Monster Megalodon Movies Part 1


Back in the 70's and 80's the  'Jaws' series taught us that sharks grow to 40 feet, eat helicopters, raise their heads above the water to roar at their prey, hunt in 4 feet of water, and attack cruise ships. With that in mind the spat of recent megalodon films has revealed some shockingly new devlopments in the shark world,  now not only can sharks grow to 65 feet + but can change size at any given notice, they can fly, easily eat 747 airplanes, and attack oil rigs, super tankers, and aircraft carriers. Yet they still hunt teenagers in 4 feet of water and raise their heads above the water to roar.

Complaining about goofy CGI or story lines in a monster megalodon/ shark movie “is useless. The basic fact that these kind of movies have these treats for us makes them fun to watch and if you have problems with the fore-mentioned goofy parts this isn't the right type of movie for you. but if this stuff is totally your bag, then here is part one of the ultimate mega monster megalodon movie list ....


Snow Shark

Snow Shark (2011)

Directed by Sam Qualiana.

Cast: Sam Qualiana, Michael O’Hear, Jackey Hall , Kathy Murphy, CJ Wualiana, Andrew Elias.

Tagline: Ancient Snow Beast Modern Killing Machine.


Snow Shark is – according to its press release: “the outrageous and spine-tingling tale of the world’s greatest predator, frozen for thousands of years, freed by an earthquake, and really, really hungry! In 1999, a team of animal biologists investigating a rash of wildlife killings disappeared in the lonely woods near a small town. Years later, a local resident claims to have killed a prehistoric carnivorous creature living in the snow. Now, someone – or something – is making lunch of the locals…”

A prehistoric shark of local legend begins eating the locals in a quiet wintry small town. Mike Evans the sole survivor of a past snow shark attack, leads an angry and armed posse who are determined to slay the beast. Writer/director Qualiana treats the gloriously ludicrous premise in a sidesplitting mock serious manner:



The abundant cheesy gore (the CGI blood in particular is quite tacky), a hilariously obvious shark puppet, poky pacing, the monotonous hum'n'shiver synthesizer score, lousy (markedly less than) special effects, cardboard stock characters, a decent smattering of tasty gratuitous distaff nudity, crude cinematography, and the meandering narrative all give this exquisitely abominable baby a certain chintzy hokey charm that's impossible to either resist or dislike.
 The endearingly awful acting by the lame no-name cast further adds to this picture's considerable kitschy appeal, with stand-out stinky work by Michael O'Hear as the no-nonsense Prof. Jonathan Hoffman, Jackey Hall as the feisty Daphne, C.J. Qualiana as the morose Sheriff Donald Chapman, Kathy Murphy as the tart Wendy, Andrew Elias as nerdy crypto-zoologist Lincoln Anderson, Andy Taylor as obnoxious macho redneck hunter Cameron Caine, and Robert Bozak as the jerky Mayor Shawn Overman. A complete crummy hoot.



2-Headed Shark Attack
2-Headed Shark Attack (2012)
Directed by Christopher Ray, son of Fred Olen Ray.
Cast: Carmen Electra, Charlie O’Connell (jerry’s brother) and Brooke Hogan, daughter of Hulk Hogan.
Tagline: 1 Body, 2 Heads and 6,000 Teeth.

Terror takes a ghastly form when a gigantic two-headed shark sinks a ship full of students, and the survivors wash up on a tiny atoll. But just when the kids think they're safe, a tsunami sweeps them back into the deep to face the twin jaws anew, No one is safe from the double ‘jaws’ of the monster
2-Headed Shark Attack is a horror film from The Asylum, The plot goes like any other average teen horror movie. You expect since they are on the water, a shark will show up. Well, if you would assume that, then you are only partially right. What you probably didn't expect is that the shark would have two heads, which is what really sets this movie apart from the rest. It is a completely original ground-breaking idea that will be setting the standards for film makers for years to come.
Things start to go wrong, to the surprise of me and I'm sure everyone else who watched this film. The characters eventually get onto an island, which led me to believe that they were safe. This let me catch my breath for a slight second, only to have it taken away again by the twist that the island was sinking! After that detail was revealed, I was on the edge of my seat for the rest of the movie.
The actors gave some of the best performances I have ever seen, especially Carmen Electra as the doctor. I didn't think she was a doctor, but I guess I was wrong. She pulled it off better than any actress in the history of film could.

The idea of a two headed shark in this movie is absolutely genius. It is an idea never before seen in a movie. The idea scared the hell out of me! I couldn't wrap the idea of a two headed shark around my head, so I started putting things together. I thought, "Okay, two headed shark. This means twice the eyes so it can see twice as well. Twice the brains so twice as smart. Also, twice the smell and senses of a normal one headed shark. And...NO WAY!!! TWICE THE TEETH!"
  
Jersey Shore Shark Attack
Jersey Shore Shark Attack (2012)
Directed by John Shepphird. Written by Michael Ciminera and Richard Gnolfo.
Cast: Paul Sorvino, Jeremy Luke, Jack Scalia and Melissa Molinaro.
Tagline: Your worst fears will surface!

Many years ago, hundreds of locals and tourists were massacred by giant man-eating sharks in the infamous 1916 Jersey Shore attacks. But that’s just a legend… or is it? It’s a holiday weekend on the Jersey Shore and, unbeknownst to anyone, underwater drills have attracted dozens of albino bull sharks to the pier. When a man goes missing, TC (The Complication), Nookie and friends fear the worst and plead with the police chief to close down the beach. It isn’t until a famous singer is eaten alive during a performance on the pier that the shark hunt begins. Now, the Preppies must work together with the Guidos in order to save the Jersey Shore and its inhabitants from another vicious slaughter…
A plot summary is pretty useless, but I'll go ahead anyway, in one sentence: During the Fourth of July weekend, prehistoric, deep-sea albino bull sharks are terrorizing Seaside Heights, New Jersey, and it's up to the hard-partying members of a "Jersey Shore"-like reality TV show to stop them. That's it. Although it's unlikely that you could ever count on the drunken beach-goers of Seaside Heights to save the day from man-eating sharks,
"Jersey Shore Shark Attack's" merits come from its knowing self-awareness of its source material. The trick is combining the two sources effectively, and it does so. The movie begins like "Jaws" in its first five minutes, before going on to "Jersey Shore"-like
debauchery and shenanigans with Shore-house cast-mate TC/"The Complication" (Jeremy Luc) waking up in bed after a drunken one-night stand with a bikini-clad local floozy, followed by a wet-&-wild wet T-shirt contest at a local bar. Things climax with a bar-room brawl between the Shore-house cast-mates and a group of upper-crust college grads, before comfortably moving back into "Jaws" territory when an ensuing foot-chase between the two conflicting parties down the boardwalk ends with one of the drunken locals becoming shark food.
The CGI special effects are pretty poor, but there are some spectacularly bloody shark attacks that are way more likely to elicit gut-busting laughs than screams.  The keys to its marginal success are its attempts at combining "Jaws" with the outlandish antics of "Jersey Shore," complete with the requisite gory animal attacks of the former and the bad-American stereotypes, complete with a Snooki like character delightfully called "Nooki".

Jurassic Shark
Jurassic Shark (2012)
Directed by: Brett Kelly
Cast: Emanuelle Carriere, Christine Emes, and Celine Filion.
Tagline: Dinosaur From The Deep
Jurassic Shark is a 2012 Canadian action/horror monster film
When an oil company has unwittingly unleashed a prehistoric shark from its icy prison, the Jurassic killer maroons a group of art thieves and a group of beautiful young college students on an abandoned piece of land. The two opposing groups are forced to do what they can to survive or become food for the not-quite-extinct shark!
Let's start with the storyline. A company is drilling for oil in a lake, and apparently drilled through a large


chunk of ice, releasing a prehistoric shark from within. Yeah, alright, been done before, but sure, why not one more time. Makes for your average run of the mill shark movie, so it works out well enough. But let's back it up a little bit, shall we. They drilled through ice? But the lake apparently wasn't cold water, as people were there swimming and having fun at the beach. It just doesn't make any sense.
It wasn't all bad though. The movie was so cheesy and campy that it was actually fun to watch. And the three youngsters played by Emanuelle Carriere (playing Jill), Christine Emes (playing Tia) and Celine

Filion (playing Kristen) actually did some alright acting compared to the other people in the movie.
For a low budget shark movie, then "Jurassic Shark" was actually a rather good production. The cinematography was good and the editing was adequate. The movie just suffered from a bad and implausible storyline. and the ending to the movie; priceless! Two guys sitting on some rocks at the water, drinking beer talking about one of the guy's stepdaughter and wife, and then says "Even big, ugly things can have offspring". What happens then? Come on, doesn't take much intellect to figure it out. I will not say it, even though it is so painstakingly obvious. Watch the ending, it was so hilarious


MegaShark Versus Crocosaurus
Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus (2010)
Directed by: Christopher Ray, son of Fred Olen Ray.
Cast: Jaleel White,(Steve Urkel) Gary Stretch, Robert Picardo, Dylan Vox, Hannah Cowley and Sarah Lieving.
Tagline: Whoever wins... we lose!
A megalodon battles with a Crocosaurus causing massive destruction. The US Army has to try and destroy the havoc creating monsters…
Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus is a monster disaster film by The Asylum, The film is a sequel to the 2009 film Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus but contains little of the original cast from that film. After its titanic battle with the Giant Octopus, the world had only one question -- what would happen if the Mega Shark did battle with a 1500 foot giant crocodile? Well, luckily, we know the answer, as "Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus" is finally released!



Easily mistaken for a documentary, this film follows a band of intrepid heroes -- an oceanic sound engineer (played by Jaleel White, yup, "Urkel") who knows about sharks, a drunken hunter who knows about crocodiles, and an uptight FBI agent who is also a helicopter pilot and wears a tight tank top -- as they chase the two monsters around the globe.
The plot is straightforward; while mining diamonds in the Congo, workers unleash a giant crocodile. Meanwhile, the Mega Shark has returned and apparently finds crocodile eggs indescribably delicious. Thus, the tension between the two beasts. The top-of-the-line special effects will blow your mind as we follow the story from Miami Beach to Orlando to California to the Panama Canal. The Mega Shark is up to its old tricks (eating boats, jumping out of the water to attack planes, etc.) and the Crocosaurus will live in your nightmares as you watch it trample through cities.



  

Sand Sharks

Sand Sharks (2011)

Directed by: Mark Atkins 

Cast: Corin Nemec,(Parker Lewis) Brooke Hogan (Hulk Hogan offspring) and Vanessa Lee Evigan.

Tagline: Just When You Thought You Were Safe Out of the Water

Prehistoric sand-dwelling sharks are unleashed on the island of White Sands when an underwater earthquake cracks open a crater deep beneath the ocean surface. The most menacing beasts to ever rule the waters now rule the sand; with their monster appetites they mercilessly feast on anything that crosses their path…


The story of this one is rather self-explanatory. The makers did make the smart move to not show the beasties too much - however, lots of people get munched on- and what we did see was the usual clunky CGI, mostly fins and sharks popping out of the..mmh.. Sand (really, how anybody can resist that with “Tremors" or "Blood beach" in their nostalgia bag I don't know).


We have the usual town festival on the beach and we have the colourful figures that run around between the sand shark attacks. And those figures are colourful, we have a guy channelling a Johnny Depp impersonation, we have the Robert Shaw derivative with even the exact same way of talking and last but not least. Brooke Hogan as a shark expert. And everyone is in on the joke, nobody takes themselves or the story really serious and the acting - for this kind of movie- is above par. And you need that in a movie like this were there isn't enough budget to do great action scenes or big set pieces.



And truth to be told, Brook isn't doing a bad job. I remember seeing asylum movies with 80's singers like Tiffany that were a hell of a lot worse. She doesn't have to make room for any Oscars in the near future but she does an okay job (which she also did in " 2 headed shark attack"). I mean, don't get me wrong, nobody is going to believe that she is a shark expert even if her life depended on it but she delivers the lines and on this level movie wise her acting chops are more than enough.

Sharktopus

Sharktopus  (2010)

Directed by: Declan O’Brien and produced by Roger Corman and Julie Corman. It

Cast: Eric Roberts (from everything B- grade), Sara Malakul Lane and Kerem Bursin.

Tagline: Half-Shark. Half -Octopus. All Terror.

The U.S. Navy commissions a group known as “Blue Water” to genetically engineer a half-shark, half-octopus for combat. During a demonstration off Santa Monica, the Sharktopus escapes the control of its creators and causes mayhem. Hunted by Blue Water and a television crew, the monster attacks numerous beach-goers.

The plot is that a team of father and daughter marine biologists create a half shark, half octopus to use as a weapon for the navy. Then the remote control mechanism is knocked off and the Sharktopus goes on a killing rampage. Captain Jack (the creator of Sharktopus) higher Andy Flynn, an Iraq war veteran, to capture the monster. But when Andy
nearly gets killed and loses two of his friends he vows revenge.
There you have it. This is not supposed to be the next Jaws or even Deep Blue Sea... Apparently the director told the actors to be wooden and show very little emotion. I just wish that actors would react to seeing the killings. Whenever someone is eaten or torn apart in the movie whoever was witnessing it didn't react. They just stand there with a stupid look on their face. At least scream or try to help the victim. The production is minimal. The props appear to be objects the actors brought from home. The special effect is also bad with Sharktopus constantly changing size. In one scene he's big enough to eat VW Bug, in a later scene he is as big as a human. There are also scenes where the monster is walking out on land. Now I am not a marine biologist, but I am pretty sure that sharks or octopuses can't survive outside of water. In order to enjoy it loosen up and get a sense of humour.



Swamp Shark

Swamp Shark aka Frying Jaws (2011)
Directed by: Griff Furst
Cast: Kristy Swanson, ( the original Buffy) D. B. Sweeney, Robert Davi, Jason Rogel, Sophia Sinise, (Gary Sinise's daughter) Richard Tanne, and Jeff Chase
Tagline: “This isn’t a normal shark! It swims! It kills! And it’s out there!”
Its summer in the gorgeous swamplands of the Atchafalaya Basin. Lots of beautiful teens are at the beach the weekend before Gator Fest. That night an animal smuggling deal goes wrong and a large sea creature escapes into a swampy backwoods river. At the McDaniel’s “Gator Shack” restaurant, a local, Jackson is drunk, and gets mangled to bits. The town sheriff blames the carnage on the McDaniel’s “escaped” pack of gators and tries hauling them off to jail. Rachel McDaniel, head of the family, claims to have seen the fin of a shark! Rachel and her family, along with the help of a mysterious stranger, Charlie, take on the Swamp Shark and the law to clear their names, save Rachel’s kid sister Krystal and prevent the unwitting folks at the upcoming Gator Fest from being torn to shreds by a beast the likes of which no one has ever seen!


Staring the original BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Kristy Swanson as Rachel Broussard, the owner of the Gator Shack restaurant located right next to the swamplands of the Atchafalaya Basin. She runs the restaurant with her younger sister Krystal (Sophie Sinise, Gary Sinise's daughter). All and all it’s a pretty decent creature feature, like most of these usually are, and gets some good points to it. There's a couple rather fun stalking scenes in the swamps, taking full advantage of the situation with the creepy swamp used to make for some really tense moments, the shark actually looks really good and has some scenes where it's a full-live shark, prop and not CGI, making for some really impressive scenes and the finale, set during a town carnival-type event, is a lot of fun.

There's even a rather nice sequence where the family sets out to hunt the creature out in open waters, giving the middle segment some pretty enjoyable action with the different tactics employed and the shark being able to outwit them. Its one weak area is that there are not a lot of actual shark attacks going on, and while it's not noticeable to the plot or pacing, it does lower the gore quotient somewhat since there are not a whole lot of attacks at all. With a lack of explanation as to what the shark is and where it came from also hurting this one, the flaws that do appear aren't enough to knock this one off.
Swamp Shark is harmless and it isn’t terrible. All the actors seem to be having fun, none of them put in a truly terrible performance, the characters you want to die end up dying, and the ending is silly, over-the-top fun.



Sharknado
Sharknado (2013)
Directed by:  Anthony C Ferrante.
Cast: John Heard, Cassie Scerbo, Ian Ziering (Steve off 90210) Jaason Simmons (one of those Aussie guys off early Baywatch) and Tara Reid.
Tagline: Enough said!
When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, nature's deadliest killer rules sea, land, and air as thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace.
Sharknado is produced by The Asylum and the guy responsible for the screenplay is Thunder Levin, whose previous writing credits include Mutant Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood! 
A prologue shows a fishing crew hacking of fins intended for soup in the Far East and tossing the dying sharks back into the Mexican Ocean. A storm overwhelms the boat and the crew are all eaten by sharks.


A freak hurricane apparently caused by global warming hits Los Angeles, causing man-eating sharks to be scooped up in tornadoes and flooding the city with shark-infested seawater. Surfer and bar-owner Fin (Ziering) sets out with his friends Baz (Jaason Simmons) and Nova (Scerbo) to rescue his ex misses April (Reid) and teenage daughter. He succeeds but April’s boyfriend is eaten by the sharks. The group meet up with Matt the adult son of Fin and April, who is in flying school. They decide to try to stop the threat of the incoming “sharknadoes” by tossing bombs into them from helicopters.
This movie swims its way ever further into the realms of the jawbone dropping bizarre, with several key scenes to be on the lookout for. Look for the random one-in-a-million rescue near the end, and the wacky idea the heroes use to try and save the day. This sort of chaos is common throughout the entire movie.

Super Shark

Super Shark (2011)
Directed by:  Fred Olen Ray
Cast: John Schneider (Bo of Dukes of Hazzard), Sarah Lieving, Tim Abell
Tagline: That's one big ass shark

An offshore drilling accident releases a giant primordial shark. When the shark flies and walks on land threatening to turn a bikini contest into a bloodbath, marine biologist Kat Carmichael arrives to destroy the shark and save beach-goers. Her efforts are stymied by corporate bad guy Roger Wade and his flunky Stewart who are only interested in their own agenda of money, money, money. With time running out for beach loving humans, Carmichael recruits heroic skipper Chuck and fearless disc jockey Dynamite Stevens to help her blast the blood thirsty shark back to a watery grave.


To summarize your typical attack: A couple of stereotypical beach types, usually scantily-clad young women of questionable repute, stand around on the beach engaging in banal conversation ... and the shark

JUMPS on the beach and CHEWS his victims! And doesn't even use his teeth! Maybe he chews with his uvula? As an added bonus, you get to see Jimmie Walker. Yes, Jimmie Walker, as in "Dy- no-mite! Off the Good Times from the 70’s" And he actually uses this line several times!



The New Barbarians - Italian Post Apocalyptic Gold


Italian Post Apocalypse films were born in 1982, the bastard offspring of America's Escape from New York and Australia’s Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, it quickly ran out of steam in 1984. The Italian films have always offered up a great way to waste a couple of hours through sheer 'boy's own' manly action and a healthy dose of cheese.
As a rough rule of thumb the Post-apocalyptic story lines often take place in the aftermath of a disaster - typically nuclear holocaust, war, plague - that justifies a civilisation's restructuring itself.

The themes commonly feature some societal/ technological system's continuing existence or some attempt to restore/preserve some desired pre-disaster qualities. Although not a requisite, many post-apocalyptic movies have a man-made cause. However, there are some simplistic post-apocalyptic films that mainly have desperate survivors engaged in some struggle over scarce resources. These flicks are just so dam addictive! I think it’s the full atmosphere of 80's italo exploitation thrash that makes them cool: good explosions- nothing digital! Crazy overacted characters, some bare breasts, a setting full of cheap dirt. These movies are so honest in their cheesiness and roughness that they achieve their greatness through their mediocrity.

As a brief introduction I'll kick off by listing I my favourite italo PA films that I own on VHS, but there are heaps more, not only Italian films but from all over the world , including New Zealand, but I’ll cover those ones in a future post.

1990: Bronx Warriors aka Bronx Warriors / 1990: I Guerrieri Del Bronx (1982)
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari.
Starring - Mark Gregory, Fred Williamson, Vic Morrow.
In a post-apocalyptic New York City, a policeman infiltrates the Bronx Warriors, which has become a battleground for several murderous street gangs. It's the dead of night, and nobody at all is on the street. On the other side of the bridge, a Manhattan runaway, girl named Young Ann is attacked by a gang of street hockey players! These guys are on roller skates, dressed in fiberglass safety gear, and are wielding hockey sticks as weapons. They chase Young Ann into a dead end and surround her, but then they are themselves surrounded by a much tougher-looking gang who at least have the self-respect to ride motorcycles. In the middle of this chaos, gang leader Trash steps in to take care of her.



Escape From The Bronx aka Bronx Warriors 2 / Fuga Dal Bronx) (1983)
Directed  by Enzo G. Castellari.
Starring- Mark Gregory, Henry Silva, Valeria D'Obici.
A rag-tag group of people must fight extermination squads amid their ruined city. Mark Gregory returns as Trash who is living the smooth life of being a thug in the slums. But the evil General Construction Corporation have decided that the Bronx needs to rebuilt and decide to save money and time by simply killing everyone who didn't take them up on their offer to move to New Mexico(what's so bad about moving to New Mexico anyway?). The GCC hires an expelled prison warden who loves death(played by Rat Packer Henry Silva) to lead a bunch of "disinfectors" who are guys in silver jumpsuits & bike helmets that carry semi-automatics and a bunch of astronauts with flame throwers. Trash is their target and they pursue him and his friends on a long chase sequence under the Bronx
 The New Barbarians aka Warriors of the Wastelands / I Nuovi Barbari (1983)
Directed by Enzo G. Castellari.
Starring - Fred Williamson, Giancarlo Prete, and George Eastman.

In 2019 the Nuclear Apocalypse has happened, The New Barbarians takes place in the post-apocalyptic future where a gang of ridiculously costumed barbarian types called the Templars, nut-cases driving modified 'futuristic' looking cars, set out to destroy the few humans left as punishment for the crime of being born, basically This world is dead. So, accordingly, everybody in it must die too (except themselves, of course). The Templars wardrobe and hairdo's are a nightmare to every designer with at least a single notion of good taste, or a dream-come-true to fashion-experts high on Swedish designer-drugs. The Templars simply look THAT hilarious. You won't believe your eyes. The characters have remarkably, profound-sounding names like Scorpion, Shadow, Father Moses, One,.... Scorpion is the loner-hero. As much as the Templars have no reason for killing everybody, Scorpion has absolutely no reason for being a hero. As well as Fred Williamson has no reason to be in this flick. All he does is drive around in his amazing buggy, give Scorpion some sort of Jedi-like training during his revalidation and shoot explosive arrows. The vehicle's designs are simply mind-boggling. Most of them even have very vicious 'boobie-traps', such like: grenade-launchers, ultra-long drills coming out of the front-grid, car-doors that launch themselves and explode on impact, flame-throwers (of course) and my personal favourite: a circular saw, expanding from the side of the car which decapitates innocent civilians running for their lives.

2020: Texas Gladiators aka 2020 Freedom Fighters /Anno 2020 - I Gladiatori Del Futuro/ 2020 Freedom Fighters) (1982)
Directed  by Joe Dâ Amato.
Starring- Al Cliver, Harrison Muller Jr., Daniel Stephen, Geretta Geretta, Sabrina Siani.

In a post-apocalyptic Texas, a band of warriors fight against a fascist regime that is trying to take control of all surviving population. The government has deteriorated...laws are unbinding...and cruel savages rule the wastelands, comes a new heroic breed... The "Rangers," a team comprising of disciplined, dedicated, and laconic mercenaries are on a mission...to exterminate the evils that roam in the post-nuclear world. Led by "Nisus" (Al Cliver), the roster includes "Halakron," (Peter Hooten), "Catch Dog," (Daniel Stephen), and "Red Wolfe" (Al Yamanouchi). When the going gets tough...these guys slice it up! The future is forsaken...all hope is lost and innocent lives are in despair. The asperity of the aftermath of World War III (or the *Atomic War*) has taken its toll on the human population... However, the remnants of the surviving human race must learn to rebuild their civilization and live in harmony...but too many obstacles and detours stand in their way...

2019: After The Fall Of New York aka 2019 - Dopo La Caduta Di New York/After the Fall Of New York (1983)
Directed by Sergio Martino.
Starring- Michael Sopkiw, Valentine Monnier, Anna Kanakis.

After a nuclear war, society breaks down into two groups, the evil Euraks and the rebel Federation. A mercenary named Parsifal is hired by the Federation to infiltrate New York City, which is controlled by the Euraks, to rescue the only fertile woman left on Earth.  It kicks off with a Fascist kingpin’s scheme in an office decorated with a futuristic knockoff of "Guernica." Gladiators clash in souped-up sedans, and then get their prizes dispensed by cyborgs styled like female clowns. A Doctor Evil-like chrome-dome bad guy gets his eyeballs pulled out by hooks, then replaced with ones from an unlucky donor. AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK may be the only grindhouse rip-off of a famous movie that out-invents the original by a power of one hundred. It's supposed to be a copy of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, Dizzily cast and designed, with more visual ideas and free-form movement than any grindhouse movie of the period, it's a lesson in what B movies are supposed to be--and were, before they turned into bland late-night-Cinemax fodder.

Endgame aka Bronx lotta finale /Gioco Finale) (1983)
Directed  by Joe Dâ Amato.
Starring- Al Cliver, Laura Gemser.

Endgame is set in a hollowed out, irradiated New York out in the year 2025. People are entertained by the ultimate reality show called Endgame. Ron Shannon is Endgame's greatest champ. Kurt Karnak is his bitter rival. During the game a mutant helps Shannon to defeat Karnak but Shannon spares his life. Bad move? Shannon is then enlisted by a telepath and a band of mutants attempting to escape the city. Of course, a suitcase full of gold sweetens the deal for Shannon, who then rounds up a band of cutthroats to help him, including Ninja, the coolest guy in the film. There are many great fight scenes in this movie, one involving blind monks and another with a gang led by a man who is half fish. Eventually the number of the group is whittled down to Shannon but the mission gets accomplished anyway. Shannon is asked) to join the mutants, which he doesn't. Wouldn't you know it as the chopper flies off out comes Karnak to battle Shannon for the gold. The movie ends just as the battle starts, which actually is a cool way to go. And this movie came out over a decade before there was reality TV!

Exterminators OF The Year 3000 aka Gli Sterminatori Dell'anno 3000/ Death Warriors (1983)
Directed  by Giuliano Carnimeo.
Starring- Robert Iannucci, Alicia Moro, Luciano Piozzi.

In the post-apocalyptic future, the barren wasteland that was once the fertile green Earth is now ruled by hordes of deranged biker fiends and motor-psychos. These marauders seek that which is most precious in this parched, dying land - clean water. Only the aged survivors remember precipitation called rain. The rest of the populace dream of purified tanks of H2O held by a race of horribly scarred nuclear mutants. It is into this scenario that the Exterminator, accompanied by his mercenary ex-girlfriend and a bionic orphan, stalks the pure waters of the nuke mutants. These three battle the savage elements, survive vicious biker tortures, and finally duel with the vile wrath of the nuke mutants themselves.

Rats: Nights Of Terror aka  Rats - Notte di terrore (1984)
Directed by Bruno Mattei.
Starring- Geretta Geretta, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua.

225, A.B. (After Bomb) - A motley assortment of survivalist bikers seeks sanctuary at an abandoned warehouse that's richly abundant in food, water and comfortable shelter. Naturally, there's one huge glitch: The place is also teeming with a horrid array of hungry, super-intelligent carnivorous rats with a sickening sweet tooth for human flesh. The basic plot seems routine and unpromising, but "Rats" luckily -- and, more importantly, successfully -- aspires to be more than just another by-the-numbers post-nuke kill-a-thon by cleverly working in an odd, imaginative, breaking-against-the-standard-mould religious allegory into the tense and scary proceedings. Furthermore, the characters are unusually well-drawn and solidly acted, going above and beyond cardboard cut-out status: the laconic, relaxed, grimly rational chopper gang leader Kurt (neatly played with sufficient poise and charisma by Richard Raymond) serves as a scruffy, rough-around-the-edges tough guy Christ figure, the savage, scurvy, libidinous Lucifer (a magnificently malicious Christopher Bretnor) assumes snarling, refractory rebel chores with frightful intensity, and the flighty, girlish motorcycle mama Lilith (the tall, beauteous, dark-haired Moune Duvivier, who's indeed luscious enough to entice any man into engaging in sinful behavior) represents the wicked carnal temptations of the flesh

New Gladiators aka I Guerrieri Dell'anno 2072/ Fighting Centurions Rome, 2072 A.D. (1984)
Directed by Lucio Fulci.
Starring- Jared Martin, Fred Williamson.

In 2072 Rome, Italy, the ruthless CEO of a TV network plots to stage a modern series of gladiator games for ratings while one 'contestant' learns of a conspiracy behind the true nature of the results. "In the year 2072, the world has become a barbaric, computerized wasteland. Waging a ruthless war for the minds of the masses, two huge, global TV networks create increasingly bizarre and violent programming - culminating in the ultimate prime time death-sport: 'The Battle of the Condemned'! In this media spectacular, convicted murderers are given the chance to escape their death sentences - by entering into a high-tech fight to the finish in front of the cameras! But, unknown to the TV execs, their super-intelligent network computer has devised a program of its own - a program aimed at subjugating all of humanity! Led by the resourceful Drake (JARED MARTIN of Westworld and TV's Dallas) and a towering black warrior (FRED WILLIAMSON), a band of futuristic gladiators plunges into a desperate struggle to survive the televised bloodbath and defeat the omnipotent computer!"

Final Executioner aka Lâ Ultimo Guerriero/ The Last Warrior (1984).
Directed by Romolo Guerrieri.
Starring- William Mang, Marina Costa, Harrison Muller Jr.

After the nuclear apocalypse, a class system developed. A privileged, non-contaminated upper class and the radiation-contaminated masses. Presumably to do double duty as a really entertaining sport as well as cleanse the population of "undesirables", the rich invented a game: "The Hunt", where they let loose the unwashed masses and shoot them for fun. One day, a disgruntled member of the underclass decides to fight back. After the baddies kill his wife, Alan (Mang) becomes intent on revenge against the hunters. Being an intellectual and having no fighting background, Sam, a former New York City cop, extensively trains Alan in the warrior arts. The film a lot of exploitative elements, plenty of sex, nudity, constant violence, shooting, chases, and blow-ups. This does have most of the hallmarks of the Italian post-nuke world we've come to know and love: absurd dubbing, motorcycles and cars with crazy, "futuristic" appliances on them, unbelievably wacky costumes and the like. Interestingly, this also has a comment on the Italian class system, using the apocalyptic wasteland as a backdrop for it.
 

Neck Romancing, Swamplanding and the ARTS of Ben.



Benjamin Paskins comes from a Graphic Design background. Likes to illustrate colourful explosions of weird shit. Makes up bands and draws them in  watercolour awesomeness.

Hollerin' from the Sunshine Coast, He makes art to sell, including  bringing you a wide array of colourful stickers, prints, original paintings and illustrations and pretty much anything you can print on.

Ben is  also co-owner of the Sunshine Coast institution The Time Machine and is responsible for the Zine SWAMPLANDS. Its a cool little publication that aims to embrace creative Australian small business. Music/art/fun times.

Here is a little bit of what Ben has said about the Zine.
 
Swamplands Issue one



Issue one of Swamplands hot off the press

A little while back I applied for a Small Creative Government grant, not thinking I was going to get it, just for practise really. It was to fund the printing for a zine (a small independent publication) for promoting creativity, embracing D.I.Y culture and whole-heartedly supporting Australian Independents. Funnily enough, we actually got the funding for it. Which is great! Except now I have made... more work for myself and now have to put it together". 

The first issue was  primarily focussed on his little town, Nambour, and its inhabitants. Its primary focus was to lift the terrible stigma and reputation Nambour has, whilst networking the Independent businesses to try and work together and you know, be nice to one  another.

"the main aim was  to bridge the gap between other suburbs on The Sunshine Coast, to try and work together to get a whole bunch of things to do organizsed 'round here parts. It will also have profiles on a bunch of bands/artists and articles on varying topics to make it a bloody good read, eh? Also to show people the potential Nambour has at being the Arts/Music Hub of the Sunshine Coast".

To find out more about Swampland here

Artwork illustration and other oddities. Benjamin Paskins

Shirt Designs contact ben directly for custom orders

 
A selection of weird from Ben

The Time Machine



The Killing Machine



“The Killing Machine,” formerly known as “Icarus,” is yet another ultra-violent movie starring Dolph Lundgren, who also directed -- but he didn’t work on the screenplay this time around. Dolph has directed quite a few movies lately, of which “Command Performance” was an unusually successful D2DVD actioner.

The movies directed by the Big Swede himself always have one thing in common--they’re extremely violent! They can almost compete with Steven Seagal when it comes to gruesome splatter. More than one of Dolph’s latest movies ends with him blowing the head of the main bad guy off with a shotgun. The big difference is that Dolph is a sympathetic guy, while Seagal comes out as a sadist.

“The Killing Machine” is exceptionally violent. Dolph plays mild-mannered businessman Edward Genn, always sporting suits. He’s divorced from his wife, with whom he has a little daughter, he has a new girlfriend (but you can tell he still loves his former wife), and he’s quit smoking, something that doesn’t prevent him from putting a cigarette in his mouth every now and then -- but he never lights it.

However ... Mister Genn is leading a double life. Edward Genn isn’t his real name. He’s former KGB agent Icarus, and he still works as a hitman for the Russian mob to make money. He’s elegant, he’s professional, and he kills people. Dozens of people. Hundreds. Some are into scrapbooking; Edward Genn kills people.

Then one day it turns out there’s a contract on Edward, and loads of people try to take him out. They blow his girlfriend up! Something that really pisses Edward off. He tries to protect his former wife (her new boyfriend is killed) and their little daughter, but everybody they trust is dirty. So Edward simply has to kill everybody in sight. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

The Worlds Most EVIL art Part 1


Write a book or paint a painting, and who knows whether it'll still be around a few years later. But build a goddamned 100-ton bronze statue, and people will still be staring at that shit centuries from now. Which makes it all the more awesome when a sculptor creates a horrifying monument to his own insanity and gets it erected in city park or town square

El Mesteno
Denver Internation Airport (DIA), Colorado, United States
 
The Denver International Airport has something no other airport in the world has. Or, for that matter, wants. It's a statue of a horse called El Mesteno, and its demonic gaze is the very first thing greeting you when you step out of the airport building:


I'm assuming that if you look on the ground behind this fucker, you'll see that Satan has gotten thrown off his steed. The first time you lay eyes upon El Mesteno, you lose all doubt that Lucifer's mighty steed has broken lose of its hell-dimension paddock and is running amock in the world of mere mortals. This is no simple horse statue. El Mesteno has more furious personality in his left front hoof than any iconic statue of George Washington on his noble mount. This mustang looks angry, from his bulging veins and flared nostrils right down to his violent rearing pose. Hey, did I mention that it's 32 feet tall?

El Mesteno, or "oh shit run it's the giant zombie hell horse" as it is more affectionately known, is the gatekeeper between you and Denver, and the price for getting any further is your soul. Which it incidentally took the second it laid those eyes on you, so you now have nothing to bargain with.

I'm thinking the people in charge of erecting El Mesteno probably should've taken the hint that this creepy ass beast was bad news, cause it's kinda  hard to ignore the bad omens that came with El Mesteno's creation. Particulary the fact that a large portion of the heavy statue fell on the artist Jimenez while it was being moved, fatally crushing him. That's right: The zombie horse of DIA killed its own sculptor, making  El Mesteno  both Jimenez's largest and last work of art.

But what does the zombie horse of DIA mean? Is it in fact a symbol of power and strength, warding off any evil that would seek to enter Denver through its major transportation hub? Or is it something darker? Insert conspiracy theories about DIA here, which there are fricken heaps, but I'll get into those in a later post.




Poison Idea




This year marks the 8 year anniversary since the passing of Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts, the corpulent and charismatic guitarist for hard-core heavyweights Poison Idea, and the monumental announcement that the reformed Band will be touring Australia for the first time in May. Poison Idea, Jerry A, Pig Champion and co contribution to hard-core cannot be underestimated. They helped to create and sustain the genre so that it remains today for future generations. So I thought I would put this article together pinched from various sources and my own brain to fill in a bit of a PI history of sorts.

Poison Idea was started in 1980 in Portland, Oregon, by vocalist Jerry A. (Lang). Within a year, the band had a solid line up with drummer Dean Johnson, guitarist Tom Roberts (aka Pig Champion from the band Imperialist Pigs), and bassist Glen Estes. Influenced by Germs and Black Flag, they took their musical cues from bands such as Discharge and SOA. Pushing the speed limits of contemporary punk rock, they played raw and angry hard-core the likes of which had rarely been heard before (or since).



Their 1983 debut EP, Pick Your King, was released. Its subsequent follow-up, Record Collectors are Pretentious Assholes (featuring Pig Champion's substantial collection on the cover), saw Chris "Tense" replacing Glen on bass. Both were put out on a small label from Eugene, Oregon called Fatal Erection.

In 1986, Poison Idea released the aptly titled Kings of Punk LP. By this time, the band's sound had changed from manic, breakneck thrash, to a more driving, Motörhead -influenced attack - losing none of their intensity, anger, or nihilism.

In the next few years, Poison Idea's line up (mainly the rhythm section) changed several times. By 1989, Poison Idea pulled it together; after trouble with record companies and distributors, they started their own label, American Leather (named after a Germs track), and began by reissuing their 1982 demo.

The band found their most stable line up in years: Jerry A., Pig Champion, Myrtle Tickner, and Thee Slayer Hippie and then added lead guitarist Eric "Vegetable" Olson, who wrote many PI tunes during his tenure in the band. The band then released War All the Time (named for the Charles Bukowski book) in 1987. War All the Time and the EPs that followed (the Getting the Fear 12" and the Filthkick 7") found them further developing the rock/hardcore sound first established on Kings of Punk, which they would hone in 1990 with Feel the Darkness. The classic Feel the Darkness successfully combining (where so, so many others had failed) the best elements of hard-core and hard rock for a dark, powerful sound. By this time, their drinking habits and hard living were beginning to catch up with them: the band weighed in at about 1,300 lb. collectively, and Pig Champion in particular was very fat, often having to play sitting down.

Poison Idea was one of those bands of unsung heroes that went virtually unnoticed while more successful bands took elements of their style and broke through to mainstream audiences. Poison Idea has been cited as an influence by bands and musicians such as Nirvana, Zeke, Turbonegro, Eyehategod, Pantera, Napalm Death, Machine Head, Emperor’s Bård Faust, Generation Graveyard and Ratos de Porão, but the closest that Poison Idea's music has come to respectable exposure was when Pantera covered "The Badge" for the soundtrack to "The Crow" in 1994.




Most people, who bought that soundtrack all those years ago, thought the song was great, but never did any research into where it came from.


I was at a party when I first heard the track, I remember how spun out I was when I heard the badge on the stereo. It sounded good but not quite right, I said something to someone like- “Hey that’s a Poison Idea song, who‘s playing it”. And after the obligatory who the fuck is Poison idea I got – “its Pantera man”. I had discovered Feel the Darkness a few years earlier in the "Punk" section of my local record store and it still spins regularly

Punknews.org sums up why you should own this record perfectly:

With this album, Poison Idea have mixed in the perfect amounts of thrash metal, punk, hard-core and Motörhead-style rock and roll, and the result is a terrific hard-core masterpiece that balances circle pit volatility with catchy rock and roll grooves and seriousness with sarcasm, resulting in an often copied, rarely duplicated hybrid sound that is purely their own. Feel the Darkness is an album that you will come back to after listening to boring and unoriginal albums, and an album that you will use as a comparison standard for other releases of the same genre.
"Plastic Bomb," the album's opening track, starts off with a brief, sinister-sounding piano intro before the guitar, drums and bass come crashing in all at once like a coordinated military strike. The track only picks up speed from there, as thundering drums and a fast, thrash riff provide the cover for Jerry A's grunted vocals and a catchy Bad Religion-like chorus of "whoa-oh-ohs." This is one of the catchiest songs on the album, and you'll be humming it long after you've turned the record off.
The improperly named "Deep Sleep" kicks in next, for it's nearly impossible to sleep through the maelstrom of shredding guitars and an impressive virtuoso solo courtesy of Pig Champion, the fattest guitarist to ever play punk rock.
The third song, "The Badge," is considered by many to be a quintessential Poison Idea song. Hundreds of punk bands have written songs about how much they hate the police, but Poison Idea's vicious, derisive tirade against officers of the law draws deeply from their own uniquely intelligent well of potent, sarcastic cynicism and is arranged perfectly on top of an equally vicious riff. It's not surprising that Pantera chose this song to cover.
The fourth track, "Just to Get Away," is pure, unadulterated rock and roll, the irreverent, scurrilous kind that parents were once threatened by, the kind that Lemmy and Iggy Pop would approve of. A true anthem of unapologetic hedonism, this song has it all -- quitting your job and telling your boss to shove it, hopping into a fast car with your girlfriend and speeding off to a brighter horizon with your middle finger in the air. Even the uber-serious punk rock types who think it sounds corny will be tapping their toes, playing air drums and nodding their head along with the music.
I could write a paragraph for every track on this album that I like, but I'm trying to keep this less than ten pages long, so I'll just hit some highlights.
"Gone for Good" is full-on thrash with Jerry's rapid-fire raps on the dangers of environmental destruction in the name of corporate greed, while
"Alan's on Fire" (often covered by Machine Head in concert) blends cryptic lyrics of a more personal nature within a churning hurricane of musical heaviness.
The prescient "Nation of Finks" could have been written yesterday about our current Zeitgeist of fear, suspicion and "surveillance of the fittest." I'll leave the rest for you to enjoy.

When Pig Champion left the band in 1993, and PI effectively called it quits. however just over five years later, Jerry A reformed the band in late 1999 with the lineup featuring Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts (guitar), Matt Brainard (guitar), Chris Carey (bass) and Chris Cuthbert (drums), breaking in the new lineup the band toured the east coast in 2002 including an appearance at CBGB's.

On January 31, 2006 guitarist Tom "Pig Champion" Roberts died aged 47 at his home in Portland of undetermined causes, although he had been suffering from the flu and an untreated kidney infection. The band had recorded the new record and it was ready for release when he died. Pig wanted the record to be called Latest Will and Testament, a name that the rest of the band liked. After Tom’s death Jerry commented that Pig probably knew something that the rest of them didn’t the album was released in May 2006 on Farewell Records. The band did not play a record release show, or any show for over a year as they tried to get used to the idea that their friend was gone.

The band distributed a video announcement in early October, 2013 announcing now new line up and 2014 world tour with new bassist Natalie Lucio and Eric "Vegetable" Olson rejoining the band on guitar after an almost 25 year absence, best known for his work on the War All the Time album. Now they’re coming to Australia, the band led by original front man Jerry A and featuring a number of other members from throughout the band’s past. I thought I’d never get to see the mighty Poison Idea live in concert,. But they will finally grace Australian shores this May with a four date tour. Cities set to cop a show include Adelaide on May 14th at Enigma Bar, Brisbane’s Crowbar on May 15th, the Bald Faced Stag in Sydney on Friday 16th May and the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood on Saturday 17th May.


So that’s it, I got my tickets and will be seeing PI in Brisbane at the Crowbar on the 15th of May and then to Melbourne on the 17th to see them play the Bendigo Hotel. If you are interested keep an eye on the Face Face event page


You can get Tickets for Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne are from here and Adelaide here.


Poison Idea - Mating Walruses (1982 - 1989) 52 min.

It’s a shame that Poison Idea’s Mating Walruses VHS tends to go under a lot of people’s radar. Released in 1990, this is a damn solid document of their existence from 82-89, arguably their golden years, and shortly before they’d start cracking under the pressures of drug abuse and morbid obesity

What you get here is pretty meat and potatoes Poison Idea. You can catch a glimpse of what it was like when they still ripped up the stage. Some of their best tracks are present, with assorted riot footage and fat guy tomfoolery edited throughout. I don’t know why watching Pig Champion hang out in a diner is so enjoyable, but it is.

TrackList


1982 :
Think Twice - Spy
1983 :
Cult Band - Last One
April 1983 :
Jailhouse Rock - Police Brewtality N.Y. State
1988 :
Hangover Heart Attack - The Temple - Short Fuse - Laughing Boy - Typical - My Dinner With - Poison Idea - Lifestyles - Thorn In My Side - Push The Button - AA - Getting The Fear - Made To Be Broken - Motorhead
1989 :
We Got The Beat

POISON IDEA Santa Ana, CA. 4 January 2014