Hello everybody. Although I am hardly a connoisseur of bad film, I have watched my fair share of terrible movies and enjoyed almost all of them to the degree it is possible too. Unfortunately most of my friends (with the exception of one who considers Leprechaun 3 a pinnacle of modern cinema) have not gotten the chance to experience the worst that film has to offer, and with HS over forever I am going to be arranging a little film festival this wednesday. I already have some ideas about what to show, but I wanted some input from you guys about films I might have missed. Keep in mind that I want these to be bad but entertaining (i.e. I'm not doing Manos: The Hands of Fate because its too painful to watch for more than 20 minutes at a stretch) and I don't want everything to be horror films.
This is what I'm looking at right now, but the entire line up is subject to change:
1) Evil Dead 2
2) Army of Darkness
3) Cemetary Man
4) Six String Samurai
5) Plan 9 From Outer Space
6) Gymkata
7) Probably a Leprechaun movie of some sort for my above mentioned friend
Any input before Wednesday is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
for a kick ass zombie flick...Dead Alive...it belongs in the the same category of masterpieces as Evil Dead. get the unedited version from an independent movie renter...
also Basket Case (the first one only!!!)
for trash, try to find John Waters' Pink Flamingos...or, to a lesser extent, something from Russ Meyer...
good luck with your fest...
Well, since you seem to have enough horror films in the mix I'll forego my usual recommendations of ASSIGNMENT TERROR, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER and THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS and skip to other genres:
THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE - An INCREDIBLY bad Kung Fu movie with a beautifully tasteless premise: British secret agents extract cell samples from the dying martial arts superstar on his death bed. Since e-bay wasn't around yet, they can't auction the cell samples off, so instead they use them to create 3 clones to form an elite crime-fighting/espionage unit. The film features not one but TWO Mad Scientists, one of whom plans to conquer the world with an army of bronze men.
HIGH SCHOOL CAESAR - Raging Youth movie about a leather-jacketed juvenile delinquent (played with unrelenting blandness by THE John Ashley) who runs his high school the way a Mafia Don runs his Family.(The title is supposed to put us in mind of the Edward G Robinson film LITTLE CAESAR.) This one's from the same mold as DADDY-O, UNTAMED YOUTH, THE BEATNIKS, HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS ,HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL etc.
THE PINK ANGELS - The notorious film about a gay motorcycle gang. What more can you say about this one?
OVERLORDS OF THE UFO - The WORST "UFO expose" to try to cash in on the success of CHARIOTS OF THE GODS. UNBELIEVABLY lame photos, films and at times what look like little kids' drawings of encounters with aliens plus the screwiest pre-X-Files explanation for where the aliens come from. No description can do justice to how inept this film is.
Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town (recent viewing) you can then even claim you'll show a movie with an Oscar winner in it.
you got to have 'leprechaun 5' for your friend - if you haven't seen this, you are deprived. it's more blaxploitation than anything else - ice t is a rap producer that has a magic flute that makes terrible rappers seem good that he got from the leprechaun. see ice t futility trying to fire a gun with the trigger finger that was bitten off hours earlier. mind numbingly good!
ORGAZMO (if you can find it) - Trey Parker, half of the creators of SOUTH PARK, gives us a heartwarming tale of a young, innocent, Mormon man, Joe Young, that becomes engrossed into a world of lust, sex, and drugs: the porno industry. Due to the wickedness of the industry, Joe must use his martial arts abilities to right the wrongs. With his sidekick Choda-Boy (Dian Bacchar; Squeak in BASEketball), Orgazmo sets out on a quest for justice, safe sex, and the Latter-Day Saint way!
IT CAME FROM HOLLYWOOD (if you can find it) - Dan Aykroyd, Cheech & Chong, and others deliver clips from classic b-movies. Vintage b-grade horror and sci-fi flicks (such as IT CONQUERED THE WORLD), old school films about drugs (such as REEFER MADNESS), and various other genres of b-films are explored.
Night of the Creeps
Chud 1 & 2
The Forbidden Zone
A little heavy on the zombie movies (and zombie-like movies). I would say mix in some more genre's. A space opera like "Starcrash" or "Battle Beyond the Stars" would be good. Also a nature gone wild movie like "Day of the Animals." Last, but not to be forgotten, a giant monster movie. "Godzilla vs. Monster Zero" is great. Or, if you are looking for something a lot more "B," get one of the older Gamera movies. "Gamera vs. Guiron" (aka "Attack of the Monsters") is lots of silly fun.
For racing:
Death Race 2000, Gumball Rally
For comedy:
Teenage Catgirls in heat, Killer Clowns from Outer Space
For Horror:
I Spit on Your Grave
For Blaxpoitation:
Foxy Brown, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka
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Meteor Man can kick Superman's ass
Thanks for all the input, I really appreciate the suggestions, its given me quite a bit more to work with. Unfortunately the movie selection at my local place isn't as good as I thought so I may need to do some more hunting as they have niether Gymkata or Six String Samurai. I agree the lineup probably is a little Zombie heavy (I like zombies), so Andrew is right that Starcrash or somehting would be a good idea. I may drop one of the Sam Raimi flicks for that- most likely Army of Darkness since I think all the guys at least have seen that. I'm also debating the merits of Leprechaun 4 vs. Lepreachaun 5- I've not seen either and I have no way to judge which is more "quality." Other changes to the lineup probably also include me dropping "Plan 9" because most people have seen that, but I wouldn't know what to replace it with- definitely not a horror flick though as I need to maintain a good balance. Maybe "Rodan" would be a good choice... I remember liking it a lot when I was 12 or 13.
FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND
BRAIN OF BLOOD
QUEEN KONG
BLOOD FEAST
FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE OF FREAKS
NIGHT OF THE BLOODY APES
i should punch you in the face for recommending 'c.h.u.d. 2' - that's the WORST. it's like watching 'encino man' and every character is pauly shore.
for god's sake, do not get 'leprechaun 4' - it's film stock is that of a made for tv movie on usa and the set design is probably worse (it looks like it was filmed in someone's basement). it's seriously like an two hour episode of 'lexx', just more boring and with less t&a (which would be integral in a low budget space slasher movie like this). you will be horrified you paid to rent this movie if you do - i'm telling you from experience, it's all about 'leprechaun in the hood'!
if you are looking for a zombie movie - why not get lucio fulci's 'zombie'. the zombie vs. shark scene is always a crowd favorite.
Great list...but you just HAVE to add Meet the Feebles to it. It's one of the most demented and entertaining movies I've ever seen.
i would like to recommend "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama"
it's bad...very bad...
came on USA Up All Night with Rhonda Shear
also uhhmm, "Bloodbath in the House of Death"
entertaining. yes indeedy.
FANTASY MISSION FORCE. Amazingly weird Hong Kong-made World War II movie; Abraham Lincoln is kidnapped in Canada by muscle-car-driving Nazis, so a crack team (including a hobo, a Chinese Scotsman, a greaser, and a woman with a bazooka) is assembled to find him. The group then meets amazons, vampires, and a pre-stardom Jackie Chan. In World War II. Seriously.
That was a fun show, lots of bad movies.
Anyone remember the brunette who hosted before Rhonda? My friend & I were bummed when she was replaced.
there was a brunette before Rhonda?
i remember Gilbert Gottfried.
hey! remember Commander USA's Groovy Movies?
..i'm Commander USA and i show Groovy Movies on Saturday...
Here is an idea for you . By bad/trashy I will take that by the generally known terms. 9 hours should be enough.
The House of Whipcord - Start off with this one
The Story of "O" - Calm things down with a sadistic tale
Emanuelle - Lighten up a bit
Bloodsucking Freaks - For something shocking
Vampyros Lesbos - For some good music
Orgy of the Dead - To send them home. If this dosn't work nothing will
Or anything by Jesse Franco or Jean Rollin
Yes, and she was great. Much better than Rhonda, she actually talked about the movies rather than using the segments to promote herself.
Gilbert Gottfried. Yuck. As annoying as Carrottop. Speak normally.
Commander USA's Groovy Movies sounds vagually familiar.
Maybe you could try the American "Guyver" movie if you want something trashy.
-the first rule of fat club-
Just googled and found out who she is: Caroline Schlitt
Also came across a new (to me) website:
http://www.tvtome.com
which " has over 1,400 complete guides covering almost all the current shows and many of your favorite classics. There's also an additional 2,700+ guides that are partially complete or under development."
I am so glad that 20 some years ago the military wanted to hook a few computers together.
I remember the Captain. Plus, if you're a fan of Movie Hosts you might like to know that Captain USA plus plenty of others are featured in Elena Watson's classic book TELEVISION HORROR MOVIE HOSTS. It's available at Mcfarlandpub.com. It first came out in 1991 and covers the Movie Host phenomenon from the days of Vampira up to when it was published. Note to hardcore MST3K fans: Sadly, despite the 1991 publishing date she somehow missed covering the show's early years. Puzzling, since she covered countless hosts who were only known locally along with some nationwide hosts. Hell, she even covered the lame Grampa Munster's period hosting bad movies on TBS way back when, yet she was oblivious to MST3K both as a local show on KTMA and for it's first few years on the network now called Comedy Central.
Despite that disappointment she covers a lot of the Bad Movie Hosts who clearly had an influence on MST3K's style, from Ghoulardi, Stella, Svenghoulie, Dr. Madblood etc and even a brief mention of Texas 27 Film Vault, the one that MST3K most reminded me of.
Sorry, no Joe Bob Briggs in the book, either, despite the fact that he was hosting movies on Cinemax (or was it showtime?) back then.
Don't ask me why I accidentally referred to him as "Captain" USA twice in my preceding post. It was just an oversight from my gleeful hurry to once again share Elena Watson's TERRIFIC book with anyone who may not have heard about it yet. (Next to mentioning Paul Naschy's movies, mentioning Elena's book is my greatest obsession at various message boards. )
Replace Gymcrappa with the Story of Ricki and I'm on board!
Any of the Black Scorpion movies are fun too, especially the first with Joan Severance (hubba hubba).
:-)
Rob
did you ever catch the 'black scorpion' tv show? what a pile of garbage that was!
'the story or riki' is a crowd pleaser - good selection.
>i would like to recommend "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama"
I should have known you'd like that movie... :)
Joe Bob Briggs hosted movies on The Movie Channel. One of my favorite memories of my teenage years was tuning in to Joe Bob every Friday night.
I can see why he might not be included in the horror movie host book, though. All he usually did was introduce the movies, since they ran uninterrupted. I think sometimes he would show up again at the end of the film.
I can also understand the exclusion of MST3K--they weren't really hosts in the usual sense. I wonder if the exclusion was personal--a lot of longtime horror/bad movie fans don't like MST3K because I guess they view it as mean-spirited toward the films and their makers.
Actually a staple of just about EVERY Bad Movie Host show I ever saw was a joking and irreverent attitude toward the bad films they showed. I consider MST3K to be the logical extension of all previous movie host shows since they took the concept to the next level by ridiculing the movie even while it was playing and not just before and after commercial breaks like most other Bad Movie Hosts.
Watson's wonderful book details the various types of comedy sketches and sarcastic remarks the hosts would make about the turkeys they showed so MST3K would have fit perfectly into the theme of the book. (At least it would have from 1988 to 1995, the period when I think it most resembled Bad Movie Shows of the past.)
Please don't feel I'm being argumentative, I simply think this is an intriguing issue to discuss. I was wondering if you ever read Elena Watson's book or if you grew up watching any local Bad Movie Host yourself? It may be an age thing , since I'm 39 and everybody I know my age or older who liked MST3K all felt part of it's charm was the way it was a larger scale version of the Bad Movie Host shows we had watched over the years . Just for conversation's sake let me point out some hosts that I think were "predecessors in spirit" of Mystery Science Theater 3000:
We can lump in the Vampira, Zacherle, Seymour, Ghoulardi, Dr. Morgus and many other types into a big category for pioneering some of the primary elements like various comedic bits regarding mock products and commercials (indeed, I think Joel Robinson found the PERFECT vehicle for his "prop comedy" in the Movie Host format in general and the Invention Exchange in particular). Many of those hosts also had underlings or assistants who would be used and abused the way Dr Forrester treated T.V.'s Frank and they would ALL do sketches parodying scenes from the Bad Movie being shown.
Moving into more particular territory, SVENGOOLIE (Rich Koz) had a show from 1979 to 1986(and I got to see his show on various business trips)that was flat-out state of the art for Bad Movie Hosting and in addition to his sketches his SONGS and MUSICAL bits were virtually blow-by-blow forerunners of Mike Nelson's tuneful contributions to MST3K. Indeed, when Svengoolie went back on the air in the late 90's he reportedly received plenty of hate mail from Misties accusing him of ripping off "their" show, since they were too young to remember that MST3K itself owed a certain stylistic debt to the many Bad Movie shows that came before. (I'm not a convention hound myself, but I've heard that some of the makers of MST3K have admitted at conventions that Svengoolie influenced their show.)
DR MADBLOOD'S MOVIE would have sarcastic remarks appear in writing on-screen during the movie (like the bits of information that appear in "Pop-Up Videos"), so I consider these "Pop-up Riffs" if you will, to be another step along the "evolutionary ladder" culminating in the Minnesota Folks' terrific show.
TEXAS 27 FILM VAULT in some ways played like a "pilot" for MST3K and since it was one of my favorites I regret that Elena did not devote more space to it in her book. I'm certainly not implying any stealing of ideas occurred, but I would be willing to bet that Joel Hodgson saw some episodes of this show while traveling around to clubs with his prop comedy act. Randy and Richard, the hosts of T27FV wore jumpsuits and hardhats that were similar to Joel's outfit(although I grant you he only had the hardhat on during the opening theme music) plus their Film Vault set was similar to the original Deep 13 layout. Their premise was that beneath every major city in the U.S. were huge Film Vaults in which bad and campy movies were stored to be shown on the various Bad Movie shows around the country(I MISS the days of local programming!) and as "Film Vault Technicians First Class" they would protect the films from rat-like creatures called "cellumites". This, of course, was just the framing format to justify the showing (and mocking) of the Bad Movies. This show even had a door-opening bit that was similar to the later one on MST3K.
Anyway, I feel the final product of this ever-evolving format was Mystery Science Theater 3000, the ULTIMATE Bad Movie Host show. I'm surprised a similar show hasn't taken to the airwaves yet, since from my understanding of the law on this there is no way to copyright a concept like sitting in front of a movie and ridiculing it. God knows there's an audience just WAITING for a show to fill the void left by the end of the Minnesota Folks' show.
Any opinions? Please remember, I'm not knocking MST3K so there's no need for anyone to respond with something like "You SUCK! MST3K ROOLZ!"
And by the way, I think anyone who loved the Minnesota show would enjoy Elena Watson's book.
Sorry, JMC, I meant the previous post was a reply to your comments about MST3K being excluded from Elena Watson's book.
and I'm 38. I did see some early MST3K, after it went national (was it on the comedy channel or some such before Sci-fi?) , I agree that it was the next logical step after the bad movie hosts who would trash-in a light hearted way- the movies they introduced.
Yes, Raj. From 1989 to 1996 it was on Comedy Central (which went through various mergers and name-changes in it's early years, being known as The Comedy Channel and CTV before becoming Comedy Central.)
I even enjoy the episodes from when it was a local show on KTMA TV in Minnesota (thank God for the internet, where you can buy ANYTHING!)
My favorite episodes when it was a local show are:
CITY ON FIRE
HANGAR 18
COSMIC PRINCESS
THE LAST CHASE
SUPERDOME
SST DEATHFLIGHT
THE LEGEND OF DINOSAURS
I like MST3K for the most part, though as I've said in the past I view it as bad movie training wheels--that is, I don't think a person can call themselves a true bad film fan unless they're able to watch the movies as they were originally released. I know a few folks who are in their mid-to-late thirties or older who despise MST3K but who like the older horror hosts. I'm 30 and only caught the tail end of the horror hosts.
I've met people on the net who actually worked on some of these films, or who knew people who did and apparently some of the filmmakers were very hurt by the way their films were treated. That gives me pause, and since then I've been a little less enthusiastic about MST3K.
I can identify with the way you said many people you know despise MST3K since some people I know never got to see the show until it was on Sci-Fi, by which point I don't think it was nearly as good as in the early years. In fact, some of them who remembered me mentioning the show from 1989 to 1995 gave me a hard time and asked how I could possibly like "that P.O.S." (as they called it.) I had to show them some tapes of the early years to change their mind.
When I need those special films to just torture or stupify the B-moive virgins I usually go with some Troma:
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part 4
Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD
Class of Nukem' High
Then some giant monster
Godzilla vs. Gigan
Gamera: Gaurdian of the Universe
Rodan
Next, some hokey witchcraft:
Witchcraft (any of the 11!)
Warlock 1&2
Wishmaster
Then some Alien esque types
Deep Rising
Carnosaur 2&3
Within the Rock
And finally... Some screwy finale:
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Pink Flamingos
Jesus Christ Vampire Slayer
I agree with Feathertop. The Joel years of MST were less acerbic about the movies they showed. More a Laid back attitude common in the Midwest.
Maby they thought Sci-Fi expected such a "With it" attitude. Too bad.
Hummm.....
How about: Deathrace 2000.
Godzilla Vs. King Kong.
King Kong Escapes, if you can find a copy...
Inframan!
Kung pow,Enter the fist.
Invasion of the Astro zombies.
Hummm....