1980s
Plot: vacationers face mercenaries, zombies, and cannibalistic monks. The eighties was the last great hurrah for classic Filipino exploitation. As the 90s dawned Hollywood reinforced its grip on the international market with big budget, special effects-driven event movies that no little independent could ever begin to compete with. The decline
2010s
Plot: hospital is haunted by apparitions and suspect slayings. Ghosts are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture and folklore. They were part of oral tradition before writing developed during the Shang Dynasty (1600 - 1046 BCE). From there out they came one of the earliest stories in ancient Chinese literature and
1970s
Plot: trauma transforms demure small-town girl into gun-toting angel of death. Karateci Kiz (Karate Girl in most of the English territories, Golden Girl in certain European markets, and Golden Karate Girl in most of Scandinavia) is a peculiar regional variant on an established (and often imitated) formula. At heart it’
2010s
Plot: PDEA officers fight to survive a night-time bust in the slums. It’s impossible to argue with nearly 40 years of cinematic tradition. BuyBust is Filipino through and through. Described on the regular as, “Die Hard in the slums” this adrenaline-pumping two-hour actionfest might very well be as incendiary
1990s
Plot: experimental treatment turns disgraced doctor into homicidal maniac. Intensive Care is the stuff of legend in the history of Dutch cinema, horror and otherwise. Conceived by the dynamic duo of director Dorna X. De Rouveroy - daughter of Robert Rouveroy, who did uncredited special effects work on David Cronenberg’
2000s
Plot: inflatable doll is given sentience and is in awe of the world around her. Air Doll (空気人形) is a Japanese fairytale with a pronounced South Korean magic realist bend. As an elegant mix of drama, romance, and comedy that blends the joie de vivre of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie
1970s
Plot: exchange student pulls prank on class playboy. Hilarity ensues! The careers of commedia sexy all'Italiana starlets Gloria Guida and Lilli Carati were irrevocably intertwined but didn’t exactly run parallel. Whereas la Guida made her ass a thing of national pride through a series of breezy comedies,
2010s
Plot: reality show contestants run afoul of escaped masked serial murderer. For reasons both inexplicable and incomprehensible the Playing with Dolls (2015-2017) franchise is Rene Perez’ most persistent property next to his zombie series The Dead and the Damned (2011-2015) and his penchant for reimagining classic European fairytales for mature
1970s
Plot: pious, virtuous nun is offered the temptations of the flesh by Satan. While it was Great Britain that had the dubious honour of kicking off the nunsploitation cycle with Ken Russell’s iconoclastic The Devils (1971), it were the most devout contries of continental Europe (Spain and Italy, in
2010s
Plot: eclectic group of urbanites is locked into a bar during a pandemic. When we were initially exposed to The Bar in 2018 there was excitement and electricity in the air as we were anxious to see Álex de la Iglesia return to the genre that made him famous, horror.
1990s
Plot: Charlie Case is a champion gymnast and a spy. Catch her if you can. Hawaiian trash specialist Albert Pyun was never below stretching budgets, cutting corners were he could, and he had an affinity for making up projects on the spot. He had learned an important lesson on The
2010s
Plot: dating in the modern world isn’t what it used to be. In his book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions Of A B-Movie Actor genre stalwart Bruce Campbell talks a great deal about what he refers to as Hollywood’s working stiffs, or blue-collar actors who just try to