Absolution (1978) – Anthony Page.

While I have seen Absolution many times over the years, I am still struck by the sheer majesty of it, Burton, composer Stanley Myers, and an exemplary cast lend an awesome gravitas to Shaffer's immaculate screenplay.

 Ten Years of Mayhem / Black Metal Documentary.

I enjoyed this engaging, non-exploitative documentary very much, it featured some valuable insight for a fan who isn't an absolute expert on the scene. This fine project was ably created by clearly talented You-Tuber called Resonant Peak. I especially appreciated the additional details about Mayhem's formative years, and he sourced some great stills.

 Scream Queen (1997) – Brad Sykes.

Shot on muzzy Video back in '97, this lively, schlock-tastically entertaining indie-slasher is now bloodily unleashed upon a spankingly sweet Blu-ray edition, giving Quigley addicts the welcome opportunity of appreciating one of her most unfairly neglected horror gems. Slinky splatter diva Malicia Tombs (Linnea Quigley) storms angrily off the set of a micro-budget S.O.V slasher, and is tragically killed in a fatal car accident...or was she? I must first enthusiastically state that, thus far, I have yet to purchase any Vengeance Video title that I haven't unreservedly fallen madly in love with. This is, of course, an entirely subjective rationale, but I absolutely dig on the fact they haven't let me down, and, happily, Scream Queen is yet another wickedly warped winner! Midway-ish Scream Queen luridly left-turns in a fabulously faux Gothic fashion, whereupon a shadowy slayer gruesomely bumps off the unsuspecting cast and crew in a deliciously grisly, Agatha Crispie'd fashion! The palpable shortcomings of a low budget, and shooting with such rudimentary equipment only rarely detracts from Scream Queen's prodigious, frequently inventive, and rewardingly bloody kill frenzies! Excluding the occasional visual infidelities of the format, Scream Queen has a generosity of Schlocky paraphernalia to recommend it to slasher fans. While horror vixen Quigley is a scream, the unknown cast prove no less credible, with much tittersome scene-stealage done by stoner FX dude Squib, and the diminutive Runyon (Kurt Levee), who is utterly delightful as Malicia's quietly menacing manservant.

 Burning Rubber aka Trading Paint. (2019) – Karzan Kader.

Like many anonymous B-features produced today, Burning Rubber relies unwaveringly on tiresome formula, but I can unequivocally state that it occasionally tickled my 'unintentionally funny' box to a splendidly tingle-some effect! I can vaguely recall a vapidly high gloss Tony Scott thriller that was ultimately little more than exhaust fumes and soapy melodrama, Karzan Kader's Burning Rubber is a quickie hicksploitation iteration of that. Barrel-scraper Michael Madsen plays the singularly unsympathetic dirt racer Bob Linsky, his detached performance so somnolent, I momentarily believed he must be under the malign influence of a Karloffian mesmerist! Fortuitously, there is a winningly off-key exchange between a credibly earnest Kevin Dunn and 'hero' Travolta, concerning his Crocodile-munched appendage that momentarily peaked my psychotronic interests.

If Burning Robber had been made in 1979 with Burt Reynolds at the wheel, it would still remain utterly bogus, but a bogus film from '79 with the charismatic Cannonballer would be infinities sweeter than one from 2019 featuring a feloniously fright-wigged John Travolta! In closing, someone once told me that reptilian humans can effectively replicate a head-full of lustrous hair, thereby aiding their invidious 'walk among us' modus operandi; is it at all possible that Travolta is one of those who 'walk among us'???? I love Madsen, but the doofus text for Burning Rubber really didn't do him any favours, at this point Travolta is pretty much bullet-proof, since no one expects much from him, and he frequently rises to expectation.

 Der Lastwagenkrieg (1982) mit peter hein.

This short (47mins) lively, visually appealing, artfully conceived piece should prove interesting to fans of German new wave / post-punk happenings. I have included a screen-grab of the film-makers involved, should anyone care to investigate further. My spoken German is still okay-ish, but this specific dialect proved hard going at times, it almost sounded Austrian? I must absolutely mention the brilliant photography, which I thought was rather special at times, certainly no less so than the music, natch!

 Terminal Velocity (1994) – Deran Sarafian.

'I'm more than a walking penis, I'm a flying penis!

Hunky maverick skydive instructor with notably good hair (Charlie Sheen) gets dangerously entangled with a beautiful skydiving soviet spy with even better hair (Nastassja Kinski), in glossy 90s thrill-spiller Terminal Velocity. Before I continue, I wanted to take a wee digression, and once again savour Sheen's stridently male moniker in Sarafian's entertainingly slick, full-throttled, sky-borne spy shenanigans...'Ditch Brodie'!!!???? I had sincerely hoped Mr. Sheen, the actor, not cleaning product, would have ditched his given name and appropriated Ditch Brodie for real, alas, he did not. Terminal Velocity provides an amiable bounty of suspense, snappy badinage, adrenalized aeronautical acrobatics, with Bad Boy Sheen's glib, FU attitude being no small part of Terminal Velocity's evergreen watchability. Alongside the charismatic pairing of Sheen and alluring Ms Kinski, Sarafian assembled a quality cast of energetic supporting players, with menacing James Gandolfini providing a more than credible nemesis! I still appreciate it when an alpha dude's gravity-defying heroics are noisily telegraphed by histrionic guitar shreddage, yet another bullseye from Terminal Velocity! When esteemed character actor Rance Howard turns up in a picture, he is frequently given little to do, whereas in Terminal Velocity Rance is the equally derring-do facilitator of grandstanding sky-master Ditch's dizzying display of daredevil heroism! Way-ta-go Rance!!!!!!

 Caterpillar (1988) – Shozin Fukui.

Shozin Fukui's fascinating, low-budget experimental art-core horror/weird short has a great band, striking visuals, and a frequently disorientating, pleasingly surrealistic bent. Haunting, imaginative, obtuse, and strangely hypnotic, I royally dug it, but I'm an obscurantist, botty-obsessed shut-in with an increasingly tenuous grasp on reality! Caterpillar features a heady kaleidoscope of frenzied Super-8 captured imagery, and Fukui's dynamic use of stop-motion effects often recalls Tsukamoto's iconic Tetsuo. I also appreciated the eerie live band inserts, and dissonant, overtly masticatory soundtrack. It is clear that the shambling, mentally pixelated characters in Caterpillar are suffering from some sickening urban malaise, and it is left entirely to the dazed viewer to surmise their agony. Creepy and kawaii, weirdy and kawaii, trippy and Kawaii, just like I.