Come with me down this rabbit hole of movie books, monster mags, and newsletters past. Explore your favorite horror directors, writers, monster makers, and actors; classic films made, films forgotten, and films never made; final girls, scream queens, and horror hosts. This is film history and film preservation. This is the back of the book. This is the index.
Read it while the links are hot.
The Joe Bob Report Vol. XI, No. 26, December 25, 1995
Volleyball Schmolleyball
In this issue of his newsletter Joe Bob Briggs (John Bloom) opens with one of his usual non-movie diatribes, “Volleyball Schmolleyball,” detailing the ridiculousness of corporate sponsored beach volleyball, and then in Joe Bob style the article magically segues into a review—along with his trademark Drive-In Totals—of Anna Nicole Smith’s first lead role, To the Limit(1995).
Explore the World of B-Movie Stars and Drive-In Filmmakers with Debbie Rochon
Dog Day Afternoon
Next up, scream queen legend Debbie Rochon gives us the news. Vicious Kiss (1995) star Danny Fendley was bitten by a dog on the set of Vampire Cop (1990). Both films are written and directed by Donald Farmer, a movie machine still putting them out whose titles regularly use the words cannibal, hooker, exorcist, and vampire, including such amazing titles as Cannibal Cop (2017), Hooker with a Hacksaw (2017), Bigfoot Exorcist (2021), and Cannibal Hookers from 1987 as well as 2019, which some people call a remake, but whose summaries make the latter look like a sequel.
Vampire Cop is self-explanatory. In Vicious Kiss, artist Fendley is stalked by crazy widow Margaux Hemingway. Farmer started making short films in the early 1970s and is still directing with Shark Exorcist 2: Holy Waters (2024)—he’s living the dream, man. You can find him on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, but he’s mostly active on Twitter.
Rochon announces that Jack Baker, a former New York stage actor, will star in Jacob Lange’s first film, an “ultra-low-budget Long Island epic,” Day of the Madman, but research online reveals only its nonexistence. I’m not sure who Baker could have been, but Lange may be the Jacob Lange playing a bit part as “Brian’s Interpol Agent” in the bounty hunter flick Trigon Fire (1989).
Rochon announces John Mollica as the writer, director, and actor for Final Exam, produced by Phil Revo and Tunnel Productions, but it looks like the production failed the final. It definitely wasn’t Final Exam (1981), and it wasn’t Final Exam (2016), or Final Exam (2021).
Mollica’s only writing credit was a cowriting credit with Robert Celistino for Mr. Vincent (1996) with Celistino directing, a movie about a songwriter who deteriorates into violence over a woman. The trailer looks like it’s a nice black and white 90s indie flick.
Mollica and Phil Revo must have met on The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989). Mollica played an Apocalypse Inc. Thug and Revo played Cookie, but he was also a Troma regular. Mollica also played a policeman in the 60-minute Hugh Gallagher-written and directed Gorotica (1993). I like to write my own summaries, but the IMDB summary ends on a high note for this one. One bank robber swallows a jewel and dies. The other escapes with the body “and meets Carrie the necrophiliac.”
Hugh Gallagher also directed Goregasm (1990) and Gore Whore (1994), among a few others. A crazy call girl gives men their little death and their big death at the same time in Goregasm, while a zombie whore exacts revenge in Gore Whore. Gallagher is also mentioned in other Indexing articles like this one.
Don’t confuse Goregasm (1990) with Goregasm(2007). This latter Jason Matherne-directed Goregasm is about a video store clerk hunting down the Cockface Killer, and it’s the second film in his trilogy which includes Goreface Killer (2002) and Grimewave: Cockface III (2013). Whew! Glad my mom doesn’t read these.
We were discussing Mollica before we got sidetracked. He also plays a Wiseguy in a short called Marquis de Slime (1997) directed by Quelou Parente who was a production assistant on Maniac Cop 2 (1990). The twenty-five minute short stars Phoebe Legere who also writes the screenplay from her own novel Blond Storm vs. The Marquis De Slime. Marquis de Slime is a part live-action part animated wild ride about two female wrestlers in a rock band who fight the titular ancient demon after he is resurrected into the body of a convict. All this in twenty five minutes! You can catch the flick in three parts on Legere’s YouTube channel: one, two, and three.
Drive-In Theater
(Job Bob’s Drive-In Theater schedule on The Movie Channel (1986-1996))
December 23 1995
Kill-The-Weenie-Husband Night
Malice(1993). Alec Baldwin plays the doctor with a god complex versus husband and wife, Nicole Kidman and Bill Pullman with George C. Scott and Anne Bancroft.
Dark Tide. Brigitte Bako cheats on her husband Chris Sarandon with Richard Tyson. Chris Sarandon is an icon: Fright Night (1985), Child’s Play (1988), Princess Bride (1987). Need more? The Sentinel (1977), Bordello of Blood (1996), or The Stranger Within (1990) directed by Fright Night director Tom Holland.
And Scorned (1993). Shannon Tweed plays a widow out for revenge. With Kim Morgan Greene and Andrew Stevens, who also directs. See his Roger Corman produced The Terror Within II (1991) where post-apocalypse survivors fight mutants. Speaking of…
December 30 1995
Demonic Mutation Night
First up, a nearly extinct species of were-cats continues its survival in the early Mick Garris film Stephen King’s Sleepwalkers (1992) not from one of King’s works but a standalone screenplay for which the world’s greatest author created an original mythology. It stars Alice Krige, who played the creepy ghost in Ghost Story (1981) adapted from the Peter Straub novel; and she IS the Borg as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and other works. Before this movie Garris directed Critters 2: The Main Course (1988), Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990), and an episode of Freddy’s Nightmares (1988-1990). Since then he has directed The Stand (1994) mini-series, anthology film with works by King and Barker Quicksilver Highway (1997), The Shining (1997) mini-series, Riding the Bullet from a King story with the same title and “the world’s first mass-market e-book.” TV-wise he directed an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996) and not only directed one episode but helped executive produce Masters of Horror (2005-2007).
Next, Angela Featherstone plays a demon from Hell on Earth in Dark Angel: The Ascent(1994) with Pauly (the bald guy) from Sam Raimi’s Dark Man (1990) Nicholas Worth as her demon father. produced by Charles Band under Full Moon Entertainment and directed by L. Hassani, aka Linda Hassani. The screenplay was written by Mathew Bright who would go on to write and direct Freeway(1996) and Freeway II (1999). He shared his first writing credit with several writers on the amazing Richard Elfman directed Forbidden Zone (1980).
Finally the mutated insect movie Ticks(1993) directed by Tony Randel who directed Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) and Children of the Night (1991) with Karen (There’s No One Left to Fly the Plane) Black. Amy Dolenz stars in Ticks and Children of the Night, as well as Witchboard 2 (1993), Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1993). Ticks is also an early film with Seth Green. His other pre-voice star works include My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988) (OMG watch that trailer), another Full Moon effort Arcade (1993), Idle Hands (1999), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). He stands out in a supporting role in The Attic Expeditions (2001), and he did some kind of stop motion show too. Make sure your sarcasm detector is working.
The Chuckster is a Huckster
In perfect Joe Bob form, our pen-ultimate writer opens the next article “The Chuckster is a Huckster” with an explanation of different types of acting which leads into a review of a movie, Mute Witness (1995) about a mute makeup artist who witnesses a snuff film being made.
The article provides some nice info on how the Russian Mosfilm Studios, post-Berlin Wall, rented out their place to U.S. B-movie producers for films like Mute Witness, as well as Bram Stoker’s Burial of the Rats (1995), and Haunted Symphony (1995)—apparently changed to both Hellfire and Bloodsong—about a musician hired to finish a cursed symphony that makes him kill people. Workhorse Ben Cross stars. He hit the big time with Chariots of Fire (1981). He stayed openminded about his career, appearing in genre work, including episodes of the 1980s Twilight Zone, Ray Bradbury Theater, and Tales from the Crypt, but will always be remembered as the new Barnabas Collins in the 1990s remake of the Dark Shadows horror soap opera.
Personal story. When I moved to California to go to film school the PhD guru who guided me through my MA in Literature, suggested I look up his friend who had just started directing. His friend was Burial of the Rats director Dan Golden. I did contact him, but it fizzled to nothing—my fault. The film stars Adrienne Barbeau, Maria Ford, and, showing up in bit parts are Return of the Living Dead‘s Trash, Linnea Quigley; and Nikki Fritz, known for The Bare Wench Project (2000) and around oh fifty other films.
Burial was scripted by Somtow Sucharitkul, Adrien Hein, and Tara McCann, who also cowrote the above-mentioned Hellfire. Sucharitkul, however, is a multi-talented powerhouse. He wrote screenplays AND scores. He wrote, directed, and composed the score for The Laughing Dead (1989), about an archeological group at the Mayan Ruins versus monsters. Sucharitkul also wrote horror novels under another name S. P. Somtow including Moon Dance and Darker Angels. He also wrote science fiction novels under his real name Somtow Sucharitkul in the 1970s. Whew!
Golden is still directing. He’s got quite a few interesting flicks, but the standouts include Satanic (2006) and Dances with Werewolves (2017). The former concerns an amnesiac who forgot she made a deal with the devil. The latter is a dual anthology. Golden directed one segment, and the other segment was directed by Donald F. Glut, a name I keep seeing and intending to explore.
Joe Bob wraps up “The Chuckster is a Huckster” article with his trademark rating and Drive-In Totals.
Grapevine: Wherein we report from the underground, the counter-culture, the out-of-the-mainstream and the loonie fringe…
First Joe Bob looks forward to a new movie by a “handful of maverick comedy writers out of Minneapolis” who started a “little cable access tv show.” The show was Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the movie is Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie(1996). Whatever happened to those guys? Make sure your sarcasm detectors are on.
Speaking of zines, the next bit celebrates S.E. Mills, a “cartoonist and small press entrepreneur.” His Bulldadamagazine included “Articles, comments, reviews, news you can use about cartoonists, zines, publishing and the arts.” At the time of this article Mills was looking into writing a book about “this fanzine phenomenon,” but, albeit some brief research, it seems the book went the way of Day of the Madman, mentioned way above.
The next bit has a better ending. The Joe Bob Report announces the news that a Koichi Ohata character named M.D. Geist in—what at that time was called—a Japanimation series is coming to comic book form, and it did. According to Wikipedia, “written and drawn by Tim Eldred with Ohatu as guest artist.”
What follows is a very brief history of Swamp Movies including the Roger Corman directed Swamp Women (1956); Larry Buchanan’s Curse of the Swamp Creature (1968); Zaat (1971), which has a great trailer; Charles B. Pierce’s The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972), whose trailer is even better than Zaat; Gator Bait (1973) a true grindhouse film with Claudia Jennings and a trailer even better than the two above; and Scum of the Earth (1974) by S.F. Brownrigg (not the Herschell Gordon Lewis movie (1963)). Brownrigg made one of my favorite low budget movies, Don’t Look In the Basement (1973), whose trailer borrows a few shots from the original The Last House on the Left (1972). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I can’t think of any films to add to this genre except Southern Comfort (1981) or maybe Sting of Death. I recommend watching the MST3K: The Rifftrax Experiments version.
Roger Corman’s work as a director and producer is exemplary and if you’re not looking him up on your own, nothing I write here will make you do so. Larry Buchanan also directed Mars Needs Women (1968), Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1967), and Free, White and 21 (1963). Unfortunately, the Zaat filmmakers didn’t produce much more. Charles B. Pierce went on to direct and Earl E. Smith went on to write Boggy Creek II: And The Legend Continues (1983), but in between the two they made the much better The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976).
The list of swamp movies either comes from an issue of the quarterly zine ECCO: The World of Bizarre Videoor possibly a discussion between Joe Bob and ECCO creator, writer, editor Charles Kilgore, who also wrote for Filmfax, Psychotronic Video, and probably tons more. He has supped at the table (literally) of Video Watchdog and that-guy-who-does-the-commentary on at least one of your physical media, Tim Lucas. Go check your fancy blu-rays, you’ll see his name. As for Kilgore, I know I talked to him on Facebook once when he was giving away copies of Ecco, some of which he sent me or did I get them from Michael J. Weldon? More than likely Kilgore’s an Analog Kid, and I respect him for that and envy him even more. I’m just a New World Man.
The Grapevine article ends with subscription information for ECCO, but you might find issues on Archive.org, Abe, and Ebay. He continued the mag online in 2014-2015.
It was people like Briggs, Kilgore, Lucas, Weldon, and hundreds of others slaving away for all of us and for the love of it, keeping genre cinema alive and in the hands of the fans. (If I’m missing some of these types lemme know.) All the low-budget, hard-to-find, regional, so-called trash cinema that we now can find on special editions from video boutiques would never be happening without these trailblazers.
Joe Bob’s Board of Drive-In Experts
Reviews by the Camp Committee with Drive-In Totals: Terry Woolston, John Weber, Graham Trievel, Brian Thomas, Debbie Rochon, Ron Rejmaniak, J. Parker, Phil Oppenheim, Mark Feingold, David Essex, Joe Benson, and Raisen Blowme.
Check out the reviews on digital online copies or hardcopies if you can find them.
Born to Boogie (1972) a documentary about the amazing rock band T. Rex, directed by unknown director Ringo Starr (lol).
Doctor Who: Cybermen: The Early Years (1992). A documentary from Doctor Who documentarian John Nathan-Turner.
Hey, Folks, It’s Intermission Time (1993) volumes 1 and 2, the first of which has clips of drive-in concession stand advertising, while the second contains “movie theater promotions, festivals, holiday greetings and refreshment ads.
Sex and Buttered Popcorn (1989), about the seamy exploitation roadshows, featuring David F. Friedman, Dan Sonney, and Mildred Babb, the widow of Kroger Babb, which includes “One hundred four breasts.”
Blood Harvest (1987), where Tiny Tim plays “himself without a ukulele” defending his neighbor from her psycho boyfriend.
Space Thing (1968) directed by David F. Friedman and Byron Mabe. Mabe also directed The Acid Eaters (1967); A Smell of Honey, a Swallow of Brine (1966) written by Friedman; and She-Freak (1967), a remake of Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932) written, with others, by Friedman.
Cult People (1989), a documentary made by David Del Valle where he interviews actors and directors, including Russ Meyer and everybody’s favorite zombie movie actor James “I have seen weird things come, and I have seen weird things go” Karen. I thought I had heard the name Del Valle before, and it turns out he played bit parts in just a few horror flicks: Frightmare (1983), Chopping Mall (1986), From a Whisper to a Scream (1987) Evil Bong 420 (2015) (That’s him next to DeCoteau!), Evil Bong: High 5(2016), Puppet Master: Axis Termination (2017), and a few more. Actually, contact him, put him in your movie, he’s still acting.
Ed Wood’s Bride of the Monster (1955) starring Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson. ‘Nuff said.
And Gunsmoke: Return to Dodge (1987) starring James Arness who starred in The Thing From Another World (1951), the first adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella Who Goes There? adapted again by John Carpenter as The Thing (1982). Vincent McEveety directed Return to Dodge as well as about a million tv episodes and movies, including six episodes of the original Star Trek (1966-1969); the Knightly Murders episode of the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974-1975); and Disney’s rare foray into horror, Watcher in the Woods (1980) in which he shares credit with John Hough.
Who are these people? I mean, except for you, Ms. Rochon. Raisen Blowme seems to have been the editor of The Buffaloon Newsletter. Man, if only S.E. Mills from above had written that book about zines we might have more info on Mr. or Ms. Blowme. As of this writing I found one issue for sale online, the description for which includes, movie reviews, books reviews and a long essay on Twin Peaks. I must be a nerd because I find this information fascinating. I thought about doing my own zine in the 90s and early 2000s, but never took that plunge while these other editors were doing it all.
And the rest of the newsletter…
Joe Bob’s Advice to the Hopeless; the short Communist Brainwashing Alert, about the closing of specific drive-ins; the Find that Flick contest ,where readers submit a description of a movie whose title they can’t remember and other readers figure it out; an ad for Joe Bob gear: jacket, t-shirt, mug, and a subscription to the newsletter; Joe Bob’s Classifieds; along with other articles by Joe Bob elucidating on subjects that don’t transition into articles about movies.
The newsletter crew includes editor Tanja Lindstrom, advertising and marketing director Mary Koon, honorary editor Debbie Rochon, artist Joe Rocco, music editor Clarke Blacker, intern Chad Laughlin, and contributing artists Ace Backwards, Guy Staats, Henry Roll, and Stephanie Piro.
That’s it for now.