1970’s

[7] Clint Eastwood gives us his take on James Bond with The Eiger Sanction, the story of a retired hit man who is coerced back into action by a secretive government organization to ‘sanction’ (kill) a member of a mountain climbing party in the Swiss Alps. The Bond-like elements are some of the film’s most memorable, including the secretive group’s albino boss man (Thayer David) …

[7] Maybe I crave Bigfoot movies and the innocence of the 1970s so much that I give half-way decent ‘Squatch flicks more credit than I should, but I was impressed with Creature from Black Lake, a low-budget film with production values that exceeded my expectations. John David Carson and Dennis Fimple star as a pair of Chicago college students traveling to rural Arkansas to investigate …

[6] A bisexual hustler (Joed Adair) hitchhikes around the Pacific Southwest looking to trade sex for room and board — and maybe a deeper connection with someone? Drifter is an early offering in the history of gay cinema, a non-explicit 16mm film produced by a gay porn company (Jaguar) hoping for a mainstream crossover. Drifter never found that kind of success, of course. In fact, …

[7] Paul Newman stars as an aging ice hockey coach and player who tries to salvage his team’s careers by leaning into on-ice violence and wrestling-like theatrics, what the players call ‘goonery’. The effort works, leading to a winning streak, publicity, and huge crowds. But when the team’s owner still decides to fold the team for a tax write-off, spirits dive and the championship is …

[5] Sophia Loren stars in the final film from director Vittorio de Sica, about an Italian woman despondently searching for her soldier husband (Marcello Mastroianni) in the fallout of World War II. Unable to learn from the government whether he’s even dead or alive, she sets out to the battlefront once the war is over. And what can I say without giving away the second …

[7] George C. Scott stars as a pious midwestern father who searches Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco looking for his missing daughter after a private detective (Peter Boyle) reveals she’s been working in the porn industry. With the help of a young prostitute (Season Hubley), Scott zeroes in on the men who may have kidnapped his daughter — or did she go willingly? …

[6] Hot off her Oscar win for Network, Faye Dunaway headlines this thriller about a controversial photographer whose focus on sex and violence makes her a sensation in New York’s advertising world. Dunaway’s title character begins having visions of murder — from the killer’s direct point-of-view. One by one, models and associates in her career begin dying, stabbed in the eyes by the mysterious killer. …

[1] A patient escapes a mental institution and starts killing people on a nearby campus in this ultra-low-budget, supremely bad movie that has nothing to do with ‘Son of Sam’. The film is so poorly made that you’ll likely be shaking your head in confusion over the scripting, staging, and editing. The first few deaths in the movie happen when the killer puts his hand …

[3] An abominable snowman terrorizes a Montana ski resort in this made-for-TV movie from the late ’70s. Since Snowbeast was made for a television audience, you get no gore and very little in terms of viscera or genuine scares. The monster’s presence is mostly achieved through the old ‘point of view’ shot, which quickly gets tedious. When we do see the monster, it’s usually just …

[6] This movie has the distinction of being the first released film about the eponymous serial killer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late ’60s. While it has all the low production values you might expect from a 16mm low-budget drive-in flick, the screenplay is structurally sound and does an interesting job marrying fact with fiction. The Zodiac Killer starts off by …

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