
Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. We’ve got more new horrors; indie, mainstream, good, and not so much this week. But before that, there’s this…

Another indie goodie I reviewed a while back, GUT (reviewed here), will be screening its world premiere at the 60°N Os International Film Festival this April. Watch the brand new trailer for GUT below. It’s pretty damn cool.
GUT - trailer 2 from Gut Productions, LLC on Vimeo.
And now, on with the horrors!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-review: THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 (1985)
CORMAN’S WORLD (2011)
THE GRUESOME DEATH OF TOMMY PISTOL (2010)
CAMEL SPIDERS (2012)
UBALDO TERZANI HORROR SHOW (2010)
THE CORRIDOR (2011)
And finally…Chris Heck’s PLAGUE DREAMS!

THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART 2 (1985)
Directed by Wes CravenWritten by Wes Craven
Starring Tamara Stafford, Kevin Spirtas, John Bloom, Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Robert Houston
Retro-reviewed by Ambush Bug
In the intro of Wes Craven’s follow up to his highly successful and critically acclaimed THE HILLS HAVE EYES, they mentioned that “The hills still had eyes!” which I think would have been a much cooler title. Not sure why I started out this review with that, but for some reason that’s the first thing that entered my head as I sat down to write. I guess that’s better than leading off with the acknowledgement that THE HILLS HAVE THIGHS is a pretty hilarious name for a porno that I didn’t not not not see on Skinemax a while back.

Gone is Craven’s multi-textural dissection of the modern nuclear family that was so prevalent in the first film. In part two, it’s a group of motorbike riders who get stranded in the middle of the desert after taking a shortcut through a dangerous nuclear test site. Anyone who saw the first film knows that this is a no-no as two of the surviving killers from the first film, Michael Berryman’s gaunt skinhead Pluto and John Bloom’s Neanderthal-like Reaper, stalk and kill the bikers in a fashion that was tried and true even at the time of this film’s release. This film seemed much more like a cash grab (something I’d be more willing to accept from Craven now, than back then when he actually had some horrific themes he wanted to explore and the gumption to do it effectively and riskily). Though THE HILLS HAVE EYES wasn’t getting any acting awards, years later, Craven didn’t get is cast to try so hard here either. The menace of the original family is kind of reduced to Pluto calling Beast (another returning character from part one, this one, a dog) a snot-licker before being knocked off a cliff to his death and the Reaper just growling and body slamming folks to death.

In many ways, this feels like a Wes Craven directed FRIDAY THE 13TH film as he goes through the motions that were well mapped out in those films by the time this one came out. It doesn’t help that Henry Manfredini’s score is almost identical to his fantastic FRIDAY THE 13TH scores minus the “Kill-kill-kill-ma-ma-ma!” echoes. The star, Kevin Spirtas even shows up in FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 7 A NEW BLOOD a few years later.

If anything, this is a nice snippet of what horror was like in 1985. Everyone was trying to invest their own slasher franchise and with Craven branching out from NIGHTMARE, it seems he was placing his chips in an older property. Lacking in the deft themes and a lot of the grittiness of the original, THE HILLS HAVED EYES PART 2 remains entertaining as an oft times laughably bad horror schlocker.
Maybe if only they called it THE HILLS STILL HAVE EYES, it might have been better…

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL (2011)
Directed by Alex StapletonWritten by Alex Stapleton
Starring Roger Corman, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Peter Bogdonavich, Paul Bartel, Paul W.S. Anderson, David Carradine, Julie Corman, Allan Arkush, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Robert De Niro, Bruce Dern, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Gale Anne Hurd, Dick Miller, Irvin Kershner, Eli Roth, John Sayles, William Shatner, Mary Woronov
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

CORMAN’S WORLD is a sort of love letter to Corman, his films, and his millions of fans. Director/writer Alex Stapleton does a fantastic job of documenting the filmmaker’s early years, plotting out the back-story of a very likable, albeit stubborn and driven man. My favorite bits of this film were these scenes documenting the early years through hundreds of stills, clips from some of his most schlockiest of works, and interviews with people who were there (including Corman himself). Somehow Stapleton even got Jack Nicholson to appear in the film (Nicholson even offers an extremely poignant ode to the director who gave him his first shot; I was surprised how moved I was when Jack breaks down and cries about the man).

Unfortunately, Corman continues to make films, most of them direct to video or direct to ScyFy schlockers. The difference between these new films and Corman’s classics mainly is that these days Corman’s films know they are not very good and even wink at the audience acknowledging how bad they are, while back then, they were actually trying to be good films. For some reason, despite the low budget, that genuine quality made them all the more watchable and the lack of that aspect makes the newer ones all the less.
That said, CORMAN’S WORLD smartly focuses mainly on the Corman classics. It’s a fine documentary that will bring a smile to the face of any fan of genre films. Filled with stars and stories, I don’t think there’s a better way to honor this man’s contribution to cinema than this film.

CAMEL SPIDERS (2012)
Directed by Jim WynorskiWritten by Jim Wynorski and J. Brad Wilke
Starring Brian Krause, C. Thomas Howell, Melissa Brasselle, Diana Terranova, GiGi Erneta
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

So I guess, someone heard about this story, saw EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS and said, “I can do something worse than that!” While EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS was actually a whole lot of fun because it went so far over the top with its effects and goofy scenarios, CAMEL SPIDERS tosses creativity out the window and just has someone killed every three minutes with little of no attention paid to character or plot. Whole groups of people are introduced simply to be taken out moments later by the leaping spiders spurting copious amounts of CGI blood from their attacks. Practical effects aren’t even attempted in this film (ironic given that so much advertising goes out for ScyFy’s addictingly fun FACE OFF reality show).

For some reason everyone gathers at an old factory and of course, blowing up the factory results in the destruction of the entire infestation for some reason, but by that time, I kind of already checked out. Who knows how much Corman puts into these new films of his, but having just seen CORMAN’S WORLD listing some great horror films such as PIRHANA, HUMANOIDS OF THE DEEP, DEATHRACE 2000, BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS, and many others you should be seeking out instead of CAMEL SPIDERS.

THE GRUESOME DEATH OF TOMMY PISTOL (2012)
Directed by Aramis SartorioWritten by Aramis Sartorio
Starring Mia Tyler, Aramis Sartorio, Caleb Emerson, Kimberly Kane, John Karyus, Vincent Cusimano
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug

The story goes like this; Tommy is a typical slacker who says his mind and often gets fired for it when he does so at his job. After losing his most recent job, he returns home to a disappointed wife and child. After they leave him, vowing only to return when he starts to think of his family, future, and stability, Tommy slips further into depression. Six months later and he still has no job, life, or prospects. He shifts through a dirty house, pops a microwave hotdog in the microwave, and falls asleep while pumping his penis growing pump while watching porn. The rest of the film follows Tommy’s feverish and disturbed dreams of stardom and fame in the entertainment industry.
Though these three vignette dreams all share the same theme; the ugly side of the entertainment world, they do so at different stages of Tommy’s dream of stardom. Story one follows Tommy recruited fresh off the bus with stars in his eyes by some shady filmmakers into making an underground snuff film. Story two follows Tommy a few years later and a bit wiser as he desperately tries to sneak onto the set of Arnold Swartzeneggar’s newest workout video to get a job as his assistant. The third and final story finds Tommy directing porn and finding his cast riddled with STDs that turn them into zombies.

The acting, at times, is pretty amateur and the film looks like the cast was made up of the filmmaker’s family and friends, but despite all that, it’s still a decently made film. The effects are quite good, relying on goofy gore to carry the film most of the time. Though broad and full of goof, if you have a sense of humor and a gag reflex, I’ll bet both will be tickled by THE GRUESOME DEATH OF TOMMY PISTOL.

UBALDO TERZANI HORROR SHOW (2010)
Directed by Gabriele AlbanesiWritten by Gabriele Albanesi
Starring Giuseppe Soleri, Paolo Sassanelli, Laura Gigante, Antonino Iuorio, Ripli Zsuzsanna, Francesco Mastrorilli, Stefano Fregni, Vera Dragone, Massimo Triggiani
Find out more about this film here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug


The film is well acted and the script is nicely written (at least the translation of it was since this is an Italian film I saw with English subtitles). The gore is low budget is surprisingly effective and the twists and turns the plot takes is refreshing and unpredictable. Though there are many films out there about making a film, this one does a great job of telling that story in a dark and diabolical manner. UBALDO TERZANI HORROR SHOW owes a lot of its mood to the classics in Italian giallo horror. This is a pitch black loss of innocence story with teeth and if you’re into foreign horror, this is one gory thriller worth checking out.

THE CORRIDOR (2011)
Directed by Evan KellyWritten by Josh MacDonald
Starring Matthew Amyotte, Nigel Bennett, Stephen Chambers, David Patrick Flemming, James Gilbert, Glen Matthews
Find out when and where to see this film on THE CORRIDOR website!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Note: I posted this review a while back, but with the release of THE CORRIDOR this week in theaters today, I figured it’d be a good thing to repost it for those who might have missed my advance review.


The horrifying last portion of THE CORRIDOR mixes modern pop psychology with the darkest of humor as these men are reduced to monsters tearing each other apart. The film not only scares but makes you think about the fragility and maybe the futility of male relations by showing man at its most animalistic. Not the feel good film of the year, for sure, but THE CORRIDOR definitely is a small indie film that packs a wallop with an ending that is both heartfelt and melancholy all at once.
And finally…here’s a surreal and terrifying little short from writer/director Chris Heck. Filmed in black and white for extra ookiness. Enjoy PLAGUE DREAMS!
Plague Dreams from Chris Heck on Vimeo.
See ya, next week, folks!





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