EMN Marathons - Grindhouse
# - M | N - Z
Neon Maniacs
Year: 1985
Synopsis: A group of teenagers in San Francisco discover a nest of homicidal monsters living in a tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Said monsters include an undead samurai, a mummy, a biker, and various demons.
Never Too Young To Die
Year: 1986
Synopsis: A young man has to save the world from a flamboyant terrorist. I have described barely a fraction of the plot.
EMN Notes: This film is utterly unreal. Everything about it feels deliberately chosen to be as otherworldly as possible. John Stamos plays the protagonist, Lance Stargrove, who is a horrifically unlikable Teenage Hero Guy. This isn't really a sci-fi, even though it opens with what sees to be a futuristic shootout - his name is just Lance Stargrove. His father was a secret agent, I guess? Anyway, this film gets utterly bonkers when it introduces the main villain, an intersex, extremely flamboyant hedonist terrorist named Velvet von Ragnar, who is played by Gene Simmons. Like, you're saying I'm NOT supposed to cheer for them?! They get a crazy villain dance number inside a club they own called The Incinerator! They have a Mad Max-esque compound in the desert! Every single offensive stereotype about gays and gender nonconformity in the 80s is funneled into this one character and what results is an absolutely mad film that I completely love. I think the funniest part about this movie is that the writer has not at all improved at writing or directing in the last thirty-or-so years, but that's a story for much further down the list.
Night of the Lepus
Year: 1972
Synopsis: Humanity has a new threat to deal with - an army of vicious mutated rabbits.
EMN Notes: They really tried to make rabbits scary. They really, really tried. Honestly, I think it takes gumption when doing a horror movie to really try and work with an unusual monster but...man, they really didn't know what they were doing here, huh? This movie is a masterclass in how to completely fail in suspense. You love to see it, you really do. It's so earnestly delightful as a result.
Ninja Kids: Kiss of Death
Year: 1987
Synopsis: A brothel owner trained in kung-fu has to defend his business against an evil demon ninja invasion.
EMN Notes: Man, with a name like Ninja Kids, I guarantee parents picked this one up at the video store not knowing what they were getting their kids into. Why did they name this movie Ninja Kids? There are no kids in this movie. There is gore, there is sex, and there is plenty of violence. Gotta love attempted stealth marketing. This movie was one I knew we had to add from the moment we saw the cover. There's a ninja, there's a monster, and there's a naked woman from behind. Well, at least one of those things are in this movie. This is apparently a five-hour-long movie cut into 90 minutes, the original being called Ninja Tiger. There's definitely a ninja named Tiger in this movie. It's great. He has a silver oni mask. This is a movie that starts fast and ends up faster with each second. Fantastic.
Oldboy
Year: 2003
Synopsis: A man is kidnapped and imprisoned for years under unclear circumestances, and when he's released only wants revenge. He may find, however, that it goes much deeper than he could have ever expected.
Once Upon A Time In China
Year: 1991
Synopsis: In the late 19th century, Wong Fei-Hung defends China against invading forces.
EMN Notes: I'm going to be honest, I've yet to see any of the Once Upon A Time In China movies. My notes on these will have to be pretty thin. That said, we chose them because of Jet Li and their excellent critical reception. This first one seems to be one of those star-making performances, and I think it's really cool that Jet Li played a folk hero in this. Martial arts is a diverse and fascinating genre, always being reinvented as the years go on, and I think that's wonderful.
Once Upon A Time In China II
Year: 1992
Synopsis: After the events of the first movie, Wong Fei-Hung finds himself up against the White Lotus Society, an anti-Western cult who operates with violence.
EMN Notes: Apparently this movie performed even better in the box office than the previous film. How cool! The plot of this one really makes it seem fascinating, and as an extra bit of fun Jackie Chan himself performs the theme song for this movie during its ending credits. Just another cool connection between Jackie Chan and Jet Li. I remember when they were seen as a dream team in the US when Twin Dragons came out.
Once Upon A Time In China III
Year: 1992
Synopsis: Wong Fei-Hung, now a master, enrolls in a dancing competition to foil an assassination plot.
EMN Notes: There were actually six total Once Upon A Time In China movies, but we went with four. This is the first time in the series that critical reception wasn't especially hot, but I gotta admit from a plot perspective I'm entirely on board. Some critics called it a very personal story in comparison to the rest, and I like that! Overall, I think we need more dance competitions as backdrops for movies. This one's all right with me.
Once Upon A Time In China And America
Year: 1997
Synopsis: A student of Wong Fei-Hung emigrates to America to work on the railroads, but when he gets in trouble with the mob it's up to Master Wong to save the day.
EMN Notes: One reason we skipped over the fourth and fifth films in the Once Upon A Time In China series is because they replaced Jet Li. Part of the appeal of these films on Grindhouse is his presence! This movie was regarded quite positively. Interestingly, it actually opened alongside Mr. Nice Guy, another movie on this channel. Now, I haven't seen this film, but I have seen Mr. Nice Guy, and I gotta say there's no way Mr. Nice Guy is superior to this film. But writing about Mr. Nice Guy is Mandy's job, not mine, so I'll leave it alone. Either way, love the title, love the plot, love Jet Li.
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
Year: 2003
Synopsis: Hitman “El Mariachi” becomes involved in international espionage involving a psychotic CIA agent and a corrupt Mexican general.
OneChanbara
Year: 2008
Synopsis: Based on the video game of the same name, an army of girls in bikinis armed with katanas have to survive a zombie invasion.
EMN Notes: Move over Ace Attorney! Outta the way, Sonic The Hedgehog 2! We have a new best videogame movie in town! This movie is basically no different from films like Psycho Gothic Lolita or HellDriver or Big Tits Zombie, that sex-and-violence mish-mash that a lot of Japanese splatter flicks enjoy. That said, it's pretty fun! I'd place it below HellDriver and PGL, but above a few others in the genre. It's silly, it haqs cowboy hats, it's shoddy and exploitative, and it's fun!
Operation Condor
Year: 1991
Synopsis: Hired by a Spanish baron, Hong Kong treasure hunter Jackie, a.k.a. “Asian Hawk” and his entourage seek WWII Nazi gold buried in the Sahara Desert.
Over The Top
Year: 1987
Synopsis: Lincoln Hawk, a trucker played by Sylvester Stallone, participates in the World Armwrestling Championship out of Las Vegas.
Pieces
Year: 1982
Synopsis: A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Year: 1959
Synopsis: Ed Wood's "masterpiece", widely regarded the worst movie ever made, featuring a group of aliens who resurrect the dead and turn them into zombies.
Police Story
Year: 1985
Synopsis: Officer Chan Ka Kui manages to put a major Hong Kong drug dealer behind bars, and now he must protect the star witness from the dealer's men until she can testify in court.
Project A
Year: 1983
Synopsis: Dragon Ma, a member of the Hong Kong Coast Guard, is determined to stop his country's pirate problem.
EMN Notes: We have so many great Jackie Chan movies on here and this one is one I'm rather fond of. The opening sequence is great. The ideas are fun. And some of the stunts are amazing! I'm a sucker for clock towers, so the clock tower stunt is joyous. Jackie's turn into stunts and physical comedy is so cool to see, and this movie really ramps it up. Fun fact, in some markets this was called Superfly 2, because Armor of God was called Superfly...and these movies don't actually connect or anything at all. It's strange when distributors do that.
Project A: Part II
Year: 1987
Synopsis: Now the head of a police district, Dragon Ma finds himself caught in a web of mobsters, more pirates, and corrupt cops.
EMN Notes: Roger Ebert once called Jackie Chan a modern-day Buster Keaton. It's appropriate, then, that this movie pays tribute to the famous house-falling-bit Keaton did. This is as fun as the first! I really love how Jackie directs fights and comedy. I never realized until this channel how much of Chan's stuff is basically a combination of physical comedy and dancing. It's basically slapstick - no wonder he was so popular. And no wonder movies like Kung Fu Hustle were so successful. Kung fu is such a cool artform in how it can be any kind of tone a filmmaker wants it to be as long as it's respected. I suppose it's like wrestling in that way.
Psycho Gothic Lolita
Year: 2010
Synopsis: After her mother's assassination, Yuki becomes a gothic lolita armed with a killer umbrella determined to fight her way up the ranks of the organization that ordered the hit.
EMN Notes: This movie is super fun. I don't think in terms of wild gore it matches up with the heights of something like Helldriver, but where it shines is that it's basically just a No More Heroes movie. I love the fight choreography, especially with the fashionable girl with the killer cell phone and against the delinquent gang. I can't help it; I'm a sucker for things with ranked battles and wacky assassins.
Puppet Master
Year: 1989
Synopsis: A hotel is menaced by a group of murderous puppets possessed by the soul of their creator.
R.O.T.O.R.
Year: 1987
Synopsis: Robotic Officer Tactical Operation Research. A prototype robot intended for crime combat escapes from the development lab and goes on a killing rampage.
Rampage
Year: 1986
Synopsis: A Turkish commando has to infiltrate and capture a group of terrorists living in the mountains.
EMN Notes: This movie is famously known as "Turkish Rambo". A lot of low-budget foreign films get brought to America and rebranded like that as a sort of point-and-laugh exercise. "Lady Terminator", for example, or "Turkish Star Wars". Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of fun to be had in those films, but I think it does them a disservice to remove them from the cultural context of films created on low budgets for an audience not familiar with Hollywood movies all while trying their damndest to create some kind of story. This one is no exception, it's no masterpiece of cinema or whatever but it's fun by its own merit as well as on the "Turkish Rambo" level. It's energetic and rough and fun in its own ways, and that's the kind of scrappy weirdness we love to celebrate here.
Re-Animator
Year: 1985
Synopsis: Two medical students become obsessed with discovering the secret formula that brings people back from the dead.
EMN Notes: This movie is a splatterhouse masterpiece. Herbert West is such an enchanting and strange character, and his relationship with Dan is beautifully homoerotic. The gore and guts in the movie are utterly delightful, and there's a lot about this film that is just as much a comedy as it is a horror. It's masterfully, relentlessly paced, never letting you breathe as you spiral down the rabbit hole of Herbert's wild experiments. Possibly one of, if not the best mad scientist horrors of all time, with easily some of the finest character acting in horror. Some would say it's almost too good for this channel, but considering its wild abandon I think it fits right in. I love it to pieces.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Year: 1985
Synopsis: An officially “dead” cop is trained to become an extraordinary unique assassin in service of the U.S. President.
Return to Nuke 'Em High: Volume 1
Year: 2013
Synopsis: Two young lesbians must fight Tromaville High School's evil Glee Club armed with their weird mutations. It's a gooey, goopy, horrifically offensive adventure!
Return to Return to Nuke 'Em High AKA Vol. 2
Year: 2017
Synopsis: A direct follow-up to Return to Nuke 'Em High that sees our lesbian protagonist trying to hide her relationship while still dealing with the aftereffects of the mutation that disrupted her once-quiet life.
EMN Notes: Troma, you sons of bitches, you've done it again. It's gorier, grosser, and more offensive than ever. After the utterly insane experience that was watching the original at midnight completely blind, we knew we had to add the sequel. It's among the worst movies I've ever seen. It has chicken-fucking, an entire scene where the studio heads try to censor the film mid-film, a tentacle monster, and all kinds of video nastiness that is utterly impossible to describe. Fuck you, Lloyd Kaufman. I love you.
Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki
Year: 1991
Synopsis: The strongest martial artist in the world goes to prison and everyone who crosses him ends up as a spray of blood and gore.
EMN Notes: At some point in high school I got into this phase where I wanted to watch a bunch of movies I hadn't seen before. It started with Ghibli, which is how I watched Castle in the Sky, and it's also how I watched the second live-action Death Note movie, various anime, and eventually The Warriors. I asked some film buff friends I knew online for more recommendations, and one of them mentioned Riki-Oh. I didn't know what I was getting into, but upon watching it I was pretty shocked by how absolutely ridiculously gory it was. This was before my horror days, so I didn't really know what to make of it, but I was fascinated by it. Revisiting it for this channel I can recognize it as both an utterly wild campy exploitative comedy and a stunning tribute to manga that was just as gory, though animated. This movie is a trip. Truly a "heads roll, eyeballs roll, explosion-fu, fist through the skull-fu" drive-in classic.
Rolling Vengeance
Year: 1987
Synopsis: After a group of rednecks kills his family, a truck driver creates the ultimate eight-ton four-wheeled weapon of revenge.
EMN Notes: This movie feels like it should be a lot more tongue-in-cheek and weirder than what it is. I mean, it's a killer monster truck revenge movie. It's just begging to go off the rails. Instead it's a lot darker than I expected, especially the opening. It's still fantastic grimy video cheese, but it definitely stands out in that way. Overall, a pretty interesting film.
Romeo Must Die
Year: 2000
Synopsis: Two warring gang families (one African-American, the other Chinese) maneuver for bragging rights to the Oakland, California, docks. It stars Jet Li and Aaliyah!
Rubber
Year: 2010
Synopsis: A group of tourists watch a sentient tire roll through the desert and kill people with psychic powers.
EMN Notes: An utterly bizarre and thoroughly fascinating little art film about the nature of being a passive observer, searching for meaning in movies and life, media dissection, and also it's about a tire that kills people. It's a movie that tells you not to think too hard about it, which in turn makes you think about it. It really worms its way into your head, which isn't bad for a movie about a tire that makes peoples' heads explode. For a movie that often gets talked about as if it's something like The VelociPastor or similar intentionally funny-bad films it really isn't that at all. It's a perfect mix of art and splatter.
Rumble In The Bronx
Year: 1995
Synopsis: Keong comes from Hong Kong to visit New York for his uncle’s wedding but stumbles into a criminal situation that goes way over his head. Now he has to fight for his uncle's store.
Rush Hour
Year: 1998
Synopsis: A Hong Kong detective and an American FBI agent form an unlikely alliance to investigate a kidnapping.
EMN Notes: This movie is a classic! The two leads are great, it's just fun buddy-cop stuff, it's quotable and fun. The first time I ever saw this movie was like with many movies because of a VHS my brother and I found at a charity shop in England, and for some reason the entire tape was in black-and-white! I remember asking my brother if that was how it was supposed to be, and he said no, but we watched it anyway and I had a super cool time. I've never seen this movie in color, but eventually I know it'll play on EMN Grindhouse and my black-and-white memories will be shattered. Shattered! The other thing I remember about this movie is my brother telling me not to repeat some of the bad language used in it. I knew that already, sheesh. Anyway, a lot of fun memories attached to this movie, and it's another great action flick with Jackie Chan.
Samurai Cop
Year: 1991
Synopsis: When Japanese organized crime imbeds itself within LA, the police turn to one man to take down the deadly Yakuza — Joe Marshall, aka “The Samurai.”.
Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.
Year: 1991
Synopsis: Harry Griswald is a NYPD cop who is possessed with the spirit of a great Kabuki master, making him the Chosen One as he and his unit fights against the Evil One.
Shaft
Year: 1971
Synopsis: Private eye and bad motha, John Shaft, is hired by a crime lord to investigate his daughter's disappearance.
EMN Notes: I've known about this movie since first grade, because every edgy kid who knew this movie quoted the "he's a bad motha- shut your mouth!" from the classic theme song. What can I say, it's a banger! My friend Tevin was the one who introduced me to that, and then years later when in my exploitation film phase it was one of the movies and soundtracks on the list of things I drew for writing inspiration. This film is still so smooth to this day, and Isaac Hayes crushing the soundtrack certainly doesn't hurt.
Shaolin Soccer
Year: 2001
Synopsis: A young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.
She
Year: 1985
Synopsis: In a backward post-apocalyptic world, She aids two brothers’ quest to rescue their kidnapped sister. Along the way, they battle orgiastic werewolves, a psychic communist, a tutu-wearing giant, a mad scientist, and gladiators before standing against the odds to defeat the evil Norks.
Snakes On A Plane
Year: 2006
Synopsis: An evil organization wants to kill someone who could bring their crime ring down so they unleash a crate full of deadly snakes...on a plane.
EMN Notes: I, just like many others in the early-00s, was swept up in Snakes-On-A-Plane-mania. I wasn't allowed to watch it when it first dropped because I was too young to see R-rated films, but I remember every word of the Lemon Demon parody song, and when I finally turned 17 I got a copy of this movie for Christmas along with Sweeney Todd, another R-rated movie I wanted to see. It's fun! It delivers on having snakes on a plane, and it's just sort of a silly action-horror with Samuel L. Jackson in it and Kenan Thompson playing a PSP. It's not really a super dumb movie and it's not massively over-the-top but it's thoroughly enjoyable in every way. It's interesting how it blew up when it did, but that's the early power of the internet in action for you. This is also how I learned about Cobra Starship, who I assumed was a fake band made for the movie-related single they dropped but, no, they actually have a few very good albums. Hot Mess still slaps.
Spare Parts
Year: 2020
Synopsis: An all-girl rock band is kidnapped and forced to fight for their freedom, equipped with new prosthetic limbs that function as deadly weapons.
EMN Notes: It's really neat to me that people are still making stylish, weird, grindy action movies. I really like the rock band element of this movie, and while I do think it's a little cleaner than I'd like, mostly because all modern Hollywood movies are going to be a little too clean, it's still extremely fun and the Tokyo Gore Police-esque limb-switching is always really fun. The soundtrack and lighting go hard, too, and that's always a plus.
SPL: Kill Zone
Year: 2005
Synopsis: Chan, an articulate senior detective nearing the end of his career, takes care of the daughter of a witness killed by ruthless crime lord Po.
Street Fighter - The Legend of Chun-Li
Year: 2009
Synopsis: As a teenager, Chun-Li witnesses the kidnapping of her father by wealthy crime lord M. Bison. When she grows up, she goes on a quest for vengeance and becomes the famous crime-fighter of the Street Fighter universe. Supposedly.
Street Fighter
Year: 1994
Synopsis: Col. Guile and various other martial arts heroes fight against the tyranny of Dictator M. Bison and his cohorts in a movie based around Street Fighter II.
Sucker Punch
Year: 2011
Synopsis: Girls in an asylum hallucinate different worlds as a coping mechanism as they look for a way to escape.
EMN Notes: This is a movie that has wildly different interpretations depending on who you talk to. Is it extremely sexist? Is it empowering? Is it depressing? Is it emotional and meaningful? Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing? It's rather up in the air. For me, this is a movie that while I don't adore, I do really love. The first trailers came out when I was deep in my high school steampunk phase, so I was taken by how visually stunning it was. It opens with a killer cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of These) and it contains great action and an ending that admittedly left me pretty deflated after it all. But man, it's a treat, and I love the genre and visual shifts and soundtrack so much. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who unironically enjoyed this film, but I've since met others who do too, so hey, it's fine.
Super Fly
Year: 1972
Synopsis: One of the blaxploitation genre's codifiers sees New York City's top drug dealer make one last deal before getting out of the game.
EMN Notes: Watching this movie was a revelation. As I've mentioned before, I went through a big 70s exploitation phase after watching Black Dynamite, and somehow despite that I missed watching this one at the time. This was the first movie to play on our first run of Grindhouse, and what a killer opener it was. I had been copying stuff from it for years without ever realizing I was, from the title font to the self-serious dialogue to the fantastic soundtrack, this movie contained inspiration galore. It was amazing to see how much of Black Dynamite was lifted almost wholesale from this film in a loving manner, and as a movie it's a lot of fun on its own. It has all the grit and grime and plucky independence of the genre, and that's something just so cool to see with your own eyes. Highly recommended for historical reasons alone but in general it's just great fun.
Supercop
Year: 1992
Synopsis: A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.
Suspiria
Year: 1977
Synopsis: An American ballet dancer comes to Germany to train, only to find that the academy she enrolled in is a front for a sinister, colorful, and bloody plot.
EMN Notes: God, Dario Argento and giallo films are all so inspiring. The hyper-awareness of color in each film is spellbinding and as someone who loves Italy I love seeing Argento's sensibilities poured into a film like this. It's nightmarish and garish, an exploration of unreality in the psyche of the heroine and such an engaging piece as well. Recently we watched Last Night In Soho and it was so fun to see a modern filmmaker's take on the giallo style and influence. Suspiria still haunts me and the genre still inspires to this day. So cool.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
Year: 1971
Synopsis: A black male prostitute goes on the run from the law after stopping a Black Panther from being assaulted by racist cops.
EMN Notes: After Black Dynamite and during my big deep dive into 70s exploitation this was one of the first movies I sought out. I had heard how influential it was and how well-regarded the ending was with freedom-fighting groups of the time and I wanted to really understand the history and culture as best I could with my limited resources. It's so great to see the source of cultural DNA and it's amazing to hear Earth, Wind, and Fire in their early days composing the score.
Tango & Cash
Year: 1989
Synopsis: Two cops who can't stand each other nonetheless have to team up for a big time drug bust.
EMN Notes: This movie is fascinating for being a culmination of and codifier for so many of the tropes that define the buddy cop genre. It's also interesting because for as big a cultural touchstone as this seems to be, it's actually pretty badly received! People say it's cliche, stupid, 'not even so bad it's good'...Well, I don't disagree that it's pretty low-quality, but I think it's fun! It leans so hard into what it is without a hint of pulling back and as a movie that bridges the 80s and 90s I think it does exactly what it needs to do.
Target Removed
Year: 1972
Synopsis: A youth who sees his father murdered by four men grows up looking to enact his revenge, but the law is on his tail.
EMN Notes: This movie is also known as Summertime Killer, and the big reason I looked for this one was because I thought the VHS cover was awesome. The other poster for it is also extremely cool. This is such a uniquely strange film because it was released in English but seems to have a big Italian following, and of course the multiple titles makes it hard to track down a ton of info on it. I love these weird VHS releases so much. Yes, I am judging this film by its cover.
Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge
Year: 2014
Synopsis: In this sequel-but-actually-prequel to a movie very loosely based on Tekken, Kazuya loses his memory, gets abducted by a character called The Minister, and uncovers the secret to his past.
EMN Notes: So you know how I said the person behind Never Too Young To Die wrote another movie? That's this one. This movie is so, so funny. Barely anything happens in it. The city it takes place in is called Tekken City. Kazuya is just a guy, and a good guy, and there are vague flashes of backstory involving Heihachi and experimentation that don't at all make sense. The only Tekken character in the movie apart from those two is Bryan Fury. Everyone else is original. The Minister is kind of cool, but gets taken out extremely suddenly. The movie ends with Kazuya getting his girlfriend stolen by his dad. For a movie called "Kazuya's Revenge", he doesn't even actually get revenge at any point. In fact, he gets the opposite of revenge. It also apparently in some markets has the subtitle "The Man Called X". No one is named X in this movie. Kazuya goes by "K" but that's about it. Utterly unreal. I can't believe I've watched it three times.
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
Year: 1978
Synopsis: A man trains in martial arts in order to enact his revenge on a vicious group that took over his school.
EMN Notes: Considered one of the most influential kung fu movies out there and for good reason, a real action-packed martial arts masterpiece. Maybe it's not high on my personal list, but I respect it. It's funny because not only is it one of those movies Tarantino loves to namedrop, it actually made an appearance in No More Heroes III! In it, you get spam emails from the Netflix analogue that recommend various movies and the first one we got was for "The 51st Chamber of Shaolin" and we made hooting and hollering noises at the reference. What can I say, we're easy to please. Anyway, this movie's great and No More Heroes III is great. Check out my article on it if you have the time!
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Year: 1971
Synopsis: After learning that his wife died on the operating table, a disfigured mad organist enacts revenge on the doctors responsible using traps themed after the Biblical plagues of Egypt.
EMN Notes: I love Vincent Price and I love Anton Phibes. Mad scientists are some of my favorite kinds of villains. I love cackling madmen and their elaborate deathtraps, and Vincent Price always played such a good cackling madman. I learned about these movies through the Misfits song named after the sequel to this one, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, but I'm a little more fond of this one because of Phibes himself. You can't go wrong with either - they're pleasantly cold and gritty yet amusingly campy and appropriately nasty. They remind me of Phantasmagoria or Waxworks, or perhaps Tales From The Crypt, spine-tingling tales of the doomy macabre that are certainly scary but in a fun way!
The Annihilators
Year: 1985
Synopsis: After coming back from Vietnam, a veteran finds that his neighborhood has gone downhill and he calls upon his GI buddies to help take out the trash.
EMN Notes: This movie kills me. It's such a cheap A-Team ripoff that also is a military rah-rah movie that is also sort of Rambo...ish? It's derivative, is what I'm saying, and it's so funny because of it. The dialogue is ridiculous, the pacing all over the place, and there's really no message or moral here. It's just testosterone-pumped nonsense and that makes it wildly, wildly fun.
The Beyond
Year: 1981
Synopsis: A young woman inherits an old hotel in Louisiana where, following a series of supernatural “accidents”, she learns that the building was built over one of the entrances to Hell.
The Big Boss
Year: 1971
Synopsis: A pacifistic factory worker is forced into fighting to find out why his family has been disappearing at the hands of the Big Boss.
EMN Notes: I love when media calls stuff Big Boss. This movie and Metal Gear both do it to great effect. This is also one of the movies that made Bruce Lee a star! Apparently he replaced the original actor involved in this and it was a huge breakout role. He was popular in Hong Kong because of The Green Hornet but this movie had a wild midnight screening that shattered records. And yeah, they were right! Bruce Lee was really amazing - looking back it makes perfect sense to me that he took the world by storm. He radiated an unmatched star power and is just magnetic whenever he's on screen. This film isn't as good as some of his best, but that barely matters because he himself is just electric.
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
Year: 1970
Synopsis: An American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city, and conducts his own investigation despite himself and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer.
The Black Cobra
Year: 1987
Synopsis: Detective Robert Malone is The Black Cobra, a loose-cannon cop who defends a lone photographer against an army of vicious bikers.
EMN Notes: This movie is a trip, an Italian film that tries to be a combination of American blaxploitation and traditional loose-cannon cop film. I love the video cover for this film and I love its backstory and its plot is bonkers. It's delightful, delicious trash, and Fred Williamson is a blast in the lead role.
The Editor
Year: 2014
Synopsis: A one-handed former film editor becomes the prime suspect in a series of murders.
EMN Notes: This film is so fun because it's a clear modern take on all the wild Italian grindhouse films of the 70s. It's not just giallo, this film goes for films like the aforementioned Black Cobra and Target Removed and it's extremely fun as a result. Astron-6 is such a cool company and all their movies are really interesting. Psycho Goreman is also by them, and it's great, and I look forward to seeing their serious work The Void some day.
The Fearless Hyena
Year: 1979
Synopsis: A delinquent kung-fu fighter is forced to start taking things seriously when a brutal general slaughters his clan.
EMN Notes: Jackie Chan's directorial debut! What a killer title. It had nothing BUT great titles - Revenge of the Dragon on video in the US, and either Superfighter 3 or The Shadowman in West Germany. This film is unique because it uses a lot of slapstick to go along with kung fu, something that would later become Jackie's signature. In fact, this is the movie with the chopsticks battle, something that Kung Fu Panda would later pay tribute to. Neat, right?
The Foreigner
Year: 2017
Synopsis: A humble London businessman's sordid past comes out after his daughter is killed in a politically-motivated hit.
The Human Tornado
Year: 1976
Synopsis: Dolemite is back, and he's here to save Queen Bee's club from being shut down by the mafia.
EMN Notes: After watching the fantastic biopic Dolemite Is My Name I knew we had to add a few more Rudy Ray Moore films to this channel, and why not grab the sequel to Dolemite? Rudy Ray Moore is honestly so inspiring to me, a guy who worked his hardest to make it despite not really having a lick of sense. The movie itself is fun, too, just like Dolemite was, and the theme song is absolutely fantastic. There's a reason the wrestler also called The Human Tornado used it for as long as he did. Rudy Ray Moore, man. What a character. What a guy.
The Last Dragon
Year: 1985
Synopsis: A young wing-chun practitioner named Leroy Green looks to perfect his craft by battling The Shogun of Harlem.
EMN Notes: This is such a magnificent tribute to kung-fu movies and the influence they had on blaxploitation, creating a loving and entertaining celebration of both genres. Leroy is so fun and it's cool to see wing-chun onscreen. The Shogun of Harlem is such a cool villain, too. The movie isn't without its flaws, but I can't help but respect it for what it is. A great time.
The Legend of Drunken Master
Year: 1994
Synopsis: Returning home with his father after a shopping expedition, Drunken Fist expert Wong Fei-Hong is unwittingly caught up in the battle between foreigners who wish to export ancient Chinese artifacts and loyalists who don’t want the pieces to leave the country.
The Love Witch
Year: 2016
Synopsis: Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her, making potions and leaving a trail of bodies in this Dario Argento-inspired film.
The Pink Chiquitas
Year: 1987
Synopsis: A pink meteor controlled by aliens lands near a small town and turns the local women into sex addicts.
The Protector
Year: 1985
Synopsis: Hong Kong cop Billy Wong and his new partner Danny Garoni are sent by the NYPD to Hong Kong to investigate a kidnapping.
EMN Notes: This is a movie with troubled production. It was an attempt to break Jackie Chan into the mainstream US and it didn't really work out. Jackie Chan broke his hand during a stunt. He was disappointed with this film and edited a version of it for Chinese audiences that added an extra subplot. It didn't do very well in either territory, though Chan's version is considered better. It's a really interesting historical oddity, a great experiment in comparing and constrasting different approaches to film. I'm not actually sure which version we have on this channel - I believe it's Chan's version, but hey, that means it's a fun roulette when it pops up. Either way, it's not one of Jackie's best, but you can't really blame him for it.
The Raid
Year: 2011
Synopsis: A task force is formed to perform a drug bust on a local apartment building, but things go awry when the drug lord fights back with his tenents and the squad learns that the reason behind the bust may not have been above-board.
The Room
Year: 2003
Synopsis: Tommy Wiseau's infamous passion project; a riveting drama about love and loss.
The Street Fighter
Year: 1974
Synopsis: After the yakuza fails to pay a brutal street fighter his fair price, he goes on a rampage to get them to pay up.
EMN Notes: Man, the Street Fighter franchise got weird after this one with LA Streetfighters, Street Fighter, and The Legend of Chun-Li. In seriousness, this movie is so cool. Sonny Chiba, man, what an icon. Did you know this movie was made by Toei and distributed in the US by New Line Cinema? It's amazing what connections we form. This movie was named Kung Fu Streetfighter in the UK, because Charles Bronson's movie Hard Times was called The Streetfighter there, and this movie actually did have sequels called Return of the Street Fighter and Street Fighter's Last Revenge. There was even a spinoff called Sister Street Fighter! I'm happy to report this movie has a ton of street fighting. It promises one thing and it doesn't let you down.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Year: 1974
Synopsis: A group of friends pick up a hitchhiker that takes them to a compound where they're hunted by a twisted family of butchers.
EMN Notes: This movie is truly fantastic and worth every bit of hype it gets. It's creepy and it's grimy, and the deaths are shocking and sudden and imprint themselves on your brain. There's a gritty realistic discomfort in how its shot, and more than that I love that it has a point to it all. It's had several interpretations over the years, but I enjoy it as one that shines a lens on how humans treat animals when hunting them for sport. The sequel is extremely interesting, but every other film after missed the mark to varying degrees. This one, though, this one's good.
The Toxic Avenger
Year: 1984
Synopsis: A nerdy janitor gets bullied and pushed into a vat of toxic waste, and with his trusty mop becomes the hero of Tromaville, The Toxic Avenger.
The VelociPastor
Year: 2018
Synopsis: A pastor becomes infected by an unholy artifact that transforms him into a dinosaur when he gets angry.
EMN Notes: Most of the time if a film is intentionally trying to be so-bad-its-good it falls flat for me. This film almost did that for me, and it doesn't really help that it contains many very obvious homages to Miami Connection, which is so funny on its own that any attempt to parody it feels like it tries too hard. That said...at some point, this film just kind of starts to work for me. I think it's the weirdly serious way it takes all the scenes involving the priest's crisis of faith as he goes through a standard werewolf plot, or perhaps it's the absolute gusto in which the final scene involving an inflatable dinosaur costume is shot. Sure, it's derivative and doesn't really measure up to all the things it's trying to clown on, but it doesn't mean it's not fun, pleasantly low-budget, humorous, and dumb. I like it!
The Way of the Dragon
Year: 1974
Synopsis: Tang Lung arrives in Rome to help his cousins in the restaurant business, facing off against a syndicate that is pressuring them to sell.
The Witch Who Came From The Sea
Year: 1976
Synopsis: Anger stemming from being abused as a child drives an alcoholic’s daughter to kill as an adult.
The Wizard of Gore
Year: 1970
Synopsis: A TV talk-show hostess and her boyfriend investigate a shady magician who has become infamous for hypnosis and gory stage illusions.
Time Burst: The Final Alliance
Year: 1989
Synopsis: Ancient Japanese tablets have the secret to immortality, and factions of futuristic warriors, samurai, and secret agents all want to get their hands on them.
EMN Notes: Now we're talking! It's the movie with everything! Take every 80s exploitation sci-fi knockoff, blend them all together, and give them a cool name like Timeburst and you have a killer VHS. I can't promise this film will possibly live up to the bonkers premise, as most of these usually don't, but c'mon. Look at that art. Look at that plot. Tell me you don't want to see this.
TNT Jackson
Year: 1974
Synopsis: A tough-as-nails woman travels to Hong Kong to search for her missing brother.
EMN Notes: One of the first VHS-book movies I knew I wanted to add because of the amazing write-up on the box, and what do you know, it's one of Quentin Tarantino's favorites and a lot more influential than I realized! It's a really fun movie. I absolutely love the name TNT Jackson. It's not quite as refined as Coffy but it IS extremely fun. The version we have on Grindhouse has a lot of film grain, but I like it like that - it gives it a lot of unique charm.
Tokyo Gore Police
Year: 2008
Synopsis: A hyperviolent action movie where a young woman in future Tokyo's privatized police force fights gang members that can replace their limbs with deadly weapons.
Trancers
Year: 1984
Synopsis: Jack Deth is sent back in time from the year 2247 into the body of his ancestor. His mission: to kill the ancestors of the future's evil world council while also stopping a man responsible for turning humans into zombies.
EMN Notes: Did you know there are six Trancers films? Neither did we. This was another one we picked out of the VHS covers book and it is absolutely hilarious, soaked in weird bright lights and overdone definitely-not-Blade-Runner effects. It's so funny that characters have names like Jack Deth, Hap Ashby, and Martin Whistler. The funniest thing about researching this movie was learning that the character of Jack Deth also appeared in Evil Bong, a real winner of a horror movie by Full Moon Pictures that only narrowly avoided being added to this channel. Wild.
Tromeo & Juliet
Year: 1996
Synopsis: A modern, punk adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic told irreverently and violently by James Gunn.
Twin Dragons
Year: 1992
Synopsis: A mild-mannered concert pianist and a vicious Hong Kong gangster are mistaken for each other when it's revealed they're twins who have been separated at birth.
EMN Notes: For the cast and the premise you'd think this movie would be a lot more fun but honestly for what it is it's another great ride with two huge martial arts stars. There's a lot of fun mistaken identity comedy and a great moment in a hotel room where the two brothers keep switching roles in order to woo a woman. Not that deep, but still a treat in its own way. It's such a shame that after Jackie Chan and Jet Li's era martial arts movies and actors stopped being brought into Hollywood or at least translated and released in theaters. I really hope Everything Everywhere All At Once helps change that.
Undercover Brother
Year: 2002
Synopsis: The funkiest secret agent in town teams up with an all-Black B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. to take down "The Man".
EMN Notes: A wonderfully fun blaxploitation spoof that isn't afraid to be pointed and sharp, especially for its time. Unlike Black Dynamite, it doesn't really try to ape the style of the 70s and more creates something using the tropes of films of the era dialed up to the nth degree. It's a wacky secret agent movie, a pointed but extremely goofy commentary on race and Hollywood tropes, and an excuse to watch a hilarious collection of characters get into all kinds of over-the-top shenanigans. It's not the deepest, but that it even attempts to pointedly comment on the issues of race that it does is really interesting, and there's also a sequence near the end that makes me shout with laughter every time. This movie is a nostalgic favorite for me, and the soundtrack is absolutely killer.
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Year: 1970
Synopsis: A Czech art film about a young girl experiencing her sexual awakening and tasting the mystery and pleasures of life while being treated like a witch by the Catholic church.
EMN Notes: This is a difficult film to summarize as it's so lavishly dependent on imagery and beauty and so much happens in it. It explores queerness and othering as a result, uses vampirism as a metaphor, is unafraid to show the corruption of Catholicism, and is a cold and dreamlike art film to boot. The reason it's on Grindhouse is in a sense because of the ethos of what the original Grindhouse was. By showing films 24/7, these movie houses found films of all types and all genres - foreign film, art films, classic films, and more. This fits right in, providing something utterly unlike anything else on the channel, a filmic masterpiece you may wander into some time before primetime and come out of changed.
Versus
Year: 2000
Synopsis: A group of ruthless gangsters, an unknown woman, and an escaped convict meet in a forest and have to fight zombies.
Violent Cop
Year: 1989
Synopsis: A cop investigating the Yakuza breaks every code of conduct in the book. He's not just a loose-cannon...he's a violent cop.
EMN Notes: One of the biggest brainwaves Mandy had when setting up this channel was looking into the genre of Yakuza movies. These gritty crime dramas are intense and violent and Beat Takeshi was at the forefront in making some of the best. Of course, you may be asking what makes the Violent Cop so violent in comparison to any other cop, but y'know. He's here to punch people and get to the bottom of things. To be serious, though, Beat Takeshi has such an in-your-face style that you can't look away.
Warbus
Year: 1986
Synopsis: Three battle-hardened American soldiers commandeer a bus in Vietnam and have to use it to survive the war and save the hostages.
Wild Zero
Year: 1999
Synopsis: It's a zombie apocalypse, and the only person who can save us is punk superstar Guitar Wolf and his bandmates Bass Wolf and Drum Wolf. Can love truly bloom on a battlefield?
EMN Notes: Mandy and I watched this movie for the first time in March of 2022 and we've watched it twice again since. It was such an easy add. It's so funny, so bonkers, full of great CGI effects (I can't believe I'm saying this but they're all so fun and sudden that they actually work), and the central romance between the loser Guitar Wolf groupie and his eventual girlfriend and his arc about overcoming transphobia is absolutely magnificent. This movie came out in 1999 and it somehow screamed pro-queer messages louder than movies released today. It's just delightful, and the soundtrack is loud, punk, and fun as hell. This movie has aliens, zombies, guns, swords, and bikes. Rock and roll.
Willy's Wonderland
Year: 2021
Synopsis: Nic Cage stars as The Janitor, a man who is roped into servicing the rundown pizza parlor Willy's Wonderland after his car breaks down, but the animatronics that live there won't go out without a fight.
Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key
Year: 1972
Synopsis: Oliviero is a drunk, burned-out writer who amuses himself by hosting orgies at his grand country manor and humiliating his wife Irina. When a number of women are murdered in grisly fashion, Oliviero becomes a prime suspect.