Don Jones Movies
- 1988
- R
Rock star Debra J (Mitzi Kapture) and her new sweetheart return to her hometown in this routine non-action thriller. The two go to the now-abandoned cabin where she once lived, and there they discover a wounded teenage boy hiding from a cadre of car thieves who have already killed two of his friends. When the couple attempts to take the boy to the local hospital for treatment, the thugs find them and finish the boy off. Debra soon discovers the murderous gangleader is her disgruntled ex-boyfriend who later rapes her. Now it is up to the rock star's fearful boyfriend to muster enough courage to stop the psychotic gang leader. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mitzi Kapture, Blake Bahner, (more)
This low-budget but slickly produced Canadian horror project is an engrossing, heady blend of steamy romance and jugular-gushing vampire mayhem. Silvio Oliviero stars in the quirky role of nocturnal New York cabbie Stephen -- who just happens to be a 350-year-old vampire. Into his clutches falls lovely music-video director Michelle (Helen Papas), a terminally ill woman seeking a passionate one-night stand. Her condition undergoes a remarkable change after Stephen puts the bite on her, claiming her as his undead bride -- much to the chagrin of her jealous husband, who sets out to destroy her immortal lover. Director Gerard Ciccoritti employs modern-day vampire conventions (particularly some startling gore effects) with pleasing results, but it's the film's well-rounded characters who set it apart from the standard direct-to-video exploitation fare. Unfortunately, too heavy a reliance on trite MTV-style window dressing prevents this from achieving true cult-classic status. Graveyard Shift was followed by a sequel titled Understudy: Graveyard Shift 2. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Silvio Oliviero, Helen Papas, (more)
This amateurish backwoods horror opus finds a quartet of annoying California campers embarking on an idyllic mountain getaway, only to be terrorized by a cave-dwelling cannibal cracker (Michael Brody) who, it turns out, is himself plagued by the ghosts of his murdered wife and children (as revealed in flashback). Undoubtedly disgusted by Daddy's unpleasant eating habits, the ghosts conspire to end the killer redneck's reign of terror before he murders again. Viewers will probably find themselves wishing the same upon the filmmakers. A lifeless hodgepodge of Deliverance, The Hills Have Eyes and Friday the 13th, this cheap direct-to-video project waffles between horror and black comedy, failing completely on both counts. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dean Russell, Michael Brody, (more)
- 1982
- R
A string of murders in a posh neighborhood has the police department stumped and the local press is breathing down their necks. Strangely, nobody notices that several victims share the same gardener, a bent, elderly man with a crippled arm named Caleb. Even though all of the murder weapons are lawn care tools, Caleb remains above suspicion. Of course, it isn't Caleb doing the killing, but rather his second personality, a confident, handsome younger brother named Lester who Caleb turns into when he dons a toupee. That's when he seduces and then slashes his employers, most of whom heap insults and derision upon Caleb as he works. Lester dons a variety of disguises to "gain entry," employing false accents and charming patter to bed down his victims. The two personalities battle when alone, though, and one of them will eventually have to overcome the other. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi
- Starring:
- Erik Stern, Kay Neer, (more)
- 1981
- R
Low-budget action specialist Cirio H. Santiago directed this Philippine-set martial arts film, which bears more than a passing resemblance to his earlier T.N.T. Jackson and his later Angelfist. Jillian Kessner stars as Susanne Carter, a karate expert whose sister is murdered by mobsters. Genre regulars Ken Metcalfe and Vic Diaz co-star, and Kessner has a nude karate scene. Like most of the prolific Santiago's actioners of the period, this was released by exploitation specialist Roger Corman's New World Pictures, with ads touting Kessner as champion of the 1981 Black Belt Olympics. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jillian Kesner, Darby Hinton, (more)
- 1975
- R
Schlock abounds in this trashy drama that follows a would-be swinger, a noted suburban lawyer, down a ruinous, blood-covered road. The trouble begins when the attorney tires of life in the slow lane and suggests that he and his wife join a swinging couple's club and do a little spouse swapping. Oh, it's jolly fun at first. But then he begins suspecting that wifey is having too much fun with the other hubbies and so begins killing them one by one. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gary Kent
Exploitation auteur Jack Hill wrote and directed this wild, often satiric girl-gang movie, whose story is loosely (make that very, very loosely) based on Othello. The Silver Daggers are a gang of young hoods who control an inner-city high school, where they sell drugs and sex to the student body and fight anyone who gets in their way. The Daggers have a ladies' auxiliary, The Dagger Debs, who rumble just as hard as the men, but one day chief Dagger Deb Lace (Robbie Lee) meets her match in Maggie (Joanne Nail), a new kid who won't back down. When a scuffle lands Maggie and the Debs in jail for the night, Maggie comes to Lace's rescue, and Maggie becomes Lace's new right-hand woman. However, fellow Deb Patch (Monica Gayle) is jealous of Maggie's friendship with Lace, and begins spinning a web of deceit to destroy Lace's trust in the new deb. In the midst of the infighting, the Silver Daggers find their turf challenged by a rival gang who pose as a community action team, and the Debs join forces with a revolutionary political group. Kitty Bruce, Lenny Bruce's daughter, plays Doughnut, one of the Debs, and Marlene Clark plays a Mao-spouting revolutionary leader. This exploitation cult item gained a new life in 1996, when Quentin Tarantino, a big fan of director Hill, sponsored a theatrical re-release through his company Rolling Thunder Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1973
Don Jones, best known to horror fans for co-directing The Love Butcher (1975), made this peculiar private-prison film starring Gary Kent as an impotent, inbred cretin who lives in an isolated house. His retarded brother kidnaps women and chains them in the cellar, sometimes putting a leash on them and forcing them to participate in degrading, animalistic behavior. Genre aficionados will recognize Tom Kelly from the classic Targets (1968) and Merrie Lynn Ross from Class of '84 (1982), but others will find little to enjoy in this amateurish sickie. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1970
Kenneth (Lawrence Montaigne) is a psychiatrist who is married to the harridan Valerie (Jo Anne Meredith). When he hooks up with Stacy (Elizabeth Plumb), he decides to end his marriage by murdering his wife. He recruits Marco, (Frank Cuva), one of his patients, to do the job. Marco puts aside his necrophilia hobby long enough to electrocute himself and Stacy, instead of his intended victim. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lawrence Montaigne, Jo Anne Meredith, (more)
- 1970
While a classroom of 20 college students listen to lectures from Professor Collins (John Dugan), they conjure up sexual fantasies to occupy their minds and relieve their boredom. The fantasies allow for this exploitation feature to introduce various copulating couples. While the professor drones on about compatibility, the students continue their erotic daydreams, and a very thin plot tries to dispel some of the myths of venereal disease, but this appears to be only an afterthought. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Dugan
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