Check out this rad Tourist Trap shirt from Cavity Colors!
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
VHS slasher toys
From Bloody-Disgusting:
VHS SLASHER TOYS!
Brilliant. Limited edition hand made customized toys based on VHS box art. These need to go into full scale production right now! Are they buying? SELL SELL! Are they selling? Then BUY BUY!
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Maniac Cop 3 - review
By the early Nineties the slasher
formula had become shop-worn and the rule of diminishing returns was in effect
for any stalker sequel hitting the cinema.
Maniac Cop 3 was rated NC-17 and plopped right into HBO when it came
out. While it is the weakest entry of
the series, with strange unexplained plot twists that come from nowhere and
fizzle out quickly and bloody action scenes that feel like filler, there is
still plenty of fun to have here.
Maniac Cop has some of the best continuity in slasherdom. This movie picks up right after the last
movie, with Cordell smashing his coffin lid and grabbing his badge. Matt is back, but why? It’s not really
clear, there’s a voodoo priest guy that explains that he was the
one to bring Matt back to life, that he really died in Sing-Sing, but he had “unfinished
business” and that some
souls leave echoes in this world that go on far after they are done
living. Okay, thanks for that, but why
is this guy concerned with Cordell to begin with? You expect some sort of reasoning, but he
offers none, and things get sillier from there.
Detective McKinney is back, but this time he has a sidekick Katie
Sullivan, a beat cop with a reputation for shooting first, asking questions
later. Sullivan is wrongly accused of
using excessive force in a hostage situation; she is shot and left in a coma as
corrupt news reporters dice her reputation to pieces and the department
abandons her. It’s up to
Detective McKinney to clear her name and find out what really happened during
the hostage standoff.
Cordell hears a radio broadcast of what happened to Officer Sullivan
and takes immediate interest in the case.
At first it is assumed that Matt just wants to clear the good officer’s name and seek
revenge on those who wrongly persecuted her; but later through Sullivan’s dreams and
coma induced visions it is apparent Cordell is really looking for a wife and
partner in his doomed afterlife. I guess
even Maniac Cops can get horny. He
starts going after any doctor who might show any callousness to Sullivan’s precarious
health, electrocuting one with shock paddles and X-raying another to death.
Detective McKinney discovers the video tape used to convict Sullivan
of excessive force was heavily edited by scumbag ambulance chasers to depict
Sullivan killing an innocent hostage when in reality the “hostage” was working an
inside job with her schizoid junkie boyfriend (Jakcie Earle Haley of NOES
reboot fame). However by the time he
puts the pieces together the junkie and several other convicts have escaped
their hospital room confinement and start shooting up the place, leading to a
harrowing gunfight between McKinney and the criminal element, the kind of 80’s blood and
sweat gun fight where people are riddled with hundreds of bullets and gun clips
seem to hold an infinite amount of ammunition.
I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a few slow
motion doves fly by, John Woo style.
During the chaos of battle Cordell sweeps Sullivan from her hospital
bed and takes her body down to the secret voodoo church below the hospital
where he hopes the voodoo priest will join him and Sullivan in a kind of unholy
union. McKinney follows him down and
tries to plea to Matt’s good nature to let Sullivan go, but he
refuses, and the priest is shot dead.
The church catches on fire and the battle spills out into the streets
where Matt chases McKinney by car while smothered in flames. Cordell seems to be lit on fire for half an
hour without melting or showing any signs of slowing down. Eventually the chase is concluded when his
car explodes, seemingly spelling the end of the Maniac Cop. McKinney lights a cigarette with one of
Cordell’s severed arms
and walks off into the city night, satisfied the Maniac Cop has been laid to
rest.
Maniac Cop 3 is a fun movie if you don’t think too
hard. They try to tie McKinney into a
romantic sub plot but it just doesn’t work. I really couldn’t imagine the
blonde bombshell they couple him with would be interested in a chain smoking
cop with bad acne scars, but the movie spends a lot of time trying to set that
up. They never explain why Cordell was
so in need of a bride, especially since that wasn’t his prerogative
at all during the prior movies. It’s just kind of
stapled on without any afterthought. Why
would the voodoo priest have any interest in what Cordell does at all? Who knows?
It’s a little sad that it’s the last entry
in the series, but Maniac Cop will return in the form of a remake scheduled for
NEXT YEAR. Count me in.
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