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DanXIII

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Movie Review: The Screaming (2000) – Visual Vengeance Blu-ray

There is something seriously wrong with the followers of New Age religion Crystalnetics. For starters, the robed practitioners of said “religion” like nothing more than to chase chicks around their centrally located pyramid headquarters and then getting unreasonably stabby… there’s also a monster involved, but we’ll get to that later… Enter: room-renting, chain smoking, Gen X anthropology student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio), a gruff scholar with a deep interest in ancient supernatural rites and the ass of his landlady, Crystal (Wendi Winburn). Speaking of Crystal, with a name like that you just know she’s balls deep into that crazy cult and before long she’s introduced our hero to the benefits belief in Crystalnetics can bring… but will he see the truth of the cult and it’s star-born, demonic overlord! Coming from Writer/Director Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), The Screaming is an incredibly entertaining satire of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology biz. We get the genre author turned New Age Prophet, the

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DanXIII

Jul 17, 2026

IndieMoviesReviewsThriller

Movie Review: Highway to Hell (1992) – Visual Vengeance Blu-ray

Psycho killin’ machine Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) springs himself from the Big House and sets off on a madcap murder spree. Along the way, Fran Tucker (Blue Thompson) witnesses Terrible Toby ventilate a dude’s skull on the open road and soon becomes Gilmore’s hostage. Hot on his heels is police chief Earl Dent (Italian peplum familiar face Richard Harrison), a lawman with a personal ax to grind with our footloose felon! Directed by Bret McCormick (Repligator), working from a script by Gary Kennamer (who we will get back to in a bit), Highway to Hell is down and dirty regional regional filmmaking that would be solid drive-in or Grindhouse material in days past, but in… well different “days past” it was one of many low budget flicks pumped out to video rental joints in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While the film certainly delivers some suspense and a bit o’ bloodshed… and a helicopter… the real stars are the Texas locales

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DanXIII

Jul 11, 2026

IndieMoviesReviewsThriller

Movie Review: Fathers (2026)

Peep this one cats n’ creeps… our heroine for Fathers, Natalie (Kaiti Wallen/Emilia Wallen in flashbacks) is found wandering ‘round the wicked woods with little memory of where she’s been since being snatched from outside her parent’s pad a decade and a half prior. With the dodgy details Natalie can provide we begin to learn, via that above mentioned flashback action, that she has been held by a man named Bobby (Harley Wallen, who also wrote and directed the picture at hand), who has convinced Nat that he is indeed her actual father and not ol’ Calvin (Jerry Hayes)… the dude she always believed to be her pappy… and worse than that, that he’s dispatched a squad of folks to steal her back! Can Natalie be able to discern what is truth and what is bullshit and get her life in order before something dire transpires? Wallen… Harley that is… weaves a complex and (obviously) non-linear narrative with Fathers. The

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DanXIII

Jul 11, 2026

MoviesReviewsSci-Fi

Movie Review: Creepy-Creatures Double-Feature – V.C.I. Blu-ray

V.CI. have gone creature crazy and have slapped two spine-tinglers from the golden age of Drive-in madness together on one Blu-ray disc titled (appropriately enough) Creepy-Creatures Double-Feature! This monster mash gets underway with The Crawling Hand from 1963… A manned space mission goes tits-up in the worst possible way resulting in a self-destruct request from an astronaut that’s miraculously lived without oxygen for over twenty minutes. The cosmic wreckage from said blast rains down over a small California beach town where it’s discovered by young science student Paul (Rod Lauren) and his Nordic gal pal, Marta (Sirry Steffen). Among the debris is one of our bomb-shattered astronauts arms with hand still attached (which is solid for title accuracy’s sake), and soon that arcane appendage is up and about causing that patented monster mayhem died-in-the-wicked-wool Monsterkids like us love six ways to Sunday… but, that horrid hand doesn’t stop there as it possesses Paul for a lil’ Jekyll n’ Hyde riffage!

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DanXIII

Jun 27, 2026

ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller

Movie Review: Helter Skelter (2012) – 88 Films Blu-ray

Lilico (Erika Sawajiri, a real-life model with her own troubled history who plays the role to perfection) has the modeling world by the short n’ curlies. Every woman wants to be her, every man wants to fuck her (good luck on that one unless you are a vacuous status-seeking pretty boy star or producer that can advance her career)… and while she rules the glamour world, her success may be fleeting… Controlled by an alcoholic “stage mom”, Lilico’s enduring flawless beauty is the result of experimental medical techniques that must be maintained regularly or else things begin to go shockingly south… and those rapidly spreading bruises are going to take a toll on her already fractured mental state! Brought to the screen by former fashion photographer turned director Mika Ninagawa (working from a screenplay by Arisa Kaneko adapting the manga from Kyôko Okazaki), Helter Skelter does the whole beauty and fame are fleeting bag and takes things to dynamic extremes.

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DanXIII

Jun 7, 2026

ForeignMoviesParanormalReviews

Movie Review: Picture of a Nymph (1987) – 88 Films Blu-ray

Seemingly mute Taoist ghost-buster in training Sap Yee (frequent Jackie Chan flick regular Biao Yuen, Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain) takes in a kindly scholar, Chui Hung-Chien (Lawrence Ng, Sex and Zen) after he inadvertently burns his pad to the ground fighting a ghost that takes the form of an old man with sentient hair! Eventually, Sappy’s curmudgeonly master Wu Men-Chu (Wu Ma, A Chinese Ghost Story… he also directed and co-wrote this film) returns home after a ghostly encounter with the bewitching King Ghost (Elizabeth Lee in her debut) and it’s umbrella wielding minions. Speaking of ol’ King G, a young princess named Mok Sau (Joey Wang, again with the A Chinese Ghost Story) has recently offed herself to avoid it’s clutches and has in turn become a ghost… a ghost that Chui falls in love with! Will our heroes be able to defeat King Ghost and friends and bring peace to Mok Sau… or will they soon

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DanXIII

Jun 7, 2026

IndieMoviesReviews

Movie Review: Coven of the Black Cube – Blood Sick Blu-ray

Coven of the Black Cube is about a coven of witches helping unsatisfied wives to murder their husbands… but that doesn’t stop the narrative to stream of consciousness itself into tales of falling in love with a serial killer and the creation of a video rental joint. It’s that kind of scatter-shot unconventional storytelling that makes ol’ Coven of the Black Cube such a uniquely psychotronic viewing experience. Created in our beloved shot on video (S.O.V.) format, the proceedings possess a gritty, almost documentary feel… which makes the entire affair delightfully surreal as we dive head first into a lived-in world that plays host to a large number of occult rites, sex, and bloodshed… but there’s more here than just exploitation thrills n’ spills… Standing front and center here is a queer romance that neither seems forced into the narrative nor is it fodder for titillation (though those elements are present)… it’s handled with heart and is a refreshing change

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DanXIII

Jun 6, 2026

ForeignIndieMoviesReviews

Movie Review: Watch Me Sleep (2023) – Wild Eye DVD

Our pal Sean (Darren McAree) has a lot on his plate… he’s a recovering alcoholic who’s abusive mother has just kicked the bucket… though on that last one our hero isn’t quite sure. To that end he signs up for a service that sticks a camera in a loved one’s coffin so family members can grieve longer… usually for a period of four weeks… but Sean is desperate for a longer look-see (by like eleven more months) so he throws money at the problem which ensures that will go down without a hitch. While initially quite gung-fucking-ho over spying on Mommy Deadest, Sean can’t bring himself to log in for the longest, but eventually a confrontational AA meeting gives him the courage to smash that button… and before long mum’s postmortem movement is becoming ever more obvious! Writer/Director John Williams (Creatures of the Night, Crispy’s Curse) delivers a rather skin-crawling premise with Watch Me Sleep… watching a family member decay

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DanXIII

Jun 6, 2026

IndieMoviesReviews

Movie Review: Busted Babies – Blood Sick Blu-ray

Kasper Meltedhair’s Busted Babies is going to be a real bitch and a half to try and explain to you cats n’ creeps, but here fuckin’ goes… “______” (Kasper Meltedhair), is a strange lady possessing horns, polka dot skin, and strap-on bat wings. Our heroine can also turn babies to glass… which is of interest to a dancing gaggle of suited dudes that gain immortality when showered in the broken glass babies… Things get stranger as our non-linear, fever-dream narrative takes us through a world of bizarre folks (creatures?) that inhabit a world of odd punk rock shows, bizarre parties, and absolute brazen insanity. They way this psychotronic whirlwind is presented is as imaginative as it is mind-shatteringly weird. Kasper Meltedhair goes all in on creating a world unto it’s own, filtered through a low-fi, S.O.V. style that at times come across like our favorite drive-in flicks of yore (complete with bands providing padding) mixed with animation, unique yet simple

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DanXIII

Jun 6, 2026

MoviesReviewsSci-Fi

Movie Review: Monster Mayhem Collection – Film Masters Blu-ray

Film Masters have gone and bundled up a monstrous mess of Drive-In sci-fi flicks from years past and put them on Blu-ray for all of us lovers of the cinematic bizarre to slap our putrid peepers upon! So let’s begin our joltin’ journey into the Monster Mayhem Collection with the first feature (of which there are four present over two discs), 1958’s Frankenstein’s Daughter… Sleazy suburban mad scientist Oliver Frank (Donald Murphy) is only all too ready to continue the work of his grandfather, Dr. Frankenstein… well, in his spare time anyway… most of the time he works with his colleague, Prof. Carter Morton (Felix Locher) who is working on a formula that could end all disease. Of course ol’ Ollie has other plans for it, and begins slipping doses of it to Morton’s teenage daughter, Trudy (Sandra Knight) which turns her into a monster in a swimsuit that runs amok in the P.M. while continuing to work on his

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DanXIII

Jun 6, 2026

DanXIII

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