I DRINK YOUR BLOOD (1971)

"Let it be known, sons and daughters, that Satan was an acidhead."

This is one hell of a movie. The wacky as all get out story is about eight Satan-loving hippies who wander into a small town (more like a few houses and a store) and start raising Hell. After they brutalize a young woman and drug an old man, the old's man's grandson gets revenge by killing a rabid dog, putting the dog's rabies infected blood into some meat pies and the selling them to the hippies. Later that night, the hippies start foaming at the mouth and go completely batshit crazy. At first they start attacking each other, but then their violence spreads and some construction workers get infected and go on a rampage attacking everything.

For being 50+ years old, I DRINK YOUR BLOOD has more blood and violence than I expected (it was one of the first movies to get an "X" rating based on violence), but while it might have shocked audiences back in 1970 it's so low-budget and the special effects are so amateurish that it's impossible to take it seriously nowadays. That doesn't mean it's not an entertaining film, because it definitely is. As far as trash cinema goes this movie is a classic. The pace is very quick and I liked how it never dwelled on one theme for too long: at first there's the hippie Satan cult, then the revenge thing going on and then the revenge for the failed revenge which results in the rabies-infected hippies attacking various people in a wide varieties of ways until finally the miners are infected and suddenly there's a zombie horde assault on a house!

It's probably never going to be inducted into The National Film Registry, but IDYB does deserve a small spot in Cinema history. All fans for horror and trash should check it out.

I'd be interested to know how much of an influence this film was on John Waters.

THUNDER BAY (1953)

Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart followed up their collaboration on the excellent THE NAKED SPUR with THUNDER BAY. Stewart is a hardworking man determined to find oil in the Gulf no matter what, even if it fucking kills him! His financial backer (Jay C. Flippen) is just as determined and has invested all of his money into this project. If it fails they're fooked, but things aren't just as easy as setting up a rig and pumping the oil out. No siree Bob, the local shrimp fishermen believe the oilers are gonna kill all of the shrimp, so they'll stop at nothing to get these assholes out of here...even if they have to blow up the entire oil rig!

On a technical level, the film is fine and looks great. Also the acting is good, especially Stewart who carries the entire thing with his portrayal of a man-possessed. The thing that pulls the movie down is the script. It's passable, but I wish that it had been grittier and never included the second romantic subplot between Stewart and Joanne Dru. The Dan Duryea / Marcia Henderson romance actually added to the film, but the Stewart / Dru one made no sense and it was a distraction from the exciting oil drilling story. And speaking of oil drilling, I wish there had been a little introduction to off shore drilling earlier on in the film (maybe in a meeting with the towns folk). I don't know shit about off shore drilling, so when they started yelling about air pockets and water spurting up through the hole I had no fucking clue what was going one except that it seemed pretty important.

Overall, an entertaining picture, but it's pretty dated, simplified and overly melodramatic. A must-watch for Stewart fans though.

PORNSTAR PETS (2005)

Clocking in at 52 minutes, PORNSTAR PETS is the sweet and interesting, no-frills documentary about pornstars and their pets.  They've got everything you could imagine: cats, dogs, turtles, birds, snakes and even some unusual animals like sugar gliders, giant millipedes, horses and a rat.  Very little nudity (all from film clips), just simple interviews with adult industry actors about their pets.

For the most part, the pet parents seemed to really love and care for their pets, but there was one or two...I don't know.  And more than a few that seemed to be not operating with a full deck, but whatever.  And the one who fed her dog nothing but spicy shrimp...that can't be good!  But what the hell do I know?  Another thing I found interesting was just how cluttered and rundown most of the people's living areas looked.

Interesting premise for a documentary and there's worse ways to spend a hour.