grindhouse-ripper

Grindhouse Weekly: THE NEW YORK RIPPER (1982)

It’s been quite a long hiatus since our last Grindhouse Weekly article, but with Halloween rapidly approaching, I thought it might be fun to exhume this deceased feature and breathe some new life in it.

The film I’ll be looking at this week is Lucio Fulci’s infamous 1982 giallo film, The New York Ripper. It opens with a man playing fetch with his dog along the East River, and when, instead of a stick, the retriever brings back a human hand. Fulci decides this is the best time to start the opening credits (and it totally is). He goes to a close-up freeze frame of the decomposing hand and cues the opening title.

grindhouse-sorority

Grindhouse Weekly: THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW (1983)

In recognition of the 4th of July, I decided to call on my American roots and go with a movie that reminds me so much of the country I will always call home.  The first Greek letter fraternity in North America (The Phi Beta Kappa Society) was founded the same year as the Declaration of Independence – 1776, making fraternities and sororities inherently American with a history spanning the entire existence of The United States of America.

grindhouse-brood

Grindhouse Weekly: THE BROOD (1979)

When it comes to body horror, the subgenre is synonymous with Canadian director David Cronenberg. While his most widely accessible films arguably came later in his career, his most personal entry in his early body-horror films is The Brood. The filmmaker has proven his talents time and again. The term “visceral” – so often tossed around when describing his films from the 1970s to 1980s – is a fitting descriptor for such films as Shivers (aka They Came From Within, 1975) and Rabid (1977).

Grindhouse Weekly: Patrick (1978)

Grindhouse Weekly: Patrick (1978)

This week, in honor of the Patrick remake coming out March 14th, we’ll be taking a look at the original 1978 film directed by Richard Franklin.  At first glance, the movie sounds like nothing more than an Australian version of Carrie, but

Grindhouse Weekly: BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

Grindhouse Weekly: BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

One of the more perplexing exploitation films I’ve seen is 1970’s X-Rated skin flick Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Directed by B movie king Russ Meyer and written by Roger Ebert (yes, THE Roger Ebert), this strange tale of Hollywood excess

Grindhouse Weekly: NIGHTMARE CITY

Grindhouse Weekly: NIGHTMARE CITY

Umberto Lenzi’s Nightmare City is one of the silliest, most ridiculous zombie films I’ve ever seen, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.  The infected in this movie aren’t zombies per se, but rather people that look burnt to

Grindhouse Weekly: THE BIG DOLL HOUSE

Grindhouse Weekly: THE BIG DOLL HOUSE

After taking a couple weeks off to recover from Sundance fatigue, we’re back in the grindhouse to talk about a classic piece of ‘70s exploitation called The Big Doll House.  Not only is this film directed by the legendary Jack Hill

Grindhouse Weekly: EXPONERAD

Grindhouse Weekly: EXPONERAD

Note: The headline image from this post was removed due to Google Adsense violations. Although no nudity was present, it was deemed too provocative so we had to take it down. Sorry!

This week in the grindhouse we’ll be taking a look

Grindhouse Weekly: NEW YEAR’S EVIL

Grindhouse Weekly: NEW YEAR’S EVIL

With the new year upon us, this week’s Grindhouse Weekly pick is the ‘80s cult horror classic, New Year’s Evil.  Directed by Emmett Alston, this slasher released in 1980 was nothing more than a Friday the 13th clone, however the terrible acting

Grindhouse Weekly: GHOSTKEEPER

Grindhouse Weekly: GHOSTKEEPER

This week in the Grindhouse, in celebration of the new year, we’ll be taking a look at a horror film called Ghostkeeper, in which a group of friends have a very bad New Year’s weekend.  Directed by Jim Makichuk, this Canadian

Grindhouse Weekly: CHRISTMAS EVIL

Grindhouse Weekly: CHRISTMAS EVIL

This week in the grindhouse we’re getting into the Christmas spirit with Lewis Jackson’s 1980 slasher Christmas Evil AKA You Better Watch Out AKA Terror in Toyland.  Like other Christmas themed horror flicks, this nasty little story revolves around a mentally disturbed

Grindhouse Weekly: TWO-LANE BLACKTOP

Grindhouse Weekly: TWO-LANE BLACKTOP

If you’ve ever wanted to hear the soothing and soft-spoken voice of singer James Taylor drop the F bomb during an existential road trip movie, then Monte Hellman’s 1971 carsploitation classic Two-Lane Blacktop is the film for you. Like many other films

Grindhouse Weekly: SEX & FURY

Grindhouse Weekly: SEX & FURY

This week in the Grindhouse we’ll be taking a look at another Pinky Violence film with Noribumi Suzuki’s 1973 classic, Sex & Fury.  While on the surface, this bloody martial arts film appears to be nothing more than a softcore porn flick that

Grindhouse Weekly: DEATH WEEKEND

Grindhouse Weekly: DEATH WEEKEND

For this Grindhouse Weekly entry, I wanted to pick a Thanksgiving related exploitation flick, so I went with a film from 1976 titled Death Weekend (AKA The House by the Lake).  Although it supposedly takes place over Thanksgiving, there’s barely any

Grindhouse Weekly: MS. 45

Grindhouse Weekly: MS. 45

This week in the grindhouse, in honor of Drafthouse Films re-releasing it in theaters, we’ll be taking a look at Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45.  In this follow up to his feature debut, Driller Killer, Ferrara shows a bit more maturity in his

Grindhouse Weekly: RAZORBACK

Grindhouse Weekly: RAZORBACK

This week in the grindhouse, we’re going to be making another trip down under and talk about the Ozploitation classic, Razorback from 1984.  Directed by Russell Mulcahy, who was famous for his music video work including the iconic ‘Video Killed the Radio Star,’