On it surface, The Crypt is a fairly nondescript, low-budget horror movie about a group of grave robbers who run afoul of the ghosts of the dead folks they're robbing. But amidst the wooden acting, choppy editing and threadbare plot, there's actually something admirable to be found: two women...
The wilds of Africa strike back! Yet again, a group of white people -- along with the token black local -- are terrorized by native wildlife, with Marlin Perkins nowhere in sight. Unlike the typical jungle setting, though, The Bone Snatcher takes place in the desert, providing a unique,...
For a while, it seemed that the go-to move for an established film franchise that had reached a shark-jumping level of creative desperation was to shoot it into outer space -- the cinematic equivalent of a family sitcom adding a baby into the mix. James Bond, Hellraiser, Airplane, Leprechaun,...
In terms of racial resonance, Don’t Look in the Basement is sort of like the underachieving little brother to Night of the Living Dead. Whereas that George Romero classic has received widespread recognition for its ahead-of-its-time casting of an African-American lead, Don’t Look in the Basement, released just five...
Sugar Hill is one of the more overlooked high-quality Blaxploitation movies, its lack of recognition baffling given it comes from American International Pictures (AIP), the company that distributed high-profile Blaxploitation flicks like Foxy Brown, the Blacula films and Black Caesar, not to mention horror fare like Frogs, Abby and The Abominable...
Eloise is pretty standard ghosts-of-mental-patients-and-staff-haunting-an-abandoned-asylum fare, but for the purposes of this site, it stands out for the role of Dell (Brandon T. Jackson), a character that's such a crudely drawn throwback, he should've been thrown away before filming began. Dell single-handedly embodies at least four tired black horror...
Chop Shop aims to be an exploitation revenge flick in the vein of I Spit on Your Grave or its little-seen sequel, I Pass Gas on Your Sarcophagus -- and for a while, it succeeds. For a while. In classic exploitation style, the story is simple -- boys meet girl,...
I give Dream Home credit for being a mostly African-American horror movie without revolving around a stereotypically "urban" storyline involving gangstas, or even a stereotypically "rural" storyline involving voodoo. I also give it credit for being only 70 minutes long. Beyond that, it's garbage. I suppose the cover art...
If you're like me, when you were a kid, there was a old lady in church who just creeped you the hell out. She'd pinch your cheeks with her veiny hands and give you a nickel or an off-brand piece of hard candy from her purse (if you were...
Those of us who grew up in the '80s came to accept certain universal truths, perhaps none more enduring than the belief that the official uniform of Miami cops consisted of white sports coats, pastel muscle shirts, two day-old stubble and no socks EVER. You can imagine my shock,...
