Toxic Zombies, 1980

A gang of hippies are growing marijuana in the forests illegally but unknown to them they are being tracked by the government who want to destroy their crop. To do this they decide to go ahead and use a chemical called Dromax which hasn't been used outside the lab due to it not being labelled safe yet. They manage to hire someone to dust crop the weed fields with Dromax however they manage to also get a few of the hippies covered in it as well.

Meanwhile Tom Cole, the local forest ranger is planning a fishing trip with his wife and brother. He has heard a report about flooding near where he is heading and is puzzled as he is aware no such thing has happened and assumes maybe it is superiors mentioning this to catch him out fishing when he should be working. This, however, does not stop him from his trip!

By now the hippies that were covered in Dromax start to become more violent and attack two of their group that were not covered and start wondering off in the forest where they attack and man and his wife whose children are elsewhere in the forest.

The children return to find their parents gone and find Tom and his group when they are suddenly attacked by the now zombie like hippies and Tom's brother is killed. They escape into the forest but are pursed by them all night.

The government officials who sanctioned this head out to the forest as they never heard back from the crop-duster and plan to clean up if needed from any witnesses and bump into Tom and his group. This leads into the finale where the officials try to silence the group but are attacked by the remaining zombie hippies, though during the melee, Tom's wife is killed as are the two officials.

Tom dispatches off the remaining hippies and saves the kids....

Toxic Zombies isn't going to blow anyone away, but it does have some charm to it that makes it a worthwhile watch. It was one of the many films put on the UK's video nasty list and think under the name Forest of Fear (other names for this film Bloodeaters, Bloodeaters: Butchers of the Damned and The Dromax Derangement). I think the charm to me is that everyone involved just wanted to make a movie for the hell of it, like they knew their limitations, but it didn't let it stop them.

I did read that Charles McCrann, managed to hire the camera for the entire shoot for about $200/300 and for night-time shoots used a cheapish light powered by batteries. Mean yeah, some of the night scenes are a bit too dark but guess it shows you what you can do with a limited budget. 

It does a little remind me of Jean Rollin's The Grapes of Death from 1978, where a new pesticide is used on wine grapes that make those exposed or have drank the wine made from them grapes into zombies!

The plot was loosely based on something McCrann had read about the government spraying some drugs in Mexico(?!) and may have poisoned some people as well, though I've not found where I read that to be sure!

Apart from John Amplas (Martin/Day of the Dead) I don't think many of the cast went on to do many other films. McCann who appears to have done a bit of everything on this film went on to work in law/insurance and unfortunately died on the September 11th attacks in New York. It may be his only film and one that many may think is a big pile of crap, but it has left a mark on a lot of horror fans and upset the moral righteousness brigade of 1980’s Britain.

This was recently released on Blu Ray by Massacre Video they did great with the elements that were available to make a new master. It's some good mindless fun which doesn't take itself too seriously.

Bloody Moon, 1981

Is a Spanish-German slasher film directed by Jess Franco. It is an English language movie opposed to being Spanish, which I suspect was more aimed towards the American Market at the time.

It is a typical run of the mill slasher with some over the top gore moments compared to other slasher films of the time. It starts off with Miguel, a young man with a facial disfigurement (looks like a burn mark) who at a party tricks a girl back to hers for sex, she thinking it is someone else she likes. However, once discovering it is not the person, she thinks it is, a fight breaks out between them, and Miguel ends up murdering her.

Miguel is then sent to an institution and is released five years later into the care of his sister Manuela who we later find he was having an incestuous affair with. They return to the place where he committed his crime - his aunt, Maria owns the place which is now become a boarding school of languages ran by his sister. She runs it alongside a teacher called Alvaro. 

Manuela tells Alvaro that her aunt is trying to get rid of her as Maria thinks she is only after her money which disclosed that once she dies everything goes to Miguel.

Soon the killings start, first with Maria and then the students are slowly taken out one at a time, until the final girl is left, and all is revealed to who the real killer is....

Bloody Moon (Die Säge des Todes) as I said is a fairly run of the mill slasher film, I don't believe it to be Franco's best work as it seems a bit out place compared to some other films he is known for. That said he has upped his game in terms of gore especially with the infamous sawmill beheading and maybe going a bit too far with having a child brutally ran over by the killer! 

Bloody Moon was also on the video nasties list and has been released uncut in the past decade or so, however due to it being cut that the now reinserted cut scenes do look a bit more blurred compared to the rest of the film after it had been restored. It isn't a big deal, but some scenes do look slightly darker.

I did like the film and will probably watch it again as it does kind of live up to its video nasty status! Nowadays I think that it's a bit weird that back then some of these films caused moral outrage and some films now that have a higher violence or bloodshed rate are left alone (to some extent!), though also with the internet and news we have access and are shown real world violence on a much larger scale!