Based on a combination of a stolen pornographic novel and a short story account of an incident from the 1968 Detroit riots, in which a group of Black militants kidnapped a white woman. ‘Hot Summer in the City’ is an aggressive 40 page blacksploitation rape flick brought to life in horrifyingly intense detail. The Director and Writer Gail Palmer claims that at the time she wrote the film, she was unaware of what exactly ‘rape’ was, and that this film was intended to be seen more as a graphic portrayal of ‘raveshing’ shown alongside vivid social commentary on the race riots occuring around the time the film takes place.
I dont know how much I believe that, Given the fact that everyone crewing this film more or less only agreed to take part in it if they could be anonymously credited. and that most of the cast wernt exactly ‘thrilled’ about it either. But despite its unsettling and grimey feeling and premise. Theres something rough about this film that makes it kind of an engrossing watch.
The plots simple, the films set in 1967 and a young white couple who are saving themselves for marriage have just arrived home from a date. Debbie (our white blonde virgin for this film) expresses some sadness as her fathers recently passed away. However on leaving her date and heading into her home, she finds her mother in a three way with her friends dad and the neighbour. Shocked, she runs out of the house distraught, only to get cat called by a car full of black guys. When she doesnt respond to the calls, or offers of prostitution, they chase her down, bundle her into a car, rape her, and drive her back to their cabin.
Once their, she assumes the role of the cabins housewife, cooking, cleaning and pouring drinks, and the guys take turns on her throughout the runtime. The guys are plotting some kind of disturbance or riot, but things get a bit complex when the leader of the gang ‘Duke’s’ partner, turns up and finds out that him and his friends have been passing Debbie around for kicks. leading to tensions rising and BIG confrontations, especially when Duke begins to actually develop feelings for Debbie.
And…Im really struggling to find my feelings on this one, its a film that doesnt exactly paint black people in a great light, directed by a white female director who seemingly at that time didnt have a whole lot of worldly lived experiences…or if she did, she’s denying she did now.
On its face value, I kind of have to call this what it is, a racist and unpleasent film in which all Black guys are rapist thugs who do nothing but beat people, drink, act aggressive and vulgar and hump anything that moves. But its that pure unrelenting nastiness that is probably the one thing that makes it stand out the most. Its a grubby little movie, that made me feel unsettled for having watched it…it’s kind of like ‘I spit on Your Grave’ if the big twist was that the victim eventually kind of got ‘into’ the molestation.
The script only being 40 pages long, some scenes do drag quite a bit. theres an extended scene of the guys playing cards, which is a good character defining sequence, but it went on without cuts a bit longer than I personally would have liked. The first act feels elongated and a bit awkward, leading to a stubby 2nd act that doesnt really feel like it shifts up in pace and action, it rides that one tone and gear right up until we hit an even stubbier 3rd act that ends…well, it ends about as well as this film could have ended honestly.
I’ll give the film this, it gives its characters some complexities and depth, and despite the short runtime, it manages to make those characters feel more intricate than most. the pacing may be slow, but the film does have some interesting moments that pull an audience in. the tones pretty bleak, but there is a slight camp streak running through this that just adds a little light to this very dark piece. its not a particularly ‘deep’ film…but its dealing with ‘deep’ themes in a ‘sledgehammer’ way that even for the time must have been controversial. In that sense, its abhorrent. but kind of mesmorising too.
On the direction front, its minimalist. there was one camera and one camera man and Gail talked through the scenes with the cast and handled some of the lighting. Gail herself said she didnt really feel like a director was on set, but if anyone *would* have a directing credit, it’d probably be her…and that about checks out, as scenes arnt exactly eye popping. a lot of it is setting a camera up level with a table or a bed and then just guiding the cast through the scene in a mid wide, occasionally cutting to a close up. its ‘functional’.
Where the direction does step up quite a bit however, is the rape scenes themselves. Which feature slow motion (which was quite novel for the time) and some very interesting sequence building with actually quite impressive cinematography in places. onluy matched by some fairly solid editing. Including at least a couple of instances where the guys go to rape Debbie again, and they use quick cuts of the last rape to illustrate Debbies rushing thoughts as she realises whats about to happen again…Im not saying its right, but I am saying that was a pretty creative way to handle it.
I think my issue here is that the sex scenes themselves are catered to the male gaze…which is kind of irredeemable given these are rape scenes. Theses scenes arent shot to show that whats happening is a bad thing, they’re shot as if this is a deeply erotic thing to do…and its WEIRD…
Performance wise, its dry…VERY dry. The black guys on set basically had to script edit in real time because Gail wasnt very good at writing dialogue for black actors. But even with that being the case, the guys mumble through their lines, to the point I had to watch with subtitles to make out what was being said, and Debbie and her partner have almost no dialogue, but what dialogue they DID have was basically BEYOND poorly delivered. they struggled to remember their lines and regularly had to read from cue cards…but they deliver their lines like it was the first time they’d even seen them…its not great.
Bizarrely, the soundtrack for this film is a 60’s jukebox windup featuring ‘The Beach Boys’, ‘The Shangri-las’, ‘The Lovin Spoonful’ and many MANY more…Did they get the appropriate licenses for these tracks? HELL NO…and I dont think i’ve been more unsettled than seeing a woman squirm as a gang of guys run a train on her to ‘Good Vibrations’. It pops in and out of the film. But the timings on it are at least pretty okay…so that kind of works in the films favour.
‘Hot Summer in the City’ is a shocker of a picture. I can believe naivity to a point, but there are some moments in this where I cant believe anything other than they wanted to make a movie to shock, horrify and sensationalise. It’s warped and unique take is abhorrent, but at the same time, I cant say I disliked this movie. the blacksploitation elements were compelling, the 2nd-3rd act ‘love story’ elements between Duke and Debbie were surreal to say the least and some of the cine in the sex scenes were striking and really quite powerful.
This one absolutely wont be for everyone, I’d say if you didnt like ‘I Spit on your Grave’ for being too rape-centric…you REALLY wont like this one, but if Rape/Revenge films are your jam, you may actually kind of get on with this one.
Do you want a slasher movie that somehow has a film budget, but an SOV Sensibility? Well; ‘The Last Slumber Party’ is the movie for you! This, somewhat generic, late 80s slasher piece pretty much gives you the absolute barest minimums you need in order to enjoy a slasher pic. But with the added bonus of some surrealist arty horror moments thrown in for good measure!
The plots…Well; the plots about as generic as it gets really, 3 girls are looking to let their hair down by hosting a slumber party at one of the girls parents house. the father of the house happens to also be a doctor working on a psych ward, and wouldnt you believe it! One of their more ‘Out there’ patients has escaped the ward dressed in scrubs and armed with a particularly sharp scalpel! And to confuse things a bit! There are ALSO 3 horny jocks ambling about looking to crash the slumber party for good times and beers, even though the girls are on STRICT instructions to have NO beer and NO BOYS!
And what follows is about 50 minutes of girls idling around a small mansion in states of undress, while the dudebros randomly break in and out of the house to get fresh and the killer slowly makes his way to the house, picking off a few people along the way. with the remaining 20 or so minutes of the film being the main reason to check this one out. Some pretty decent kills, and artsy dream sequences that just about help pull this film up out of the dregs into something half decent and worth your time.
Dont be fooled, the script for this really isnt anything special, outside of the dream sequences, this is a heavily padded feature where we spend more time watching the girls dancing in the kitchen and wandering around the house than we get ACTUAL plot setting…maybe with some more atmospheric lighting or even a jumpscare or two things could have been a bit different. But its just a hell of a lot of walking and exposition. intersperced with an ultra low body count on the ‘slasher’ front.
The dialogue feels drawn out and overcomplicated, presumably again, to help pad the runtime. The characters are all ultra generic stereotypes of the genre…Basically if you’ve ever caught a slasher film, your likely WAY too familiar with these character tropes…and thats kind of dissapointing, because while I know these kinds of characters are a given, its really more what you do with them that makes them work to their full potential, rather than just putting the tropes in the scenario and watching it play out.
Throw in a somewhat underwhelming ending and an act structuring that just seems to get stuck at one pace for the full runtime, and youve got yourself a horror movie thats solely flying by the tone and vibes its putting out on a script level…and thats about it.
I will say, this feels a bit like a Horror comedy in places, and when its being more light hearted, it really lands the punches well. But this one kind of reminded me of ‘Nightmare Sisters’…But not as sharp or well constructed…and I didnt like ‘Nightmare Sisters’…So when im saying your the poor man to that…thats not great.
On every other front, its the bare minimum…the directions flat, predictable and kind of lifeless, barring the arty moments where it does get a *bit* of a bump in quality…But not enough to really fully win me over. Cast directions fairly flat and lifeless too, this is the kind of movie where you can tell the cast and film makers were excited to say ‘Fuck’ on screen, because the cast deliver their ‘F-bombs’ with a pointedness that can only come from someone being a bit *Too* excited to swear on screen…their physical presences are limited purely to scripted instructions and their dialogue deliveries are largely D.O.A.
The cine is largely bland, mostly locked off shots in mid or close up. theres no dynamics in the setup for this one, and while I will say its pretty decent on the B-roll, there are moments where they clearly forgot to shoot coverage, because the edit will just flat out hard cut away from some scenes with no transitionary shot creating a very jarring experience. Compositions and lighting are uninspired. theres maybe a half dozen half decent shots in this thing…But otherwise its very utilitatrian in its approach, which felt a bit clinical to me…Not helped at all by the fact that the killer for the film isnt really particularly engaging or interesting to shoot, its a guy in a surgical mask…they never reveal what he looks like under it, and given large chunks of the film take place in the hospital, it just kind of all blurs together.
Performances, as mentioned are flat, even the kills lack any kind of siginificant animation or ‘Depth’ to them…people just die in this film and noone really gives it any kind of attention. they just move on, theres no mourning, no sense that we should even really care these characters are gone, and that combined with the fact that the characters themselves just arnt given that much depth or characterization, leaves the whole thing feeling quite underwhelming.
Oh! and the soundtracks kind of D.O.A as well, a handful of tracks largely at the beginning and end of the film. and very little in the way of incidental music. Most of the film plays out to dead air or ‘on set’ audio…its quite dissapointing.
‘The Last Slumber Party’ has its moments, and it doesnt really do anything so horrendously that I could call it ‘Bad’ inherently…but it didnt do anything to really wow me or win me over either. It’s a true neutral. Definitely not main feature fodder, but it could play well as an appitizer, or the middle part of a triple feature bill…clocking in at just over 70 minutes. if your looking for a slasher and your in a hurry, this’ll give you everything you need in compressed form…but not everything you want…nor everything at a breathable pace.
I’d wanted to pick up ‘Children of the Damned’ for a couple of years, ever since catching ‘Village of the Damned’ a while ago and wondering how they’d handle a sequel to that film. Being honest, it feels almost like it writes itself, given the last film ends with the children being blown to pieces and the ‘alien’ element of the kids seemingly freed into a coporial form to escape the village and explore the wider world. It could have prompted an interesting sequel dealing with rebirth, revenge and an aliens view on the darker side of humanity.
But ‘Children of the Damned’ isnt really that…in fact, its kind of forgettable…Or at the very least doesnt seem to pack the atmospheric punch that ‘Village’ had in spades.
So the films kind of more of a sideways sequel to ‘Village’ than anything else. essentially the film doesnt really acknowledge the last film in any capacity, a lot of the ‘origin’ plot points have been airlocked, and barring a single line from one of the children about how they’ve ‘Died before’ Im pretty sure this thing has just lifted the idea of ‘psychic killer alien children’ from ‘Village’ and implanted it into this films world.
The plot opens with a group of scientists testing the mental agility of some children, one of the kids ‘Paul’ isnt just significantly quicker at completing the puzzles, he’s able to solve puzzles that the other kids cant even comprehend. On seeing Pauls genius, the staff really want more information about his circumstance. But his mothers cagey on details around Paul, his father or his birth. and after a bizarre accident befalls Pauls Mother, she confides in them that she was a virgin at the time of Pauls birth, there was no father, and shes known since the birth that something wasnt quite right with him.
The scientists continue their testing, visitng various embassys where similar stories and children emerge. All the while Paul is under the care of his distant aunt, who doesnt really know much about whats going on. She takes Paul being a kid for granted. and when the scientists become keen to take Paul in for further observations. He hypnotises his aunt, travels to each of the embassys to collect the other ‘gifted’ children and the lot of them hold up in an abandoned cathedral. All the while the scientists slowly begin to piece together that Paul and the other kids are somehow all linked together, that they have mind control powers, and that they may not even be of this earth! And when word spreads about the supernatural children, the embassys work quickly to mobalize a military response to the children, considering them a threat to humanity. Even though our scientists seem confident that isnt really the case.
Essentially, this felt like a bit of a letdown after ‘Village’ on pretty much every level.
The script doesnt command the same level of atmosphere as ‘Village’ the first entry felt like a bit of a hybrid of a Nigel Neil script crossed with ‘The Twilight Zone’ there was a real sense of atmosphere, forboding…the unknown!. This film feels more like a moral tale, that underplays the unknown and plays things almost like a 50s ‘atom age’ picture. The first film had genuinely unpleasent moments of horror. This film? the kids barely get to use their supernatural powers, and when they do, its mainly hypnosis or telecommunication. Which sucks. its dull!
This could have been a pretty easy win. Set the film in a smaller rural village, have the spirits of the children from the last film ‘possess’ the bodies of random children from this smaller, less developed village and have them slowly hypnotise and manipulate this small community into paranoid brutalists murdering each other because they dont know whos ‘possessed’ and who isnt. Instead? we get a plodding thriller with horror elements thats essentially an anti-nuclear war picture. that doesnt have the courage of its convictions to BE an anti nuclear war film till the last 20-30 minutes or so.
The pacing is slow and plodding, this is a dialogue heavy film that feels like it has to spoon feed you every. single. plot detail, not matter how big or small…its dragging its heels for the most part and as such a LOT of the more interesting or unique moments that made the first film so engaging…are just missing from this. Put it this way, this is the kind of movie where you can just…flat out leave for 10 minutes, and if you come back, you either wont have missed anything, or one of the characters will do you a 3 minute long recap of everything thats just happened. At that point, I kind of wonder what the point of engaging with the media is.
The characters are all pretty dull, the children in the last film had a unique look and identity, as a hive mind it meant there was a lot of opportunity to play that up and create an unsettling look and feel…But here? thats relegated, all the kids purposfully look different (for the cold war messaging) and they really dont play that much on the supernatural element, the ‘eye glowing’ effects that felt fairly regular in the first, get wheeled out a couple of times MAX in this one. and we dont really get any kind of set pieces apart from the VERY VERY end of the film. and thats not caused by the children.
I will say they handle the act structuring fairly well, the film does have a few fun moments in the plotting and the ending is fairly bombastic…But it kind of lacks the power of the originals ending. that film ended with a defeated ‘bittersweet’ sacrifice. This films ending is trigger by some berk accidentally dropping a screwdriver onto a wire, that completes a circuit by mistake…it feels less refined as a work is what im saying.
Direction wise, its kind of unremarkable too. Not bad by any stretch, but it feels smaller, everythings handled in close ups or mid wides, we’ve shifted from a countryside village to a city…and that location change really harms the films looks and feels. the grungy city vibe helps make things feel more ‘cop drama’ esq…but the village location helped add to the sense of helplessness, the feeling that all of this was happening beyond the realms of city community and safety. As such, this film looks and feels more like a kitchen sink drama, than a supernatural scifi horror sequel. and its just kind of beige for it.
Theres some interesting scene setups dotted throughout, and given this is a studio pic, I wasnt really expecting anything to be inherently BAD int he direction…but it is kind of just ‘going through the motions’ for lack of a better descriptive.
The cines much the same, theres some nice lighting moments here and there, the edits tight enough, special effects are a bit lacking…but shots are well composed for the most part…theres just…no sense of adventurousness…the first film had TONS of interesting or unique moments that really helped lift it up. this? this just feels like some guys filming what they think will work…its ‘safe’, and overly ‘safe’ at that.
throw in a kind of unremarkable soundtrack to boot, and you have a really quite dissapointing follow up. I cannot stress how much potential, and how easy it would have been to have made a sequel to that original film that managed to keep the atmosphere and build on the lore…and they seem to have shelved that idea in favour of cramming ‘The Children’ into a shelved 50’s cold war thriller script whether they fitted in or not.
Would I rewatch this one again? maybe?…I guess? Like I say, it wasnt BAD inherently or anything…But if I want that kind of ‘quatermass and the pit’ style sci-fi horror…This film isnt the one to provide it. I’d say if you saw ‘Village’ and liked it, maybe check this one out…but temper your expectations…if you havent seen ‘village’ your not missing out.
2024 was almost certainly an ‘event’ year for me personally, one where I kind of put my hobbies and enjoyments on hold for 12 months in order to do a bit of ‘personal growth and development’. It was one of those years where 10 years progress was done in 12 months, and Im hoping (FINALLY) after 2 years of life changing significant events, that i’ll be able to (FINALLY) settle back into the nice, comfortable life I was leading pretty much right up to the start of 2023…How likely that is to happen however has yet to be seen ultimately.
Im sure many folks are bored BEYOND death about me talking about me and my partner buying our first house this year. I fully promise that the next couple of blogs on this site will basically be the end of it. But that has kind of been my year. 4-6 months of paperwork and trying to keep the momentum up, followed by 4-6 months of heavy renovation work, moving, re-moving, re-re-moving and finally unpacking and getting set up. And even now, as of Jan 4th 2025 we’re still not FULLY done…We’re basically just unpacked and set up enough that we can start to lead a normal day to day life without feeling like we’re on a building site or living out of boxes. But we still have a bit of a journey to go.
I mention this because its had a detrimental impact on my movie watching this year on multiple levels. For one, its meant i’ve had to make all my youtube content up front (basically all the videos you watched this year, barring collabs were written, recorded, edited and uploaded between December 2023 and April 2024, With the last video going up around July time). So I’ve kind of been out of the loop this year on that front. But the other knock on is that during the actual process of home buying and DIY-ing, i’ve been WAY too busy and consumed with getting the place habitable to even THINK of cracking open new movies. Meaning my year in film basically reads:
January – June: A few New movies mixed in with some firm favourites
July – November: Barely ANY movie watching, and if there was any it was nostalgia heavy favourites to try and keep my brain on side.
December: A rushed mixture of trying to cram in as many new movies as I could on top of as many christmas movies as I could, While ALSO doing MEGA late christmas planning because I ran out of time and money.
Its been. A. Year. But certainly a rewarding and enriching one!
And now its 2025! And im ready to let the rubber ACTUALLY hit the road, im delighted to be back and keen to get started on making new videos, hanging on streams with folks and getting back into the swing of things. But before I can really TRUELY get started…Its become a bit of an annual tradition round these parts to look back over the last 12 months and spotlight the films that I caught for the first time last year and shine a light on them to highlight just how awesome they really were!
This years list was a little easier than most years, as there wasnt *as* many to choose from, but I still had a good time shortlisting 20 films out of the many new titles I did watch and then whittling them down to a top 10. As always, these films are in no particular order. These are just 10 films I caught for the first time last year, that I think you’ll really get a kick out of if you choose to check them out! So without further ado!
Pufnstuff:
Prior to 2024 I had only a very limited knowledge of the works of Sid and Marty Krofft. Other than show titles, I hadnt really seen any of their work and had you asked me my opinion on them before last year, I’d have probably just written them off as wannabes who jumped on the psychedelic movement of the 60s and then spent the rest of their careers riding the coat-tails of Jim Henson.
But then this year, I saw Pufnstuf. And well, i’ve never really quite been the same since.
This, VIVID. Offering landed at just the right moment when I needed some surrealist hyper colourful silliness without the sneer, and it quickly won me over without much of a fight.
The plot of ‘Pufnstuf’ in and of itself is a bit surreal telling the tale of a lad who finds a magic talking flute and moments later a fully functional talking boat that takes him to a strange island full of felt folk who are just happy to have new visitors. This is all short lived however when the film introduces Witchipoo, a local witch to the island whos spotted the magic flute and wants it to allow her to do exceptional magic AND to show off at the annual Witches convention.
The relentless happiness, and bizarre imagery this film conjures up across its runtime left my jaw firmly on the floor at multiple points, and when I showed the folks on my discord page the movie, they too were equally beside themselves with laughter and confusion as to what the hell they were actually even watching…But in a good way, not a confused ‘call the police way’.
With solid direction, fun and interesting characters, the BIZARRE plot, vivid and creative script and set choices, a superb cast and memorable music numbers. ‘Pufnstuf’ may actually be one of the few films on this list that I could really solidly recommend to just about anyone with even a passing interest in surreal and strange cinema. Put it this way, Im not ranking these films on this list. But if I were, ‘pufnstuf’ would be a top 3 contender no doubt about it.
Hey Folks! It’s intermission time mixtape!:
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with boutique labels over the last decade or so, when I first got into active collecting back at the turn of the 2010s, it was ‘Arrow Video’ that acted as a gateway to strange and surreal cinema and opened up a whole world of film to me. Around 2018/2019 however, I began to notice that more and more ‘mainstream’ titles were entering their release schedules and the types of films that had previously been the backbone of the company (The Beast Within, City of the Living Dead, Inferno etc…) were increasingly becoming rarer to see on the slate, eventually sometime around 2019, Vinegar Syndrome made their international shipping options MUCH more palatable, and I became a devout Vyn-Sin connoisseur. For a good 4-5 years I bought pretty much anything they’d put out, I went through their back catalogue and tried to mop up as much as I could.
And while I CERTAINLY wont be throwing stones here, they’re good people. I have to say that, while those 4-5 years were good…by the end of last year, I was kind of tapped out.
I’d basically bought everything I was interested in, the stuff I didnt already own, but wanted, was skyrocketing in price due to VS’s ‘once they’re gone, they’re gone’ way of distributing films. They too have slowly been releasing more and more ‘upper end’ studio pictures (show girls, roadhouse, The Tenant) and that combined with there just, not being as many titles released that im fully interested in owning, and the fact that they seem insistent now in releasing the majority of their titles in 4k (at 4k prices) has meant i’ve spent a lot of the year drumming my fingers with Vinegar syndrome, hoping that their next month of releases has maybe ONE film i’d actually be interested in, and could afford once it hit sale prices…and then being somewhat disappointed when that didnt happen…2024 in that regard has been a bit of a washout.
But, while Vinegar Syndrome have kind of been off my radar this year, AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) have, for the last 3-4 years now, slowly been warming up to becoming my new favourite boutique label. The organisation, which heavily promotes the preservation and proliferation of VERY deep cut productions, has been on a bit of a roll in recent years with barely a month going by where they havent released SOMETHING that i’ve absolutely fallen in love with.
In recent years, they’ve tackled the works of Barry J. Gillis, re-released two Ed Wood classics, astounded with movies like ‘Final Flesh’ and ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ and slowly, but surely, their library has basically become my film collection.
Probably the most exciting news to come from them over recent years has been their increasing closeness with ‘Something Weird Video’ a similar preservation company that started in the late 80s and ran through most of the 90s, 00’s and 10’s before becoming an archive and resource streaming service as of 2025. Something weird is responsible for saving a frankly obscene number of movies from falling quite literally into non existence. Films like ‘She Freak’, ‘Bat Pussy’ and ‘The Curious Dr. Hump’ would either only exist in incredibly rough prints, or not exist at all if it wasn’t for the work of ‘Something Weird’. And 2024 would see the release of what I frankly considered a ‘grail’ offering up until now.
‘Hey Folks! It’s Intermission time’ was a series of curated compilations from ‘Something Weird’ totalling 6 volumes of cinema intermission trailers, usually the stuff trying to convince you to go spend money at the snack bar, or general notes from the theater themselves, either welcoming you to the theater, offering friendly advise of services the cinema offered, telling you of upcoming events, or trying to help raise money for charity.
They’re quirky, interesting little remnants of a by-gone age. With most screens in the UK at least now having highly polished, mass distributed pre film screens. I find it fascinating to see just how home grown and unique a lot of these little trails, that were widely seen as disposable, ended up being.
Which brings me to the ‘Hey Folks! Its Intermission Time Mixtape’ the main feature on a set released this year from AGFA that upscales, restores and re-releases all 6 volumes of Something Weirds original compilation series. But also offers a unique remix of some of the more memorable and interesting intermission trails, turning it into a mind melting 70-80 minutes of psychedelic and trippy re-editing that I feel offers an entirely new viewing experience to these decades old stings. AGFA have been doing remixes like this for likely coming up to a decade at this point, their ‘Horror trailer show’ and ‘Cult of AGFA’ releases, not to mention their ‘Special Christmas Special’ all showcase some superb editing and its clear they have a talented and creatively minded team fronting these ventures.
‘Hey Folks’ is another fantastic entry in this style of presentation. And Frankly this was likely my ‘Bluray of the year’ honestly. Given thats a year that ALSO included another grail of mine ‘The Dragon Lives Again’ FINALLY getting a correct aspect ratio release for the first time ever. Thats an incredible feat. a set I personally think is an essential, if you havent checked out ‘Hey Folks! Its Intermission time’ absolutely take some time to fix that! Its a great set, and it makes an even greater gift!
Last House on Dead End Street:
An unexpected entry on my list this year, I came so close to NOT seeing this film, its actually quite bizarre. So, I had heard of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ over the years as being a particularly gruesome picture that, most notably, Vinegar Syndrome had been working on remastering for a number of years. I figured i’d likely check it out when they put out the cleaned up version, until one night while doing some research for ‘The After Dark Collection: Volume 2’ (Coming 2025) I landed on a reddit thread discussing Vinegar Syndromes ‘Adult’ movie releases, and found out that *apparently* hidden in the menus for their release of ‘Corruption’ was a ‘grindhouse’ style HD scan of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ and just by chance, I had only recently VIEWED my copy of ‘Corruption’…So! I popped it into my player, messed around with it for a bit, and *boom* I had a copy of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ in my hands.
And I really wasnt disappointed with this one. as billed, its a particularly unpleasant, seedy and graphic depiction of psychopathy, and the rawness in the performances and actions (given its about making snuff films) left a long lasting impression on me. Reading in to the behind the scenes on it only made me despair even harder as I read of the struggles the writer/director had to even GET the film out to the public. Not to mention the fact that, by the time it actually DID get a wider showing, he had NO idea it was even happening. Its…got a BTS thats somehow even crazier than the film itself honestly.
I think if this DID have a wider release in good quality, it would likely be held in a much higher and respected regard. As it stands, all I can personally say is. It is NOT for the squeamish, but if you enjoy films like ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ or ‘The Sinful Dwarf’ you will almost certainly love ‘Last House on Dead End Street’.
Hundreds of Beavers:
At the complete opposite side of the spectrum from ‘Last House on Dead End Steet’ we have the indie darling of the year, and a personal favourite of this years movie crop ‘Hundreds of Beavers’. A film that got recommended to me AT LEAST a dozen times within the first couple months of it doing the indie circuit. So much so that ‘friend of the show’ Triv of Trivial Theater, managed to cop a screener, and essentially pulled me out of the reno work to make it clear that this WASNT something I should sit out on. And damnit if she was absolutely right.
The plot follows a fur trapper attempting to collect ‘hundreds of beavers’ to sell the pelts of in order to win the heart and hand of a merchants daughter, the whole film is shot and framed like a kind of hybrid between Fleisher era animation and a ‘Loony Tunes’ short. With PLENTY of references back to Buster Keaton, The Stooges, The Marx Bros and many more silent movie icons.
Its clearly a labour of love, it looks fantastic, astoundingly so given the budget, its brimming with creative slapstick ideas, and barring a couple of moments that are a *smidge* (and I mean a *smidge*) more ‘adult’ oriented, this could easily be a family movie. I’ve kind of made it my mission this year whenever anyones asked me for recent film recommendations to send them over to this one.
Its got a good heart, a good soul. And I like that its playful and not afraid to be self aware without trying to be openly controversial. I had a real good time with this one, and could happily recommend it.
Xanadu:
If theres 2 things that ‘Xanadu’ is known for, its the frankly stonking soundtrack by ‘ELO’, and its for being the butt of pretty much every late night comedy show from 1987 till about 2003. ‘Xanadu’ was and still kind of is seen widely as a laughing stock of a movie. But this year, someone I very much respect, Frank Conniff made a lengthy twitter/bluesky post essentially admitting that, after years of using it as the aforementioned butt of several jokes through the 90s, he still hadn’t actually *seen* ‘Xanadu’ and recently decided to change that…And to his shock and horror it actually wasn’t a cringe worthy terrible musical, it was maybe a bit overlong, but he actually really liked it. Issuing something of a public apology for dunking on it for all these years.
Well; that was enough interest raised for me to go out and grab a bluray copy of the movie to see ‘whats what’. And What WAS what is that ‘Xanadu’ IS in fact a quite fun little 80s musical. Is it ‘Grease’ memorable? Absolutely not. But its a charming and warm little musical about never giving up on your dream and realising that you don’t have to be young to still go after what you really want in life.
Obviously, the ELO soundtrack IS what makes the movie fantastic, but it cant be overstated just how good Gene Kelly is in this, playing a weary property developer who yearns to return to a simpler life playing in a big band, when life was less complicated and he had something to strive for.
The film does get a little tangled up in trying to make Olivia Newton John the personification of ‘your dreams’. But I find that musicals largely trade on vibe, and a few mixed metaphors and some 2nd act pacing issues arnt going to come between me and this campy and funky little movie having a fun time.
‘Xanadu’ wont be for everyone, I know that. But I honestly would say, if you do enjoy musical cinema and have been put off by years of people dunking on this one, without ACTUALLY having watched this. I’d say give it a go, you may be genuinely surprised…At the very worst, you’ll have still listened to a pretty awesome ELO score.
Cecil B. Demented:
The Number of John Waters films I have yet to watch is slowly becoming a dwindling pool. I had seen almost all of his earlier works, but his later works are a little scattershot to come by in the UK. I had been hoping to wait for ‘Cecil B. Demented’ to get a proper Bluray release in the UK. But Criterion have now been quiet for a couple of years on that front, and it looks like Kino Lobar are picking up the slack on 90s ‘Waters’ movies…So I threw in the towel on waiting this year and just decided to hit it up on Tubi. And I absolutely loved it.
Im less enamoured with Waters ‘studio’ era. Basically everything after ‘Hairspray’ to me feels a bit forced and self referential. Cry Baby didnt really move me, Serial Mom is a much loved fan favourite, but left me cold. And Pecker just felt too safe for me. But Cecil B. Demented has a rogue twinkle in its eye that suggests to me theirs life in the old dog yet.
A film largely attacking BOTH the mainstream studio system and ‘puritan’ indie film makers who go WELL above taste and decency for their art. I feel like this was a return to form for Waters work, that would continue into his next production ‘A Dirty Shame’.
What we have here is a film that pushes the boundaries of studio cinema more than his previous studio works, but doesnt go AS far as his early films (Female Trouble, Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs’ and it manages to hit a nice compromise of being a clear, concise and well structured picture, that equally has a tenacious ‘daring’ quality to it. The feeling of the old Waters pictures where anything could happen, and sometimes it actually DOES!
I really enjoyed seeing this one for the first time this year, I would highly recommend it to any Waters fans who maybe jumped off at ‘Polyester’ or felt like he lost his bite a bit post ‘Hairspray’ as I really do think this and ‘Dirty Shame’ were steps in the right direction. And with rumblings that a new John Waters film could be just around the corner. I sincerely hope it continues on this trend!
Oh…and on the off chance someone from Criterion is reading this, don’t leave us hanging, PLEASE for the love of GOD release ‘Desperate Living’. You cant just release all of John waters early work and leave out the film bridging ‘Female Trouble’ to ‘Polyester’ I NEED more high definition Mink Stole rants in my life thank you very much!
Batman 1966:
I imagine some will be surprised that, until this year i’d never seen the 1966 ‘Batman’ movie. Indeed, I myself felt some shame at having not gotten to it sooner, given that I love the original TV series and had a great respect for Adam West.
But sometimes, things just don’t line up properly, sometimes there just isnt a good bat-time or a solid enough bat-place to fit a movie in. But this year, I made it a point (having been invited to talk about it on ‘Friend of the show’ Jon Norths podcast) to FINALLY crack it open. And I had an absolute blast with it.
Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about it, its a feature length take on the TV series, it feels like a long TV episode with a slightly bigger budget and thats about it. It absolutely should have done EXACTLY what it did do, it looks great, sounds great and the extra funds really help take things to the next level. Having all the classic villains from the TV series appear as the baddies in the theatrical outing is a great ‘raising of the stakes’ and the 60s campy silliness is still here in full force delivering an end product that hilarious, charming and just an utter delight to sit through. If you’ve never seen ‘Batman ‘66’ this is a great starting point, and if you enjoyed the TV series, but havent seen the film. You really need to fix that.
Beetlejuice:
Another one im sure will surprise some people, but again. Sometimes things don’t align when you think they *should* have, and instead align at the strangest times. I had seen the beetlejuice TV series MANY moons ago. But I’d just never got around to the movie. But, with ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ going down a storm at the box office, my partner was horrified to learn i’d not seen the original and made me watch it pretty much as soon as she found out.
And it was great fun! Barring a slightly rushed ending I thought this was another creative powerhouse, delivering surreal visuals and fantastic performances one after another after another. I came away very pleasantly surprised, and while im sure the vast majority of you have already seen ‘Beetlejuice’ as someone who hadnt, it really endeared me to the concept…Though, it did make me wonder why their was such pressure for a sequel for all those years, given the film ends pretty conclusively…I dunno!, in either case I really enjoyed this one. Its probably the most well known film I saw for the first time this year and i’m going to have to try and dig out the sequel relatively soon!
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl:
One of the more unexpected offerings of the year, I had no idea that Aardman had been working on a new ‘Wallace & Gromit’ film, letalone that it was another ‘feature’ outing for the pair, but! On Christmas day, the BBC released ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ a sequel to ‘The Wrong Trousers’ that sees that rogue criminal ‘Feathers McGraw’ trying once again to steal precious gems, AND trying to get revenge on the popular pair who put him away!
Meanwhile Wallace is back in debt, and, as a way to try and get out of it, has built the worlds first ‘Smart Gnome’ a little gardening fellow who’ll do any job, no matter how big or small. It all goes wrong as you can imagine! But it was a nice idea while it lasted!
I LOVED this special, it was probably my second favourite broadcast of the day (outside of the Gavin & Stacy finale) While I don’t *quite* think they match or surpass the complexity of animation seen in ‘The Wrong Trousers’ The film is still genuinely funny has the warmth and familiarity that makes the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ films so enjoyable and was a definite improvement over their last outing 2008s ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’.
The comedy was superb, with several gut busting laughs throughout, the animation is still superb and the character have some nice set pieces that tie the whole thing together, including some excellent celebrity voice cameos from Peter Kay, Reese Shearsmith and Diane Morgan. A christmas highlight. If your looking for laughs and something a bit light hearted, you cant go wrong with this.
Singing in the Rain:
With only 2 hours to go before the year officially ended, I had watched 299 films, and to finish the year off AND claim my 300th film watch, I decided to take a look at a film that ‘Siskel & Ebert’ literally COULD NOT shut up about through most of their ‘Holiday Gift Guide’ specials.
‘Singing in the Rain’ has often been cited as ‘the greatest musical ever made’ I honestly wouldn’t go that far. But what you have here is a genuinely sincere, surprisingly self aware for 1952 and warm ‘smile’ of a movie that documents the cinematic shift from silent era productions to ‘talkies’ in 1929.
Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds are a tour d’force here, without them the film would have fallen flat I feel, with them, its a match made in heaven. And even though Kellys behaviour off screen was horrific to say the least. It cant be denied that this film oozes charm and joy, and I defy anyone to watch this without cracking *at least* a smirk once or twice throughout.
With some astounding and colourful visuals on hand, a whole host of iconic and culturally significant musical numbers and some of the most complex and tightest dance routines you’ll likely ever see. ‘Singing in the rain’ was a fabulous way to see the old year out and ring the new one in. I’ll almost certainly try and poach a physical media copy at my next convenience and if you havent got around to this one yet, all I can say is, it definitely needs bumping up your list. A great script, razor cine and direction, killer performances and a bloody ASTOUNDING score.
I also only realised the next day after watching this, that as of 2025 all works from 1929 (when this film was set) are now in the public domain. Making it a particularly poigniant watch!
And! That was my top 10 of 2024! Not a particularly controversial list…But then, they rarely are! I hope you decide to look into some of these as I had an absolute blast watching them, and as i ease back into more regular ‘new film’ watching. I can only hope that this year is as kind to me with astounding features as I hope it will be for you.
So you might think this was something put together “Spur of the moment” or made as a filler episode…quite the opposite. I spent nearly a year and a half planning the perfect way to tackle “Salo” and I feel that my musical rendition was the best possible response I could have made. Given that Passolini’s entire filmography was dedicated to challenging authoritarianism and facism in all it’s thoughts and flavours, it seems actually quite offensive to constructively deconstruct Salo in my usual “Media” led style. so I decided here to tackle absurdism with absurdism. I’ve no regrets. as I mention in my youtube description for this review; “I’ve been doing this now for nearly 3 years…Let me have just one week where I have a bit of ‘Off the beat and path’ fun.” Normal service resumes next week. But if your ABSOLUTELY desperate for my full thoughts/feelings and a deconstruction of this film, well…here’s my thoughts structured a bit more thoughtfully…
1975’s “Salo (The 120 Days of Sodom)” is a truly Nihilistic picture. The kind of film that only really comes around once in a generation of filmmaking. This film revels in its own filth and perversion and gleefully explores violence, mutilation and the class structure in such a way that feels surprisingly fresh for a film that was made in the mid 1970’s about events taking place in the mid 1940’s. A lot has been written and spoken about regarding this picture. Some dismiss it as simply exploitation cinema dressed up as a pretentious art film. Others; choose to see more meaning in it’s themes and within the morality of it’s main characters. I could regurgitate other peoples opinions on the subject of this film ad-verbatim. But Im sure you’ve all seen at least a couple of reviews about this movie in the past, So im just going to do it my way.
The film is set in late 1944/ early 1945 in fascist occupied northern Italy. It’s nearing the end of world war two and most of this film is focussed on a small village that is on the verge of being captured by the allies. This is bad news for the fascists who are highly likely to be executed for the crimes they have committed during the war. As such they decide not to go quietly into the abyss. But rather 4 of the wars larger offenders (Here known as: “The Duke”, “The Bishop”, “The Magistrate” and “The President”) decide to hold one last impulse fuelled bingefest before there inevitable demise. They all agree to marry each others daughters in order to protect their assets going forwards and then; using a mixture of soldiers and hired militia, they head into a nearby village and kidnap as many teenage boys and girls as they can find (Quite often murdering their families in the process) these teenagers are then assessed and based on their appearance and “Assets” 9 teenage boys and 9 teenage girls are chosen. These teens are then transferred to well out into the countryside (One of the teenage boys is shot to death trying to escape while being transported) to a stately manor alongside a few Madam’s from local brothels and a skeleton serving staff.
It’s here where the bulk of the films events will take place. The rules are simple: anything is permitted to the “Big 4” they can do what they want, say what they want and literally get away with murder if they want. No one is coming to save the teens and they make it clear that it’s at the big 4’s discretion as to whether they live or die. They list Incest, Adultery and Sodomy as just a handful of the things that they would be interested in getting away with. If the teens refuse to co-operate, are found to be enjoying themselves or having sex with other teens, or if they mention religion in any way shape or form. they’ll be put on a punishment list (To be dished out on the final day of the events) Killed, or raped and tortured to death. A basic schedule is put together with the day starting at 6am with the Madams telling the filthiest and most perverse stories they can to help turn the “Big 4” on and enflame their imagination to help get the sex and violence going. Then Lunch is served at 12pm at which point everything post 12pm is basically orgies, dirty parlour games and violence until bed time…and even then it doesn’t necessarily stop.
Basically; what we’re watching here is an hour and 56 minutes of 18 teenagers slowly getting murdered and fucked to death split into 3 acts (Known as circles)that encapsulates either 120 days or 3(Ish) days (Depending on how you look at this movie; I personally don’t think 18 already breadline level teenagers could survive the conditions laid out in this movies T’s & C’s for 120 days solid…and a 3 day non stop orgy bender sounds way cooler than 120 days of tepid torture. Happy to be wrong though on that one. What separates this movie from the other exploitation films that have similar themes however. Is, in setting up this act structure we’re granted deeper access to our characters, their motivations, what drives them and fascism in general. Salo is designed to make you uncomfortable because it challenges a fundamental societal rule which is the idea that you just cant do what you want. We’re raised to accept that there are consequences for our actions and that via social constructs there is somehow a moralistic requirement to protect the innocent and not cause distress. We’re taught that this is a respectable trait. In my opinion; Salo sets out to ask the question “Why?” and it does so by using Fascism as a “Launchpad to debauchery.”
The Films Writer and Director Pier Paolo Pasolini was a staunch anti-fascist and was quite active in challenging fascism, destroying it where possible and it’s heavily rumoured to this day that his murder in 1975 was at the hands of multiple fascist groups. Indeed the basic idea of fascism is that there are a select few who are effectively in total control of the majority of the public. They attempt total control as a means to guide and shape society into the image they want, often at the omission of facts or evidence. They don’t deal well with opposition because why live with opposition when it’s easier to just remove them from the frame all together? With Salo; Pasolini shows the descent into self-indulgent madness that comes from giving already highly entitled right wing authoritarians the unlimited freedom and control to do whatever they want within an environment that is entirely malleable and controllable to their own twisted and ruthless requirements. And it’s barbaric.
He’s basically created a Terarium-esq experiment In which the 17 teenagers represent the proletariat and these 4 men are the leaders of their own controllable world based within the walls of the mansion house. With a hired militia in place to help keep the peace and ensure their visions and wants are fulfilled, they strong arm their way through the 3 days we see with a sense of arrogance, entitlement and unfiltered nastiness. You witness the cruelness of man’s inhumanity to man through the eyes of right wing fascism. Each act within Salo reveals a deeper level of depravity and relentlessness that; at times, is genuinely harrowing to watch.
Act 1: The Circle of Mania’s shows the fascists testing their new found freedom. Teenagers are beaten and kicked, molested and raped within hours of the day’s commencement. The teens are shown to be replaceable and they’re also shown that the Big 4 will not hesitate to kill them if they don’t comply. This breaks the teen’s spirits and makes them compliant to the plans that are unfolding, Because; If the only way to get out is to comply, well…they’re going to have to comply. Punishments are dished out on the whims of the big 4 throughout the day. An example being when one of the young teenage boys is added to the punishment list because he pulled away when one of the fascists forced him to give a blowjob, but he pulled away just before the fascist “came”. Thus ruining the orgasm. Its horrific. But in this world, the rights to what are punishable acts and what aren’t fall entirely to the fascists.
If the teens don’t comply then of course there must be a punishment. And they will all be judged equally. It also becomes quite apparent in these opening hours that the teens have no idea how to do half of the things that are expected of them by the big 4, so the brothel owner offers to teach the girls at least, how to correctly “Play” with a penis and how to have sex. There’s a lot of talk at this point about vaginal, penile and anal virginity (Here referred to as deflowering) and there’s a tremendous emphasis from the big 4 that deflowering is a “delicacy” and furthermore that the whole point these youths were selected was because they are “Pure” and their defilement is a commodity that these fascists relish. They quite literally get off on the idea that they are going to defile and corrupt the innocence of youth. And this is a strong theme which runs throughout the film right up until the end credits. Quite frequently there are scenes in which one of the big 4 will just run out into a hallway and gratuitously grope 4 or 5 teenage boys and girls in one go. It all adds to the gluttonous themes of binging that are present throughout and the themes of hopelessness and nihilism that hang over this film in an almost smothering fashion.
All of this before I even get into the legalities around that time. this film was set in the 1940’s when Homosexuality in Italy was punishable by death, marriage was the highest level of sanctimony and the long and short of it was that you were a corrupt individual unless you followed the basic nuclear family model of heterosexuality. In the 1970’s homosexuality (And particularly Anal Sex) was highly illegal in Italy and was punishable with imprisonment. It was treated very similarly to Paedophilia and it wasn’t until the 1990’s that the laws would relax on the issue. To this day Italy still has a quite severe problems with Homophobia and Transphobia and the reason lies highly within it’s successive string of right wing governments and silencing and stigmatizing of Gay, trans and minority groups. This film was released in 1975 and was seen as absolutely irreprehensible. Sodomy is highly prominent throughout the film. moreso the image of men enjoying both sodomy and sodomising. The fact that these are people in powerful positions taking advantage of youth caused uproar. Probably one of the films most controversial sequences involves 2 of the teenagers being forced into marriage, they’re deflowered by a brothel madam and a militia soldier respectively and upon the marriage being completed they’re asked to “Consummate” the arrangement. The teens begin to arouse each other at which point the big 4 swoop in and seize the “Consummation” for there own satisfaction. Tarnishing what I suppose is supposed to be a sweet moment of love and denying both teens there “Consummation”. It devalues their marriage and the facists “Get off” at the idea of cuckoldry and Bigamy that has just occurred.
The First act concludes with the teens literally reduced to that of wild and hungry dogs. Stripped naked and forced on leashes into a main hall to eat slices of meat and chunks of bread from the floor, the fascists end the first act by stripping the teens of their humanity. Reducing them to nothing more than animals and commodities there to be exploited, used and disposed of. While desperation will bring back some elements of the teen’s more human qualities. By the close of the circle of manias; They’re broken, compliant and almost entirely defeated.
Act 2 opens the circle of shit, and from here the film descends quite rapidly into abuse and degradation. It transpires that the teenage girls were fed meat during the dog sessions that were specifically tainted. They were instructed to not use the toilets until the next day and then to relieve themselves into a communal sized basin. This shit is then served for lunch during day 2. The “Shit eating banquet” is arguably one of the most memorable scenes in Salo and could be inferred to be a comment on humanity as a race being predisposed to accept lies (In this case represented by the shit) that promise the answers they want to hear over the truth which may not be what they want despite its accuracy. Throughout the scene the fascists repeatedly refuse to acknowledge that they’re eating shit instead referring to it as a “Delicacy” and a “rare item”. Not only this, but they expect the teens to respond in an equal manner. Equally they go to extended lengths to degrade and humiliate the women in particular during this banquet, repeatedly referring to how such beautiful vessels could produce such foul offerings. In essence this is the fascists attempting to further demoralise and undermine the girls. Making them feel dirty, less pure or otherwise trying to break their sense of worth, (Which by extension the fascists would then be able to use to force the girls into further and further destructive and perverse situations.)
Throughout the 2nd circle the girls are repeatedly beaten, abused or forced into embarrassing situations. Golden showers feature as a centre piece of one of the fascists indulgencies and as much as you could infer this to be a submissive request from the fascists as it is the fascists that are being urinated on. Anything that is done to them as a submissive act has been forced by the fascists initially. In many ways making these acts significantly more dominating. When one of the teens sodomises one of the fascists, It could initially be seen as a submissive act on behalf of the fascists until you realise that they’re the ones in control. They’ve requested to be penetrated and they’ll kill the teens if they don’t cooperate. With this in mind, it quickly becomes apparent that the fascists main indulgences are predominantly driven not by base carnal urges but rather through the control and management of the teens they’re abusing specifically. They get a sick kick out of knowing that they have ultimate control over individuals to the point that they can put themselves in a submissive situation and STILL be the dominant force. It’s really quite an extraordinary situation.
Act 3 is the Circle of Blood and acts as this films closing. Another faux wedding is staged as the fascists (In full female wedding regalia) take husbands. This leads to an evening of sodomy in which a tipping point presents itself. One of the teens offers to rat out one of his fellow captives in exchange for leniency or freedom. Intrigued one of the fascists follows the trail and ultimately unveils half a dozen of the teens are breaking rules ranging from practicing Catholicism, to lesbianism, to interracial relationships. This sets up the closing moments of the film. Almost all of the teens are now on the punishment list for misdemeanours of one kind or another. They have all been violated, deflowered and spiritually broken, and as punishment for their crimes they are placed in and around the communal Shit bucket to wallow in their own filth. They’re no longer human. They’re shells of their humanity. With a final cry of anguish from one of the teens the final punishment begins. Each of the fascists has been semi-responsible for a handful of the teenagers since their arrival at the mansion and now those same groups are sent to the garden. Here the teens are mutilated. Branded, burnt, castrated, gang raped, hung, sodomised and brutalised until death. Used and discarded by both Fascists and Militia alike. Their fun is done they revel in the ultimate pleasure of the death not only of the teens but of their secret shame. Knowing that outside of themselves and a handful of the militia that no one will truly know what happened here. They are soon to die too. But ultimately they’ve won in terms of their own pleasures. No one survives Salo ultimately. But that’s no comfort to an audience who has had to sit through it.
What is interesting and definitely worth noting is that this film does dabble quite frequently in absurdism. Actors performances are quite often over the top, melodramatic or highly animated. The brothel owners regularly dance, move their hands in strange ways and in one instance fall back on old cabaret routines to please the fascists. The Big 4 themselves often drift into over the top and almost comedic performances (of particular note is “The President” who decides during one of the lunch sequences while one of the serving girls is being raped, to run around the lunch hall showing his backside and demanding one of the soldiers sodomises him as soon as possible) that’s not to say that these are comedic characters mind. The fascists are distinctly malicious and evil characters. Rather that they delight in their own malice to the point that they feel free to exercise their ultimate power in whatever way they feel. It creates a deeply unsettling quality throughout the film as you can never quite tell if the next strange and odd moment that manifests itself is going to end either in a round of laughter or an atrocity. In fact the only characters that aren’t allowed the indulgence of absurdism are the teens themselves. Though I believe Pasolini did this to further emphasise the gulf in power and control that is created within the mansion. The teens have no power, no control. And the film wants to make it clear that they cannot afford to be jovial or silly. The fascists hold all the cards and as such can afford such luxuries. And this gulf helps to impress further the idea of suffering that these teens are under to the audience.
Even within the cine Pasolini creates a hostile and cold environment. Wide shots and ultra-wide shots are here in abundance. To help create a sense of disconnect, helplessness and isolation for the audience. The idea being that because we as the audience are so far away from the teens visually we feel like we cannot help them, nor can anyone within the film. It’s now a classic technique to help set a sense of hopelessness but for the time it was quite revolutionary. The only times close-ups are used really are in moments of revulsion (Such as the shit eating banquet) or for moments of significance (Such as the torturing scenes or the sequence in which the teens are selected). The madam’s brothel stories tend to also be shot using a mixture of mids and wides. Though this is predominantly due to these sequences foreshadowing events that will be done to the teens later in the film. So I suppose that’s to create a mixture of cold distance while also visually telling the audience that these stories will be important and to pay attention.
Another point to clarify is that the soundtrack is almost entirely diegetic. Barring the films introductory credits, any and all music is played either via stereograms, radio or the mansions pianist (Which usually underpins the madams stories) in general though, there is very little music in this film. Instead it prefers to utilise the cold silence of the countryside estate. There’s no cars, no public walking by, the atrocities committed in this film are usually done in room tone only silence. And as such it’s so much more impactful. Especially with the wide shot visuals. If shooting wide makes this film cold, then shooting it with no soundtrack is positively freezer like. It’s so powerful in creating an uncomfortable atmosphere that it’s almost overwhelming at times.
The only sound that is quite present and I will say is used VERY effectively is that sometimes if you listen very closely you can hear the low drone of airplane engines in the background of some shots. This is a nice psychological tactic on the behalf of the director as it works two fold. It reminds the audience that this is set during wartime and more crucially at the end of the war, and it also indirectly gives the audience a sense of subliminal hope. As we are aware that fascism was defeated in the second world war and those engines remind the audience that that’s imminent. However it’s a double bluff on the part of the director as he’s aware that no one is going to survive this movie. it leads the audience to feel like there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. Which makes the torture finale all the more crushing in terms of its reveal.
Salos release history is incredibly patchy to say the least. It was premiered in 1975 and almost immediately banned in most European countries thereafter. In the UK the film was refused a certificate in 1976 and would only be permitted to be screened upon special written request. Famously an art house film club in Soho screened the film and was raided by the London metropolitan police. The film remained banned in the UK until 2000 when it was finally given a certificate to be released uncut. More recently in 2011 the BFI released Salo in a highly comprehensive 3 disc Bluray set which shows the film in it’s best possible quality with a detailed set of extra features (This set was repackaged into a 2 disc set released in September 2019). In the US it was released with no problems and premiered in 1977 to little or no fanfare. It then dropped off the radar almost completely until it’s home video release 2000’s.
Salo to me is a masterpiece, a film that dances the line between abject disgust and nihilism and a sense of border absurdity. Its not something you watch regularly, it requires a very specific mind-set. But it’s carefully crafted nature should not be underestimated. This has been carefully orchestrated to cause the maximum amount of offense to the exact people Pasolini would have wanted to offend. In that sense it’s an absolute success. This definitely isn’t a film for everyone. But if you can get over the grimmer elements on display in this film. you will be rewarded 10 fold for your perseverance. An astounding art film and a terrifically underrated counter culture movie.
(All the posters and art would have got me thrown off youtube…this was the best I had. It’s alright…but still doesnt really capture the true “Vibe” of Salo.)
So We have a bit of an oddity here today. Way back in Season 4 I ended up doing a collaboration with a fellow youtuber Raymond Smith. Ray was in the process of doing a month on “Terminator” Knock off movies and we decided it would be pretty cool if he ended his series of Terminator movies and I ended my 4th Season with a cross over collaboration. The first one I’d ever done non the less!
It was huge fun working with Raymond and I really hope we get the chance to work together again in the future 🙂 He’s a fun reviewer and his channels heaving with movie reviews of every possible shape and size! I highly recommend checking him out some time (You can head straight to his youtube channel by clicking Here)
Unfortunately due to copyright issues half of our collaboration was removed from youtube by a company called “Lasso Entertainment”. Naturally this was most heinous and simply would not stand. So while I’ve been backlogging my reviews over on Breach.tv I decided it was time to dust this one off and give it a proper home on this site. Breach arnt quite as anal about upholding the whims and wishes of companies who have little or nothing to do with the movies we talk about and actually seems to understand what “Fair Use” is…so they’re an ace company in my books! anyway; before this turns into a mini rant; I hope you enjoy this not as often seen review! You can get to it by either clicking the link below the picture or by clicking the picture itself!Oh! and before I forget! you can check out the second part of this review for the other film we collaborated on 1989’s “Lady Terminator” By clicking Here
So…the 1930’s happened. It was a relatively quiet year…not much happened…there was a little bit of tension in Europe but things quietened down quite quickly (Some things never change)…World War 2 pretty much decimated the European film industry at the time. What at one point was an incredibly flourishing experimental and creative industry lost almost 50% of its resources over the course of the 2nd world war and countless movies were either destroyed for being deemed “Obscene” by both sides of the battlefield or halted due to the ongoing conflict. The result of the conflict had only one “Winner” from a filmmaking perspective really. The US, who used their several years not being involved in the war growing and firmly rooting their time into an industry they had started some 20 years prior. Hollywood is a small section of Los Angeles, no longer than16 blocks wide and five blocks high, this tiny piece of land was established in the name of film and film production some time around 1910 and over the following 20 years it would go on to grow one of the most substantial film industries in the world. America hadn’t been directly affected by World war 1. In fact quite the contrary quite a few creatives most likely immigrated into the US around this time to escape the conflict. And through the 20’s this industry would grow and grow and grow. By 1925 American movies were making up to 50% of all foreign film rentals and by the 1930’s Eight studios basically owned Hollywood. Universal, Fox, Paramount, RKO, Loews Incorporated (Part of MGM), Warner Brother, United Artists and Columbia Pictures.
(The “Land” bit fell down…so they took it away…the rest is history.)
All of these studios were fairly well known for each having a genre that they excelled at and largely stuck to. Universal for example was seen as a Horror Studio, RKO was known initially for musicals before branching out more into fantasy and Sci-fi and so on. There was however a growing issue. The film industry was running the risk of becoming quite insular and there was a growing concern that there may come a time where noone outside of those 8 film studios would be able to successfully market their film. While it wasn’t quite an anti-competitive environment…if you weren’t one of the “Big Eight” and were planning on having any success outside of your town in filmmaking…you’d might as well not bother at this time. There was equally an even bigger concern that through various backroom dealings, these big companies may eventually merge. Effectively creating one “Super company” that would have complete and total power and influence over the market. And while the US loves them some capitalism. They’re generally petrified of the idea of a single company owning close to 100% of all assets in one particular industry (As well they should).
(Theres a love for Capitalism…but not TOO much capitalism…and a hatred for sharing…I dont get it either…)
Equally their was a growing call for more regulation around the content of films themselves as the industry had slowly been edging closer and closer to more and more edgier content designed to shock, disgust or nauseate audiences. because of this in 1930 “The Hays Code” was introduced to predominantly stop the possible intervention of the government in enforcing their own brand of regulation on the industry. It was technically entirely voluntary but the oligopoly of studios quickly adapted the code as a means of keeping those reactionary pressure groups and the government at bay. The code was pretty broad and unclear. There wasn’t anything specifically “Banned” but it was effectively a set of guidelines that covered the basics (No on screen sex, no drug use on screen, no gore or heavy blood, no profanity etc…) the code was in effect until 1966 and quite nicely cuts across the decades we’ll be covering today.
Both the 1940’s and 1950’s would effectively be dominated by 2 major events, the strict regulation on competition laws within cinema itself and the rise of science fiction/horror films. And the former is probably the best place to start. As mentioned earlier from the mid 20’s to the mid 30’s the Hollywood system was basically “If you arnt part of the Big 8, don’t bother”. You might think that’s a bit of a defeatist attitude but the reality is that even if you made your film in this time, there wasn’t any way outside of being incredibly chummy with someone who owned a cinema for your film to ever be screened anywhere because of a practice largely known as “Block Booking”. Y’see a few of these big 8 owned the cinemas that their films played in. So only their films played there. And the studios that didn’t own their own cinemas? (Or didn’t own a lot of cinemas) they’d simply “Block book” out a cinema almost indefinitely with their films to stop other companies taking their patch. Effectively they’d pay up front to book out every screen of every cinema sometimes taking entire chains. Just to screen their own movies for infinite periods of time. Had MGM not owned a cinema chain they would realistically just pay all the cinemas within a certain strategic distance to only play their movies sight unseen. Blocking out any competition and keeping their movies more profitable over the competitions. You might see this as being a bit unfair…and so did the US department of Justice. In 1938 the issue became so bad that the department of justice sued all 8 major studios for the practice which was settled on a “Gentlemens agreement” in 1940…the studios did what all studios do the moment something isnt hard legislated though and threw that “Gentlemens agreement” straight into the trash. And while they did sort of reduce their amount of block booking, the agreement suggested that no block booking should take place at all…it would be a bit like promising your flatmate you weren’t going to eat his food anymore, eating all his food. But when he confronts you about it claiming “Well hay! I left you some milk for your cereal!…assuming you had any cereal left…”
(You cant like…OWN food that grew in the ground man…)
This weakening of guidelines did have the benefit of allowing some films to finally start slipping through the cracks. Some re-edited in the form of serialisations and others in an actual full length feature format. As you can well imagine this slight creaking open of the door inevitably cause the splurge of more “Independent” features shoot through the cracks…some pretty decent…others…not so much. The so called “Poverty Row” were the groups best suited to come out of this agreement in the best light. They we’re a small conglomerate of B-movie and lower budget production studios desperately trying to make big money but forever held back by the studio system of the time and the general fact that the majority of their crews and castings were misfits. Wannabe scriptwriters, directors with a “Vision” actors who thought they were Betty davis when in reality they were more Weird Al. Poverty row was a fairly shortlived concept but in that moment between 1938 and 1948 they were in their element. Producing such classics as “The Mad Monster” which was basically a poundland rip off of the wolfman with non of the charm and about 1/10th of the visual creativity. Or “White zombie” a film starring Bela Lugosi only 1 year after he defined the vampire Genre with Dracula playing a Haitian zombie master who can resurrect the dead, who decides he wants to kill a woman and bring her back to life to be his forever alive wife…yeh things got a bit weird sometimes on Poverty row.
(An Example of Poverty Row…Small and mighty)
These films were usually personified by cheap sets, bad actors and ropey editing, cheap and quick filmmaking where studios were constantly in a state of Pop-up and decline. But for that 10 year gap they were making serious cash. But that all came to an end when paramount (a long time member of the now rechristened “Big Five”) was sued formally by the USDJ for once again flouting the rules on block booking. And in a historic ruling it was finally written into law that film studios were now not allowed to just blind block book out entire chains of cinemas solely for the screening of their movies. That any cinema screening films must have at least 2 distributors under there books at any one time, that discrimination against smaller film companies was to be outlawed, and that screening schedules must be uniform so as not to allow some theatres to be bribed with premiers over others.
(And 8 became 5…)
This was both the make and break of Poverty row. On the one hand it effectively gave them free reign to put any of there content into cinemas. On the other it quickly bought the success of these schlocky B-movies to the attention of the Big Five who realised they could make a small fortune in producing smaller, better quality horror/scifi films in the vein of these B-movies for a fraction of the effort and cost. This in turn birthed what is probably the most famous era of B-movie filmmaking in the history of cinema. The age of the Creature Feature.
While the term “Creature Feature” wouldn’t be coined for at least 2 decades beyond when the era actually started (It was also referred to “The Atomic Age” because of the overuse of Nuclear materials as a means of creating said creatures) it came to stand for a swathe of films released in the 1940’s and 50’s that ranged from supersized animals, to abominations, to people transforming into creatures. (What would later morph into the Cronenbergian nightmare subgenre of Body horror). this included films like; “Man Made monster”, “The Wolf Man”, “Them!”, “The Thing from another world”, “The Blob”, “Tarantula”, “The Deadly Mantis”, “The Fly”, “The Crawling eye”, “The Black Scorpion” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches” the list literally runs into the hundreds of titles. And about 90% of them could be summed up as follows. “A scientist has a plan to make the world a better place by developing a chemical or technology that in theory will solve a major ecological crisis. Something goes wrong with the chemical/machine and an animal or human cells are caught in the crossfire resulting in either a giant or mutated version of said animal/human destroying everything in it’s path until it’s either taken down by the army of dies of it’s own self inflicted injuries”. This also usually involved a hell of a lot of back projection to make these creature look massive, or in the case of a human prosthetics to make them look hideously mutated. If it isnt a scientist working for the benefit of mankind, then it’s a mad scientist looking for revenge on mankind of shunning his idea of wanting to create a 90 foot spider or a half man half Wotsit hybrid.
(Sort of…)
Its important to appreciate that there was a very narrow window of a few years where these movies transitioned very quickly from “Genuinely impressive must see cinema” to “Oh jesus how bad can these films get!?” nightmares. And it was simply due to repetition. Too many people making exactly the same film but with varying effects budgets and different types of animals. It’s an important takeaway in the film industry. I always try to live by the motto of scriptwriter Terrance Dicks who said “You can have an original idea; but it need’nt be YOUR original idea” but you also need to be aware of your surroundings when living by that rule. It’s fine to make an action movie, or a mafia film, or an emotional experimental black and white art housefilm dubbed onto tape for realism…but if your doing that at a time when those genres are being made by literally absolutely everyone else (And yes. I am talking everyone outside of this university campus as well) then your touching attempt at making a powerful impact on your audience will land about as well as an egg to the face of a minister. I always encourage film makers to look out beyond there “Clicks” their friend circles and actually explore what other university film makers, what other indie film makers are making. And then avoid that stuff like the plague unless you can genuinely improve on those ideas. Because if you cant (And it’s typically very unlikely that you can) your film will be utterly defanged and it just wont land the way you think it will.
(I guarentee one of you at some point in your film making career will make a varient of this)
Poverty Row ended for a mixture of reasons, in part because the big studios realised they could make more money by just making marginally better versions of films that were originally made by the starving artists of the Hollywood system and in part through syndication the row would all but cease to exist by the mid 1960’s due mainly to the films being screened in syndication on television. The row moved into TV and TV movies became the new poverty row of cinema. Something that’s only really started to be corrected in the last 10-15 years really. But we’ll get to TV movies another time because we’re already pushing our luck here and I haven’t even got round to talking yet about what is arguably the best and worst thing that Poverty Row birthed in it’s time.
(This handsome mother lover!)
Edward D. Wood Jr is a name synonymous with bad and cult film making. A poster boy for the age, his movies regularly chart as some of the worst ever made. I would happen to disagree with those polls but hey; everyones a critic these days…Mainstream audiences will probably best know him as the subject of Tim Burtons biopic “Ed Wood”, being played rather eccentrically by Johnny Depp. Now I should be clear; their are much MUCH worse film makers out there. Not just in the modern day but in the past as well. The likes of Coleman Francis, Clark Paylow and even Harold P. Warren would give Wood a run for his money. But Ed was an auteur. And the one thing he had going for him was a ruthless drive to get his films out there to as wide an audience as possible no matter what. Whether it was via exploitation cinema and the likes of his gender identity crisis spectacular “Glen or Glenda” or whether it was marketing his magnum opus “Plan 9 From outer Space” as being the last feature film of Bela Lugosi (Only a half truth as Lugosi is only in the opening minute and a half so of the movie and is then played by doubles for the rest of the film…what a way to go….). If there was an angle that could be taken for low to no money, Ed was the man to take it.
Set’s were mainly cheap wood or cardboard, there was little to no set dressing (A plane cockpit was literally just bowed cardboard, a curtain and 2 bog standard plastic chairs. Not even desk chairs. Just cheap garden chairs.) Let it never be said by anyone (student or otherwise) that you dont have the budget to realise your vision. Ed was doing octopus fights and graveyard based alien invasions with nothing but a few pie plates and a few good people who were genuinely captivated by the enthusiasm of this man.
(While not an “Official” set photo…I’d be surprised if the real Ed wood Didnt pull this face while filming his masterpieces at some point)
I think thats an important lesson to take away from this period of film making if nothing else. Have passion for your film. Genuine passion. If it isnt keeping you awake at night and making you dance between thinking its the best idea in the world and making you a nervous wreck, it’s not worth making. If you develop an idea and your half hearted about it; Bin it. It’ll never be great and by the time you get to shooting you’ll want to cave your skull in out of hatred for it. But if you really truly love something. Even if it’s just the seedling of an idea, it’ll carry you the whole 9 yards and then some. From experience filmmaking has taught me that the best films are made with 2 kinds of energy, absolute enthusiasm, or hatred sought from vengeance. These are the only two energies that seemingly get the job done (And done well) you’re either making your film because you genuinely believe it’s worth it’s existence. Or because you want to prove to someone or something who’s been negative towards you that it’s worth existing and has meaning and value.
Some of the best films I’ve seen have come from those two places, and Ed wood was definitely in the former of those camps. All his films are corney, laughably bad and bordering on the unwatchable in places. But because he genuinely thought these films were worth their existence they possess a quality that half loved or unloved films can never achieve. That kind of positive energy resonates through the film in the direction, the cinematography and the performances. You can almost hear Ed in the background radiating a “This will be the shot they remember me for!” attitude. And thats why his films have lasted in the public consciousness for so long, they’re fun goofy little movies that have a charm all of their own accord.
Rather unfortunately Ed would never experience the adoration that was bestowed to him by cult cinema fans. After Plan 9 he made 2 further mainstream features “The Violent Years” and “Night of the Ghouls” both slightly more grindhousey than his previous works. As if marking the end of an era “Night of the ghouls” was released in 1960 and it was his last attempt at mainstream success in B-movies. While he would try on and off over the next 2 decades to get another chance. It would never come.
After “Ghouls” he slowly began to sink into a tide of pornographic direction to make ends meet and alcoholism. Ed died in 1978 due to a heart attack, he was 54 years old. Less than 2 years later Woods “Magnum Opus” “Plan 9 from Outer space” would be voted the “Worst movie ever made” by the founders of what would go on to be “The Golden Turkey Awards” hollywoods most esteemed honour when it comes to terrible film making. In 1986 Wood would feature extensively in the book “Incredibly Strange films” and in the early 90’s MST3K would riff 2 of Woods films to great audience response. The 10 years following woods death would see his entire ouvre re-evaluated and what was at one time unwatchable dross was now loved unwatchable dross…and that changes everything.
(Ed’s last film was found quite recently and has been released on Bluray. I havent seen it yet but I certainly hope to.)
As we see out tonights session Im going to play you Woods Masterpiece “Plan 9 from Outer Space” I’d like you to bear in mind while watching this film that Ed Wood thought this was the movie that would “Make” him. The film that was going to get him the star on the hollywood walk of fame and would set him up for life. And…in some ways he was right. Though probably not in the way he had intended. As always im happy to talk about any of the films mentioned tonight and im also happy to recommend any titles should anyone here be interested in learning more about Ed wood, film makers like Ed wood or the Atomic Age of film making in general. Thank you again all for coming. And Enjoy.
Well, earlier this year my partner in crime Ben informed me that he was relocating to my home town! meaning previously our efforts of meeting up twice a year, recording 3-4 commentaries and winging it, could now be improved to once a month if not even more frequently! So I took him up on the offer! and so for the Halloween season we sat down and watched the “WNUF Halloween special” a film that is very close to my heart.
As mentioned multiple times (I will stop eventually!) the director currently has plans for a sequel and is currently fundraising here! and I highly recommend checking it out as it should be great fun!
This films one thats still as entertaining to me now as when I first found it nearly 5 years ago and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did!
I count myself exceedingly lucky that I have been able to see a film like “The WNUF Halloween Special” these kinds of films typically fall through the cracks of cinema history and I cannot stress enough how hard it is to find films like these, especially when you live in the UK.
The WNUF halloween special is no exception. as it stood up until recently the only way to get your hands on a copy of this film if you were UK based and wernt lucky enough to swipe up a copy of this when they were first selling them on DVD and VHS was to spend a frankly extortionate amount importing a very pricy NTSC only VHS or Region 1 DVD from the states, then forking out again for a player to play said expensive Tape/Disc and due to the cultish nature of this movie if you didnt pick a copy up during the initial US sales drive, there was literally no other way to get your hands on this film.
Well…there was illegal torrenting. Which unfortunately was the route I had to take in order to see this simply due to the complications listed above. While it probably wont bring much comfort to the Director/Producer. Chris. I would be honoured to help dub and distribute this tape across european terratories. PAL users have been neglected of a film like this for too long and if I can help from my little dubbing station here in the UK then please get in touch. I’d love to try and help you out in spreading this frankly amazing piece of cinema.
There is no European release of this film. and with a Sequel coming up on the horizon hopefully in a couple of years. I really hope that this one gets the worldwide release it really quite frankly deserves.
(This bloody poster…jesus its gorgeously done. Serious Kudos to whoever designed it. They’re a Master of the craft clearly)
I really wasnt expecting much from “The Bogey man” when I first put it on. The Video Nasties craze of the 1980s was a very sporadic period in the UK with dozens of titles being caught up in the frothing fever of trying to “ban the filth” and this meant that a few titles that really shouldnt have been listed as “Nasties” somehow got sweapt up in the hoopla.
I dont subscribe to the belief that the 1984 video recordings act was in anyway a good thing, I think it heavily censored creativity and drove the interest in these movies into the hands of the underground market where prices ran rampant and quality control was non existent. even if I did accept the act in some capacity (Which I most definitely do not) the consistency was all over the place, with films like “Cannibal Holocaust” and “Maniac Cop” being perfect examples of movies that quite reasonably could justify this act to a degree (They’re both very hard watches that are purposefully designed to be uncomfortable and shocking) through to movies like “The Evil Dead” and “Zombie Flesh Eaters” which while pushing the envelope a bit, were hardly going to “Corrupt the youth”. Conservative drive and a Newspaper driven campaign, only spurred on by the Mary whitehouse brigade only led to further confusion and unwarrented restrictions.
Arguably the most famous being a recurring issue in which police officers would repeatedly seize copies of “The Littlest Whorehouse in Texas” which is a PG comedy movie and copies of “Apocalypse now” which were passed by the BBFC being seized because it sounded too much like a Cannibal movie…only spurring things on and causing a rise in panic, incidents like “The Hungerford massacre” or the “James Bulger” case were sensationalised in the tabloids as being indisputable proof that violent films were corrupting people. In these incidents Hungerfords massacre happened because the killer watched “Rambo 3” (There was no proof of this…The only evidence given was that he’d worn a bandana when he committed the killings), and in the latter “Childs Play 3” was put to blame (Despite the fact that again there was no proof of this and the only evidence was that the killers father had rented the movie, not watched it, and returned it 2 days later) it was this incident that led to one of the “Last hurrah” moments of the Video nasty movement when the Sun ran with the sensationalist front page title “For the sake of ALL our kids Burn your video nasties”
Today barring a few seconds of animal cruelty here and there almost all of the original banned video nasties have not only been released but have been released officially multiple times both in standard and High definition. Theres only one video nasty that remains thats still been denied a classification, that’s “Love Camp 7” but a majority have now been released uncut. And being able to see these films for what they are and realise that a majority of them were purely on the list because of histeria is both eye opening and distressing to me.
The Boogey man is the perfect example of this. This movie has 2 graphic moments in it pretty much, and quite honestly theres much much worse out there. This shouldnt have been on the video nasties list and yet both this and the movies sequel (Which im told is a total and utter raging toxic sludge of a movie) were on the banned list with litte to no justification.
And its a pretty okay movie to boot!, its no masterpiece but I was really genuinely surprised by just how high quality it was when compared with some of the shinola on the banned list. it made it to my “Shelf of interest” as a quirky and slightly unusual oddity. One I’d reccommend you look out for.
(The Posters misleading as well…there are windows, women and shadowy figures in the movie…but not necessarily all at once)
(You cant like…OWN food that grew in the ground man…)
TYTD Reviews 