6. Slashers!
(Rewatch) I have seen this a fafillion times and I always find something new to admire about it. On the surface, it looks like just another Friday the 13th knock-off, but it definitely stands apart and has so much magic (much of it I’m sure accidental). It’s known for its shocker ending, but it deserves to be looked at for much more than that. The kids at the camp are a rogues gallery of real kids, not twenty-something cover models. These characters are more memorable to me than the characters in almost any other slasher (which might not be saying much, but still). And the kills are pretty creative and mostly well done (excepting that raspberry bee sting). Maybe my favorite slasher that’s not Black Christmas.
7. Shannon Tweed!
What if Die Hard was set at a beauty pageant instead of a holiday Christmas party? And instead of Bruce Willis’s NYC cop, our hero was Shannon Tweed as a former action movie star who puts her skills to unexpected use? Now, this is no Die Hard, but it’s surprisingly good for the knock-off that it is. Andrew Dice Clay makes for a surprisingly formidable villain — he’s nowhere near Hans Gruber, but maybe if he had more competent henchmen, he’d be closer. The movie even has a pivotal relationship between the good guy gal on the inside and the cop on the outside, communicating via walkies (I could have done without the last-minute romance, though). I liked the device of the armed wristbands that keep everyone in one place. And this is a great movie if you love kick-ass ladies who fight back (not just Ms. Tweed).
8. Cars!
I had no idea before putting my Junesploitation calendar together that David Cronenberg made a car movie (unless you count Crash). This came out the same year as his body horror classic The Brood and could not be more different from his more characteristic fare. This is less a car *chase* movie than it is a movie about race car drivers, and there’s a thread of doing what you love to do without being beholden to The Man. It reminded me a lot of Hal Needham’s Hooper, actually, and it was odd to see the normally badass John Saxon sort of in the Robert Klein role. This was the final film of exploitation legend Claudia Jennings, who tragically died in a car crash a few months after the movie’s release. It also has one of the most ridiculous villain comeuppances I've ever seen.
9. Monsters!
Trailers: Matango, Dagora
It’s hard to believe the guy who directed this also directed Battle Royale, but here we are. Kicking off with the greatest theme song of all time, this movie is goofy as hell, with a plot straight out of a classic Star Trek episode. But I was actually kind of unnerved by the way these monsters multiplied and eventually overran the space station. Less so when one of them was clearly a guy in green tights with a paper mache slime suit over his head. I could have done without the love triangle plot, though I understand that only appears in the extended version that's on the Blu-ray. Solid cheesy 1960s monster movie.
10. Sex Comedy!
Trailers: Joysticks, The School Teacher
I picked this mainly for the cast, which boasts Edwige Fenech, Barbara Bouchet and Marty Feldman, among others. It’s an anthology film with five stories, all of which feature stunningly gorgeous women and homely or odd-looking men. Almost all of which feature major consent issues. I think my favorite was the one with the countess and her chauffeur ("Catch It While It's Hot"). Least favorite is the one with Barbara Bouchet ("One for the Money").
11. Free Space!
Trailers: Plan 9 from Outer Space, Jail Bait
I liked this a lot more than I expected to. It’s as technically inept as you’d expect from an Ed Wood movie, but there’s something genuinely radical about a movie that, in 1953, humanized cross-dressing and gender fluidity and actually discusses gender confirmation procedures (though they were called something else at the time). The style is rather innovative as well, and whatever Wood’s shortcomings as a filmmaker, I respect what he’s doing here.
12. Prison!
A hardcore version of Shawshank Redemption meets Rocky. The idea of granting a person serving a prison sentence early parole as a reward for winning a boxing tournament is ridiculous on its face, but it does make for some interesting stakes in this movie. Especially when you see how unbelievably rough life is for all of these prisoners. Some of the fight scenes in this are brutal (especially an early scene between Too Sweet and Half Dead), and this is one of those movies that you can practically smell because it looks so dingy and sweaty and unpleasant -- I mean, the bathroom sex scenes alone.... The movie also features the well-worn but always effective trope of corruption among prison guards and admin, which is a tale as old as time. In fact, it reminded me a lot of The Longest Yard, which I think it would pair well with.
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