Wasted Weekend - 8/20/21

 It's nearly official - as of this writing my weekend has nearly begun - and I'm ready to discuss wild and wonderful films to indulge in. Depending on your tastes, it's actually a pretty solid streaming weekend for new films - Annette has dropped on Prime, Jakob's Wife starring Barbara Crampton is now on Shudder, and a movie I don't know much about but looks interesting - Cult Following - a mockumentary about an occult investigator has appeared on Vudu. However, I'm here to talk to you about older, often weirder gems for you to mine over the weekend so lets get to it.

You could be excused for thinking that 1990's Blood Games is just another sleazy T&A trashfest and its alternate title Baseball Bimbos in Hillbilly Hell does very little to disabuse you of that notion. However, Blood Games is in fact a fairly relentless and brutal revenge exploitation flick combining aspects of I Spit on Your Grave and Deliverance so if you need to heed content warnings - consider yourself warned. This is the only feature from director Tanya Rosenberg and it stars accomplished stuntwoman Laura Albert. Blood Games saw a Blu Ray release from Vinegar Syndrome but is currently streaming on Hulu.

Another VS release seen streaming in the wild is Psychic Killer - Ray Danton's supernatural quasi-slasher about a former mental patient who learns astral projection and uses his newfound powers to wreak revenge on the people who had him locked up. It stars Jim Hutton as the titular killer and Neville Brand makes an appearance. Actor/Writer/Director - Black Shampoo, Satan's Cheerleaders, Joysticks - Greydon Clark is in the film and has a co-writing credit as well. This one is currently free with ads on Vudu.

I have to give a tip of the hat to my friend Tim who let me know that a bunch of Arrow Video titles had dropped onto Tubi including several films from Floridian William Grefe. Of the bunch I have to highly recommend Sting of Death - it is a zany 60s monster mash where a group of swinging biology students are hunted and killed by a mutated jellyfish monster. It's goofy, it's fun, there are dance numbers, and the body count is shockingly high. It's not as gruesome as what I usually go for but it oozes with low budget regional charm and Grefe has a real knack for lovely natural landscape photography - who knew? Sting of Death is available on the Arrow Player but also streaming Tubi with ads.

In addition to the Grefe films, Tubi also has a bunch of films from one of the kings of 60s low-budget horror - Herschell Gordon Lewis. I haven't seen many of Lewis' films since VHS and I keep meaning to revisit them. I'm thinking I'll get reacquainted with Blood Feast. At an economical 67 minutes - Blood Feast gives you the best of Lewis' aesthetic - bright red gore, earnest performances, low budget ingenuity - without wearing out its welcome. Reserve a seat at the Egyptian Feast via Arrow, Kanopy, or on Tubi

Last but certainly not least - the film world lost a legend in Sonny Chiba this week at the age of 82. Chiba's influence on martial arts and action cinema would be difficult to overstate and he will be missed terribly. I can't really do his career justice but I did like this tribute to him by Simon Abrams. We are left with a treasury of Sonny Chiba's contributions and films and there are a ton of them also on Tubi if you're looking for something this weekend. Essentials like The Street Fighter and Hiroshima Death Match to his earlier films like Terror Beneath the Sea.