Tag: blaxploitation
To say that Rudy Ray Moore is an acquired taste is like saying that Paris Hilton has no talent. Duh. His blue stand-up act aside, his films are low on budget and even lower on subtlety. Petey Wheatstraw, based on one of his acts, is the closest any of...
One of the more overlooked of the upper-tier Blaxploitation films -- horror or otherwise -- J.D.'s Revenge avoids the corniness inherent in taking a well-worn story and slapping the word "black" on it (Blacula, Blackenstein, Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde) by delivering a somber supernatural mystery propelled by haunting tension...
Abar, the First Black Superman is sort of like Soul Vengeance minus the phallic asphyxiation: it's not really horror, but it features a supernatural element that, combined with a Blaxploitation militancy and rigid acting, generates a true camp spectacle. In the case of Abar, the supernatural aspect is man-made:...
If you're going to build a house on a mountain shaped like a skull, you deserve what's coming to you. Thus, you shouldn't feel sorry for the people in The House on Skull Mountain; they really should know better. Although the title sounds like a haunted house movie, it's...
To the uninitiated, titles like Blacula and Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde signify ultra-cheap, ultra-cheesy Blaxploitation fare that could never be taken seriously, but the uninitiated can go take a flying leap. Truth is, both films are evocative, low-key, straightforward horror films with complex characters, taut direction from William Crain,...
No, it's not gay porn, but thanks for asking. Bones is a horror film starring the one and only Snoop Dogg. True, any film starring Snoop Dogg could legitimately be deemed a horror film, but this one actually has, like, ghosts and stuff. Snoop is Jimmy Bones, a '70s-era...
Blacula has become synonymous with black horror -- and rightly so -- but beyond being a seminal film that kickstarted the modern concept of black horror, it was also one of the earliest and most successful movies in the influential "Blaxploitation" era of cinema, propelling a movement that satiated...
It would be easy to assume that Blacula is a cheesy throwaway with camp-only value, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Blackenstein, on the other hand, is a sad, sad excuse for a film. On some level, though, that's what makes it so good -- er, well,...
The title Abby might sound like a '70s sitcom (I can hear the theme song now: "Abby, she's crabby...kind of stabby."), but it's in fact a Blaxploitation horror movie that plays out unabashedly in the vein of The Exorcist. In fact, it came dangerously close to being called Blackorcist,...
Sugar Hill is one of the more overlooked high-quality Blaxploitation movies, its lack of recognition baffling given it comes from American International Pictures (AIP), the company that distributed high-profile Blaxploitation flicks like Foxy Brown, the Blacula films and Black Caesar, not to mention horror fare like Frogs, Abby and The Abominable...
