Bloody Mama (1970)

4 / 5 Apr '10
Tagline: Say it with bullets!
Directed by: Roger Corman
Written by: Don Peters, Robert Thom
Actors include: Shelley Winters, Pat Hingle, Robert De Niro
Genre: Drama, Crime, Action, Exploitation
Length: 90 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Pretty enjoyably sleazy exploitation take on the whole Ma Baker and her good 'ole boys thing...only it's pretty inaccurate. I don't know much about the real story of the Bakers so the inconsistencies don't bother me in the slightest. Shelley Winters is very amusing as Ma Baker, the ringleader of evil doings and crime. She raises her boys to be very bad with warped ideas on what is good and bad and all of the rest but she's big on family and so are her boys. Hilariously Robert De Niro plays one of her sons, the heroin addicted paint sniffin' Baby Ruth chompin' boy and he's great...I just didn't expect to see him in a film like this. They rob banks as a family, kill people and more warped situations they get themselves into the meaner and more selfish Ma proves to be. It's actually very shocking and it goes a lot further than I would have expected. Heck the opening sequence is Ma as a young girl being raped by her Father (offscreen) but still...that's quite disturbing. This sort of follows from their needing to escape their home and leaving Pa Baker behind to the demise of the family. Very action packed and full of thrills and surprises, a lot more depraved than I was expecting but very fun in a way too. Corman does it again and it seems with each picture he pushes the envelope a bit further, I wonder what happened after this 'un?

Availability:  On DVD as part of the Roger Corman Collection

Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) aka Who Slew Auntie Roo?

4 / 5 July '10
Tagline: She's Taking A STAB At Motherhood!
Directed by: Curtis Harrington
Written by: Robert Blees, David D. Osborn
Actors include: Mark Lester, Shelley Winters, Chloe Franks
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 91 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Now this is rather like a Hammer telling of Hansel & Gretel, only of course it isn't really from the Hammer company. It's got a rather lavish production set in England in the '20s. Shelley Winters hams it up as Mrs. Forrest, a rather rich Woman who lives in a gingerbread house (not literally but it looks that way). She torments herself with visions of her daughter's freak accident that killed her because she loves children so. She loves them so much that every year she invites a group of orphans to her house to celebrate and extravagant Christmas. This year two orphans Christopher (Mark Lester...yes Oliver!) and Katy (Chloe Franks) sneak into the party, and when Mrs. Forrest sees how much Katy reminds her of her deceased daughter well trouble brews. It's kind of a slow start, but stick with it will more than pay off, it really does pick up steam. The actors are awesome and fun to watch, the story has a bit of humor in it plus it's a camp lovers dream!

Availability:  On DVD as part of a 2fer with What's The Matter With Helen?

The Initiation Of Sarah (1978)

2.5 / 5 Sept '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Robert Day
Written by: Kenette Gfeller, Tom Holland
Actors include: Kay Lenz, Shelley Winters, Tisa Farrow
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 96 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well this was really a combination of Carrie and Revenge of the Nerds only I really loved both of those films and I thought this one was dull and mundane. It was a made-for-tv (expect no violence and no killing...it's a horror movie, what were they thinking?) about a girl named Sarah with unexplained powers (that are usually used for dunking people in water who piss her off), she belongs to an adoptive family that have a daughter her age called Patty. The sisters go off to college, Patty is beautiful and has a great personality to match, so she gets in the "cool" fraternity. Sarah is an introvert and a brain and frankly a bit strange so she gets into the lamer fraternity that doesn't seem to care about much of anything. Sarah's "den mother" (Shelley Winters) is into witchcraft and wants Sarah for some sort of old initiation (which had someone die in it last time it was performed). See not much is explained, and the payoff is very weak to say the least. Despite the fact that it's tolerable schlock and well acted it's still not really worth bothering with, I kept waiting for something exciting to happen but it never really reached that point. It certainly could have been worse but considering the premise it should have been so much better.

Availability:  Not on DVD