Gwil Richards Movies

New York's Troma Films continue their grand tradition of relentlessly bad taste with this horror epic, which follows the exploits of an all-girl motorcycle gang -- who go by the quaint moniker "The Cycle Sluts" -- and their fearless leader Rox (Catherine Carlin), who offers the freedom of the road to any frustrated small-town girl willing to slap on the leathers. Things take a nasty turn for Rox and her violent femmes when the gang rides into Zariah -- a town in the slimy grip of a deranged mortician named Ralph (Don Calfa), who has been busily turning the locals into cannibalistic zombie slaves. As if that weren't enough... a busload of blind, orphaned teens become stranded within spitting distance of Ralph's undead army, and it's up to Rox's twisted sisters to save the day. Troma is often guilty of slapping outrageously goofy titles on not-so-funny films (e.g. Surf Nazis Must Die, Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid!, etc.), but this is something of an exception, with wonderfully sleazy performances, lots of zany energy and many clever references to zombie and biker-movie genres. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A group of adolescent monster movie enthusiasts form a club that meets in a treehouse in this pre-teen horror feature. When Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, and The Wolfman are joined by Gill-Man in the search for a magic amulet, the boys form the Monster Squad to battle the forces of evil. The boys get unexpected help from Frankenstein when the monster grows tired of being continually bossed around by Dracula. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this melodramatic story, a college professor and his family experience trauma and tears when the professor discovers that his one-time lover in France has recently died and left a son behind -- his son. When the young boy shows up on the doorstep because the shocked father can only do what is right and offer him a home, the professor (Martin Sheen), his wife (Blythe Danner), and their children -- as well as the boy -- face new issues in a crisis that threatens the once-cohesive family. Both Sheen and Danner carry their roles beyond the sappy limitations of the script, but neither can change an unsatisfactory ending meant only to bring out another handkerchief. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Horror journeyman Larry Cohen, writer and director of numerous quirky horror projects, made his first foray into the genre with this low-budget cult favorite about a murderous mutant baby on a suburban rampage. The story opens with a delivery-room massacre as the newborn child of Frank and Lenore Davies (John P. Ryan and Sharon Farrell) answers the doctor's slap by tearing him to pieces -- along with a few other medical personnel -- before fleeing the hospital for whereabouts unknown. The subsequent hunt for the killer baby creates a rift between Frank, who wants the child destroyed, and Lenore, whose maternal instincts convince her that her child is not deliberately homicidal but merely frightened and defending itself. The baby's bloody rampage continues with several murders (including the creepy scene in which the terrible tyke savages the neighborhood milkman), until it is cornered by Frank and a police task-force. At the crucial moment, Frank has a sudden change of heart and tries to defend the infant from the police. Despite painfully low production values that render the monster scenes a bit silly (Rick Baker's creepy-looking but inarticulate baby model was simply pulled along on a string), Cohen's concept shines through, presenting a skewed but sincere interpretation of family values that could only be pulled off in the horror genre (see also Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes for another example). The script makes passing suggestions that the mutation was a result of an inadequately tested fertility drug, a concept explored more fully in the sequel It Lives Again and quite extensively in the third installment, Island of the Alive. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide