Really Awful Movies: Ep 331 – Night Killer

Mystifying, beguiling. These are just a few terms which could accurately use to describe the bonkers 1990s Italian horror, Night Killer.

Directed by two giants of Italian crap cinema, Claudio Fragasso (Troll 2) and Bruno Mattei (Rats/Hell of the Living Dead/Shocking Dark) Night Killer features an antagonist who is a bit of a cross between the Toxic Avenger, Klaus Kinski’s Nosferatu and Freddy Kruger, with none of the charm or scariness of any of them. Quite a feat.

The killer in question, who it should be pointed out, doesn’t kill at night, hunts down a bunch of dance students in a pathetic third-rate theatre. He also murders a woman in an aquarium for the sole purpose of her being there, and this being filmed in Virginia Beach. She seems to have been a complete afterthought. Much like the script. Or the plot. Or the mise en scene.

Night Killer is really really bizarre stuff. But of course, it’s right up our alley as hosts of the Really Awful Movies Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, and pick up our books to support the show.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 319 – Zombie aka Zombi 2

Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, aka Zombi 2 (and a whole whack of other things) is a 1979 Italian zombie film adapted from an original screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti to serve as some kind of sequel to George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), though it strays pretty far from that source material.

Zombie stars Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, and Richard Johnson, and features a score by frequent Fulci collaborator and dynamite horror scorer Fabio Frizzi.

The film features a boat mysteriously abandoned and drifting around lower Manhattan. When NYPD tries to board, they’re met with a disgusting, desiccated undead thing.

How that thing got there, is how McCulloch gets involved, portraying journalist Peter West.

The vessel is registered to a guy traced back to the island of Matul, somewhere in the Caribbean.

What was he doing there? What nefarious goings on were taking place? How did that gross creature end up in New York? These and a whole host of other questions are answered this week, as the Really Awful Movies Podcast takes you to Italian horror territory and this classic gut-muncher, Zombi 2.

Really Awful Movies: Ep 316 – 20 Favorite Horror Movies

Halloween is approaching. Here’s a bit of a twist: My Top 20 Favorite Horror Movies. What will appear on the list? There are just so many a seasoned viewer can possibly choose from.

Will we see the likes of The Exorcist? That one really gets under the skin of Catholics and rightly so. What about Get Out? Jordan Peele is a real up and comer and someone to watch.

Perhaps The Last House on the Left? A true exploitation classic.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? A low budget effort that continues to reverberate. Scanners? The Fly? A new term was coined just for Cronenberg’s oeuvre. What about Halloween, or perhaps Evil Dead? And you gotta figure George Romero has to be in here somewhere, right?

Tune in and check out the latest episode of the podcast.