1970’s

[5] Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Jules Bass are most famous for their holiday-themed animated television specials, like Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But they also produced a few live-action efforts, including this strange, terrible yet unshakable TV movie from the late ’70s. Leigh McCloskey and Carl Weathers (Rocky) star as members of a oceanic expedition who encounter an alluring but dangerous sea …

[6] This faux-documentary about seven men who travel deep into the Pacific Northwest to find Bigfoot was one of the first movies I ever saw. So nostalgia no doubt colors my opinion of it. But re-watching it recently, I can honestly say it’s not without its merits — especially as a product of its time. Unlike the later Blair Witch Project, Sasquatch The Legend of …

[4] The owner of a failing summer camp invites past campers, now young adults, back for a nostalgic weekend in hopes of raising money to keep the camp going. Summer Camp features all the stereotypes and clichés you could imagine — the food fight, the toga party, the panty raid, the girls vs guys athletic competition, the slut, the virgin, etc. But to be fair, …

[7] In this TV movie co-written by Truman Capote, a prisoner (Alan Alda) and a guard (Clu Gulager) start life in prison on the same day and quickly learn what a dangerous and corrupt environment it is. Both men seek to shed light on the injustice, but will either of them survive to see the system reformed? Its production values are relatively unvarnished, but The …

[7] Two young couples rent a Winnebago for a cross-country road trip, but jealousy soon turns their romantic adventure into a nightmare. Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) and Doug Chapin play the men, both recently discharged from service in Vietnam and anxious to begin new lives. Hatch plans to marry his fiancée (Susanne Benton), but Chapin tries to talk him out of it, fearing marriage will …

[6] A deadly alien lands in the English countryside and assumes the form of a human male. Two lesbians living in a large manor invite him for dinner, and then to stay the night. He studies them with great curiosity… but he’s also hungry. He eats their chickens and some of the local wildlife. His presence begins to drive a wedge between the women, just …

[7] A married couple who’ve made a game out of sexual conquest invite a younger married couple over for dinner. There’s much more in store for the evening, though, especially when booze and poppers slick the way for same-sex seduction. Some might call Score pornographic, but there’s far too much storytelling and craftsmanship put into the movie to dismiss it so quickly. While director Radley …

[7] Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) directs this made-for-TV adaptation of Stephen King’s novel about a writer who discovers his hometown is being overtaken by vampires. The most remarkable thing about Hooper’s work here is how genuinely scary Salem’s Lot is without ever resorting to gore or excessive violence. Scenes of vampire children floating outside bedroom windows, beckoning their next victims to let …

[6] Sam Elliott plays an L.A. beach lifeguard who begins to question, at the age of thirty-two, if it might finally be time to put on a shirt and get a ‘real’ job. There’s no question that Sam Elliott has charisma and can carry a movie, and that’s probably the only reason this flick has had any shelf life at all. Lifeguard is decidedly a …

[6] In this dream-like film from director Juan López Moctezuma, a teenaged girl named Justine goes to live at a convent after the death of her parents. Unfortunately, her nun roommate, Alucarda, turns out to be a satanic lesbian with slightly vampiric tendencies. How the nuns missed the warning signs, we’ll never know. But after Alucarda takes Justine to a devil orgy in the woods …

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