Maximum Violence aka Popular (2011) – Marcel Waltz.

A Prosecco-happy clutch of glamorous, yet ultimately vapid Fräulein's bloodily fall victim to the supernatural stalk and slashings of a vengeful, back-combed banshee in glitzy German indie slasher Maximum Violence. The moody raven-haired head of their school Frau Beck (Manouch)is a gas, doing a good line in acid hag, but she blew her glowering head off before I could get truly fixated on her delectably cruel Kinskiness! The victim/revenging ghost certainly has grounds for being proper ticked off, grossly tormented by malign matriarch Frau Beck, abused by staff, blithely mistreated by friends, her lamentable match stick girl life is brought to a comparably miserable end, inspiring her collegiate killing spree. High points do not include the routine text, but the lissom lassies are lovely, the Rhineland exteriors are picturesque,and composer Michael Donner ably provides some driving Synth Wave. My singular fetish for indie Krautshock was mostly satisfied, but Waltz's Maximum Violence might be more factually titled as 'Mild, to moderate bloodletting', since there didn't appear to be any use of graphic prosthetic FX, just a squirty, tricked-out Giallo razor, or, the version I viewed had been cut? Obscure slasher completists might care to give this a shot, but due to a dearth of T&A, and curiously minimal chunkblowing, appeal to gorehounds may be quite limited. I have the entirely subjective impression that the film's subtext may concern the various inequities borne of those overtly beguiled by capitalism, and if that is the case, I'll give it a wee bump!

 House of Dreams (1963) – Robert Berry.

'Why is Life such a mess?'

Low budgeted indie psychological chiller, shot on eye-wateringly high contrast B/W stock, does little to belie its penurious $10.000 price tag. Blocked scribe Lee's (Robert Berry) eerily precognitive nightmares about a desolated domicile, fatefully compel him to revisit this childhood haunt, discovering that not all dream houses are heaven sent! If one can overlook the prosaic dialogue, and excruciatingly enervating score, House of Dreams might remain watchable fright-lite for aficionados of goofy, home-made haunted house hokum. Undeniably static, with a lugubrious pace, there is an innate strangeness to the feature's off-kilter psychological discords. Performances are adequate, the dramatic elements are overwrought, soap-opera mawkish, which arguably provides an additional patina of psychotronic grist! The film would be greatly improved by Czech dubbing, with literarily upgraded subtitles, since House of Dreams tangentially expresses an accidental Art-house aesthetic. Even at 71 mins, its an uphill trudge, but some of the non-dialogue sequences have a weirdly expressionistic quality, suggestive of some long-forgotten silent-era short, and I am somewhat leery of the poster suggesting any comparability with Carnival of Souls, gittafook outta here, man!!!!

 Carlos (1990) – Kazuhiro Kiuchi.

This explosive, vividly drawn, exhilaratingly violent Yakuza action thriller, graphically portrays the brutal, increasingly cavalier ascent of inimical, low-ranking hood Carlos (Naoto Takenaka). Arguably one of the higher profiled V-cinema titles, the film's dazzling display of high energy, visceral power, and brazenly envelope pushing levels of ultra-violence certainly haven't dimmed over time! Charged with superlative performances, the winningly bloodthirsty Carlos is regarded by many aficionados of Japanese genre cinema as a legitimate game-changer, remaining a stylistic influence on many J-Horror/action film makers to this very day. Fans of gruesomely inventive, gleefully ultra-violent gangster cinema who have yet to experience propulsive mind-bomb Carlos should find Kiuchi's gorily paradigm smashing masterpiece a vastly electrifying experience!

 Death By Engagement (2005) – Philip Creager.

As a long-since lapsed actor of only modest talent; I had, in truth, a noisome tendency to 'go large', so I must say that Mommie Dearest P.J Soles did a spectacular job of the slow-burn creepy antagonist, which is quite hard to pull off convincingly. This lively telekinetic/supernatural slasher remains a lot of fun to watch, reminded me in part of 'Patrick', and 'The Sender', the killer's especially bloody preference for blunt force trauma is genuinely quite nasty to behold! Death By Engagement does a pretty stalwart job of successfully blending bawdy stoner humour jackanapes with grisly, supernaturally-inflected Slasher tropes.

 Witches of Amityville (2020) - Rebecca J. Mathews.

It seems a tad baffling calling this kooky British supernatural horror Witches of Amityville? If this proved to be the script's working title, I stand corrected, but surely it's counter intuitive linking an indie horror to a long-since defunct franchise? Anyhoo! A malign, demon worshipping witch Dominique Markham (Amanda Jade-Tyler) entices wholly unwilling supplicants to her mysterious off-grid Academy, in order to sacrifice them to evil demon Botis, who craves freedom, and it is up to three local white witches to put the mockers on Dominique's vile machinations. While I'm perhaps not the intended demographic for enjoyably camp supernatural romp Witches of Amityville, the incongruity of three immaculately well-groomed, palpably L.A.-centric Witches sharing a bijou domicile in some undisclosed rustic UK backwater, and their incense-infused, do-good 'Power of Three' hocus-pocus proved wyrdly irresistible!

The witches three first reveal their occult powers by magically repelling 2 woefully ill-prepared burglars, and it is this fun, undeniably goofy presentation of their preternatural capabilities that bewitched my B-Movie boggled mind! After Jessica (Sarah T. Cohen) has escaped Dominique's murderous clutches, she is supernaturally schooled by her 3 three benign mystic matriarch's, her enraptured awakening to the arcane forces within her recalls Skywalker's ordeal on Dagobah, only in a far more suburban setting! Since Rebecca J. Matthews folkish horror centres upon a desperate battle betwixt the eldritch forces of light, and the darkly demonic powers of Botis, The Witches Strike Back might, perhaps, have been a more appropriate title? I dug the fact that the busy witch showdown owes more to Hawk The Slayer than The Craft, the cast's energetic, if not always on point acting certainly keeps things lively, and should Hammer ever conjure up a young adult reboot of their iconic series, this would make for a serviceable pilot!

 Stranger (1991) – Shunichi Nagasaki.

A beautiful, consciously isolated Taxi driver (Yuko Natori) enigmatically works the night shift, pointedly avoiding intimacies with male colleagues, she nonetheless becomes the violent obsession of an anonymous stalker, whom she bravely confronts, culminating in a brutally suspenseful climax. As a dynamic exercise in breathless tension, Stranger remains a paranoid, razor-edged, cold steel masterclass in suburban terror, referencing Duel, Taxi Driver and Hitchcock, with the grittily tenacious Kiriko courageously enduring excruciatingly oppressive ordeals of stalk and slash. Directed with muscularity, and consummate skill, the meticulously orchestrated vehicular action and close-quarter peril are especially memorable. The viewers sympathy for the sinisterly beleaguered Kiriko is profound, her bloody, increasingly combative confrontations with her shadowy nemesis are unsettling, providing exquisite moments of almost unendurable tension! Shunichi Nagasaki's exemplary, frequently intense metropolitan shocker is not only a high benchmark for Asian film fanatics, it should prove no less enthralling to those who simply appreciate a prodigiously suspenseful thriller with a supremely capable heroine!

 Meat Market (2000) Brian Clement.

Much like ladies who smirkily telegraph their fanny farts, Clement's infamous Canuck zombie-schlock trilogy remains a no less divisive pleasure. Being an unrepentantly prurient, pro-bodily functions guy, I'm an ideal Meat Market consumer! While Clement's splattery S.O.V references Romero, the crusty make-up evokes the deadlier denizens of Matul, the attack zombie paradigm has been incrementally shifted by the forward-thinking usage of NANO-TECH created monsters, and saucy Sapphic vampires. Meat Market's hybridic approach to the prosaic zombie milieu has much to recommend it. While the pseudo-Romero shtick is partially alleviated by rampant, slinkily spandex-clad vamps, the colourful, 'enthusiastically' dubbed Lucha Libre tribute, Il Diablo Azul provides a zesty psychotronic addition, so I heartily second the exultant battle cry of 'Viva Il Diablo Azul!!!!'.

That being said, it might be this brazenly opportunistic appropriation of genre archetypes that has made others feel less enthusiastic about Meat Market than I. It is not altogether uncommon for B-Horror's entertainment value to be derived from bad acting, cliched scenarios, rudimentary practical FX, and Meat Market certainly doesn't disappoint, although, it must be noted, some of the conspicuously Fulci'd Zombies still look good enough to eat! Meat Market remains a remarkably good value, one-stop shop for all your grisly delicious B-Zombie indelicacies, freshly plucked brains, gourmet gizzards, and raw, wholly organic viscera at knock down prices! In an increasingly nauseating era of fashionista food fads, faux wellness fakery, and dingy Tik Tok dilettantes, Meat Market's prodigiously bloody, old school menu of Vegan-unfriendly, aggressively chunk-blown cuisine proved surprisingly Moorish!