Billing itself as "a guide to sleazy, mindless movies," this review-based collection from Headpress compiles hundreds of reviews from old-school fanzines, primarily Steven Puchalski's own Slimetime of the late 1980s, concentrating on the films as he saw them rather than upon the minutiae of cuts, aspect ratios and retitlings that have become more prominent in the wake of Video Watchdog and latterly DVD.
Covering a broad range of psychotronic cinema, including many familiar bases such as blaxploitation, biker films and Japanese giant monster films, along with more one of a kind entries like The California Reich (a documentary about members of the American Nazi party) and My Breakfast with Blassie (Andy Kaufman's take on My Dinner with Andre) it is the kind of book that is best dipped into and kept to hand for ready reference – what is the plot of Godzilla versus Megalon again? (other than the old monster stomp) – rather than read straight through.
The problem with doing a cover-to-cover reading – which is, in any case, something I think that the reviewer is more likely to do than the assumed reader/user – is that Puchalski's pieces have a tendency to recycle the same witticisms and turns of phrase in a way that probably wasn't noticeable in the fanzine format, but becomes rather more apparent in book form. Or, to paraphrase Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies remarks on Russ Meyer's films, "individually they are dazzling, but the repetition palls with the carry over… especially since [his] reuse of the same basic material often borders on self-plagiarism."
A good case in point here are the reviews of Texas Chain Saw Massacre 2 and Three on a Meathook , especially since these are separated only by those for Themroc and Though Shalt Not Kill… Except .
Dismissing Tobe Hooper's sequel as lacking in imagination, Puchalski remarks: "Part 2 is a document for the mid-eighties – slick, superficial and manipulative. Of course, I didn't go in expecting Harold Pinter, but I did kinda hope for a good, solid, scary sequel. Instead… zzz."
Its a nice comparison, showing that like all the good genre writers he has culture and isn't afraid to show it, except for that with Three on a Meathook he then uses the exact same trope: "Bloody bimbos! Bouncing boobs! Boring bullshit! Yep, it's another great title for a mediocre movie. (Oh, well, I wasn't expecting Edward Albee.)"
The same is apparent when reading the longer genre essays that round off the collection, on biker movies, blaxploitation and hallucinogenics in the cinema (a fourth piece, on Hunter S Thompson doesn't quite fit, but can be excused in terms of authorial fiat) which have a tendency to repeat the same material as featured in the individual reviews only within a broader context.
Having said this, I know how difficult it is to write something entertaining and original and am sure that if you went through a number of the reviews on this site you'd find the same sort of thing.
Similarly, while I disagree with some of Puchalski's write-ups of some of my favourite pieces of Eurotrash – my chosen specialist subject, though there's still a lot I don't know – there's plenty in the book that I didn't know and I've come across numerous new titles that have been added to my "must see" and "must avoid" lists, such as The Passover Plot (Zalman King plays Jesus as an all-too-human radical who plots his own resurrection), The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligans' Island (no explanation needed) and The Sadist (which sounds like it could be Badlands , ten years earlier, though Puchalski doesn't say so explicitly).
In all likelihood you will get a lot out of this unless your name happens to be Michael Weldon, Bill Landis or Tim Lucas.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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