Trash Menagerie

aka The Hunting Trip Dir. Richard Gardner The marketing of exploitation films is an art in and of itself. It is also something one must be wary of. The posters and home video cover art for 80’s genre cinema are awesome to behold; snapshots from neon-soaked universe of kinetic madness deserving of appreciation for their own sake. But more often than not, expectations are being set too high for the movies housed within, and with good reason. Most of these movies aren’t very good by any popular metric. It the covers were altered to be more accurate depictions for the films they advertise, these videos would rarely get picked up off the self, so I guess you can argue that false advertising is a necessary evil. But boy is it frustrating, making the search for solid trash boil down to what is essentially a numbers game. There are some trash movies that are as awesome as their cover art suggests, but they are few and far between. So tempering one’s expectations is an absolute imper...

Dir. Jim Mallon The hooks in Blood Hook are pretty much regular sized hooks. And that’s a little disappointing. With a name like “ Blood Hook ”, I was expecting a big hook. Like an almost comically oversized hook. The killer has a big bobber, or maybe it’s a lure (I don’t know shit about fishing) covered in hooks, but the hooks are a pretty standard size, maybe slightly above standard, but certainly nothing to write home about. It’s a little bit of a let down. Though fortunately once you get past that, Blood Hook showcases a fun little twist on the well worn slasher formula with a lot regional charm.   It’s summer 1986 (I assume it’s summer; it’s sunny and people are fishing) and Muskie Madness reigns supreme in a rural Wisconsin town as the locals vie for the biggest catch during the annual fishing festival. Crashing the party is city slicker Peter van Cleese and his Gen X buddies so that they and the locals can make each uncomfortable across the generation gap. Pet...