Sissy

An influencer gets invited to her old childhood friend’s bachelorette party but then it turns out her former bully is there! Things take a violent turn and not everyone walks away with sashes and tiaras. It’s also pretty funny, so I do recommend.

RATING: 73%

Strange Behavior

aka Dead Kids

There's something wrong with the kids at Galesburg University. Instead of turning up for class, they keep turning up... dead. The police are baffled. The bodies are piling up. And no one, NO ONE, is safe.

Dead Kids

Rated R

Strange Behavior is both a slasher flick and a mad scientist movie, with hints of early Cronenberg and De Palma thrown in the mix. It's supposed to take place in rural Illinois, but it was clearly filmed in New Zealand. The pacing is a little slow and the narrative unfolds somewhat haphazardly, but it remains fascinating to watch. Well shot and scored, with an effective balance of tension and atmosphere.

Rating: 65%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Scott Brady, who played Shea, played Sheriff Frank in Gremlins.

Howling III: The Marsupials

Woof. This one was rough. Howling II was pretty bad, but I still managed to get some laughs out of it. Howling III really only had one moment that made me laugh. And since I don't recommend you watch this movie, I don't mind telling you what it was. Some army dudes come upon the burnt skeletal remains of a werewolf. One of the army dudes gets in close, that's when the smoldering werewolf skeleton comes to life and attacks the guy. It doesn't make any sense, like so much of this film. I'd be surprised if there was an actual script for this movie. And I'd be blown away if anyone actually read it and thought that making it was a good idea.

Rating: 38%

(Image from IMDB)

Razorback

This particular Jaws rip-off comes to us from the Land Down Under, having been made during Australia's insanely prolific (emphasis on the insane) era of ozploitation films. Razorback focuses on a gigantic wild boar with a penchant for eating people, be they toddlers or investigative journalists. What makes Razorback, and by extension most ozploitation movies, so entertaining is the sheer oddity of it all. Not just the oddity in the movie's premise, but the oddity in a world populated by unsettling characters, stark landscapes, bizarre animal species, technology that seems to straddle the divide between industrialization and steampunk, brutal violence, nudity, and popular music that all seems to sound like Men at Work. Australian cinema from the ozploitation era is truly a genre and an experience unto itself.

Rating: 76%

(Image from impawards.com)