TYTD Reviews

Going into 'Camp Blood 8: Revelations' I was cautiously optimistic. The 'Camp Blood' franchise is not exactly a bastion of quality, BUT! the last film 'It Kills: Camp Blood 7' while overly basic and a little mundane, was the first film in the series to just…make a killer clown movie that was technically proficient, didnt meander (too much) and felt like a legitimate attempt at a horror movie, and not just Sterling Entertainment kidnapping a freelance director, dropping him in the woods and telling him they wont pick him back up until he gives them a film thats AT LEAST 60 minutes long, has a killer clown in it, and at least one set of boobs…

So, going into this one, part of me was hopeful that they would take the sturdiness of the last film and build on it in a creative and productive way…But part of me was also fully anticipating (given the scattershot nature of this series) that it was just a flash in the pan, and that we'd be back to incoherent adventures in the woods AT BEST…

Well! Colour me pleasantly surprised, because 'Camp Blood 8: Revelations' is quite possibly the best film the franchise has managed to produce to date!…kind of.

The plot this time follows a Volleyball team, on the road to a big tournament when their car breaks down just inside the entrance of the fabled 'Camp Blood!' At first they try to call for help, but theres no signal, so the girls do what they think is best and split into 3 parties. two of the girls go one way, two girls go in another direction, and one stays behind with the car, just on the off chance that someone else passes by who might be able to help.

Little do they know that deep within the woods, a killer clown and his mother are expectantly waiting for their next victims…But this time, it's different, as the films twists and turns reveal that some of the girls now stuck in the woods MAY have ties to Camp Blood going back decades…and that the killer clown may have let himself in for more than he bargained for…

The absolute saving grace for this movie, the thing that fundamentally elevates it above the other films, is in and of itself its most contentious aspect. The director and writer Dennis Devine made the conscious decision to pivot the series away from being a straight 'Horror/Slasher' entry this time around, instead taking the film into 'Horror/Comedy' territory.

What this means in real terms is that, after 7 entries of mediocre and…frankly just downright awful (in my opinion) slasher movies. This entry is specifically written and directed from the perspective of highlighting just how crumbulent those entries were, while also taking pot shots at the slasher genre AND the kind of horror fans who make a point of trying to outsmart the writer. And, this is probably the most exciting development this series has had since its inception.

It means that, from a script perspective; we have an 80 (ish) minute long feature that feels self aware, is self referential in its humour, calls out elements of previous Camp Blood movies that were bad and emphasizes WHY they were bad. is a little ditzy and air headed at times, feels a little John Waters-esq in places but feels as if the writer is directly talking to folks like me, the kind of people who HAVE sat through all of these movies, and just…needed these films to develop a pulse.

Thats not to say this is a perfect script by any means, quite a few of the gags do fall a bit flat, for some reason they've decided to pull a couple of youtubers in to play roles in the film and they just…really dont land well with me. The dialogue dances a VERY fine line between 'self aware and witty' and 'cringy, badly delivered' or just plain poor. And, I feel the ending could be taken either as a solid subversion of what these films ALWAYS do. Or it could be seen as a bit of a lazy 'cop out' to not have to wrap the film up properly (Though I am still on the fence about exactly how I personally feel about it.)

The pacing is fairly consistent, though it does feel like its starting to run out of steam a little bit towards the end of the 2nd act, as things slow down and we get a LOT of scenes of the multiple splinters of our cast just…chatting about any old nonsense inanely (presumably to pad the runtime) Tonally; I cant really complain, I do wish they'd maybe leant just a *little* more into the drier self aware comedy side of things to help shore the comedy element up and more firmly plant it in 'Horror/Comedy' terratory. But as a parody attempt? I think its pretty solid.

The characters are all stereotypes of the genre, and to go one further, the script essentially acknowledges that, and trusts the audience to know thats the case, and in doing so it gives the film makers more of a chance to subvert the expectations of the genre…quite successfully I feel. Our core cast are a little thin on character development. they dont really get a whole lot to work with, but again, it feels almost like the films intentionally doing that as a play on these kinds of movies. I dont know if I fully trust that that was the directors intentions. But given what he does through the rest of this movie, I am willing to take it in good faith.

Which leads me to the biggest contention I have with this movie. Theres no doubt to me that this is very likely the best 'Camp Blood' script the franchise has seen to date. its solid as a rock, has a personality, and while it drags a little bit…in a franchise that gave us 'Camp Blood 4 and 5' the bar for this series was frankly in the toilet. But is it *really* a 'Camp Blood' script? can this be considered the best script of the franchise, if it is in fact a pseudo lampooning of the franchise? it would be like saying 'Friday the 13th' or 'unmasked Part 25' is the best film in the Friday the 13th franchise. like…yes, technically and irrefutably it IS a 'Camp Blood' film. but because it isnt in the 'spirit' of the 'Camp Blood' films, it isnt of this franchises 'Ilk' I dont feel entirely comfortable holding it up as an example of the best this franchise has to offer.

Its not seriously trying to be of the same genre the other films are. And because of that, I dont really know whether to overlook my feelings on it and consider this 'The Best Camp Blood' film, or whether to hold it in joint first with 'Within the woods' as the best subversion of a 'Camp Blood' film…I think my feelings on it will mature over time. But at this point, the juries out. I'll be honest, Im just happy its 99% competent.

To that end, theres no disputing the techncal aspects of this production, on a technical level, this is the best 'Camp Blood' film i've seen to date. The direction blends old school slasher tropes with elements of John Waters early filmography and more modern inspirations such as 'Happy Death Day'. Every shot feels carefully crafted to be the best it can possibly be, theres even some nice subtext hidden within the direction to help characters get a better understanding of the characters WELL before the script gives you the answers.

Its a visually pleasing piece with only a handful of missteps across the entire runtime, that shows a real care and attention to what Devine wanted to achieve with this. With my only gripe personally being those one or two missteps where an attempt to jazz up a scene was made and didnt quite land. and, in a situation that was kind of out of the productions control. The camera used to film this isnt exactly 'top of the line' its fine enough, but even with some half decent post work processing on the shots, theres a cheapness to the quality of the image that gives it a bit of a 'direct to Tubi' vibe…its 'Camp Blood 8' so I wasnt expecting 'The Odyssey' but it is a shame non the less.

The cine is the best the franchise has had to date. 'It Kills' was the best the franchise had to date up to that point because the shots were all largely focussed, there was attempts at more solid colour grading and sequences felt planned. This entry takes that and MASSIVELY ups the ante. It feels like this was meticulously planned from start to finish, with a clean and clear storyboard designed to show, not tell for the most part, composition is mixed to great, with the 'studio' footage looking especially wonderful as they utilized coloured gels, shadow work and decent chiaroscuro lighting to really help give the production a massive boost in quality.

Sequences feel largely carfully crafted, and while the title and credits sequences feel almost like an afterthought for how basic and 'default' they feel. the rest of the film practically pops to life with some decent day for night work, and the kind of shots that would convince anyone this was a series worth checking out. I genuinely loved the look of this film (for the most part)

Performance wise, we have probably this films biggest problem. The clear winner for me is Sally Mullins as the killer clowns mother 'Sheila'. Their relationship is an incestuous twist on Jason and Pamela Voorhees by way of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2'. Looking into Sallys IMDB, I see she does standup, and I feel like that really comes into its own here, her performance is flippant, deranged and the perfect balance of crazy to scary to help sell it. The rest of the cast really struggle to keep up with the kind of manic terror she brings to the film.

Pheobe Dollar as 'Dolly' is also pretty solid, bringing a dry and acidic performance to the film, as the plot develops she gets probably the most developmental piece of character work out of the rest of the cast. and she rises to meet the challenge well! I was quite dissapointed when she exited, as I felt her story could have been interesting. Though, I do appreciate the 'gag' they parted her with.

But from here things go down hill a bit. Rhei Liu as Ashley is our lead for most of this film, and shes fine. gives a relatively good performance, but doesnt really get much in the way of range to work with. She seems to struggle a bit with the more deadpan moments, and her physical acting is a bit lacklustre…But compared to the actors who've come before in this franchise? she's solid. the other girls range from 'fine' to 'not so fine' to just…kind of unmemorable, which is a shame. I feel like the script really needed 4 people rather than 5. But there were just a couple of moments where a 5th person was needed to make the plot make sense. So they had to cram a 5th person in exclusively for those 1-2 moments…and the end result is that theres always one girl in this who just…ends up with a gulf of about 10 minutes or more where nothing really happens with them. it feels like padding.

the rest of the supporting cast are just kind of poor. I think they got wind that this was more of a comedy production and then lent into 'hyuck hyuck' comedy, rather than the drier stuff that I feel this production needed. and its just awkward. It didnt feel good and did dampen my feelings on this film a bit.

And the scoring is…a little ostentatious…but actually pretty fitting. its a stocky sounding (barring the original compositions which have a punky edge that was VERY welcome honestly) but it fits the tone of the production and sounds totally unlike anything we've had up to this point. It was great. and barring one or two moments where the ADR track slipped a little bit causing a mismatch between the actors mouth movement and the audio. I had no issue with this. its probably the best sounding 'Camp Blood' movie made up to this point.

All in all? I actually really quite enjoyed 'Camp Blood 8: Revelations' and I feel a bit weird saying that. But I did! the scripts largely solid, the direction and cine is the best the franchise has seen to date, and the scoring is pretty solid too! in fact barring some slightly mixed performances, a few missed jokes and a bit of sagging in the back end (Which, even the best of us are guilty of that) its a very solid offering, which is surprising from Sterling.

This is probably the first 'Camp Blood' film I can see myself definitely revisiting again in future. and probably the only one to date that I can firmly recommend, as it helpfully is out of the existing continuity and can be viewed anytime.

But the sticking point with me still lingers. I cant honestly say this is a good reflection of what the 'Camp Blood' movies represent…so can I call it THE best Camp Blood Movie?!…I dont know. had it been a bit more straight cut horror, it absolutely would have. as it stands, its the best entry in the franchise. even if it isnt necessarily the best example of a Camp Blood movie…and I think thats a hell of an accolade.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/camp-blood-8-revelations/

I decided to catch a 60(ish) minute Tubi movie today while in between chores. and stumbled across my favourite subgenre of 'Tubi movie' the 'How the hell is this on here?!' subgenre.

Grand Theft Auto: Murder City is an oddity of a picture. A film that almost certainly didnt seek permission or approval from Rockstar or Rockstar North to use the 'Grand Theft Auto' name. But did it anyway…only to then get cold feet on the idea of making an unlicensed 'Grand Theft Auto' movie…But not so much that they dont steal a lot of elements from the Grand Theft Auto games…its…a mess honestly.

So the film opens in the 80s apparently, and we're introduced to 'Max' who is three years old and playing 'Grand Theft Auto 5' on a flatscreen TV…his dad dies of an overdose, his mum is horrified, Max is terrified and then it jumps forward 40 years…and a now 28 year old Max is living in the tough suburban hood of…a picket fence suburb with nice tidy gardens.

Lifes tough in the hardened, dead eyed world of cozy suburbia, but Max is in it to get rich or die trying. When he tries to steal a van, he's caught by the owner, but rather than call the cops, the owner has a better idea and sets Max up as a dealer on his 'turf'.

From here? things get a bit confusing, as we jump around a fair bit exploring the 'hood' meeting several residents all with their own problems, backstories, tales of revenge and dreams of making it big, while Max kind of…drifts in and out of the various stories.

Its a world full of sex, drugs, rap and murder…and the big question is, Will Max make it out ALIVE, letalone 'Make it'.

So I suppose the question on many peoples minds right now is exactly 'HOW' 'Grand Theft Auto-ey' is this movie? And the answer is 'not very'. Most of the elements that tie this film to the game are cosmetic and/or literally copied directly from the various plots of the series.

Most of the pilfery seems to be centered around 'GTA: San Andreas', 'GTA 4' and 'GTA 5'. and I can say here exactly whats been 'half inched'. They've taken the theme tune from 'San Andreas' which plays at least a couple of times through the film, the theme from GTA 4 and incidental music from GTA 5 is also lifted and shifted into this film. Sometimes when characters die, they'll put a 'WASTED' caption on screen (as per what happens when you die in the game) but its inconsistent, it only happens a handful of times, and doesnt happen on every death. They also steal the 'Mission Completed: Respect +' captioning from San Andreas at the end of the movie, alongside the in game stings when these captions are triggered.

They also for some reason steal the 'Weapons Wheel' (an in game tool used to select your weapon of choice) from GTA 5…but again, its literally just a cropped .png of the weapons wheel, and its inconsistent as to when its used, sometimes they remember to use it, sometimes they dont.

They dont really steal too many 'shot for shot' cutscenes from the games…but they do basically steal the entire opening of San Andreas with Officer Tenpenny and CJ for a weird 5 minute segment that serves no purpose here other than to say 'Yeah we played 'San Andreas'.

They also occasionally try to recreate H.U.D aesthetics, whenever someone robs someone they show a money counter that goes up, when they enter a new part of town they'll put a caption in the bottom left to indicate the change. But these are all in white, on blown out grey and white skies with no shadowing or bordering…meaning 3/4's of the time you cant even see, letalone read whats popped up. GTA 5 gameplay is hidden in the backgrounds of shots a couple of times. and the soundtrack is a mixture of licensed pop and rap songs that they almost certainly didnt get permission to use, and independent talent thats actually not half bad.

The script itself is a mess, it sets up Max as the lead character before going down a more 'Interwoven anthology' pathway, bringing in WAY too many characters, WAY too many motivations and not really making it all that clear exactly what the stories building to. The characters arnt really well defined, dont really have motivations beyond 'Make it' or 'Survive'. the dialogue (whats audible anyway) is really rough, feels more like improv, and is usually really self contained to whatever scene is on screen…Meaning it feels like your watching clips from about 50 different 'gang' movies, that just so happen to very rarely feature an appearence from a recurring actor called 'Max'.

The ending is underwhelming, there isnt a sense of pay off, half the characters that are set up, dont end up going anywhere and given this thing clocks in at 66 minutes (5-6 minutes of titles and credits take it to about an hour) it feels criminally slow in places.

The direction is a heady mixture of low quality, badly lit, fuzzy handheld shakey cam footage, stock footage and for a couple of shots, they got a drone. non of the footage matches, theres no clear colour profile, and on at least one stock shot I believe I saw a watermark.

It feels less like a coherent vision, and more like the director was making this thing on the fly, shooting whatever came to mind, with whoever he could convince to come out with him over a year of weekends. and while I'll always applaud a low/no budget film maker for getting a project over the line. that really is where the bare minimum begins.

The cine is a mixture of poor to dreadful, a lot of the shots are shakey, badly lit, have low quality effects (bad muzzle flashes are SO common here) or filters put onto them, at several points in the film they leave outtakes in the final cut, or let the shots run past the 'cut' leading to on set chatter and off camera laughter. the lack of a colour grade really impacts the films sequencing, making this feel very much as if its woven together from offcuts, rather than having a shot list and being planned.

Night shots are either blown out by flood lights, or barely viewable, the whole thing just feels unpolished, and unfinished. But not in a raw 'this was intentional' way…in a 'this is the best we could do.' way…

The performances are hard to guage, largely because so much of it is made up of what feels like improvised dialogue, 'off script' patter or outtakes. I cant honestly say any cast member stood out as 'good', 'memorable' or even interesting…they're all just kind of…there…and not great. When I can say comfortably that the sex scenes in this film make 'The Human Tornado' feel like 'Emmanuelle'. I hope that sets the bar.

and the soundtrack, as mentioned, is largely a mixture of stolen tracks and independent performances, I didnt mind the original stuff so much, the title track 'Grand Theft Auto Murder City' is probably the strongest original piece and they run it into the ground. I laughed.

But its here we have another problem, which is they didnt have particularly good sound recording equipment on set, which means a LOT of the on set performances are muffled, inaudible or just really poor quality, even Tubi's own caption service struggled to figure out what was being said or going on. and the ADR work would have Doris Wishman asking for another take…its SO bad.

OH! and I completely forgot to mention, theres a smoke alarm chirp every so often in the background of the film whenever ADR is used…If your terminally online, im sure you'll understand why thats jawdropping…I cant be convinced they didnt do it on purpose.

Watching this film, I was reminded of an old favourite of mine 'White Glove Massive' and I think with a few beers, this film and that one could make a half palettable double feature. But thats probably the only way you'd ever get me to watch this one again, and I absolutely cannot recommend this one. Im amazed it hasnt been sued off the face of the earth by this point, I think you'd really have to be in a very specific headspace to get anything other than frustration and bafflement out of this film honestly. Honestly; spend your time elsewhere.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/grand-theft-auto-murder-city/

To cap off my summer 'fling' with the world record holder for 'Owner of the apartment to feature in the most movies' Doris Wishman. I decided to catch her final film. 'Each Time I Kill' was shot in 2002, shortly before Doris left this earth and spent 4 years in post production before releasing in 2006 on festival circuits, ahead of a wider release in 2007. And…as far as swansongs go? I simultaineously have to say that this feels like THE most and the LEAST Doris Wishman style movie i've ever seen.

The plot follows 'Ellie' a nerdy girl who's essentially a ghost at her high school (as written by an 89 year old woman) She's ignored by the jocks, bullied by the alt-kids, pitied by the other girls, and her only other friend is an equally unpopular nerdy girl, who Ellie resents to some extent as being essentially her 'only' option.

But Ellie is about to have a flash with fate, when she decides to explore an old abandoned house that local legend states had 'TERRIBLE things happen there to a family'. While exploring, Ellie finds a locket. And on taking the locket home, she discovers that, hidden inside, is a folded up note (printed from a printer and singed with a lighter for some reason…)

The note tells Ellie that this Locket is in fact MAGIC! and has the power to transfer a trait from someone else INTO Ellie. All Ellie has to do is murder the person she wants to steal the trait from, and then read allowed the sacred chant 3 times, and BOOM! whatever Ellie wanted will be transplanted into her, and her weakness in that field will be transferred onto the murder victim.

At first, she's VERY sceptical, but eventually curiosity gets the better of her, and she ends up murdering her school crushes girlfriend, using the Locket to take the girls excellent skin and complexion, and leaving the murdered girl pimply, pale and acne scarred.

Now with immaculate skin, Ellie realises she's dealing with more than a novelty, and sets in motion a plan to create her 'perfect form' using as many girls from her school as it takes to try and win the heart of her crush, while the police follow the trail of 'de-beautied' bodies wondering what the HELL is going on.

On the one hand, the script for this feels very much like Doris was trying to have another roll of the dice at seriously taking on the horror genre after the loss of the original cut of 'A Night to Dismember'. Tonally this film has similar movements and swings that her earlier film had. and I feel like she really wanted to get something out to the public with this one that showed people that she was more than just 'roughies' and Naturist films.

To that point, the script is actually pretty good fun! I cant say its anything *too* original, it has elements of 'Hellraiser', 'May' and other body horror style movies melded together. But it handles its subject fairly well, and at 81 minutes long (I believe the second longest film Doris ever made) It moves at a LOT faster pace than most of her filmography, keeps good pacing through the act structures, has maybe a slightly more bloated 2nd act than the 1st and 3rd do, and while the ending is maybe a little abrupt and feels a bit like the entire film collapsed under its own steam. It at least ends in a way that could be seen as believable, at least it ends in a way that, while maybe not THE most satisfying in the world, didnt ACTIVELY make me angry.

The characters are a little shallow, but do get some good development across the runtime, its a solid little SODV horror film. Maybe not the most bombastic or memorable, but definitely the kind of digi-video film you could play for cult fans and get an accepting thumbs up from the group at the annual SOV Potluck.

Where this falters for me is in the cine and direction. Bearing in mind that most Doris Wishman films i've seen, I've praised how well the direction has been, how decent the compositions and cinematography and sequence building is. Even if the plot wasnt all that solid, you could guarentee there'd be at least a handful of shots in Doris Wishman films of the 60s and 70s that would stick in your mind long after the End title card.

Here? Doris is working with digital video, and may I warmly admit that I found it incredibly respectable that Wishman so readily embraced different formats and genres, like jumping from colour to black and white in the 60s, and jumping head first into early digital effects in the 80s. at 89 years old, Doris saddled up with her lifelong cine collaborator, and got into digital as a format. and for that alone, I feel she deserves some credit…

With that being said, this is probably the worst shot film Doris ever made. I feel like dealing with smaller cameras, the chance to do retakes whenever, and the freedom to just get out and shoot has resulted in a horrendous mixed bag of a viewing experience. The majority of the film flicks between a fish eye lens that is BEYOND distracting and had me groaning whenever it came up, or it was shot with a flat 35-55mm lens of some description with digital zoom features. the result is shots that are flat, have to be digitally manipulated to create depth of field. Feel overly desaturated, and are generally kind of lifeless.

The cine itself is painful, as some shots start with the camera operator still setting up the shot, ground shots being unintentionally blocked by grass and debris, shots that snap in and out of focus as the cameras auto focus tries to catch up, shots that cut too early, shots that run way too late, moments where it feels like there should have been shots (like reverse should shots) that got missed off the shot list. It goes on and on. and I found it very hard to rationalise in my mind that the same person who came up with the beautiful shots of 'Bad Girls Go To Hell' and 'Another Day, Another Man' also shot this.

With that being said, some of the footage DOES accidentally strike on genius at times. Whether intended or not, there are fleeting shots here and there that look great, and feel almost Lynchian in their execution. the film may be VERY rough around the edges, but every so often it'll hit you with something that really makes you stop and wonder if theres life in the old dog yet…they're few and far between! But they are great.

This film also utilizes some early 'plug in' digital effects, that for my money are a bit rubbish, but sincere in their execution. the shot of Ellies first kill is at sea, so they shot the murdered actress against black and then cropped her out against…what can only be described as a 'tone' plate of wavey blue colours…its bizarre honestly, but noteworthy once again in the sense that at least a sincere attempt was made.

Obviously; I cant really comment much on the sequence building and post work, because a lot of it was done posthumously, and honestly; who knows if Doris would have approved the cut that eventually made it to screens? What I can say is its rough. sometimes its functionally passable, but for the most part, as with Doris's 70s work, continuity was firmly in the garbage, the line, was nowhere to be found, and everything was basically in free flow till Doris said she was happy. I cant rate the edit for this one personally; but I know some folks who like trippy edits, or bad cuts who'd really get a good time out of this one.

Performance wise, Tiffany Paralta is our lead as Ellie and…she's fine. Middle of the pack in my opinion compared to the other leading ladies Doris worked with. Her performance ranges from actually pretty solid in places, to hamstrung by the VERY cheap prosthetics used to 'ugly-fy' her, to a total swing and a miss on deliveries. I dont think she gives the best physical performance in the world. But every so often she brings the kind of energy that makes me want to watch a Doris Wishman flick.

The supporting cast are all fairly mixed, nothing standout awful…but nothing particularly noteworthy either. As with a lot of Doris movies, the supporting cast largely feel 'benched' until they're needed to have sex, be murdered or have sex and THEN be murdered. Window dressing essentially. Though; this time, given how many years Doris had been in the Biz, she had some showbiz help, in the form of very brief cameos from Fred Schnider (of the B52's fame), John Waters, Linnea Quigley and Frank Hennenlotter. Oh yes…its a regular 'Whos Who' this movie is! Non of them steal the show, but it does show the sense of community these people had, and the connection the cult world has running right through all its eras.

As for the soundtrack? its an ADR fest, and I wouldnt have had it any other way, its not great…and I wouldnt have had it any other way, and the music is library tracks and stuff written by one of her relatives…and I wouldnt…have it…any… … other way.

Also; please pour a glass out, for the final time we'll see Doris Wishmans apartment or…condo or…im not sure anymore…GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!

All in all? I had a real soft spot for this one, like 'Night to Dismember' it feels like Doris is having a sincere crack at a genre she wasnt commonly involved in. and I think shes actually wonderfully weird and great at it. I actually lament a bit the fact she didnt get the chance to explore straight horror and science fiction a bit more in her lifetime. As I think there was a lot of potential there for her to have mined.

As it stands? 'Each Time I kill' is a fine enough end to the career of Doris Wishman, something semi-reflectant of her style and work, while also pushing into new and strange territory. This film isnt a good reflection of the body of Doris's work, and as such I cant recommend it as a film for people to get a foot in the door on her filmography. And I dont think I could recommend it to straight horror fans in the way I could recommend the original cut of 'A Night to Dismember'. Its a bit too self referential for that.

But if you've watched all of Doris's other movies, this is a bittersweet full stop on a career that made 'Naked lunch' read like 'Sense & Sensibilities' and I feel you'll really appreciate this if you meet it on its own terms.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/each-time-i-kill/

Talk about ending things on a wimper instead of a bang, we've finally reached the end of AGFA/Something Weirds 'Doris Wishman' trilogy, and we're seeing things off with 'The Prince and the Nature Girl'. known in Germany as 'Nackt im Sommerwind'. How do I know thats what the films called in Germany? Because at some point this film was 'lost' along with 2 other nudist/'nudie cutie' movies that Wishman shot in the early/mid 60's. and a decade or two later a print of this film was found in a German film archive with only the german audio track and US English transcript surviving…To this day, thats the only version of this film available (The other 2 films I mentioned are still lost.)

Not that we're exactly losing a 'Gold Standard' Wishman effort here. Approximately 75% of this film is literally just recycled footage from Doris's other nudist films, including direct exerts from her other movies, outtakes and deleted scenes reformatted to give them new context and spliced in to approximately 25%'s worth of 'new footage', with the aim of creating a story.

The 'story' follows a chap called 'Frank Prince' who decides to visit a nudist camp, enjoys it, and falls madly in love with 'Eve' a mysterious woman at the camp who also takes a shine to him. Unbeknownst to Frank however, Eve has a sister called Sue who looks very similar to Eve and who works alongside Frank. Sue is totally smitten with Frank, Eve can take or leave him…This film has a fully unbroken 5 minute sequence of trees and flowers with an unedited library soundtrack running over the top of it and nothing else.

The new footage is the only thing that saves me from absolutely hating this film. and even then its only a reprise in so much that being 'Hated' is better than being dubbed a 'Scourge of Humanity'.

The new footage is drab, uninteresting, the characters arnt fun, the story is very loose, light handed and doesnt really do anything interesting. the pacings awful, the recycling element is piss weak to the point that I actually got annoyed that SO MUCH of this film is just recycled footage.

The German only audio track made it even harder to follow an already meandering and plodding script. And the ending wasnt so much a twist, more an attempt to deceive the audience. The fact this isnt the WORST Doris Wishman film in my opinion, speaks volumes about the quality of Doris Wishmans productions…

A truely lazy effort, the only thing I can say this film has going for it, is I believe its a VERY early opportunity to see Doris Wishmans Apartment (probably for the first time)…Otherwise, unless your trying to learn German (and even on that point, its not exactly a great resource) dont bother with this one. truly a massive waste of time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-prince-and-the-nature-girl/

The penultimate feature of 'Doris Wishman: The Daylight Years' finds us watching 'Diary of a Nudist' an early turn for Wishman, her 3rd Nudist film to be exact, and theres definitely a refinement in her film making with this entry.

This time around our film follows 'Stacey' a reporter for a local newspaper who's been put onto an 'expose' piece by her editor 'Arthur'. While out hunting one weekend, Arthur managed to stumble on a nudist colony, and; armed with only limited knowledge at what goes on at these camps. He charges Stacey with the job of going undercover as a patron of the camp to learn about the Nudist lifestyle, and then spin it into a hit piece to EXPOSE these nudie loving freaks for the sick perverts they all TRULY ARE!!!

But after getting a tour of the camp, and spending several weeks integrating with the locals. Stacey finds herself actually quite surprised by just how friendly, communal and open the nudist community are, and how supportive they are of her getting into the lifestyle. Putting Stacey in a difficult situation of whether to double cross her new friends for the sake of a 'hit' piece, or whether to confront her editor about the REAL conditions of the camp, and potentially lose her job in the process.

Not really a whole lot to say on this one ultimately; Its a definite improvement in my opinion plot wise over 'Hideout in the suns' broken and bloated narrative, and it seems to have more going on with it than 'Nude on the Moon' (even if the visuals arnt quite as up to snuff. The plot here feels a bit more refined, a bit more pointed and actually feels like it has direction, flow and intention.

Theres a clear 3 act structure, it keeps a relatively good pacing, it doesnt seem to sag really. Though, as is to be expected, this being a 'Nudie Cutie' film, do expect an UNGODLY amount of time following naked people around as they engage in day to day activities…

The characters are all well defined and get a good degree of development across the three acts leading to a rare and welcome 'satisfying ending' for a Doris Wishman production for once! Its maybe still a little on the slower side for a modern audience, but it works fine enough as a high level narrative + atmosphere piece to kill 71 minutes of your time.

Direction here is a little more simplistic. But, as i've learned watching Doris Wishman movies, the less Doris tries to 'push the boat out' and get weird or interesting with cine and scene direction. The more solid, stable and sturdy the production becomes. This isnt wow-ing anyone. Its a fairly basic, largely static production, Its not as vibrant or colourful as 'Nude on the Moon' and later films would handle the direction much better than whats here. But what IS here is a largely solid production thats engaging, light and gets the job done. Nothing too fancy. Its shooting for function over form.

On the cine front, its much the same, functional, gets the job done. Not a whole lot to say, compositions are largely fine, the underwater footage is a novelty for 1961, shots are largely in focus, look fine and make sense. sequences could have done with more B-roll and cutaway footage to smooth over the rougher cuts. But this was likely shot on a low/no budget with slim to no time for reshoots or cutaways. So I'll give it a pass.

Our lead cast members are Davee Decker and Norman Casserley. And both of them are okay, a little stiff in places on line delivery and physicality on screen. But i've seen far worse from Wishman, they dont do anything to knock your socks off, but they're a solid enough pair of leads. The supporting cast are largely mute, and apart from a few awkward moments where we either have nudists who dont know how to act natural on camera, or models who dont know how to act casual while nude and out in the open air. they're all just about passably fine.

'Diary of a Nudist' isnt the worst of Doris from this era. In fact, if you were going to exclusively check out her 'naturism' era, this is probably a pretty solid foot in the door for what to expect. Not her best, far from her worst. Its absolutely middle of the road, one I could see myself catching again at some point. Though absolutely not for everyone.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/diary-of-a-nudist/

One i've logged multiple times, but apparently never written about. Im going to keep it simple. Robocop is my favourite Paul Verhoeven film, and very likely in my personal top 10 science fiction movies ever made.

Tonight, I watched the 'Directors cut' which is slightly longer than the 'Theatrical Cut', I personally marginally prefer the 'Directors Cut' because the only thing better than 'Robocop' is 'Longer Robocop'.

Seriously. I dont really have much more to add than that. The script is wonderfully acidic and scathing of corporate America and on late stage capitalism (a theme that only becomes more and more fruitful with every passing year). The characters are superb, the pacing is superb, the tone is a perfect blend of graphic violence, pitch black humour, bleak narratives whimsy. The dialogue is expertly crafted and more or less quotable from tail to snout.

The directions glorious with some fantastic visions being painted by Verhoeven, excellent casting direction and a clear and striking vision that makes all other attempts at similar stories pail in comparison.

The cine has a sense of grandness to it, theres some fantastic stop motion work along side some incredible practical effects (and some less than incredible effects that are now particularly entertaining to watch!) sequences are lovingly crafted and combined with the script create a wonderful potential for subtext or multiple interpretations of the plotting and narrative (something to keep film scholars talking over their pints for many a bawdy evening)

The performances are near perfect. Peter Weller is limited on how his performance can be played and ABSOLUTELY nails the brief. Kurtwood Smith as lead henchman Clarence is probably one of my favourite acted performances of all time. And a supporting cast consisting of Ray Wise, Miguel Ferrer (Who's turn here is another one of my all time favourite acted performances on film), Ronnie Cox and more…they're all incredible, dont miss a beat, give THE best line reads i've ever seen and are just…SO perfectly suited for this movie…I mean, they even have Dan O'Herlihy for crying out loud!

Add to this an astonishing orchestral meets electronic score that is almost as iconic as the film itself is, and you have just…a master piece of work on your hands. I love Robocop very dearly, I can absolutely wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest, frankly, the question I have for *YOU* is, when did *YOU* last watch 'Robocop'? if the answer is anything other than 'At least once in the past month', you should probably go and fix that.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/robocop/2/

A somewhat tepid offering from Doris Wishman, 'Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls' is really a two part story, glued together with the same type of 'naturist' footage shown excessively in most Doris Wishman 'Nudie Cutie' productions…I swear to god, if I have to watch one more set of shots of nude couples playing 'suction cup archery' i'll scream.

So the primary plot follows Thomas and Annie, a pair who work for A chap called 'Bill'. Bill is a straight shooter with only two rules 'No Funny Business' and 'No married couples working together'…and for Thomas and Annie, thats a problem…Because not only are they working together and married, but they're also both Nudists. and they have to hide both of those things from their boss, otherwise they'll be out on the unemployment line.

Well, as you can imagine, it doesnt take long for Thomas to be caught out, when he leaves his 'Naturist business card' on the ground in Bills office by mistake. Out of the job, Bill retreats to the nudist camp while Annie continues to work. While at the retreat, Thomas is offered a temporary job working at the camp and quickly becomes a star employee.

This is where the 2nd part of the story picks up as Thomas bumps into Charles, a chap who's VERY good friends with Bill…and also is a nudist. After explaining whats happened, Charles is mortified that Bill would behave in such a way, and with that, he arranges for Bill to attend the nudist camp for a getaway weekend. Bill doesnt KNOW he's going to the nudist camp for the weekend, until he arrives. At which point he's very much against the idea, and also shocked to find out that Annie and Thomas are married.

Nevertheless Charles implores Bill to give the lifestyle a chance, and what follows is an extended set of scenes of the idyllic Nudist lifestyle, with the hope that Bill will see the error of his ways and take the couple back.

I didnt really get on with this one. the plots themselves were fine, and I appreciate that the (largely male) audience coming to this film were really more there for the nudity than the story. But the plot for this one feels so threadbare and thin, that it might as well be translucent. The main plot of this film, is a side plot that lasts no more than 10 minutes in other Wishman films like 'Another Day, Another Man'. Here? its strung out to over half the films runtime, and heavily subsidized with 'Nudie Cutie' footage that, if I didnt know any better, i'd assume was simply recycled from Doris's other Naturist films from 1960 – 1963.

The pacings lumpy and unpleasent, the tones inconsistent and constantly broken up with stock footage, the characters are largely uninteresting and unremarkable. There are flecks of Camp studded into this production, but not enough to really save it. Its just a kind of dull, very lightweight production.

The direction feels inconsistent and a bit stale too, not a lot of noteworthy production choices, the cast all feel a bit aimless within the shot frame, and the ACTUAL nudist footage also feels a lot less like a curated and managed experience, and more like the nudists told Doris what they were going to do that day, and Doris could take or leave what she wanted to film, because they wernt taking orders from anyone.

As such, the cine feels rough around the edges too, we do still get a nice colourful and vibrant set of shots, but it all feels a bit aimless. the sequences feel roughly composed as well…very much as if this was a working print cut rather than a polished and finished product.

Add to this the fact that the main casts performances are all very muted, very static, and that the dialogue on offer isnt exactly 'top craft' and that the supporting cast are predominantly mute for 99% of the runtime. and 'Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls' ultiamtely just kind of falls through the cracks. Not interesting or memorable enough to stand out agains the tidle wave of 'Nudie Cutie'/ Naturism movies that came out during this time, and without enough of a hook to make it worth excavating in the year of our lord 2026.

I cant recommend this one, Its not really a great jumping on point either, there are better Wishman productions out there, and definitely better Wishman directed naturism productions. One for only the hardcore fans I fear…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/gentlemen-prefer-nature-girls/

After a strong opening, 'The Daylight Years' of the Doris Wishman collection slows down considerably with 'Hideout in the Sun' the nudist 'espionage' flick you never knew you never not needed never.

The plot? Two criminals kidnap a young woman and go on the run, they realise that this young woman is in fact, a nudist who's on her way for to a commune for a holiday of 'suns out, buns out'. Thinking it'll be the perfect hiding place, the guys force the woman to take them to the commune, where one pretends to be her husband, and the other hides in the trunk of the car until they're checked in and at their Chale, once their, the trunk guy hides in the hut, while the other criminal heads out into the commune with his 'Wife' to take in the full fun and frolics that a naturist camp in the summer has to offer…with genuine romance, betrayal and action on the cards to boot!

Not much to say on this one, the plot itself occupies about 20 minutes of the full film with the rest either being extrended cutaways of naked models or nudists just…doing what they do. The plot itself sounds fun on paper, but runs considerably slower than it really needed to as the film desperately tries to hit its feature runtime.

The characters arnt that deep or well developed, everything feels overly dry and there isnt much development or variety to keep the average viewer fully engaged on the plot. Tonally its drab, and while it ends with a bit more energy than it starts with. Its all a bit underwhelming if im being honest.

The direction and cine are fairly drab too. Unlike 'Nude on the moon' or 'Blaze Starr' this one feels a bit more washed out, a bit more formulaeic, nowhere near as well structured, with poor compoisitions of shots, bad sequence structuring, and a real lack of focus for the viewer to be drawn in. It very much feels like they just put the camera down, shot whatever happened to be in front of it (no matter how well framed or poorly focussed it was) and then stitched it all together with whatever they could scrape from a day on set.

The performances feel a bit lifeless too, there very little energy, a raised voice here and there is about as wide and wild as the performances get. Physicality is kept to a minimum. Its just not that good.

The soundtracks stock tracks. But it does kind of work here, and its edited together fine enough…

This was the directoral Debut of Doris Wishman, and what I find weird is that this is actually better put together than some of the films she made at the peak of her career. While I cant deny that this is a quite dry and drab production (in my opinion at least) it is at least somewhat functional for the most part. and given what i've seen of Wishmans works. For a first outing? this had the potential to be 'horrendous'…as it stands its just 'fine…but not essential'.

Not one I can recommend, if your going to go through all of Wishmans films, this ones kind of the upper half of the lower middle of the stack. I probably wont watch it again for a good long while, and I cant recommend it as a 'jumping on' point for people looking to get into Wishman either…there's a LOT better out there than this.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hideout-in-the-sun/

'Blaze Starr Goes Nudist' (Also known as 'Blaze Starr Goes Wild!') is an early offering from Doris Wishman, everyones favourite Octogenarian Apartment bound smut peddler. At this point in her career, shes Florida bound, hanging around beauty spots and making 'Nudie Cutie' movies with local Naturist communes and nude models.

'Blaze Starr' follows the story of…'Blaze Starr' an actress who's run down in a busy social world. Blaze is struggling with constantly being stuck in 'Actress' mode, shes filming or in meetings for most of the day, and when shes done with that she's having to be a full time home maker for her finace (and manager) Tony.

As such, she craves escapism, and she finds it when, while trying to lay low from her fans, she winds up in, what im assuming is an adult theater. Playing that day is a naturist documentary about a nudist camp where the sun is always shining and the air smells like warm root beer and anyone off the street will gladly shave your back for a nickle (wakka wakka doo doo yeah!). Blaze is captivated, and MORE than intreagued when she realises the camp is less than 30 miles from that very theater.

Without hesitation, she jumps in her car and heads out, where she meets the camp manager Andy. Who introduces her to the nudist lifestyle in all its idyllic bliss. Andy is 'no pressure' about Blaze choosing to take up the lifestyle, but sends her a hand written invitation for membership a day or two later. Which Blaze readily accepts.

The rest of the movie from here on in follows Blaze's journey into naturism, a showcase of the lifestyle, and how different life could truely be. But when Tony becomes increasingly upset that Blaze is M.I.A most weekends, and is becoming increasingly irritable with Tony about how she spends her time, and what her availability should be. It leads to a final act where Blaze must decide her destiny, Tony starts digging into Blaze's whereabouts, and both of their careers lie in the hands of the elusive studio boss 'D.W'.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this film quite a lot. At 74 minutes long, it moves at a clip, is ultra campy and over the top in places, has a good foundational A-plot and a couple of B-plots to keep things interesting. the pacing is faster than most Doris pictures, but does slow a little towards the end, but not to the point that I got bored. The characters have a good range of depth and detail, theres actual character progression, which is nice, especially given the nature of what 'Nudie Cutie' films were really supposed to be. This is probably the most linear and sensical Doris Wishman film i've seen in a long time.

The direction is clean, makes sense, is well grounded…Maybe a little over simplistic in places, but ultimately, i'd rather a solid piece of work that knows its limits, than a piece that has NO idea what its doing and doesnt care to try and figure it out.

We have clean vibrant full colour cine which looks incredible (thanks to restoration efforts) given its age. the cine is rich, detailed and very well composed, sequences are maybe a little loose here and absolutely do NOT follow the rules of 'The Line' or of shot compositions…or even basic continuity really…But again, compared to Doris's other works? This is downright competent. And I really appreciated just how much the visuals popped off the screen.

Add to that the performances, which are camp as christmas and an utter delight to behold, with THE Blaze Starr really stealing the show with incredible physicality, bizarre line deliveries and a wardrobe that would make Widow Twankey envious. The supporting cast range from overtly camp and VERY dry in line deliveries to full blow bombasiticism. Its such a Kitsche little movie.

Even the soundtrack is full of life, with library string tracks, but upbeat 50's style muzak stuff. which really ties the whole thing together.

I had a blast checking out 'Blaze Starr Goes Nudist' Its not the most 'original' idea in the world. But its goofy, campy, over the top fun that feels like its trying to be whimsical while also giving paying customers what they came to see. Definitely one i'd reccommend if your looking to get into Doris Wishmans 'Nudie Cutie' era. I think its a great foothold on not only her work, but the subgenre itself.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/blaze-starr-goes-nudist/

The opening title on 'The Daylight Years' set, the concluding part of AGFA and Something Weirds compendium on the career of 'Doris Wishman' finds us 'Nude on the Moon' a…frankly charming and eccentric offering, thats maybe a touch on the slow side, but definitely worth the price of admission.

The film revolves around two scientists who've been exploring the possibility of life on the moon for a number of decades at this point, when the sudden death of a rich relative lands the pair with a cheque to realise all their hopes and dreams of building a rocket, ready for mans first manned space flight to the moon! Which they do!

However; disaster strikes when a bumpy landing means they arnt ENTIRELY sure they actually DID land on the moon. But whatever planet they DID land on, its a leafy paradise, a place where the temprature is clement, theres a sweet smell in the breeze, lumps of gold are just scattered here and there, and large brested telepathic, semi nude women and posing pouch Adonis figured men roam the fields and valleys helping maintain utopia for their Queen.

The pair are quickly captured, but when they're deemed to not be a threat, they're released and spend the rest of the movie documenting the simple and naturalistic lives of the men and women of the moon. In the hopes that on returning to earth, they'll be able to convince the government to fund more trips to the moon and further exploration.

A charming, eccentric and fascinating time capsule, given we wouldnt actually send a man to the moon for a further 7 years after this film was made. Its hard not to like this goofy little 'erotic' sci-fi Nudie Cutie flick.

Yes, the scripts paper thin and by modern standards absolutely goofy, it runs about 10 minutes longer than I could personally stand…but for the first hour or so, I really had a hoot with this very daft, paper thin excuse to show boobies.

The characters are all camp as christmas, nothing is serious, the tones positively daffy. and to top it all off, it looks great! Because of the budget for this film, a LOT of the production looks and feels like a late 50s production (despite the '61 release date) and its amazing to see such crisp high definition colour footage of that particular era of time.

Its a bright, colourful and vivid viewing experience, and a much needed refresher after 6-8 black and white 'roughie' films. shots are gorgeously composed, sequences are simplistic, but effective and the whole thing really just pops in a very enjoyable and pleasent way.

The cast are all hamming it up good and proper, half the cast I firmly believe had NO idea what they were actually filming. and any and all dialogue is HORRENDOUSLY ADR'd. But given the tone and vibe of this production, if anything it adds to the rediculousness of the whole thing.

Throw in a VERY fitting soundtrack of muzak string tracks…punctuated at multiple points by the films title track 'Mooning over you my little moon doll' which WILL be an earworm for all onvolved. and you have a film that, while maybe not the most interesting production ever comitted to 35 or 16mm. IS a fun time non the less. The kind of film that plays in the background of some kind of farce comedy.

I highly recommend catching 'Nude on the Moon' at least once. a bizarre and colourful experience. especially if you can find a HD copy of the movie. I really had a soft spot for this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/nude-on-the-moon/