(1990)
Dir - Gary Graver
Overall: MEH
Inspired by the then recent, real life serial boarding house murders committed by Dorothea Puente, Evil Spirits was the second and last feature done by schlock-peddler Gary Graver's short-lived production company Grand Am. Persistently boring due to the noticeable lack of funds at hand as well as Graver's abysmally uninspired direction, it oddly boasts a delightful cast of B-movie regulars. Michael Berryman plays someone besides a dim-witted brute for once, though his peeping tom/egg-loving writer character is still certainly eccentric. The same goes for Martine Beswick's spiritual medium, Debra Lamb's mute ballerina, and Hoke Howell's elderly alcoholic, all of whom are living in Karen Black's boarding house where she pockets social security checks, talks out loud to her husband's corpse that also talks back to her, (and sits all peaceful-like in a chair, Norma Bates style even though no one ever mentions what must be an appalling smell coming from there), and begins murdering her tenants because that is just what wackadoo psycho biddy ladies like her do in such movies. The on-screen players may be enough to make this a minor curiosity to genre fans, but it is simultaneously a D-rent dud for all involved.
(1995)
Dir - Jim Wynorski
Overall: MEH
A Skinemax staple amongst many, Sorceress, (Temptress II), is an interesting footnote in softcore genre cinema for some legit personnel on board, who are joining others that made a career out of taking their clothes off on camera. Produced by Fred Olen Ray, (who also makes a cameo appearance), shot by Roger Corman/John Cassavetes/Orson Welles' collaborator Gary Graver, and directed by prolific exploitation filmmaker Jim Wynorski, mainstays Julie Strain, Rochelle Swanson, Kristi Ducati, and Toni Naples provide the bosomy birthday suites while Linda Blair, Michael Parks, Edward Albert, and even William Marshall of all people provide the overqualified star power. Uneven from a thespian standpoint, (Strain goes for it in the diabolical lead, Swanson holds her own enough, Naples is terrible, Blair has done both far worse and far better, and Parks actually pretends that he is in a real movie), it delivers the steamy sex scenes alright and stays in its lane as far as boobie flicks go. Though the half-assed witchcraft story-line boils down to just something to throw in there between all of the horniness, it is a campy and charmingly sleazy watch that ends up being technically better than it has any reason to be.
(1998)
Dir - Brian Yuzna
Overall: MEH
Played straight for once coming from director Brian Yuzna, Progeny is an icky alien impregnation movie that still finds room for schlock and gross-out gore. Scripted by Aubrey Solomon as well as frequent Yuzna collaborator and master of horror Stuart Gordon, the story of a well-meaning couple suffering from a freak pregnancy is hardly an original one and the usual motifs of a seemingly quack doctor, a woman bouncing between "Get this thing out of me!" and "Please don't kill my baby!" mood swings, characters not believing people's inexplicable yet of course true stories, and nightmare psyche-outs are all present. In addition to those, the cheap production values render the whole thing more embarrassing than convincing, with adorable grey extraterrestrials and their squiggly tentacles being inexplicably bathed in light in order to heighten their cheap, Halloween decoration aesthetic. At other times though, Screaming Mad George and the rest of the special effects department deliver some nauseating shots of internal organs and monstrous fetuses, plus Arnold Vosloo does a slight Christopher Walken style line delivery, Jillian McWhirter gives it her all in trying to pretend that she is in a better movie, and Brad Dourif turns in a more subtle performance than he is ever usually hired to do.
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