Zombie 5: Killing Birds, 1988

 We start off with a flashback scene where a young solider, Fred returns from Vietnam to go see his wife and child. Unfortunately, he discovers her in bed with another man, to which he ends up killing both but sparing his child. He is nearly caught by friends (family members) who have come to see them to which he adds to the massacre. While cleaning up the mess Fred is attacked by one the falcons they have in the house (the house has a lot of birds!) who gouges his eyes out making him blind.

We last see him going into hospital blinded and having given his son away to social services.

Twenty years later a group of college students go off to investigate sightings of a rare woodpecker that is considered nearly extinct. It turns out that one of the few known people to have seen it is Fred and so they seek him out to find out more information from him.

This however beings to unlock the vengeful spirits of Fred's victims and throws the group into a nightmare of a situation they try to escape from...

Zombie 5: Killing Birds, has a few titles, Zombi 5, Killing Birds and was under the title Zombie Flesheaters 4 here in the UK. Not an exact sequel to any of the other films in the series, though to be fair none of them were sequels to each other!

Killing Birds could also be misleading as none of the birds in the movie kill anyone and the zombies could be seen more as demons as they are all after one person in particular.

I did enjoy the film; it wasn't as bad as many people have made out to be. I do think they may have used most the budget to hire Robert Vaughn to be the main star in the film! Mean as a later Italian horror film it is not going to stand out as one of the best but if you want a bit of a cheesy horror this film has it. 

With it being filmed in America, it was probably aimed more for the horror market there. I know the cinema in Italy wasn't as big as it was due to more channels becoming available via cable etc, so more films were being produced for television rather than the big screen.

Some great gore and practical effects with one scene reminding me a bit of Anthrophagous which made sense to me later when one of the directors of this film is Aristide Massaccesi, a.k.a. Joe D'Amato!

Claudio Lattanzi is also listed as the director of this film, there seems to be a bit of a question who filmed what though it seems no one who worked on the film can remember!

There are two blu rays of this film out at the moment, one on Vinegar Syndrome in the States and the other on 88 Films here in the UK.

Winterbeast, 1992

Very low budget horror film set around a mountain lodge where hikers and skiers have been going missing for years. Local legend of the land being curse by a Native American demonic curse...

First off this is not even set in winter, feels more like end of summer, early autumn! It isn't the best film ever, but I found it watchable, I did think there was maybe a few plot holes in it which didn't make sense or help explain why certain things were happening.

There is one bonkers scene near the end involving the owner of the lodge singing and dancing along to 'oh dear what can the matter be' (which is now stuck in my head).

Despite the plot and acting being ropey at best, I did like the use of stop motion for the beast and some of the practical gore effects where decent for what the budget was for this film. As the poster about mentions Evil Dead, I did think of that with the stop motion bits while watching this but that is about all it has in common with Evil Dead!

The recent Vinegar Syndrome blu ray states that it was originally filmed in 16mm and for some scenes in Super 8mm and there could be a change in the quality throughout the film. I assumed this is what made it have a look and feel as it was made in the 1980's - though should state I know nothing about film and assumed as it said 1992 that they used 16mm and 8mm as it may have been cheaper?

On further reading about this film, it turns out that filming did start in 1986 and then stopped. It was not until 1989 they went back and finished the film but then it was not released to 1992.

This now makes sense with plot holes and how in one scene the main ranger coat changes from green to plaid!

On the Vinegar Syndrome release there is a work print version of the film and a lot of decent extras which I will at one point work through.

I Start Counting, 1969

I Start Counting is based on the 1966 novel by Audrey Erskine Lindop and stars Jenny Agutter as 14 year old Wynne who lives with her adopted family. Wynne has also has a crush on her much older stepbrother, George who one morning while spying on him getting changed notices he has scratches on his back and later gets rid of a bloody jumper Wynne had knitted for him.

Outside of the home the town has been plagued with a serial killer who has been assaulting and strangling young women. Wynne assumes maybe George could be the killer as he is very secretive about what he has been up to when he has been out.

Wynne's best friend Corinne is aware of her crush on George and there is a funny scene when they are at school and having what appears to be a talk about the birds and the bees from a nun and priest where she tries to embarrass Wynne about having a crush on her stepbrother.

When not in school, Wynne visits her old family home which is due to be demolished to make way for newer modern homes. She spends her time cleaning it up and also dreaming about being married to George and the things they could do.

We also see in a flash back that George's first wife accidently died in that house when she fell down the stairs in the basement. This further adds to Wynne's suspicions that it could be George that is committing the murders.

However after hiding in Georges van she finds out that George has been seeing a woman who recently slit her wrists and was the one who had scratched his back as she has been mentally unwell, hence the blood on his jumper.

Wynne and Corrine fall out later while out at a picnic with George and their other brother, when she tried to flirt with him and George loses his rag at her so she storms off. 

Corrine, later does call Wynne to tell her see has met a boy and that she is going to stay out all night with him. When she doesn't return, Wynne gets worried and starts to look for her friend and goes to her old house where she finds her body and the murderer.

Wynne is chased through the forest until she bumps into the police who then arrest the murderer...

The movie ends with Wynne and George watching their old home being bulldozed to the ground.

I really enjoyed this film, story as good and the way it was filmed is brilliant. I think how they show the old parts of town slowly being replaced by the new modern buildings is good and with the added scenes of Wynne and Corrine going shopping and hanging out in town showing how times were changing in the UK. 

I've not read the book so can't compare the two. I did try find a copy but from some of the prices I've seen I assume it is long out of print. Did see one for sale for just over £200!

Agutter plays a really good part, and apparently at the time it was seen as controversial her character being 14 and in love with her stepbrother in his 30's - though not sure if people assumed she was 14 but she was 16 when she filmed this, again not sure if people were shocked at her doing a scene where she is in the bath though all you see is the top of her head.

In the recent blu ray release by BFI in the booklet she does comment on something similar with her role in Walk About and how a lot of people always mention her nude scene in that film as if that's the only reason to watch it.

I Start Counting is a great British thriller, maybe to an extent a British giallo and glad that BFI put this out on blu ray for all to enjoy. There is also an American blu ray on Fun City Editions available.

One fact I didn't know is that Phil Collins, from Genesis has a small role as an ice cream seller!

The Dirty Dolls, 1973

The second film as part of AFGA's Smut Without Smut blu ray release.

As with Things to Come we are given the option to watch it uncut (73 mins) or without smut (50 mins).

Plot focuses around Johnny and his girl gang robbing a bar and then planning a diamond heist which turns into a kidnapping. It turns sour when he can't sell the diamonds to his fence who once he hears about the  kidnapping doesn't want anything to do with them anymore and it all descends in murder and more murder with also a pointless bit of incest thrown in for shock value.

Found this to be a bit rough in places and it is the most sleaziest of the two films on the Smut Without Smut release. It's not a great film by all means but think it a film made quickly for the drive in/grindhouse cinemas to make a quick buck. The smut probably pads out this film to make it longer.

Only seen one other film by director Stu Seagull which is Drive In Massacre which is a so so slasher film. Believe he was more involved in a lot of adult films, though did find out he runs a film studio and the TV show Veronica Mars was filmed there!

From the cast it looks like the only two that did plenty of work was John Alderman who plays Johnny, did a lot of low budget films and also appeared in shows like Quincy M.D., Charlies Angels and Starsky and Hutch before doing hardcore adult films in the 80's.

The other is George 'Buck' Flower, who I didn't see in the film, but he worked with John Carpenter a lot, They Live being one off the top of my head. Again he did a lot of exploitation films and adult films. Think he was also involved in the writing of this film.

Two of the female cast worked in the adult entertainment industry and the rest as far I know only have this one film credit.

Things to Come, 1976

A sci-fi sexploitation film all the way from Texas! On trying to find some more information about this film, I read that this was considered a lost film as there was no prints known to exist until one was found back in 2014, though I'm going off the year I read from the post about it being found. 

It wasn't till 2020 that this film received a blu ray release by AFGA as Smut Without Smut, paired with another film, The Dirty Dolls. This release is now out of print and no plans to re-release it. 

The blu ray release has two versions of the film, uncut (97 mins) or without smut (71 mins).

Set in a dystopian future, the lead Julie is tired of her daily life working as a person who listens to peoples confessions. Her home life isn't much better as her husband who only works 3 months of the years spends his free time watching old adult films that are broadcasted by the government! 

Julie wants more out of life and talks to a friend how she feels trapped in this world. Her friend agrees that the world they live in is suffocating and that there are other people out there that feel the same. Julie ends up divorcing her husband, who doesn't seem to bothered about this. Around the same time Julie wins the lottery which is a week long trip to the Pleasure Dome, a wonderful place where every need or want is meet to by robots and ran by a mysterious leader (who kinda sounds like Kit from Knight Rider). 

Before she leaves, Julie speaks to her friend from earlier about it who tasks her to find out more and maybe help destroy the Pleasure Dome to help free the people who feel the same like Julie. 

Things at the Pleasure Dome are not what they seem despite it granting everyone’s needs and wants and leads to a very good twist at the end which I don't want to give away. 

This is an interesting film as in with the smut bits it isn't that smutty I guess. The film does start off with a rough film the husband is watching and without the smut you have a fairly decent sci fi film. When watching it I had for some reason a Space 1999 vibe to it. It has a big feeling of being a bit of a West/Future World rip off to it. The soundtrack is pretty decent too, at one point I really thought they had used some Kraftwerk in it as the music sounded very close to they did. 

It is definitely worth a watch if you can track a copy down, if you love low budget sci fi you will enjoy it!