Really Awful Movies: Ep 71 – Hellraiser

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser will send a chill up your spine.

In Episode 71 of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we decided to tear our souls apart and break down what makes this such a classic.

Pinhead has become a bona fide horror icon. Liverpudlian Doug Bradley, though not as well known as Robert Englund, has made quite a career of portraying ol’ pin cushion face. Although, in this first film of the series, he’s not even the chief antagonist. He does, however, steal the show.

The film predated torture horror and has multi-genre elements. There’s loads of subtext, gore and weirdness to satisfy every taste. Unlike some of its brethren, it gets better and better with age.

The 1987 classic British horror film, written and directed by Clive Barker, was based on his own novella The Hellbound Heart and unlike other adaptations, this one benefited from Mr. Barker not only intending to spawn a film from it, but taking his seat in the director’s chair as well.

It’s Hellraiser…it has many sights to show you.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 68 – Birdemic

Sitting at a woeful “1.8” out of 10 on IMDb (with 12,000 + votes cast), it was inevitable we’d turn our eyes to the heavens and examine the notorious Birdemic.

Not to be mistaken for The Birds, the Hitch masterpiece by which this poop was allegedly inspired, Birdemic (full title, Birdemic: Shock and Terror) is widely regarded by aficionados of terrible cinema as one of the worst films of all time.

Does it hold up?

This quirky “independent romantic horror film” was written, directed, and produced by James Nguyen, an auteur of the awful a la Ed Wood.

The somnambulist performances, uneven sound, memorably inane exposition and some of the weirder special effects you’ll ever encounter, makes Birdemic can’t miss material. It’s strangely hypnotic and so bad, it actually improves a bit with repeated viewings (but take that with a grain of salt: we’re rigorous defenders of Battlefield Earth).

What really makes this one a cut above (or is that below?) is the green-think Mother Earth moralizing. Al Gore, eat your heart out! (but make sure that heart is locally-sourced).

Really Awful Movies: Ep 66 – Nightmare City

Nightmare City, AKA, City of the Walking Dead is an Umberto Lenzi sleaze-fest with a great soundtrack and some very gory kills.

In this 1980 outbreak movie, a TV reporter (played by Tarantino fave Hugo Stiglitz) investigates what’s turning townsfolk into hideous creatures. Turns out it’s radioactive materials from a nearby reactor.

Soon, the city is overcome by irradiated ghouls.

Few films combine utter zaniness with such inventive and disgusting gore.

Some critics have likened this to a “zombie action film” as the undead here run like sprinters, wield axes, knives and guns, and can even be convinced to board a plane to create havoc in other time zones.

Tom Savini is in the process of remaking this one. Wonder if he’ll retain the loopy ending of the original.

Welcome to….Nightmare City!