Name an obscure gem which you can recommend without reservation.

Don May, Jr. - Synapse Films

Well, not to toot my own horn or anything but LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL is not only an obscure gem, it’s a GREAT movie, too!

Sean T. Collins - Attentiondeficitdisorderly Too Flat

This is an easy one, Steven: Dahmer, written and directed by David Jacobson and starring Jeremy Renner in the title role. This movie fell through the cracks thanks in large part to its cover design, which makes it look like a direct-to-video schlockfest and qualifies it for inclusion in the ubiquitous Dahmer/Ted Bundy/Ed Gein/Gacy four-pack in a bargain bin near you. But this is intelligent, moving horror filmmaking, with a crushingly powerful lead performance by Renner and an equally strong turn by Artel Karåyou as Rodney, whose victimization serves as the centerpiece of the film. Bruce Davison shows up in a memorable supporting role as Jeffrey’s father Lionel; if you’ve ever seen an interview with the older Dahmer, you’ll recognize the shellshocked air Davison brings to his performance. I can’t think of another movie that better captures the sheer, purposeless sadness of serial murder. Highly recommended.

Nick - DVD Trash

Since I’m a fan of Turkish cult classics, then I can only recommend picking up the Kilink movies from Onar Films, but if you can find it, go for their recent release of 3 Mighty Men ( 3 Dev Adam),starring Captain America and El Santo, plus it also includes some (un)forgettable dialogue such as “Spider is a child-minded lunatic”. Failing that and if your after some grubby Italian sleaze then try and track down Renato Polselli’s “Rivelazioni di uno psichiatra sul mondo perverso del sesso” - a film I’ve only ever seen for sale at conventions!

Paul Corupe - Canuxploitation

The Lift (1983)

I bought this exceptional Dutch horror film from the 1980s for a few bucks
solely on the basis of the tag line: “Take the stairs! For God’s sake–take the Stairs!!” Who knew that a film about a killer elevator could be handled without resorting to outright
camp, and actually work! Dick Maas’ low-budget shocker has drunken businessmen suffocating from lack of oxygen, heads sheared off by elevator doors, and a blind man going head first down the shaft. Huub Stapel does a pretty good job as Felix Adelaar, a put-upon elevator repairman who believes that the technology SNAFU is the fault of a negligent American corporation. Admittedly, it’s slowly paced, but it has its share of humour and patient viewers will find the film ultimately rewarding. Remade by Maas in America as The Shaft in 2001.

Doug Nagy

The Devil Master!

GlowStormLion - Frighthounds

I suppose I can’t say Frankenfish, huh? Well, fine then! Rachel’s Attic it is and if THAT’s not obscure enough then I guess Vampiyaz is about as obscure as my knowledge extends.

Louis Fowler

When I was kid, we lived in a super small Texas town called Blooming Grove where my dad was Chief of Police. There was only one video store in town, and we got free rentals there. It was a one-man backroom-type of operation that seemed to be stocked exclusively with nothing but b-movies. From shitty comedies like Transylvania 6-5000 to the Wizard video cut of Equinox called The Beast, this store was what pretty much shaped my viewing habits for the rest of my life. This is where I first saw Re-Animator, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Ghost Fever with Sherman Helmsley. My dad was quite liberal with what we rented, as long as it wasn’t porno. So, my brother and I took advantage of this, but there was always one movie I was afraid to rent: the 1972 Devil-shocker Brotherhood of Satan. The book itself literally gave me a nightmare that I can remember to this day, that made me afraid to even touch the box. I was convinced, at the age of 8, that that movie was evil.

It had always stuck with me, but I had never found it again. One night, when I was about 19, I found that copy, with that same creepy box, in the 99 cents bin at my local Hastings. Older, and much more jaded, I rented it and Goddamn if it didn’t scare the shit out me. It’s somewhat cheesy and badly-filmed, but it’s atmospheric, dreamlike, non-linear qualities gave me shivers like I was watching something I wasn’t supposed too—like when I was that Manson doc for the first time. I was more than a little freaked out.

It was released on DVD a few years ago, but I haven’t been able to find a copy. I’d like to watch it now, at the age of 27. So if you get the chance, check it out.

Joakim - Mexploitation

I thought about this a little bit, and then it struck me. It would have to be Tetsuro Takeuchi’s 2000 movie “Wild Zero “, a movie I love in so many ways it’s hard to know where to start.

It’s a vehicle for Japanese rock band Guitar Wolf, for one. This means rock star superpowers, fighting the good fight (rock vs. idol pop), electrified guitar picks used as shuriken, ridiculous cool-guy posing, and so on. At one point, the lead singer of Guitar Wolf (wonderfully also named Guitar Wolf) strums his guitar to set the right tone, then immediately jumps off a building.

But that’s not all. This is a horror movie, where UFOs turn people into zombies. The zombies and UFOs must be defeated, and so they are, by a team-up of Guitar Wolf (the band), their greatest fan, and his new-found girlfriend, who for some odd reason scares off men when she gets naked… To complicate things, our heroes are chased by the owner of a former rock club which has now gone over to the dark side and features idol pop as the main attraction.

And the climactic scene features a katana that… no, you’ll just have to see it. It’s incredibly silly, of course, but that’s the point, and it’s so frenetically paced and action-packed that you won’t really know what hit you. I saw someone calling this “j-horror” on some site a few days ago, and saying it was not as good as Kairo, I think, but that’s totally missing the point. This is comedy, something between Peter Jackson’s Braindead/Dead Alive and Ed Wood if he had a bigger budget, Japanese rock stars as actors, and the comedy was voluntary. Highly recommended, I defy anyone not to love this movie.

Man, this is difficult question for me. There are so many that I would love to recommend. The one that comes to mind at this moment is one I saw recently on cable. The flick is called, WARNING SIGN. I’m not sure if it was a made-for-tv flick, but it plays out like one. It’s from 1985 and stars some schlock and exploitation veterans such as Yaphet Kotto, Sam Waterson, and Kathleen Quinlan. It was directed by Hal Barwood who for some reason went on to direct and write for video games.

Tim - Mondo Schlocko

The premise of WARNING SIGN is real simplistic, and one that I wish I came up with first. Kathleen Quinlan is the only wage-slave securty guard in a highly secured bio-lab in a hick town that is engineering a United States funded virus under the guise of “yeast research”.

A virus outbreak occurs in the lab and she has to shut down the entire building locking in many pissed off employees who just want to get off work for the weekend. Not to mention the cold blooded Men in Black types who arrive to “rescue” the survivors.

The virus takes hold of many of the scientists and workers in the lab which causes them to rage out, and have this immense desire to kill everyone who is not infected. And poor Quinlan is just trying to do her job and keep the outside world secure, while trying to stay alive as many go bonkers and hack and slash their way through the halls of the building.

There is not much in way of gore, but the film is still rather violent. The science or pseudo-science as it were is laughable, but goes well with the context of the flick. It has many suspensful moments and you eagerly watch as this poor woman who is tortured by the infected and later hunted by them tries her best to survive. Things also get complicated as her husband, the town’s sherriff, gets infected in an rescue attempt.

Simply put, WARNING SIGN, is a immensely suspensful popcorn midnight kind of flick that becomes a zombie flick without the flesh eating.

David Z. - Tomb It May Concern

You have to try out Mad Foxes, the sleazeploitation classick from the Erwin Dietrich trashbucket, available on a really nice disc from Dietrich’s Swiss company. This one has groovy cars, bikers, nudity, violence, kickboxing and sequences that will have your jaw bouncing off the floor at nearly every turn. The lead guy is a drunken womanizer that gets hot chicks, only to find himself craving revenge after he pisses off a neo-nazi bikerbunch. The bikers kill our man’s friends, bedbuddies and even…well, one more big surprise, until he
martials his karate kicking pals and go as far as force feeding a man his own, well…another big surprise! It does not get better than this….believe me. Possibly the best “castrated nazi with a bomb going bonkers” movie ever shot.

You can get it here.

Ah, and the theme song is by KROKUS!!!! Not good…but…wow!

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