Zombie Nightmare (1987)

Zombie Nightmare (1987)

As a boy, Tony Washington witnesses the fatal stabbing of his father after he goes to the rescue of a young black woman, Molly Mokembe, who is being sexually molested by two teenage thugs.

Cut to the present day, and Tony (now played by heavy metal singer Jon Mikl Thor) is a musclebound, long-haired baseball player who, like his father, has no time for hoodlums: when his local grocery store is held up by armed robbers, Tony steps in and saves the day (the Italian shopkeeper is-a so-a grateful, he lets-a Tony have his-a groceries for-a nothing!).

Unfortunately, as Tony crosses the road with his freebies, he is run down and killed by a gang of no-good punks, lead by psycho Jim Batten (played by Shaun Levy, now a successful Hollywood director). When Tony's mother sees her son's lifeless body, she calls for Molly (Manuska Rigaud), who uses her voodoo powers to resurrect Tony from the dead. Armed with his trusty metal baseball bat, shuffling zombie Tony goes looking for revenge. (IMDB BA_Harrison)

Kiss of the Tarantula (1976)

Kiss of the Tarantula (1976)

aka

Shudder

Der Kuss der Tarantel

Poor Susan (excellently played by the lovely and beguiling blonde beauty Suzanna Ling). The comely, but weird misunderstood misfit teenage girl lives with her undertaker father in a mortuary. She has an unnatural affinity for spiders. Susan catches her shrewish mother cheating on her father with her dad's own brother. Susan kills her mom by putting a tarantula in her bed. She also sics her lethal arachnid friends on other folks who rub her the wrong way; said victims of her dangerous wrath include a bunch of local hooligans who break into the mortuary to steal a coffin and Susan's disgustingly incestuous and lecherous uncle (a superbly sleazy Eric Mason). Directed in an effectively blunt and basic manner by Chris Munger, "Kiss of the Tarantula" makes the grade as a creepy and effective low-budget 70's grindhouse scarefest thanks to Phillan Bishop's eerie synthesizer score, credible acting from a solid no-name cast, an arrestingly brooding rustic atmosphere, a grimly serious tone, Henning Schellerup's gritty photography, a wickedly startling surprise twist ending, and several genuinely unsettling spider attack murder set pieces (the sequence where a handful of libidinous kids doing just what you think in a parked car at a drive-in get assaulted by the spiders is the definite flesh-crawling icky highlight). A shamefully neglected and hence underrated teen terror tale that's well worth seeing.  (IMDB Woodyanders) V&D

Lolly-Madonna xXx (1973)

Lolly-Madonna xXx (1973)

aka

The Lolly-Madonna War

Rod Steiger and Robert Ryan (the latter in one of his final film roles) play Laban and Pap, the patriarchs of the Feather and Gutshall families. These families used to be close, but eventually things got bad, real bad. The Hatfields and McCoys type feud starts out somewhat mild, with pranks being pulled. The title comes from a phony postcard, signed by a made-up woman, "Lolly-Madonna", designed to get one family to abandon their still. This leads the Feathers to kidnap a young traveller (Season Hubley) who they are convinced must be this "Lolly- Madonna".

It's interesting to note that this was an early credit for the famed author Sue Grafton, who also wrote the screenplay with producer Rodney Carr-Smith. It's a very serious meditation on the utter futility and madness of any war, especially the Vietnam war. The material gives some juicy acting opportunities to a superb ensemble. Steiger and Ryan mostly play it low key (although Steiger *does* eventually erupt into typical Steiger-esque acting) in order to let the younger generation make their mark. And what a supporting cast: Jeff Bridges, Scott Wilson, Timothy Scott, Kiel Martin, Ed Lauter, Randy Quaid, Gary Busey, Paul Koslo.  (IMDB  Scott LeBrun)

Scott Wilson 

 Kiel Martin (R)

Robert Ryan (L) - Kiel Martin (R).

Randy Quaid 

Jeff Bridges - Timothy Scott

 Joan Goodfellow - Ed Lauter

Tresa Hughes

Kathy Watts