Trash Menagerie

Dir. Andrea Bianchi Bimba’s in trouble. In a gothic castle, her family has conducted a seance to try to contact her dead mother, accidentally releasing the spirit of a dead relative that finds its way into Bimba’s body. As Bimba begins to act out in a series of escalating naughty behaviors, it’s up to Sister Sofia, the family’s resident nun-in-training to free Bimba from the curse and save her soul from eternal damnation. Maybe. You’d be forgiven for concluding that Malabimba is a horror film based on the above description. Centered around a young girl being possessed by a spirit in an old gothic castle, the premise is ripe for all the sorts of Exorcist style shenanigans that only Italian rip-off artists can deliver. But director Andrea Bianchi and writer Piero Regnoli have something more important on the mind; lots of sleazy sex. This is much more a psychosexual soap opera than it is a horror film. If you’re looking for blood and gore, or ghosts and ghouls and goblins, you’l...

Dir. Kieth Li Love. Death. Mystery. Vengeance. The sins of our ancestors. These are the ingredients of compelling melodrama. But what about spirits, wizard battles, exorcism, astral projected reanimated chicken skeletons, and centipedes? Lots and lots of centipedes? It all goes hand in hand in the world of Hong Kong Category III Exploitation, where bugs and black magic reign supreme. Wai-Lum is called to Southeast Asia (that’s as specific as the movie got regarding location) after his sister falls ill and eventually dies, with doctors having no idea why, saying only that her condition was indicative of radiation poisoning. Of course the audience knows already that she was attacked by a horde of carnivorous centipedes after encountering a man who can only be described as “clearly the movie’s villain”. Investigating with Yeuk-Chee, an old college friend and love interest, Wai-Lum eventually discovers that his family is the subject of revenge for a wizard crossed by his grandf...

Dir. Michael Dugan Possession is a great tool in the horror genre, ripe for any number of representations of human agony. Throughout the years we’ve seen possessions, demonic, ghostly, or otherwise stand in for (among other things) puberty ( The Exorcist [1973]), alcoholism ( The Shining [1980]), grief ( The Babadook  [2014]), and mental illness ( Hereditary [2018]).   In less “classy” films, demonic possession is mostly an excuse for a gore free-for-all, showcasing gnarly facial prosthetics, color contacts, and bodily evisceration. Here you find The Evil Dead ( 1981), Night of the Demons (1988)   , Demons (1985), Demon Wind (1990), et al. Mausoleum falls squarely in this latter camp, though there is a small glimmer of aspirations toward the former. Young Susan has just attended her mother’s funeral, where she is drawn to the Nomed family tomb by the call of a choir eerily chanting her name. Once inside, she encounters spooky green and purple lights, while...