tired direction, overly slow build-up, annoying acting (Michael J. Pollard is only slightly less awful than he was in "Sleepaway Camp 3"), slumming thesps (Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo, though at least Steiger has a better wig this time than he did in "The Kindred").

All in all it's just a passionless splodge of smelly blandness thrown at your TV screen, that was actually a good signpost to the (mostly) awful decade to come as far as American horror films went.


We have seen the storyline a million times before. So it had to have something special, but it failed. okay, it's old school horror but you can tell that it was made at the end of the slashers era. horror wasn't the thing anymore and the glory days were over. Here they tried to make a kind of early Wrong Turn or those other don't go there movies. The acting is okay but somehow the story failed to give you the creeps. The best thing is the flashbacks of one of the victims. The effects are cheap and the blood flows but not enough. Some parts are way too long, and sometimes you can see it coming from miles away that the victim will die. Over here in Europe the movie isn't available that easy so you will have to catch it in Germany or the US. It's watchable on a Saturday afternoon just before the family arrives. Could have been better...


The title (and the cover of the DVD box) refers to the famous painting by Grant Wood, Gothic meaning the style of the picture, less the content. Being a great fan of Rod Steiger, I could not resist buying the DVD. It is a mixed bag. I just suspect that with a few touches here and there this could have been quite a good movie.

The start is promising. A young man gets his wife out of a mental institution where she was kept after her baby drowned accidentally. The psychiatrist is really smug, he obviously enjoys telling the husband that with his wife anything could happen. The husband decides to visit with her a place where they spent their honeymoon. Together with a few friends they board a seaplane - an old and dirty and rickety seaplane. I repeat: a seaplane that is OLD and DIRTY. They take off  and guess what happens next. I give you a hint: splutter, splutter.

That is the typical start of a Good Bad Movie in anyone's language. The subject is well known in the American horror genre: young, innocent people meet old, frustrated yet colorful country folk. Scenes of gore ensue. Added to this is the classical island theme of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians  the young and innocent get killed one by one. The last surviving member of the involontary expedition" fuses with the murderous opponents. Follows a gory finale. The end.

Several points are worth mentioning that make American Gothic partly watchable. The movie is very beautiful. The plane flying over a group of islands in the opening sequence is visually great, and the dark, mossy virgin forest of the island where the group gets stranded reminded me of John Sayle's Limbo (whose story has some similarity with American Gothic here and there). The set design is also excellent. An interesting aspect in the story is the fact that all the inhabitants of the island turn up out of nowhere. First, Ma and Pa surprise the youngsters in their house which they had entered in a clear case of trespassing, opening cupboards, taking out clothes etc. Later, suddenly a daughter turns up, then a son, then another. This strange and unexpected multiplication of characters has a stimulating effect on the viewer (are they ghosts, only existing in the imagination, are they some kind of mutants?) but is left unexplained.

The acting is not bad  at least on the part of the strange family. Rod Steiger is quite good as the head of the family, Yvonne de Carlo is OK as the matriarch. Janet Wright and Michael J. Pollard are great as the demented kids. But unfortunately the story leads to nowhere. As I said, I think with little changes much more could have been made with this confrontation of new and old, today's and yesterday's values.


This is nothing more than just another Texas Chainsaw Massacre ripoff, but wait...

Although this is really nothing more than what would seem to be an outright ripoff, there are some awesomely freaky implementations which elevate this beyond the label of ripoff. And, while I know it's common place as pie to take someone else's brain child and "improve" upon it until it resembles something original and creative, the improvements and innovations here ARE creative and original.

Is it worth your time? That depends on your level and personal tastes within the horror genre, and specifically the slasher/serial murderer sub-genres. You will have to judge that one for yourself.

Frankly, I'm a fan of both sub-genres and still hated this, because it's still a ripoff, and as such, rates a 4.4/10 from...

the Fiend :.


This isn't great film-making, but when you're a horror fan, you can take anything and usually find the good in it. The concept and the overall presentation though, is entertaining. The 'good guys' are really stupid at times. Their plane is giving them trouble when on a trip so they land it near an island. They just barge into an obviously occupied home on an island to ask for help but when they see no ones home they play a record and start dancing around like losers. Thankfully there are some people we can pull for, and that's the family who live in the house. It's lacking somewhat in the gore department but there are some kills that are a laugh riot. Especially one that takes place on a swing. It's really a lot of fun to see 50 year-olds act like little children. I really did laugh my head off at times. So drop that pitch fork, put down the Bible for a bit and go out and rent this piece of 80's schlock.


This movie is awful...it makes one blow chunks. I just rented this as I'm a Horror movie fan and this piece of Garbage is just that garbage. The plot was bad,the acting terrible,there was no gore,suspense or real thrills. If anyone out there just rents horror movies on stormy,dark nights to get scared as I do...avoid this film as you will not get any thrills from it...makes one appreciate the fast forward button on the VCR. Its a big turkey...need I say more. I'm not one to criticize films or nothing but this one stunk. The deaths were faked and predictable....my cat shadow can out act the actors in this flick. Is this the only work Yvonne DeCarlo(The Munsters)could get. Lets just say if I was an actor in this turkey I would not want to put my real name or my name on the credits. This is one of the worst films I've ever seen...we can't forget Howard the Duck. I think that ones got to be the worst one out there but this ones up there on that scale.