Terrible Delights: Grindhouse Film Reviews

We kick off season 2 with the 1976 South African/American martial arts flick Kill or Be Killed. An ex-Nazi commander who lost a karate match to a Japanese opponent in a factually inaccurate past Olympic Games organizes a martial arts tournament to seek revenge while Chico the midget does cartwheels and offers $5,000 plus expenses to fighters. Our friend Mike Spada returns for this discussion.

This week's pick, and our season one finale, is the extremely fun and excellent Shaw Brothers 1975 superhero film Inframan. If Sid & Marty Krofft tried to make Kamen Rider with the best 70s futuristic sets and costumes while having night terrors, then the result would likely look something like China's first superhero movie. Change! Inframan!

This week's pick is the 1982 movie Class of 1984. A new teacher at a troubled inner-city high school soon ends up clashing with the delinquent leader of a punk posse that runs the school. Featuring a young and doughy Michael J. Fox, Roddy McDowall, and the guy from Meatballs that wins the hot dog eating contest.

This week's pick is the 1980 animal-on-the-loose flick Alligator. A pet baby alligator is flushed down a toilet and survives in the city sewers. Twelve years later, it grows to an enormous size thanks to a diet of discarded laboratory dogs injected with growth hormones. Now, humans have entered the menu.

This week's pick is the 1979 power tool slasher the Driller Killer. A struggling artist cracks under the pressure of mounting bills, relationship issues, and a deadline to get his latest painting finished. This causes him to run amock on the seedy streets of New York City, killing bums and crazies with his drill at random. Featuring way too many scenes of band practice by the Roosters. Special guest Edwin Callahan joins us.

The 1982 sci-fi/horror flick Nightbeast is this week's pick. An aggressive alien in what appears to be silk pajamas crash lands on Earth and begins killing people indiscriminately. It's up to a small-town sheriff with a perm and a small group of locals to combat the threat. An unnecessary love triangle adds nothing to this low-budget spectacle, but a high body count and uncomfortable sex scene make up for it.

This week's pick is the 1984 action revenge movie Alley Cat. A skilled martial artist tries to get revenge on the thugs who attempt to steal her tires and attack her grandparents. Featuring three separate scenes where she kicks the asses of would-be pervs while out for a nighttime jog.

This week's pick is the 1973 film The Little Cigars. A voluptuous blonde on the lam from her sadistic gangster boyfriend (after putting out a cigar on his ding dong) becomes involved with a team of petty crook midgets, not dwarfs!

The 1972 exploitation horror film The Last House on the Left is this week's pick. Two teenage girls heading to a rock concert for one's birthday try to score marijuana in the city, where they are kidnapped and brutalized by a gang of psychopathic convicts in Wes Craven's directorial debut.

This week's pick is the 1976's martial arts/horror mash-up Devil's Express. A tough black martial artist (Warhawk Tanzania) takes on warring street gangs and an evil demon with cartoon eyes that haunts the New York City subways. An accurate description for a rather messy, poorly acted, poorly directed movie. One plus? You get to see lots of how New York City looked in the mid-1970s.