Really Awful Movies: Ep 47 – Day of the Animals

Another 1970s animal attack feature, Day of the Animals is full of corniness and surprises.

“If there’s a god left to believe in…you’ve made a jackass out of me for years!”, exclaims an enraged Leslie Nielsen in one of the film’s most outrageous moments.

The Naked Gun star plays an ad man who, along with a bunch of other tourists, is trekking through the California woods with some tour guides. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for us, there’s a problem with the ozone layer and animals are being affected.

There are lots of foreboding shots of predatory animals. We love nature run amok and this one is pretty good. There’s a few inventive kills, a couple of true surprises, and good (well, maybe not so good, they are inexplicably attacking, after all) -natured silliness all around.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 46b – Director Henrique Couto

coutoWe first came across Dayton, Ohio filmmaker Henrique Couto’s work in Babysitter Massacre. He’s a guy with the talent to do a lot with a little.

In this special episode of the Really Awful Movies Podcast, we chat with the indie director about Scarewaves, Calamity Jane’s Revenge, The Faces of Schlock, A Bulldog for Christmas and Haunted House on Sorority Row. We talk about Alternative Cinema, how he made his first feature at 18, how he casts, shoots and scores film and his battles with depression.

Couto started out as Dr. Freak, “the world’s youngest horror host,” which he started at the age of 12 on cable access. He graduated (though not literally) to selling his work in high school halls, much to the chagrin of his principal.

Now a full-time film maker who works at a prodigious rate, he’s branched out from horror into romantic comedy and period Westerns. Can’t wait to see where he’ll go next.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 46 – Crackerjack 3

This beguiling, uber-cheap political thriller startled us, even as two seasoned bad movie aficionados. This is a real stunner, epically awful and should be included in anyone’s Top 10 list of the worst films of all time.

It “defies description, is extremely inept, an espionage thriller with no thrills and a mise en scene of a Mexican soap opera.”

This stars the legendary Swede Bo Svenson (The Inglorious Bastards, the original) and French kickboxer Olivier Gruner.