TYTD Reviews

23 years after I last sat down to watch ‘Ali G: Indahouse’ and with news of a new ‘Ali G’ movie just on the horizon, I decided to do what must never be done with forgotten 2000’s comedies. Revisit it. Theres a kind of unwritten rule that the comedies that arnt ‘on display’ as shining examples of the genre 1997-2007 carry with them the VERY big risk of not only having aged like milk, but bringing with them a hearty dose of homophobia, racism, misogyny, ablism or just flat out slurs. So needless to say, as I hit play on this one. I was really hoping that this one had managed to at least grow old with grace…

The plot follows the titular ‘Ali G’ a literal walking stereotype of the white slightly dumb british guy who gaslights himself into believing that he’s heavily involved in black and Rastafarian culture. The whole schtick with ‘Ali’ is that people can clearly see he’s an idiot. and in his on screen appearances before this movie, that would be used to Sacha Baron Cohens advantage, as once a celebrity or interviewee had gotten a little *too* comfortable with the idea that Ali was a pushover interviewer. He’d suddenly flip the script, using Ali’s stupidity to completely trample over bad peoples bad arguments, embarrassing them in the process. Essentially; the character is the precursor to ‘Borat’. Only; whereas people end up falling for Borat because he plays a sincere ‘foreign’ character who lulls people into a false sense of safety before dropping the floor from under them. Ali uses stupidity as his weapon of choice.

In this feature film outing we’re introduced to Ali and his rather small world of ‘Staines’ a small town in England thats pretty poverty stricken. Ali doesnt have a lot in life, a small crew he rides with, an ongoing feud with the ‘east side’. A gig running a ‘Road mans’ interpretation of ‘the scouts’ and his long suffering, but much loved girlfriend ‘Julie’. When news hits that Staines local community center has been targeted for closure and redevelopment. Ali is distraught and begins a local campaign to save the community center.

This gets the attention of the local media, and by extension,a local MP, David Carlton (played by Charles Dance) who sees an opportunity. Carlton is deputy prime minister. But he has his eyes on the big job, and when he spies Ali, he sees a chance to grab the position by rigging an upcoming by election to get Ali on the ballot. The idea being that Ali will lose devastatingly, leading to the PM having to resign in disgrace for putting such an incompetent and offensive candidate on the ballot. At first Ali’s hesitant. But eventually agrees on the condition the center is saved.

This backfires spectacularly for Carlton though, when Ali’s genuine character and stupidity ends up accidentally incriminating most of the other candidates into dodgey dealings, leading to a neck and neck race, of which Ali squeaks the win and becomes the MP for Staines. His mantra of ‘Keep It Real’ reverberates across westminster, and before too long he’s managed to fail upwards into a cabinet position. Leading Carlton to pull out all the stops to get both Ali and the Prime Minister removed from office by any means necessary and sending Ali and his crew on a political odyssy to save Staines, and his relationship with Julie.

I kind of compartmentalise this film into the same niche of comedy that houses movies like ‘Freddy Got Fingered’, ‘Beavis and Butthead do America’ and to a lesser extent ‘Pee Wees Big Adventure’. In the sense that its a journey movie featuring characters who are too dumb to realise they’re on a journey of self discovery.

Ali G: Indahouse for me still just about holds up, but does have moments that have aged better than others. On the one hand the broad plot is very rudimentary. It isnt trying to do anything to ‘out there’. But in the same breath, the film will almost tie itself in knots at times to try and setup and land a gag that…in 2002 probably would have brought the house down, but in 2026 is just kind of middle of the road.

I will say this for the film, its hit rate with gags is pretty solid. Theres rarely a dry spell across the runtime, and while the quality ranges from actually quite funny to probably problematic. Its all done with a kind of knowing awareness to it. Ali at several points in the film makes a point of calling out Homophobia, mysoginy or racism. But in the next breath will say something politically incorrect while sincerely believing thats the ‘progressive’ way to handle a situation. Which, in the 2000s was a funny way to tackle those topics. However; in more recent years its become apparent that people dont know the difference between genuine racism/homophobia/misogyny. And a progressive writer ‘aping’ those tropes in a self aware way.

That forms half of the problem with this film, is that to people who are aware of Cohen and his values, this is a self aware parody. To people who arnt aware, it becomes a validation of horrid views. Which is where the more problematic elements come into it. Add to this that the film is just absolutely relentless in hammering the same joke again, and again, and again. it flits wildly between being aggressively targeting in its comedy style, and border monotone. I enjoyed its style, but I absolutely understand why it took my 23 years to rewatch it. Once you’ve seen it, you can save yourself 90 minutes by watching the handful of comedy clips from this uploaded to youtube. Because the 80 minutes you dont see is the 10 minutes you do.

The direction and cine are pretty on brand for a low/mid budget comedy of this time. I dont really have any negative feedback on that front, the edits pretty tight, theres some really nice visual gags (and some pretty terrible gross out) that get handled about as well as they could do. Theres some slightly ropey CG used here and there. But on the whole, it does the job of telling the story and clearly and concisely as possible.

As for the performances? Baron Cohen as ‘Ali G’ is a fun enough time now. But back in the 2000s, in the UK at least, the character was suffocating to live with. culturally he was everywhere. So its quite understandable to people of a certain age why this film would only stand to raise even more ire. But I think a good long break for the character has been beneficial. Seeing the film separated from the oversaturation feels a lot more pleasant. Again; I cant say i’m chomping at the bit to rewatch this again immediately, but Ali G as a character is funny when used well…It was missuse of the character that ultiamtely overdid it.

Flanking Ali we have a VERY fresh faced Martin Freeman as his right hand man Ricky C. Who…if you’ve only seen him in ‘The Hobbit’ or ‘Sherlock’ or his more serious roles has to be SEEN here to be believed. a VERY hyper performance, bordering on grating at times. I thought he really nailed the brief of being a foil for Alis more mellow anarchy.

Charles Dance and Michael Gambon do a surprisingly straight turn as the PM and deputy. I think they’re really solid here, and dont give into Alis eccentric performance one bit, really cementing a good contrast into this production. Hell; even the supporting cast seem to really be getting into it. And while I think it would be easy to label this ‘Low Brow’ its undeniable that the cast capture the spirit of a very different era, very effectively.

Match that up with a HELL of a score micing hip-hop, electronica, R&B, reggae and mash ups to create a jukebox of 80’s and 90s sound. and other than some mixing issues where the dialogue track sinks a little too deep into the mix, I think this film has managed to stay standing!

‘Ali G: Indahouse’ is very much a film you have to be in the right headspace for. Im not going to sit here and declare it a classic. But a solid cult comedy, and a deeper cut for folks outside of the UK? absolutely. The hit rates relatively solid, the performances are positively daft, the soundtracks rock solid and the cine and direction rarely miss a beat. If you can tolerate a few less than PC gags and a relentless dedication to flogging a dead horse. Then I think ‘Indahouse’ is definitely worth your attention. Dont sleep on it.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/ali-g-indahouse/

Caught this ‘Unriffed’ for the first time today. Everytime I forget just TRULY how feverish this thing is. Ive had more coherent and less terrifying nightmares.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/fun-in-balloon-land/1/

The phrase ‘Fever Dream’ is banded about a lot these days. But with ‘The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats’ (Known in the US and UK as ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ I feel fully justified in using that phrasing.

Intended as a movie to fill the kiddy ‘Matinee’ slot on weekend mornings while mum and dad did the shopping or just had a couple of hours without the endless painful screeching of parenthood eroding their very essence as beings. I can only BEGIN to hazard a guess at the level of trauma this film must have instilled on little Bobby or Bobbette when it hit the big screen. I saw a fairly murky VHS copy of this included in AGFA and ‘Something Weirds’ ‘Krazee Kids Video Party’ set…and even I was vaguely haunted by it.

The plot, as the title suggests, follows 7 humanoid/animal hybrid goat children as they attend school. Their teacher informs them of the dangers of the world, before introducing them to ‘The Big Bad Wolf’ a known predator (not in that way…I hope…) and murderer of goat Children. The Goat kids laugh and joke about how they’d stop the wolf if it came for them…and then they head home.

On getting home though, their mother (also a humanoid Goat abomination) tells them she needs to run out to do some errands and leaves them in charge of cleaning and prepping the house for the evening. So far, so harmonious. Until THE ‘Big bad wolf’ turns up, spots that the Goat childrens mother is going out, and hatches a plan to break into the house and eat…pretty much all the goat children. Tom and Jerry/Home Alone style shenanigans ensue.

This is a nippy 58 (or so) minutes long, is decently paced in terms of what its trying to do, and is clearly targeting very young children and as such, the plots incredibly basic too. While some of the advice in this film may be a little dated, I feel what morals it was trying to instill arnt ENTIRELY awful. and the characters are relatively well developed (even if there are a few more…aggressive moments in this, that almost certainly wouldnt have made it into a remake from this century).

What IS the main selling point of this film however is the visuals. As it appears the vanity chest of Summerisle has been ransacked to dress the cast here. Giant faux animal heads with flappy mouths are the flavour of the day, and are BEYOND unsettling for most of the runtime. especially when viewed through an ‘Nth’ generation VHS copy. Honestly, played at half speed, this could easily substitute for ‘Creepypasta’ material.

The direction is relatively well handled, even if they didnt quite succeed in making ACTUAL REAL LIFE Birds keep a tiny hat on their heads while overdubbing them. but the slapstick is clean cut, nicely brought to life and incredibly surreal to watch. The cine is much the same, with this being a cropped and degraded VHS copy of an original film print, I dont really have the full scope to make a call on detail or composition. But whats here is fine enough and again, follows the basics of the technical process.

The performances are animated and lively, which is nice because, as anyone whos worn a fursuit will tell you, what you animate inside the costume is maybe 10% of what will animate outside of the costume. they really throw themselves into this, and I think they do a solid (if not terrifying) job.

throw in a gratingly ‘Twee’ soundtrack, and you have the makings of my next therapists appointment. Between this and ‘Fun in Balloon Land’ the ‘Krazee Kids Video Party’ has more or less paid for itself. Definitely worth catching at least once, I’ll almost certainly watch this one again when I need to stare into the horrors of the abyss for 60 minutes.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-wolf-and-the-seven-little-goats/

So, I was unaware that PlutoTV (in the US at least) has a ‘Universal Monsters’ channel currently. But! today I found that out! I checked out the listings and next up was ‘Draculas Daughter’ the direct sequel to the Bela Lugosi original and one I remember feeling a bit lukewarm about when I first caught it 3-4 years ago.

The plot picks up almost immediately after the events of ‘Dracula’ in London with Van Hellsing is being held in police custody for the murder of two men, and if you can believe it NOONE will believe that He only ‘killed’ one of the two of them…and that ‘Killed’ isnt really the right word because he was a 500 year old undead Count from Transylvania. When the Police consider a ‘capacity’ review. Hellsing sends a message out to one of his old students Dr. Jefferey Garth to come and help evaluate him and set things straight.

Jeffery is VERY sceptical about all of this but at least feins going along with it as Van Hellsing seems quite honest about what happened. and its here that we’re introduced to ‘Countess Zaleska’ the titular ‘Daughter of Dracula’ who has travelled from Transylvania to reclaim her fathers corpse. Zaleska has committed a LOT of naughty bad things…But the thing is, she doesnt WANT to be evil. In fact, she believes that her father has cursed her, and as long as his body remains. She will continue to commit atrocities.

As such; she breaks into the crime scene, stuns to british bobbies and steals her fathers corpse, before performing a ritual and burning it in the hope of breaking her ‘Curse’.

From here, Dr. Garth and Zaleskas paths cross, and she begins attending sessions where she explains an insatiable blood lust and evilness is within her. To which, Dr. Garth attempts to help her out from a psychological standpoint, while ALSO working to prove Van Hellsings legitimacy.

This all builds to a ‘shocking’ finale as Zaleska attempts to repress her evil urges in the hopes of overcoming it. We…we all know how this is going to go. Aaand im pretty sure if you guess out loud right now…you’ll be at least 75% correct.

Two words can pretty much sum up what absolutely tramples ‘Draculas Daughter’ and those two words are ‘Hayes Code’. The original ‘Dracula’ was released 2 years before the Hayes code came into effect, ‘Draculas Daughter’ was released 2 years AFTER it had been implemented, and it shows.

Theres no almost no violence, everything is implied, happens off screen, no blood, no actual horror, its more of a suspense supernatural thriller than anything else. And the end result is a glacial piece that trundles along offering very little for Horror fans other than that well known ‘Signature’ Univeral horror atmosphere and Gloria Holden, who single handedly carries this picture and everything worth viewing in it.

I wasnt the biggest fan of ‘Dracula’ if im being honest, but at least it had a clear intention, at least it set up its stall and stuck to it for the full run time. This is 71 minutes of psychobabble with mild drama/thriller elements leading to a finale that really underdelivers.

Most of the film is just back and forth discussions about the nature of evil, time wasting on exposition and ‘comedic’ filler. the acts all kind of slop into each other it feels less like a fully fledged ‘Dracula’ sequel, and more like they just…kept trying to add onto the ‘Dracula’ story…but they wernt very imaginative.

I cant fault the direction or cine here, its classic universal horror direction, smokey, pseudo german expressionist era/noir style lighting, decent composition from start to finish with a good solid edit holding ti all together. If you’ve seen any of the ‘big hitter’ universal monster movies, this film is on a par with those in my opinion. Its a damn fine looking picture.

Performance wise, as mentioned, I cant fault Gloria Holden as the countess, she has an absolutely memorising gaze and works with the material the absolute best she can. A fantastic physical presence on screen, they really know how to get the best out of her time on screen and she has a nice slow boil menace to her character that I really just fell in love with. My only criticism lies not with her, but the ‘code’, without it, I feel we really would have seen her at her absolute best.

The rest of the cast are all kind of unremarkable if im being honest, even Edward Van Sloan doesnt really get much to do as Van hellsing here, everyone feels like generic ‘Universal Horror’ background/filler performances. which is a big letdown, as the films already plodding enough without the cast being fairly Milquetoast.

Throw in a fairly unremarkable orchestral score that doesnt hold a candle to the mainline Universal Monster movies. And ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ winds up, for me at least as a sequel that is definitely striking, and DOES have memorable moments…but really just isnt up to snuff compared to the other Monster sequels. Its not really BAD…its just kind of…unremarkable…which is a real shame.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/draculas-daughter/1/

A retromedia special from Fred Olan Ray, I first caught ‘Super Ninja Doll’ in the small wee hours of a booze filled haze about 5 years ago while digging deep into ‘Full Moon Features’ streaming service. And, as I didnt really write ‘text only’ reviews back then, this one got logged, but not talked about. Then it dropped off of Full Moons services, fell into relative obscurity, and is now apparently on Bluray as a double feature set paired with another Christine Nguyen feature…But I dont have the volition to drop over $30 on THAT…so I had my sources hook me up.

Really; there isnt much to this one. Its a ‘Skinimax’/’Up All Night’ style softcore flick thats attempting to parody ‘Magical Girl’ anime series and comic book/sci fi movies more generally. Nguyen plays ‘Miracle’ a college age school girl with a vivid imagination, who’s on the verge of being suspended due to her ducking class to go buy and read comic books. The teachers have had enough and tell her to buck her ideas up. But Miracle is OBSESSED with comics, and in particular one strip called ‘Super Ninja Doll’. Which is a comic about a woman who can transform into a super powered magical defender of earth, and gains her powers (and gets stronger) by having LOTS of sex…

While this is being established, an evil alien race have set their sights on earth, with the aim of conquering it and using it for materials. This evil alien race ALSO gain powers and recharge by having LOTS of sex…So far so porny.

Anyway; after 2 Softcore scenes involving the evil aliens, and a softcore scene involving Miracle and a fellow classmate where they explain the premise of the ‘Super Ninja Doll’. The evil empresses henchman ‘Gorath’ descends to earth to have sex with a top scientist whos got amnesia, before trapping her in a comic book. The same coming book that Miracle was reading! and on arriving home, she finds a live action naked lady begging to be let out trapped in the pages. On passing out she meets ‘Super Ninja Doll’ who tells her shes going to have to call on her to defend the earth and fight Gorath.

Miracle goes to a supernatural science headquarters who validate her story and send her to go protect Goraths next victim. aaaand from there it basically turns into a battle between good and evil…and about 30 more minutes of softcore.

I find softcore kind of pointless if im being honest, half hearted softcore even more so. And as such, I feel like if a movie IS going to go down that route, it really has got to have something else working for it to go in its favour. ‘Super Ninja Doll’ just about manages to get itself over the line with me…but its absolute bare minimum territory.

The scripts actually probably the best part of this thing, the plotting is upbeat, hyperactive, a bit manic in places and does have a real ‘tongue in cheek’ self awarness to it…There isnt MUCH of a script to work with, but whats here is fine enough fun with some half decent lines for a ‘softly from cable’ production, and the general campy vibes I felt were quite endearing. This is pantomime for the most part, but I feel if your in the headspace for that kind of thing, you might end up having a half decent time with it.

AT 77 minutes long, the pacings a little uneven, the non sex segments of the film move at a good clip and just about do the job. But the softcore sequences really drag, not helped by multiple instances where they’ll use a cut as a cover to run the same take twice, just from different angles. I know they did it for paddings sake, but it really drags the vibes of the film down, especially as they arnt even particularly well handled softcore scenes.

The characters are 2 dimensional by design, so that works in the films favour. Overall; it has a decent tone and vibe to it. But its very stop start and never quite manages to fully deliver what its promising.

The direction is quite flat too. the non softcore scenes have a bit more life behind the eyes, with a clear vision. But with the promise of this being ‘Live action Anime for Adults’ it really doesnt meet that brief, instead; it feels like very low budget ‘Direct to video’ softcore for most of the runtime because…thats basically what it is.

The softcore scenes themselves are relatively poor quality. badly framed for the most part with no real thought put into how to make them look interesting or feel a bit more sensual. its very much just wide shot, mid shot, panning close up, mid shot, wide shot, rinse repeat for 8-12 minutes at a time. Which I think is a shame really,and kind of confusing, as they got some pretty well known Hardcore actors to appear in this movie (Evan Stone, Kitty Katsu, Syren, Nicole Sheriden and of course Nguyen herself).

I feel like a harder cut with a bit more shot variety may have made up for what is offered here. the scenes feel cramped, drab and lacklustre…rushed too. The rhythms are a bit off, and its hard to appreciate a softcore production that doesnt so much ‘set the mood’ more completely crash into it.

The cine is basic for the most part, again no real abstract thought put into sequence setups or shot types, the edit is fairly rough with some heavy greenscreen usage in places (which I actually thought was quite funny and used to VERY ‘mid’ effect) the edits rough around the edges, but at least (barring when they repeat a shot from a slightly different angle) it’s coherent and tells the story as simply as possible.

Performances are kind of subjective here, everyones being told to play big, cartoonish or comedic. And everyone does just that! Your milage may vary depending on whether you can tolerate that kind of nonsense. But for me Evan Stone and Christine Nguyen steal the show, delivering absolutely hamtastic performances when they’re not rutting that made them actually pretty watchable. The fact that they at least attempt to carry those campy performances into the sex scenes, really only makes me want to applaud them more.

And as for the soundtrack? given its supposed to be a ‘magical girl’ anime type picture…they chose to score this mainly with MIDI ‘Surf rock’ and occasional ‘Sci-fi’ sounding library tracks…it feels quite out of place for the tone they want to set. But hey, this was designed to air at 2am on some god foresaken cable channel to give the stoners and drunks something to ‘aspire’ to. I dont think they were considering linear consistency.

Ultimatley; ‘Super Ninja Doll’ is a quirky softcore flick. but a somewhat drab one at that. i’d honestly prefer a non softcore version of the film that was just the ‘story’ elements cut together because I think that would make for a somewhat surreal 30 minute ‘pilot’. Given its relative obscurity these days, I cant say its worth actively hunting down. But it does pop up on streaming services in various cuts now and then. if its 2am and your on your 5th beer…im sure you could do worse.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/super-ninja-doll/1/

One of the more ‘infamous’ adult film titles from the golden age of Adult entertainment. ‘Debbie Does Dallas’ arrived on the scene at a time when the adult industry was in the midst of change. Actors were beginning to become more recognisable, attention was being given more to the ‘art’ of what made a sex scene not just ‘viewable’ but ‘pleasurable’. And the tone and style of the industry was beginning shift more in favour of unapologetic light hearted narrative escapades to help give the sex a bit more grounding. This was the same year ‘The Hot and saucy Pizza Girls’ and ‘Pretty Peaches’ released, and I think these three movies are kind of the analogue for how the pornography industry would cut its cloth for the following 10 years.

‘Debbie Does Dallas’ is light on plot and has a heavy ‘oral’ emphasis. The story follows ‘Debbie’ the captain of the cheerleading team, who’s been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to take her skills across country to join the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading team. A concept which, in this film would be on par with winning an ‘oscar’ or ‘golden cleric’ in your respective field.

Theres just one problem, Debbies parents arnt happy with the idea of their girl going across country to shake what god gave her for thousands of drooling guys and footballers. So they’ve refused to stump up the cash needed to get Debbie to Dallas…

BUT! Help comes in the form of Debbies cheerleeding peers! who agree to help Debbie raise the funds through taking on ‘out of school’ part time jobs with the aim to take the whole gang to Dallas to give Debbie a decent send off and get her settled in with the cowboys. However; it turns out that these fresh faced, high spirited teens might have let themselves in for more than they bargained for, as its revealed that the vast majority of the town is filled with degenerates and fetishists, who want…quite a bit more than their cars washing or their libraries arranging.

The girls realise this pretty quickly and decide to form ‘Teen Services’. a company offering to take on ANY task (within reason) for the right price, no matter how BIG…or small.

The films around an hour and 20 long and i’d say actual exposition or plot fills about 15 minutes of that runtime. The rest? is essentially just set pieces and vignettes of the girls going to a location, part doing a job, getting interrupted by their employer who gets ‘handsy’ at which point we cut to a sex scene.

Its hardly the most intricate script in the world, but theirs a playful ‘airheaded-ness’ about the cast in this film as they kind of bumble into situations they SWEAR they had NO idea about. While I dont personally think the script is as entertaining or fun as ‘Pizza Girls’ or ‘Peaches’ I did think some of the more surreal or dafter moments were a bit of a lark. I do have to admit though that by the half way point, this thing had more or less run out of steam and was pretty much solely relying on the sex to get it to the end field. Which is a bit of a shame, because; had they been able to maintain the more whimsical elements of this one till the finale. i’d have probably enjoyed it quite a bit more.

The direction definitely has thought put into it on how they want the girls to be presented, which; for 1978 is a boon. Outside of ‘art films’ a lot of porn from this time was basically ‘Put the camera on the ground in front of two people rutting and hold it there for 20 minutes, occasionally cutting to man ass or a woman moaning’. This does feel like the director wanted the audience to feel more apart of the rough and tumble. which creates a much more intimate viewing experience. Is it the best i’ve seen? No. its quite rough around the edges, there do a LOT of crossfading on scenes where cuts would have been more appropriate and while the film does have several ‘iconic’ moments. a lot of this does feel a bit flat in terms of trying to bring a vision to life.

Direction of the cast is a bit patchy as well, but im struggling to figure out if thats because the director wasnt very good at explaining how he wanted the lines to be delivered to the cast, or if its because the cast were fairly inexperienced and just…didnt know how to act. For example; Bambi woods IS capable of delivering a line, i’ve seen ‘Debbie does Dallas II’ and while I didnt much care for the film Woods deliveries were palettable. Here though; most of the time she sounds quite strung out, as if she didnt have a script and was just kind of…going with the flow on what to say based on whatever the other person was saying to her. it makes the film feel quite stiff and awkward at times. I wont say its a dealbreaker. But its very noticable.

Direction of the sex scenes is a bit hit and miss too. I would say, in my opinion, a decent chunk of these scenes are intimate, close and make the audience feel quite immersed in the pleasure shown on screen. However; at the same time, some shot setups are quite lazy, badly composed and the near total lack of B-roll for this one is frankly painful in places. Its an example of a film where its best moments ARE the reason this film continues to live on in the minds of the 60+. But its lows are border painful.

As mentioned the cine is also a mixed bag, some sequences have clearly thought out and very nicely handled shot setups with good composition and a clear plan for the editor. Others? feel like they realised the film was 10 minutes short and they just needed to film something at someones house quick the day before the premier. when its good, its solid. Not the best…but solid. When its bad? it feels like it was edited via washing machine.

Performance wise? Bambi Woods only has 4 credits to her name, and three of those are for ‘Debbie Does Dallas’ films. This was her first credit and her performance is…endearing. Yes she struggles to deliver her lines with any kind of rhythm of cadence that would make it sound even REMOTELY believable, Yes her physical acting is almost non existent. But her presence on screen is undeniably warm, friendly and feels sincere. The other girls take the majority of the screentime. But Bambi, when shes on screen is incredibly watchable, both for that warmth and the unpredictability of where her performance will go next. Which. I have to give it to her on that, shes not great, but I can see why people still talk about her to this day (given she basically dropped off the face of the earth in 1985 to try and regain something of a normal life.)

The odd duck in all of this is the soundtrack, which is a mixture of marching band tunes (to be expected given the cheerleading/football connections) but also slightly auspicious psych-rock and prog. the former is added whimsy and is pleasent. But the latter? just feels SO weird for a film like this. With the finale/Debbies sex scene in particular having a score thats more in line with a horror or action movie than an adult feature. I get the feeling it was ‘whatevers available for the budget’ with this one, but it definitely threw me when they first started using that kind of music in a film like this.

I also have to say the dubbing is VERY ropey across the runtime, with the on set audio swinging wildly between ‘Fine.’ and ‘Thank god for subtitles’. and the overdubbing sounding like it was recorded in another place and time with absolutely NO attention or attempt to even TRY and mix it into the on set audio. I picked up the recent VCX bluray release of this, and if thats as GOOD as it can get. Lord knows how anyone really knew what was going on in the days of smeary, hissy VHS…

‘Debbie Does Dallas’ I feel is worthy of its noteriety. And while I will say it isnt the best adult film i’ve ever seen. Its vibes are pretty solid, despite it feeling like a very threadbare production. Does it hold up in the year of our lord 2026? No. theres considerably better produced adult films out there, and even at the time that was the case in my opinion. But a snappy title, pretty women and variety was ultimately what sold back in the day, and Debbie does dallas brings that and personality in spades. Im glad I rewatched it as it’s been about 15-20 years since I last checked it out. I think if you have an interest in the history of adult entertainment, then this definitely should be a pitstop on that road. But to me? it does very much feel ‘of its time’, so im not sure what kind of rewatch value there would be here.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/debbie-does-dallas/

I first heard about ‘Enemy Territory’ when a trailer for it played (amongst others) on an opening sizzle reel of one of the tapes in my VHS collection. The trailer (now included in Arrow Videos Bluray release of the film) was short, sweet and to the point, and I had a REALLY good vibe about this one. So when Arrow announced they were bringing the film to Bluray in 2025, I added it to my wishlist, waited for a sale and a couple of weeks ago, I bit.

The plot follows ‘Barry’, an insurance salesman who’s down on his luck. facing a closing month at a loss, his boss pulls him into his office and offers him a lifeline. An elderly retired school teacher wants to take out a $100,000 premium insurance plan, and the boss wants Barry to take a contract to her to sign, and collect the first premium payment. Barry says he’ll get started right away on Monday. But the boss tells him he needs it before then and essentially gives him a 24 hour ultimatum.

Barry (being desperate) accepts and heads over to a tower block on the bad side of town. Where, on entering the complex. He makes a critical error. Placing his hand on the shoulder of a young boy who happens to be part of a gang called ‘The Vampires’. The Vampires are a large scale organisation. The complex is basically their ‘Castle’ and their leader ‘The Count’ (Tony Todd) is a ruthless and brutal maniac who places honour above all else. And Barry?; Just broke one of the big rules of the Vampires by putting his hand on a gang member. He not only disrespected a ‘Vampire’ but he did it ‘in front of a woman’…And the only retribution, will be in blood.

Barry collects the signature and the premium. and on leaving the apartment is almost immediately swarmed by The Vampires who explain that he isnt leaving the complex without giving them their ‘pound of flesh’. Fortunately for Barry, help arrives in the form of Will Jackson, a phone company technician (and former Nam vet) who rescues Barry from almost certain death, before the pair of them find themselves plunged into a battle of attrition. fighting a path through the complex down 22 floors of chaos to escape the Vampires with the cash, the signature and (hopefully) their lives in time to get out at dawn (at which point, the Vampires retreat).

And; being honest? I had a LOT of fun with this one, it shares quite a bit of DNA with movies like ‘The Warriors’, but whats on offer here is a breakneck action movie, with pretty solid pacing and creative visuals.

The plot itself isnt exactly a creative powerhouse. But the confined space of an apartment complex creates a real sense of isolation from the outside world, and much like ‘Die Hard’ because the complex is fairly sprawling, it means the film stays interesting and diverse, while also being able to keep the costs down by recycling hallways, apartment rooms and props. With something as simple as coloured lighting gels offering a complete change of vibes to some of these locations.

The pacing opens strong, with smooth transitions between the acts. The first act in particular is pretty breakneck and sets up everything with enough clarity to give the audience a clue of whats going down, but not so much as to play all their cards up front. the 2nd act keeps the momentum going, building some really nice high stakes, giving the characters some interesting interactions and scenarios to work with while keeping the action high.

Unfortunately; as the second act gives way to the third; we do see things start to slow down a bit. the gang briefly split up to try and cover more ground and I feel like doing that causes the plotting and pacing to slow to a crawl as we have to set up the individual threads, plan them out, play them out and then tie them all back together ready for the big third act finale. it means theres about 15 minutes in the back end of this movie that is essentially just our main characters waiting around and trying to distract people for a bit. which is a bit of a shame. Mercifully though; it does all tie back together and the finale…While not the greatest ending to a film ever; is satisfying and left me feeling good about checking this one out.

The characters all have a nice depth and range to their performances. Barry starts of a little slippery, before gaining a more sincere and hardened edge. Will is fairly easygoing but slides right back into his army training when the time comes. they get nice smooth transitions, nothing feels forced and you do get a real sense of character growth across the runtime of this one. The Vampires, as a movement are insane, largely just ranting, raving lunatics with melee weapons and guns. they’re mesmorising to watch, and ‘The Count’ starts off with a good chunk of ham to work with, and just revs up from there! Its fantastic honestly.

Director Peter Manoogian really makes the money go the distance on this one, creating a production thats stylish, not afraid to use some colour and feels distinct and slightly grubby. his work with the cast is pretty exemplary. The whole thing feels frantic and surging with ideas and possibilities. The fact that this was shot for ‘Empire Films’ and is so often overlooked because it doesnt quite fit the ‘Empire’ brand is frankly bizarre to me. I’d argue this should be MORE than up there with the likes of ‘Reanimator’ and ‘From Beyond’ in terms of just how strong a work it is.

The cine is crisp, sharp and rich in detail. the sets have a real dirty messy aesthetic, and the compositions here REALLY help pick up every inch of a run down shoddy apartment complex on the rough side of town. Sequences are nicely edited together producing fast paced, quick fire action that should more than whet the whistle of any action fans. and the fight scenes are surprisingly well choreographed delivering on impact while successfully masking impact shots and gun play. While some of the practical effects here are a *little* on the ropey side in places. for the most part, this thing looks great.

Add to that the performances, with Gary Frank and Ray Parker Jr as Barry and Will working nicely together as, at first, a contrast that slowly begins to meld into something resembling a friendship. Both actors are very charismatic here, mix well and the end result is a film that starts as strangers workign together and ends resembling a decent ‘buddy’ movie.

Tony Todd as ‘The Count’ is a superbly campy performance here (and an early role to boot!) He has a wonderful malevolence that just grows and grows as the film goes on, ultimately ending with a performance that I feel may actually have been just a little *too* big for him to match. Even so he’s perfect for most of the runtime here and an utter delight whenever he’s on screen.

A solid synth action stylee score married up to some R&B/Hiphop beats really helps tie the whole thing together, resulting in a finished product that pretty much gave me exactly what I wanted from this production. ‘Enemy Territory’ in my opinion is one of Empire pictures best offerings. the definition of an underrated gem. and definitely one worth seeking out if you have the time. I had a blast with it, and if you like your action films violent and a little campy in places, im sure you’ll appreciate this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/enemy-territory/

The mind honestly boggles to think what that first wave of audiences thought when they sat down in front of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’, almost completely blind to what lay ahead of them. To have been amongst the crowd during its initial cycle in cinemas must have been an absolute boon, on par with ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Exorcist’ for genuine shock and terror.

You have to understand, this is the early 70s. The Hayes code had only been dead for around half a decade, and from its corpse grew the seeds of an independent cinema movement that would shape how audiences digested media for the next half century.

‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ is a visceral viewing experience. its fairly thin on plot. With the main synopsis really best summarised as: A group of teens on a roadtrip pick up a crazed hitch-hiker who disturbs them so much they toss him to the curb. They run out of gas and have to go back to a nearby farmhouse for help, where it transpires the owners of said farmhouse are crazed hill-billy texans with a serious case of blood-lust.

The plot itself is fairly inconsequential, plots like that had happened through the 60s. But what separates this film from them is the psychological and more graphic approach to its source material. This is a film that actively revels in real unflinching death. Animal carcasses, skeletons, guts and gore litter the sets in unflinching rancid detail. brutality is this films mise-en-scene and the grindhouse is in full spin through this 84 minute ghost train ride of a feature.

I hadnt seen this film in at least 7-8 years, and it must have been nearly 10 years before that since I originally saw it. But 3rd time around, while I find the plotting a bit of a missed opportunity. I absolutely appreciate this film on a visual level.

In terms of the plot? I find it the weakest element of all this honestly. The films rather slow boil and long to get started, we spend a significant portion of the film with our teens. Which would be fine, but they’re all rather unremarkable. they dont have a lot of character detail or anything that makes them actively stand out to me other than ‘they’re free wheeling teens on the road!’…Which is fine…but does rather make things feel a bit unremarkable, and does impact my feelings towards them as they slowly get bumped off.

It isnt really until the 3rd act that the film properly gets going. Theres a handful of instances in the 2nd act where they suddenly and unpredictably drop intense brutal horror on the audience, which is a nice touch. But I dont know if modern audiences would have the stamina to truly appreciate the slowburn nature of this film, and may well miss out on a breakneck 3rd act where the mask fully drops for these characters and the massacre well and truly gets underway.

Im conflicted about the motivation of this film if im being honest, on the one hand I actually think the fact that the EXACT motives of these characters NOT being explicitly revealed, and how they operate being constantly shielded from the audience is a very nice touch. It makes them easily the most interesting part of this movie. Their ‘madness’ may indeed mean there IS no motive. But its down the audience to decide that.

Unfortunately though; the other side of the coin to that is that, BECAUSE nothings explicitly given to the audience in terms of answers. Its quite easy to assume that there never WAS a reason, and that the film makers were just half arsing the script side of things, to justify getting some splatter on the screen. I always try to assume good intent, so I like to think the reasoning’s of the characters are out in the open for this film…But I have to admit, even after seeing this film 3 times now. I struggle to really know for sure…

BUT! to that end ‘Leatherface’ here is an interesting and striking co-villain of the piece. I feel even with this entry that, as a character, he’s going to go the way of the Cenobites in ‘Hellraiser’ (I.E – The more you learn about them, the more rubbish they become.) But here? he’s probably the most fascinating character. and the one I wish had gotten just a little bit more screen-time.

As for the direction? it isnt even a question of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ honestly. Hooper absolutely smashes it out of the park creating a festering striking vision of absolute terror that I would sincerely say gives Hitchcock a run for his money. What I especially love about ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ is that, I own this movie both on VHS and on 4k Bluray. and both versions feel WILDLY different to each other depending on your viewing preference.

Watching ‘TCM’ on video tape brings a much harsher, muzzier dinginess to proceedings. Giving the film a much more macarbre ‘rough around the edges’ gonzo feeling to it. It feels like something you shouldnt be watching, or that you SHOULD be handing over to the police, as the tensions rise and the ‘snuff’ factor grows. I can absolutely see why this was, for a time, on the ‘Video Nasties’ shortlist in the UK.

In 4k however, Hoopers full vision springs completely to life. delivering a putrid artistic vision thats mesmorising, beautiful and hideous all in equal measure. Its akin to the work on ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ for how it takes festering, offal and death and transforms them into full set art installations that genuinely have to be seen to be believed. I was in awe of it for the most part. And while I absolutely WONT say its gorgeous from start to finish. when this film shines. Its a diamond.

The cine is rough and ready too, with some gorgeous macro and ultra wide work, lens flair creeps in occasionally to help frame gorgeous compositions and the sequences building work is superb. While some shot choices are a LITTLE bit too rough and ‘run and gun’ for my taste. I cant deny that the work done on this film is an absolute delight.

As for the performances. Its got to be Gunar Hansen and Marilyn Burns for me as Leatherface and Sally. The former a hyperactive and manic portrayal, Hansens relentlessness is genuinely terrifying at times here and border animalistic. Hes amazing. And the latter a study in terror, Burns plays the full spectrum and absolutely nails it. delivering a delirious performance that borders on fever dream-ish.

Add in a VERY industrial soundscape filled with scraping, revving, roaring squarking and all manner of ear splitting screeches. And you have ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Maybe not the first film to try and bring brute violence to the big screen. But definitely the catalyst and blueprint for a LOT of gore and horror pictures over the following 20 years.

Do I love it? No. the plotting feels a bit uneven to me, the characters come across as a bit flat and lifeless, and while I appreciate the absence of detail is what makes these characters scarier. They do omit quite a bit more than I’d have liked.

That being said, I think visually its a masterpiece, when the character work DOES shine, its incredible and there really isnt anything that comes close to matching this films ambience. While I dont personally rate it that highly, I would consider it a ‘must see’ feature for not only budding horror fans making their way through the history of horror. But film enthusiasts and students more broadly as an example of post hayes debauchery, and how to genuinely instill fear in a picture by using less to give the impression of more. Definitely worth your time.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-texas-chain-saw-massacre/

Once again, we’re blessed with another gift of an additional entry into the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise. A series that, to this day I am happy to report hasnt had a single poor entry (in this humble critics opinion). With the latest offering being ‘Evil Dead Burn’ a more brutalist take on the franchise; probably its most brutal outing since the 2013 remake.

The plot follows French woman and all round bruiser ‘Alice’, a woman in an abusive relationship who’s husband ‘Will’ dies in a horribly fiery car crash. Alice and Will co-own a restaurant/bar, something which was much more Wills idea due to his love of french Cuisine, rather than Alice’s; who’d much rather handle the accounts.

Will’s death leads to a VERY unsteady family reunion with Wills Mum,Dad, Brother, Brothers partner and Dimentia ridden Grandmother all gathering at the families (now abandoned) Grandparents place. tensions rise when it becomes clear that the family are less than happy with how Alice has handled Wills death, and even more upset to find out that she doesnt wish to continue to operate the Restaurant/Bar.

Things only go from bad to worse, when Wills Brother, Edgar reveals that he’s been working on a book based on the life of his Grandfather, an explorer and archivist who joined a mysterious cult known as the ‘Circle of the Wisemen’ who’s aim was to research, explore and hopefully discover artifacts tied to the Necronomicon (Book of the dead).

As you can imagine, someone manages to find transcribed pages of the Necronimicon, words are spoken and suddenly Alice and the family are facing down immensely powerful deadites, who this time appear to have apperated with a mission to retrieve something from the house the family have found themselves trapped in…With Edgar holding onto some critical information that might explain everything…

‘The Evil Dead’ as a franchise is somewhat of a pendulous series, constantly in a state of swinging between utterly grizzly and bleak horror, and farsical comedy. Over the series entries such as ‘Evil Dead 2’, ‘Army of Darkness’ and ‘Ash Vs The Evil Dead’ have given things a much more comedic overtone thats helped contrast the ultra gory violence creating an almost cartoonish atmosphere.

Contrasting that, the original ‘Evil Dead’, the 2013 remake and now this entry drag the series back to its original roots. a brazenly unapologetic horror film that gets incredibly gory, incredibly nasty and positively gross in places. using comedy almost as a trim to help bring the series a bit more of a contrasting lift to make the next dose of ultra violence feel particularly powerful.

Now; Im just going to be honest here, I personally have a preference for the entries where they are unashamedly going for over the top cartoonish gore with a distinct comedy edge, over the entries where they play the comedy right down in favour of wall to wall gore. And this entry is definitely more in the ‘serious and brutal’ camp.

Thats not to say there arnt funny moments occasionally; but with ‘Evil Dead Burn’ they feel, for lack of a better word…’Tacked on’ like they were put there because there was a felt absence of humour. ..make of that what you will.

Instead; ‘Evil Dead Burn’ is a dark horror film dealing openly with domestic abuse, its impact on not only the individual, but the families who can be complicit in that abuse and the pain and suffering it leaves across everyone involved.

With that in mind the plot really boils down to two main headers. One being Alice’s relationship with Will and Wills family, and her processing of whats happened to her through the backdrop of a deadite home invasion. and the B-plot, which is the deadites actively looking for something in the house (which I wont go into detail here because, spoilers.)

But its these two plots that I feel are actually probably the biggest problem that I have with ‘Evil Dead Burn’…AND a broader issue that I have with this film altogether…see…to me?…this film didnt really feel like a breath of fresh air for the franchise. Instead it almost felt like a kind of…ground up ‘Evil Dead’ Meatball. The elements of Alice recovering from trauma brought up elements of the 2013 Evil Dead, the home invasion and isolationist elements (and the 3rd act finale, which again; I wont spoil here) all felt very much akin to what happened in ‘Evil Dead Rise’. there are beats that felt a little too close to the original ‘Evil Dead’ for me to say they were a ‘Homage’.

This entry DOES introduce a lot of new and interesting ideas for how deadites manifest and what they’re capable of doing. But at the same time, I dont feel like this entry really bought the series forward in any meaningful way…rather, it felt like it existed to reintroduce people who’d maybe only seen the last couple ‘New’ Evil Dead movies to concepts the original trilogy shaped out nicely…Only. I think the original trilogy handled it better than this. It feels rushed here, key information that was the basis of some of the earlier entries, are just kind of…haphazardly ‘cliff noted’ here. With no real explanation or justification.

To that end, I found the pacing to be a little slow going at first. ‘Evil Dead Rise’ had a similar problem, where they open the film with a particularly gnarly kill sequence, and then the next half an hour (of a 90 minute movie) is just setting up how the final 45 minutes is going to be ‘Awesome.’

It takes a good while for this film to really spin up, the act structuring is a little messy between the transition stages. And I think something that really goes against this film is the fact that the characters all feel…well…kind of flat. It would work if Alice was a flat and blunt character type playing off against a whole lot of crazy from the deadites and the extended family. Because it would be inkeeping with her backstory. But the rest of the family are also kind of unremarkable and muted, and when the time comes to kick into high gear, the performances really are a bit too subdued for my taste, favouring over the top gross out and gore to actually making me care about these characters,or even really to appreciate their deadite performances. They’re all just a bit…unremarkable, which is odd for an ‘Evil Dead’ movie as the series is usually hot on the button for giving us interesting or unusual characters/performances that help keep audiences firmly in seats.

What I can say however; is the plot is ultimately compelling, if not a little slow boiled, ends about as well as could be hoped. And leaves enough open that a sequel could actually really build and develop off of this entry. In fact; thats exactly how I felt about this movie as the credits rolled like it was the middle part of a ‘trilogy’ good enough to keep things moving, not really good enough to stand solely on its own two feet. (And with another ‘Evil Dead’ sequel tentatively penned in for 2028; I feel Im correct in that assertion.)

Outside of the script, the directions pretty solid, a bleak and chilling vision, I feel like Sébastien Vaniček understood the assignment to make this an absolute gore fest. and while I dont quite think this entry is as ‘splattertastic’ as the last few films (and TV series) it definitely had me wincing throughout, so i’d say its a success on that front. While it is a quite stylish film in places, I do wish this entry had a bit more colour going on in its directoral vision. Blacks, dark Blues, grays contrast orange and red…Which is fiiiiine…But its also very VERY ‘Done.’ especially both in recent ‘Evil Dead’ movies AND recent horror films in general. that kind of washed out, brown/gray colour grading that makes everything look a bit putrid is fine if it suits the tone of the film. But I feel here we really would have benefitted from a bit more of a colour pop. Instead everything feels a bit drab…and by extension, a little bit uninteresting sadly.

Direction of the cast is solid, the fight sequences and gore scenes are very well executed and Vaniček vision in terms of the camera work pays homage to Raimi’s vision, while also not being afraid to put his own name on this.

The Cine is also pretty solid, decently executed compositions tastefully arranged to form a fluid set of sequences that more or less hit the spot. Theres the occasional bit of CGI I wasnt a huge fan of, and the occasional edit that defied the law of time and space from a continuity perspective…but hey, im watching a film about demons from another realm claiming the bodies of the living…I think I can give it some gratis on that.

The performances, as mentioned, are a little dry. I dont think they’re bad performances really. But this is a much more subdued set of performances than anything we’ve had in recent years. Souheila Yacoub as Alice is probably the best performance in the film. a ‘Done’ French woman who didnt want to even be there BEFORE the film starts, finds herself dragged WELL beyond her tolerance level and then some. and I think its a pretty bob on performance for that. She really gets a good range to work with and the script gives her plenty of layers to work through as we get to slowly understand her circumstances.

Tandi Wright as Susan also gets a solid run playing Will and Edgars mother. a multi layered performance that sees her ranging from a woman accepting her daughter in law begrudgingly through the process of a full blown traumatic mental breakdown as her family slowly get attacked and picked off. I think she gives a blinder here and is probably the most underrated performance in this film.

The rest of the cast though?…well…theyre okay. unremarkable if im being honest. I dont like using the term ‘NPC’ to describer a performance. But a lot of the choices in this film make these characters feel very much like THE most generic horror characters i’ve seen in a long time…unfortunately. Again; they’re not BAD performances. they’re just notable for how little they actually feel they impact the main plot.

And as for the score? well…its a return of drone and frantic orchestral pieces. The last entry mixed the music so loud that when I saw it in theaters it caused visual distortion in my eyes. That was an intense experience. This? this was fine. it sounded like the last two evil dead films. and was kind of unremarkable because of that…Though I will say this entry (like the last one) does occasionally struggle with that plague of the 21st century, audio mixing that doesnt compensate for mumbling line deliveries. there were multiple points in this film where I basically just had to guess whatever a character was saying because the audio for their dialogue was SO deep in the mix as to be basically inaudible. One i’ll absolutely need to turn subtitles on for when I next rewatch.

All in all? ‘Evil Dead Burn’ is more on the generic side for an ‘Evil Dead movie’ at this point in time. Its still a perfectly fine and enjoyable experience that I definitely recommend checking out. But I dont think this would be one i’d be in a rush to rewatch…especially just on its own. I COULD see this being a more than welcome part of an ‘Evil Dead’ marathon at some point in future. But the lack of distinct/meaningful characters combined with plotting that feels a little on the slowburn side, and very self referential, ultimately left me feeling like this may be one that gets better on a rewatch, but is probably short of cracking the ‘top 5’ best of this franchise.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/evil-dead-burn/

Watched on Thursday July 9, 2026.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/evil-dead-rise/2/