Really Awful Movies: Ep 240 – Johnny Gruesome

On this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, Johnny Gruesome. This is the latest offering by Greg Lamberson, who brought us what is essential viewing if you’re into urban scum/exploitation horror flicks, Slime City. It’s a site favorite here, along with Street Trash.

In this one, Johnny Grisholm is a long-haired drug-fueled hell-raiser. He’s perpetually wasted, and is the product of a broken home, and alcoholic dad. One night, with friends in tow, he’s lead-footing it down the highway in his roadster. He’s driving so erratically, they begin to fear for their lives. His buddy Charlie puts him in a choke-hold, the vehicle swerves into a guardrail, and Charlies finishes the job – asphyxiating his pal.

The remaining friends protest, but concede that Johnny likely would’ve killed them all had there not been such a violent interceding.

Then, as the IMDb summary aptly has it: “he returns from the grave as a revenge crazed supernatural creature.”

In Pledge Night, the antagonist is a victim of a college hazing ritual, and returns to exact revenge. Here, in a similar fashion, Johnny emerges from the grave a posthumous one-teen wrecking crew.

Johnny Gruesome has keen attention to the high school environs, and accurately depicts headbanger/dirtbag culture. Hell, one half expects Ben Affleck to saunter in from Dazed and Confused to kick Johnny’s skinny behind.

Tune in to this episode (and every episode) of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. We love genre film, particularly horror, and getting down to the nitty gritty of what makes these films so darn fun.

 

 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 239 – House

House. Here we go. We’re back to the 80s on this episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. It’s House, which stars three stalwarts of the TV world:William Katt, George Wendt, and Richard Moll (The Greatest American Hero, Cheers and Night Court).

Katt portrays a novelist, Roger Cobb, who needs a place of quiet contemplation to get some writing done. You’ve heard that one before, right? He takes over the domicile of his late aunt, whose suicide he’d witnessed as a young lad.

Soon, “his friends” start to join him (as the poster says).

One night while investigating a noise coming from his late aunt’s bedroom, the author is attacked by a deformed, hideous monster that’s been lurking inside the closet. Soon, more attacks occur: Cobb is attacked by levitating garden tools, and he begins to see visions of his ex wife and missing son.

Eventually Cobb discovers an entry into a sinister PORTAL TO HELL.

His jovial neighbor (and devoted fan), Harold (Wendt) offers a kind ear as he’s melting down.

House is best known for its poster, and yet it inexplicably spawned numerous sequels. Why? It’s because that was the thing to do. Especially if Sean S. Cunningham was involved.

House was directed by Halloween H20 director Steve Miner (interested folks can check out our discussion of that film). Is he up to the task?

What is the meaning of a homestead?

Where does this one fit in the haunted house realm?

Join us!

 

 

Really Awful Movies: Ep 235 – The Driller Killer

Another Video Nasty! On this week’s episode, the unusually arty low-budget slasher, The Driller Killer. Actually, calling it a slasher is a bit of a misnomer. It’s more of a character study of a brooding artist’s breakdown. This is a weird beast, and not what you’d entirely expect given the era, the budget, and the cast of amateurs involved (save for auteur, Abel Ferrara, the indie legend who went on to direct the infamous, Bad Lieutenant and King of New York).

Ferrara (credited as Jimmy Laine) plays Reno Miller. Reno is a tortured artist, tortured by a murky past and an uncertain future. He lives with a harem of girls in the East Village in the height of the punk rock boom in NYC. And he’s surrounded by human misery, squalor and degradation. And that’s just his studio apartment (ba-dum-ching). His milieu is a haven for drug and alcohol abuse, and poverty.

But look at the title, folks. Invariably, he descends into madness and…well, you know the drill (bam!) Forgive us that one, dear readers.

The Driller Killer is worth checking out. Made on a shoestring, with no city permits (guerrilla-style) it has a lot to commend it. As does our podcast, if we may be so bold. Check out the Really Awful Movies Podcast, for weekly genre chat.