Jungle Heat... Skin Splattering Via Hong Kong!

Another Friday...and a review of one of my favorite HK flicks of all time. So, Tomb It May Concern, I took a look at the sadly neglected but oh so good little film...JUNGLE HEAT! Enjoy!

JUNGLE HEAT

Directed by Jobic Wong
Starring Sam Jones, Christopher Doyle and a bunch of guys who get killed in horrible grisly fashion!
"Three weeks training and you expect us to fight the V.C.???
YOU BASTARD!!"

This gritty and grim (and cheap) Hong Kong production is everything you can ask from a grim and gritty cheap film! Loaded with fun characters, dubbed voices that you know, gore galore and action sequences a plenty (wrapped in a Sciotti poster package) Jungle Heat WILL satisfy your need for violence in your action cinema. Heck, they even throw in a game of "Will The Burning Rat Set the VC Drenched In Gasoline Ablaze" just for fun in one nasty bit that will damage quite a few gentle viewers. I've known many a person who has desired an uncut print, and it appears that the Japanese VHS version and the composite German DVD would be just that. While it still seems jumpy in the narrative sense, which may simply be bad filmmaking or distributor recuts, the gore and violence levels are certainly beyond the norm and rival the more bizarre films of Indonesia for balls out insanity. If this is still missing stuff, then I can't imagine what it would be.

While it skimps on plot, the film does have character. Nguyen is put in charge of helping to find men to drive some US Army trucks to and fro as troops abscond from Vietnam after the war. After some unruly guys are roped in and selected for cannon fodder a kindly soldier decides to train them. Hey, it’s Sam Jones…FLASH GORDON! Anyhow, he puts the men through a training program and teachs them how to fight and drive like soldiers. Of course, we know it won’t be enough to save them, but these scenes are entertaining as the motley crew engage in cross country racing and various kung fu lessons. Actually, it’s hard not to like the guys--and just knowing they are going to get picked off once they are trained is actually a downer. Did I mention the local game of driving motorcycles under logging trucks for money? We’ll get back to it, because once the mission gets underway, those tricky V.C. quickly pounce and capture our boys.

Then things get bad.

The Evil Commander is played to scummy perfection by perpetual fatty bad dude Mui Sang Fan and he sure does like tormenting his captives. After he accuses one of our hapless heroes of trying to escape (which is something we don’t see) the movie jumps from action film to downright splatter classic as he buries the guy up to his neck in the sand in the sun. Oohh… bad. Then he shaves his head! Ooohhhh…worse. THEN he takes a razorblade and slits open the top of his head! OOOOOOhhh…REALLY BAD! AND THEN he pours acid through the hole…until the sorry sonovabitch LEAPS OUT OF HIS F’IN SKIN!!!

Wow.

And that is just before the halfway point when Jungle Heat gets hot with action sequences, gory saw murders, a hellacious escape by tearing apart your own hands, Sam Jones Fu, Fiery Rat Roulette, Fatty’s Vile Behavior and an ending that will make you go…awww no. NO!! NOOOOOO! Remember that game that leads to various bodies getting squished and crushed by logging trucks? It comes back to haunt you in the end!

It is what it is…and Jungle Heat is pure Tough To Kill madness and fun. Violent and fast paced, this is man-sized entertainment that isn’t afraid to throw some huge snake on the characters just to watch them squirm. And don’t even get me started about how far I ejected my soda from my nose when they pulled out the giant bandsaw fu! Far from classic, any fan of gory action will get exactly what they want… and it certainly doesn’t leave any itch unscratched or any characters unscathed.

While I can’t compare the mysterious Jobic Wong to any director of serious talent, I will say that his willingness to heap on the melancholy for his heroes alongside the obvious glee he takes in killing them off is unique and exciting…good on him, he really created a low budget classic that sadly is more talked about than seen. The rare Japanese VHS is presented in stunning 2:35 scope for those mad enough to track it down (hey, I did!) or you can grab a copy of the German dvd here:

GETCHA SOME JUNGLE HEAT AT XPLOITED!

EDIT! This came from the comments section and offers some great information! Thanks to this poster...

It should be noted that the American commander sending everyone off to die was played by none other than long time Wong Kar-wei cinematographer: Christopher Doyle (Australian)!

The film's director, Jobic Wong Lai-keung earned his daily rice mostly as an assistant director and production manager. He worked as an assistant to legendary Hong Kong cult director Dennis Yu (EVIL CAT, THE BEASTS, CITY HERO, THE IMP, and GHOST HOSPITAL) and was the production manager for the long-defunct D & B Film Co.

Oh, and the English dubbed version of this film uses some of the same library music that American director George A. Romero used for DAWN OF THE DEAD (specifically the theme during the training sequences) and CREEPSHOW (the disco song "Don't Let Go," in particular).

Most of the film was shot in Southern Taiwan.

Enzo Sciotti ... Boom and Ba-Daa-BOOM!

Pardon me while I enthuse...
HOLY CRAP...CLICK ON THE PICS BABY!
Enzo Sciotti mania is now official. First I found his little signature on the ANTHROPOPHAGUS poster and now I'm learning that he is responsible for MANY of my favorite images.
This guy is the Jano for eurotrashers like me!
So, I've found a ton more and I'll be posting up the big, the little, and the obscure. Today we have some SEX and VIOLENCE to share. Action violence to be specific! I love me some Italian Action Cinema...and Sciotti is the king of the posters. Lots of hunting for signatures and images to be accomplished, but so far I've found a goodly sum. Why blow it all at once though?
First we have two action flicks with BRIDGE TO HELL and JUNGLE HEAT. Bridge To Hell is a fun if not exactly classic bit of WW2 eurotrash with Andy Forest (of Mark Of The Scorpion) and it features a goodly bit of Fabio Frizzi music as well. The old Cannon Video also contains an intro by Micheal Dudikoff, and if the American Ninja ain't cool I don't know what is.
JUNGLE HEAT is a classic indy HK flick loaded with gore and action which this poster does total justice. This scan is the Japanese VHS, the best version I've found and in full scope unlike the recent German DVD. I'll review the film shortly... but today is Enzo's day in the sun (with many too follow!)
Then we have us some softcore sex the D'Amato way! These Filmirage flicks are what I call PISS AWFUL, but I've enjoyed both of these entries on more than one occasion. Yeah, I'm a masochist with a VHS remote... Blue Angel Cafe is particularly hard to resist as Tara Buckman WARBLES her ass off singing in a leotard. Really. Buckman isn't much better in High Finance Woman but she looks good naked as nature intended-so, easy enough to tolerate. No singing though, which is sad. If you look closely at HFW you can see the obscured signature on the second step.

My hats off to Sciotti again today...and just wait until the next horror post. Lets just say one word.
DEMONS!

Don't forget to visit the artists website at

http://www.enzosciotti.com/indexEN.html

Cooler than ICE, Man! THE ICEMAN!

"And then there is that special calibre of man. The man who molds his own life. Who shapes his own destiny. Who stands when others, nursing their apathy and fears, are seated. Who runs forward while others hide. Who is heard, even when silent. Who is felt, even when absent. Henry Highland West, The Iceman, tall and handsome in his Blackness, is that kind of man."
-From "SLICK REVENGE-ICEMAN 3"

1974, a very good year for American action cinema, and Blaxploitation movies were hotter than the summer streets! Keeping the grindhouses packed with thrillseekers looking for strong characters talking shit and enough smacking down the man to satisfy in 90 minutes, films like Coffy, Foxy Brown, Hell Up In Harlem, Slaughter, Shaft ruled the screens. These and countless others are still popular for their mix of street cliche and action motifs with abundant NPV (Nudity/Profanity/Violence). With the buzz on the street so strong, Holloway House presented "The Exciting Black Adventure Series" ICEMAN penned by writer Joseph Nazel. I first ran into Holloway House and Nazel via Groovy Age of Horror's review of THE BLACK EXORCIST and snagged myself a copy. Nazel's style hooked me from the start. Simple and credibly streetwise, this zany novel played like a harder edged crime version of ABBY... I needed more, but horror seemed not to be his genre. Cue up my love for those old pulpish Executioner/Butcher/Raven novels... it seemed Nazel had done an action series. And what a series ICEMAN is.

To say it's Afrocentric would be an understatement... Iceman is cool for the use of conventions (he's a sort of pimp, sort of hustler, sort of superslueth but all around cool cat) and is told at a more gut level than most of the blaxploitation era films could convey. Nazel's perception of Harlem and his vivid descriptions are more powerful (and credible) than perhaps Jack Hill or Robert Clouse could ever hope for. The slinging of slang is thick, but never cuts into the narration and patters across the page with perfection. If only they had made a film of this series (I could see The Hammer in this role easily)-it could have been a breakout success. It's never too late for a part Bond, part Shaft...all BLACKTION extravaganza in my mind.
The books focus on the adventures of Henry Highland West, a Harlem kid proud in his Blackness (Black is always capped in these tales) who overcomes the overwhelming odds and works his oversized mind and overtough fists to create THE OASIS, a desert resort for the ultra-elite. It's all very "over!" Monitored by his all female army of fighters, lovers and bodyguards Smith maintains his own status by keeping ahead of his guests with a supercomputer.

Perfect!

But it's never easy wearing your light blue tracksuit, hanging in your dojo and mastering the art of love with women from around the globe...oh no! Iceman will ALWAYS help a friend, be it fighting THE MAN as he tries to infect Harlem with bad gas in Slick Revenge, battling THE MOB in Billion Dollar Death, helping a beautiful woman out of a jam in THE SYNDICATE'S recording industry or even grubstaking a hapless guy that leads to Iceman having to fly to Africa to put his boot firmly up the asses of some slavers...the series never lets up. Dune buggies, Helicopters, car battles, gun battles, fist battles, kung fu battles and whole lotta caddy driving and shit talking from a pimp pal named Christmas Tree are simply the beginning.
I love these books...
So, if you like your reading fast and want to get a good feel for what the real words on the street during the 70's were like, grab yourself a big helping of Iceman.

"Christmas Tree made a mental note to get a new paintjob or a new Cad when the job was finished. He knew that as soon as the Iceman got his message, he too would be on the set. The shit was about to fall!"

Digital Versatile Dervish Report - DEADLY SPAWN

The joys of DVD seem boundless sometimes don't they?

One of the great backyard (or basement to be more exact) films is available for monster lovers everywhere on a tiny shiny because yes... The Deadly Spawn is here! Blissed out monsterific fun, thy name is Spawny. If my son ever gets the movie making bug this is one we will have to watch and define what success from meager resources can look like with a whole load of creative tinkering and audacity.

After a little meteorite makes a big honking noise in the woods upon crashing, two nearby campers quickly get chomped by something rather monstrous sounding. Outer Space Hell comes to New Jersey it seems. Well, if it isn’t hell it’s a three-headed monster packing some tadpoles of doom at least. Seeking the warmth that only a Jersey basement can provide the monster sends out a legion of spermatazoic styled killers to munch on elderly vegetarians, devour those who cross paths with them and to chase the people who live over the holy basement of Deadly Spawn’s kingdom. You may begin to celebrate the apocalypse now!

It helps that a good cast of characters with interesting little lives occupy the talking and gesturing section of the film, the screenplay revels in the old school moster conventions with gusto. We have the science guy who wants to get the girl, the doofy non-scholastically inclined buddy, the psychologist who is babysitting…and a boy who just loves horror movies 'natch. All meet a toothy monster who speaks the silent language of FEED ME and provide apt blood filled fodder for our fun!

I love movies with kids that love horror as protaganists. If you are reading this I'll bet that you'll smile along as the shrink tries to get the lad to feel awkward by asking a series of questions that shows the horror fan of the house as the smartest of the bunch.

The monster antics can be summarized "Chomp Chomp fizz fizz and OH…what a relief it is." The groovy spawnlets gory up old ladies just fine, but once the big honking monster makes it’s way and starts biting and tearing-we have crossed over into some of the best conceived and executed microbudget monster sequences of all time. And that ending… I’m still waiting for Apocalypse! Spawn… a real sequel for the ages.

Deadly Spawn is a horror fan film for horror fans from frame one. Violent and gory with a touch of nudity, a smattering of in-jokes for the horrifically inclined and a splattering shrieking spookshow that isn't afraid to just be offensive-it’s breezy easy fun. I love it and if you have NOT seen this one you really should. Now is the time brothers and sisters…Spawn up!

Puppeteer / FX supervisor John Dods Spawn monsters are a fine reminder of why low-tech works so well in some cases-with THE THING IN THE BASEMENT conjuring up Lovecraft at a Five and Dime Store blowout. The scenes of the Master Spawn chasing our heroes through a small hallway are always going to make me smile. Mix in the groovy ghoulie tunes from Perilstein, Cornell and Walker and it's a monstah mash…

A great movie, hands down, and that brings us to the DVD. The Synapse Films DVD is what I'd call a Digital Miracle. The transfer of the film is simply stunning, and yeah that term gets thrown around a lot (along with "edge enhancement" and other nonsense that many people don’t truly understand)…but it’s true. I dropped my Fruit Loops when I noticed there was rain (or a small hose) behind the first puppet, setting up the a plot point I never noticed! Wild.

Fans of the film will be happy-and first timers will be treated to something I never believed could exist, a nice stable image on this film. Windowboxed to avoid any matting issues I have to extend my thanks for this because there is nothing worse than mutilating movies for anamorphic playback if the film wasn’t originally meant to be that way. Every splat looks great and hey… I could even see a few little manipulating sticks poking out of the spawnlets. Sure that isn’t "good" but it’s great fun.

Extras? Oh yeah, plenty to go around. Two commentary tracks, the first group one being very rowdy and fun to listen too and the second with producer Ted Bohus is a bit more informative at times, but doesn’t have the same manic energyt. Both provide a good vantage point on the film and are worth enjoying. Tons of behind the scenes stuff include a camcorder shot visit to the effects set of the film (with some fun goofing off along the way), an alternate opening sequence with some new effects, outtakes and a cool comic bookish prologue as well.

A solid package from top to bottom and priced right, this is a must for monster movie fans worldwide. MunchaBuncha Spawn for your next Deadly Matinee of Delight!