Carlos East Movies

A brilliant geologist sends a team to search the depths of the earth in an effort to learn the origin of some strange signals they've been picking up on their equipment. They discover a rock formation with an interior life that can communicate telepathically. They bring the mass to the surface and determine that the entity is "pure crystallized intelligence," and they believe many of the secrets of existence can be answered by studying the stone. However, the only message the mysterious rock is forthcoming with is what kind of food it needs, namely a particular chemical that can only be produced by the bodies of people in the throes of terror. To this end, Dr. Mantel (Boris Karloff) devises something called the Fear Chamber, where kidnapped prostitutes are frightened out of their wits with spiders, snakes, and faked Satanic rituals in order to obtain this precious chemical. Though the scientist and his assistants take pains not to physically harm their subjects, the weird living rock begins growing tentacles and soon learns how to capture its prey and extract the fluids itself, leading to the death of a lady burglar. The scientists realize what a deadly force they've unleashed on the surface world, though efforts to destroy the creature are complicated by its ability to control human minds and generate its own electricity. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi

La Hermana Trinquete concerns a professional thief who mares a living ripping off the guests who stay at a five-star hotel in Acapulco. It takes a smart secret agent to figure out that that her persona of being a nun is nothing but a ruse to allow her access to her booty. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Cult favorite René Cardona, Jr. (Night of a 1,000 Cats) helms the 1973 Spanish-language western La Mula de Cullen Baker. Proving the old adage that he who laughs last laughs hardest, the film weaves the fable of Cullen Baker, a social pariah relentlessly derided and browbeaten by everyone. Cullen's life turns a corner, however, when he discovers a "super weapon": a Colt Dragon revolver that can shoot six consecutive rounds. Sensing the opportunity for self-empowerment, he accosts two armed soldiers in the shadow of night, seizes their weapons and then slays the rest of the men's troop. As Baker acquires an increasingly large arsenal, he begins to murder anyone who dares to confront him. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

This stylish English-language Mexican western was first shown in 1971 at the Venice Film Festival as Arde, and was re-edited (with some new shots added) and re-released in 1974 as Arde baby Arde, or Burn Baby Burn. It bears a closer kinship with contemporary Italian "spaghetti" westerns than with the more conventional American variety. The story, which contains some bizarre touches (including necrophilia) concerns the efforts of a father and his adopted son to find the things they most want in life. Though for the father, gold holds much allure, love is the son's beacon. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This 1978 horror-lite opus was the work of René Cardona Jr., who was a creative force behind other tabloid-inspired efforts like Survive! and Guyana, Cult of the Damned. This less-exploitative entry in his filmography utilizes the infamous legends revolving around the many disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle as the backdrop for a fictional horror tale. The Bermuda Triangle tells the tale of a family scuba expedition, led by patriarch Edward (John Huston). Things take a turn for the bizarre when Edward's daughter finds a mysterious doll. The little girl claims the doll is telling her of their impending doom as strange things begin to happen to the cast and crew. The resulting film was more restrained than the likes of Survive!, going for more a Twilight Zone-style creepiness. Like much of Cardona Jr.'s work, it boasted an international cast that included Huston, Italian starlet Gloria Guida, Claudine Auger, and Cardona Jr. regular Hugo Stiglitz. The Bermuda Triangle found little favor with the critics but has earned a small cult following amongst people who have encountered it on late-night television. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi

"Names have been changed to protect the innocent" in this infamous fictionalization of the tragic mass suicide of 914 followers of Jim Jones' "People's Temple" in Guyana in the fall of 1978. Rev. James Johnson (Stuart Whitman) is a charismatic but deeply paranoid man of the cloth who moves his flock from Northern California to a settlement in Guyana, where he intends to create an interracial socialist utopia. Addicted to prescription drugs and convinced he is surrounded by enemies, Johnson rules his colony, "Johnsontown," with an iron fist, torturing anyone who violates his rule, seducing both women and men from his congregation, confiscating money and property from his followers, and forcing them to work long hours in the fields for meager rations. Lee O'Brien (Gene Barry), a California congressman who represents the district Johnson and his followers once called home, has received complaints from friends and relatives of the Johnsontown settlers, convinced something is wrong. O'Brien and a team of reporters fly to Guyana to find out the truth about what is happening; Johnson is convinced O'Brien has seen too much, and armed gunmen ambush his party before they can return to the United States (with a number of Johnsontown residents who wish to leave). After a failed attempt to arrange exile in the Soviet Union, Johnson convinced his followers to perform a "final revolutionary act" before authorities arrive. This oddball blend of fact and fiction also features Joseph Cotten and John Ireland as Johnson's lawyers, Yvonne de Carlo as Johnsontown's press officer, and Bradford Dillman as the doctor who mixes the punch for Johnson's final gathering. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A Spanish language film about revenge as weilded by three racially diverse men. ~ Rovi

This action film is about drug dealers whose personalities are not that different than the police officers and narcotics agents out to get them. Yet the message, delivered repeatedly, is that drugs are bad and dealing in drugs is worse. Chief drug boss Ernesto Castro (Sergio Goyri) and his minions are the objects of one car chase after another, alternating with shoot-outs on a regular basis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

While he may not be a super-hero with magical powers, Valente has a way with arrows, knives, darts, pistols and various other mayhem-inducing hardware, as he secretly pursues (and kills) a variety of bad guys while protecting his reporter girlfriend in Los Angeles, California. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Central America, the peasants are nearly all "Indios," or people whose cultural values are those of indigenous people (rather than European or Spanish). Since the landowning and propertied classes abuse them horribly, these same ruling-class types live in perpetual fear of a bloody uprising. As a result, they suppress and abuse the peasants even more. Ironically, for the most part these peaceable people only want to be left alone. Those who do want to foment revolution have virtually no weapons and few allies to help them. In this action/adventure movie, based on a true incident, a group of Guatemalan peasants who have sought refuge in Mexico are sought out by Guatemalan death squads, and those who aren't tortured and killed are taken away in captivity. The hero in the story is a Mexican hunter whose family is mistakenly included in the raid and who teams up with a few of the survivors to win his family back and take revenge. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi