5/23: Blood Feast (1963)

The Drinking Game

1. Drink whenever there is a perfectly timed radio announcement.
2. Whenever someone says "Ishtar", yell "Ishtar!" and drink.
3. Drink whenever Fuad procures yet another ingredient for his "Blood Feast".

The Movie

When important people sit down and draw up lists of important films, you know what's going to be on it: "Birth of Nation", "Battleship Potemkin", "Citizen Kane", etc.  But while those films might have influenced great cinema, we here at DST3K want to show you a truly important film: the world's first splatter film, "Blood Feast."

Before 1963, director Herschell Gordon Lewis hadn't made much of a mark in the film industry save for a few barely-watched exploitation films ("Living with Venus", "Daughter of the Sun"), but that changed to everyone's jaw-dropped surprise when he made a film that not only showed pretty girls getting killed, but one that did not cut away when the knife came down, drenching the screen in fake blood and sheep organs.

5/9: Black Cobra (1987)

The Drinking Game

1. Drink whenever Malone or the bad guys kill someone (this happens 24 times, so pace yourself).
2. Yell "That's not New York!" and drink whenever it's obvious this movie was shot anywhere but NYC.
3. Drink whenever Malone chooses to leave a wounded person on the ground rather than help them.

The Movie

The year was 1986 and Sylvester Stallone's "Cobra" was a monster hit.  Across the pond, some Italian filmmakers were sitting around and saying: "Well, we like to make-a the crap versions of the American films, but this-a time, let's make-a the better movie than what we-a stealing from.  So, what's-a better than a cobra?"  

There was silence for a few seconds before they all shouted: "The BLACK-a cobra!"

Okay, it's not fair to say that "Black Cobra" is a complete rip-off of "Cobra", because it also copies parts of "Dirty Harry" and "Terminator" as well.

5/2: Five Fingers of Death (1972)

AKA "King Boxer"

The Drinking Game

1. Drink whenever a fight breaks out.
2. As it happens about every ten seconds, see #1

The Movie

It was March of 1973 and few Americans had ever seen a kung fu flick ("Enter the Dragon" was still six months away), but that all changed with the release of "The Five Fingers of Death".  While flawed in many ways, "Five Finger" was the eye opening (and eye-gouging) entrance for many into the world of the Hong Kong martial arts films, and it inaugurated an era of chop-sokey movies that would essentially dominate the next decade.

The story is straight forward: after his master is hurt, Chi-hao (Lo Lieh) is sent to study under a new master, Shen Chin-Pei (Mien Fang), in anticipation of an upcoming tournament that--if he wins it--will let Chi-hao marry the woman he loves.  Chin-pei believes the best way to train his new student is to have him do a great deal of menial labor that (predictably) leads to him earning respect and eventually being trained in the way of the Iron Fist.

4/25: Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S. (1975)

The Drinking Game:

1. Drink whenever a character (male or female) is nekkid for the first time.
2. Drink whenever Ilsa uses some new form of pointless torture.
3. Whenever a Nazi is killed, yell "Dead Nazi!" and drink.

The Movie:

At the beginning of the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez double feature "Grindhouse" is a trailer for a fake film called "Werewolf Women of the S.S."  Although an homage to Nazisploitaiton films in general, it specifically parodies a film of near-mythic cult status: "Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S."

Let's start with a fact: this is a truly fucked up film.  It's the kind of film that college kids watch once to say they did.  It is the "Citizen Kane" of sadistic 70s sleaze.  It is the only film we've ever shown that deserves the word "insensate".

Having had several walkouts when we showed "The Cheerleaders", we basically want to warn you now:  if (as the trailer points out) you are squeamish or easily offended in any way, DO NOT SEE THIS FILM.

4/18: Bad Taste (1987)

The Drinking Game:

1. Drink whenever an alien is killed.
2. Drink whenever anyone says "Derek".
3. Drink whenever Derek finds a new way to hold his brains in.

The Movie:

When asked to describe a Peter Jackson film, most people would use words like "epic", "poetic" and "gorgeous".  They would probably not use words like "splat", "barf" and "Derek".  It's a bit of a shock, then, to learn that Jackson's first film was a low budget gore-and-puke-filled comedy that pitted four insane Kiwis against a group of carnivorous aliens.

"Bad Taste" is a quintessential labor-of-love first film.  Jackson not only produced, wrote, shot, edited and starred (in multiple roles) in the film, but he also handmade almost all of the weapons, film equipment (including a film crane and steadicam rig) and special effects, including baking the alien masks in his mother's oven.  Why his mother's oven and not his own?  Because in order to save money, he lived with his parents for the FOUR YEARS it took him and his friends to complete the film, shooting one weekend at a time.