Mystery

Sexy Cat (1973)

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Drawing proportionate influence from the Italian giallo and the American Batman TV series of ’68, Sexy Cat is a Spanish murder mystery. And it’s loco.

The “beautiful mass murderess” Sexy Cat is set to leap from the comics to the small screen. Pissed his creator’s credit has been stolen by Bob Kane Paul Karpis (Beni Deus, Santo vs. Doctor Death), gin-soaked illustrator Graham (Fabián Conde, Murder in a Blue World) hires two-bit P.I. Mike Cash (Gérman Cobos, Desperate Mission) to help protect his copyright claim.

Graham should’ve hired a bodyguard instead, because he gets a knife blade dragged across his neck after Cash leaves. It’s just the first of many homicidal acts committed by someone dressed as the supervillain Sexy Cat. (Party mask and all, Sexy Cat looks a lot like the Marvel character Black Cat, then six years away from debuting in The Amazing Spider-Man’s pages). Other production-involved victims of Sexy Cat meet their doom via snake bite, plastic-bag asphyxiation and — finally! — razor-sharp kitty claws.

Considering the ultimate spice level of the content, the movie’s title is a tease (but, in hindsight, a no-brainer for Julio Pérez Tabernero, the eventual director of Hot Panties). Nonetheless, Sexy Cat is almost as much fun to watch as it is to say. Although the film isn’t much of a mystery — Sexy Cat’s true identity is easy to surmise, with time to spare — Tabernero gives his shaggy story an edge with such visual touches as a POV shot from inside the aforementioned Ziploc bag.

Also aiding in AV appeal: actresses Lone Fleming (Vampus Horror Tales) and Gloria Osuna (A Few Dollars for Django), Pop Art comics-style credits and a properly fizzy Carmelo Bernaola score. —Rod Lott

Horror

Out of Darkness (2022)

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Set 45,000 years ago, Out of Darkness follows six people with nothing but the animal skins on their backs. Led by Adem (Chuku Modu, Captain Marvel), the ragtag family searches for fertile land in order to survive.

One night, Adem’s son, Heron (Luna Mwezi), disappears into the woods. Tracking him, Adem and company soon realize they’re trapped themselves by a malevolent force they hear but cannot see.

So much for Adem’s insistence that “There are no demons,” right? What begins as a tale of man vs. nature suddenly morphs into one of man vs. … well, they’ll find out. Some of them, at least.

There’s a lot to like about Out of Darkness, a remarkably assured debut for Andrew Cumming, a Scottish director whose CV heretofore was limited to shorts and TV episodes. From the scope and scale of this film, you wouldn’t know it. Setting it in the Stone Age is ballsy, because such a thing lives and breathes on selling the illusion.

Cumming succeeds in doing so, thanks to period costumes, barren locations, a no-name cast to squash preconceived notions, and an invented language (including a phrase translating to “fuck all”). In addition, the score by Saint Maud’s Adam Janota Bzowski is so wonderfully foreboding, it’s practically a cast member. The same can be said for Ben Fordesman’s cinematography, crisp and cold to complement the expert sound design.

But one element works against the movie’s greater good. As rich as Darkness is in details, it’s short on plot. Authentic though the film may feel, to call its quest a slow burn would be generous. More disappointing, the threat leads to an ending where the payoff doesn’t quite justify the build.  —Rod Lott

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Kitchen Sink

Pawn Shop Chronicles (2013)

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WTF

General Lee’s Pawn Shop inconspicuously stands beneath an overpass — an appropriate site for such an off-the-radar film. Since its quiet release direct to video, I’d paid it no mind because the title and poster led me to expect a reality show. Instead, Wayne Kramer’s Pawn Shop Chronicles is a crime anthology of three crisscrossing stories à la Pulp Fiction. Similarities end there.

Each tale is named after the pawned item in question. The constant? Shop owner Vincent D’Onofrio, of course.

In “The Shotgun,” Paul Walker (Kramer’s Running Scared) and Kevin Rankin (2018’s Skyscraper) play neo-Nazi, meth-smokin’, trailer-park hillbillies who rob a drug dealer. “The Ring” leads a stockbroker (Matt Dillon, The House That Jack Built) to rescue his long-missing, kidnapped wife (Pell James, Zodiac). Finally, a down-on-his-luck Elvis impersonator (Brendan Fraser, The Mummy trilogy) pulls into town to perform at the fair, only to be forced to give up “The Medallion” around his neck.

Kramer’s filmmaking style runs hot and cold with me. Pawn Shop Chronicles showcases both, plus the lukewarm in between, by virtue of its omnibus status noncommittal to a single genre. (Tellingly, this is the only movie the director hasn’t also written.) As a comedy — and not a politically correct one — “The Shotgun” works pretty well, thanks to Walker and Rankin’s tweaker act: “Is that my Styx CD in your pants?” And “The Ring” takes an unexpected turn into horror — Sadako-free, mind you — with Dillon encountering a most extreme example of Stockholm syndrome.

But “The Medallion”? With a burst of magical realism that doesn’t quite jive, it bites off more than it can chew, yet keeps on yapping with its mouth wide open. Its dueling barbershops and all-nude choir overdo the quirk at the sacrifice of a point. It’s not Fraser’s fault, though; God bless him, the big ol’ lovable goofball gives the part everything he can.

Also appearing throughout are Chi McBride, Elijah Wood, Thomas Jane, Norman Reedus, DJ Qualls, Lukas Haas and a bumper sticker reading, “At least Jesus didn’t write Battlefield Earth.” Amen. —Rod Lott

Get it at Amazon.

Action

Ransomed (2023)

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Loosely based on true events, Ransomed, from director Kim Seong-hun (2016’s Tunnel), sets into motion with the abduction — and presumed death — of a South Korean diplomat by Lebanese terrorists in Beirut.

One year later, however, a telephone call of Morse code to the South Korean government suggests the diplomat is alive. Rather than risk embarrassment, Foreign Affairs officials decide to go around proper channels — like intelligence agencies — and pursue an under-the-radar rescue operation. They send the mild-mannered company man who answered that late-night call: Deputy Lee Min-jun (Ha Jung-woo of Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden). 

With a cash ransom of $2.5 million on his person, Min-jun lands in Beirut and gains an partner in slick-talking cabbie Pan-su (Ju Ji-hoon, The Spy Gone North). Pan-su’s an unwitting partner at first, forced into the situation by mere accident.

So begins the formula of every American buddy action-comedy of the 1980s and ’90s, only Ransomed often diverts from that well-laid path. Seong-hun offers no quips, no catchphrases, no “I’m too old for this shit”-type of shenanigans. As “wacky” as the poster sells the film, the film is not interested in being, say, Rush Hour 4.

This makes sense. Although compelling for the screen, the real-ilfe story of Do Chae Sung was too dire and dangerous to play for laughs. Seong-hun respects that while also administering the proper dosage of adrenaline to give the action sequences the punch to which modern audiences are accustomed.

Ransomed isn’t perfect, but Jung-woo and Ji-hoon — individually and in their interplay — often make you believe otherwise, except in an Act 2 lag. Knowledge of Eastern world politics may help you better understand the the plot nuances, but in terms of pure entertainment, the film transcends all barriers. —Rod Lott

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Comedy

Destroy All Neighbors (2024)

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For lovers of wacky plots, goopy 1980s-inspired practical effects and prog rock, Destroy All Neighbors delivers the goods. The Shudder original film follows William (Jonah Ray, Netflix’s Mystery Science Theater 3000), an aspiring musician toiling away at his magnum opus, a spacey prog album he’s been fine-tuning for years. His girlfriend, Emily (Kiran Deol, Seven Psychopaths), supports William’s endeavors, even as she grows tired of his excuses for not finishing the record. His latest distraction is new neighbor Vlad (Alex Winter, aka Bill from the Bill & Ted films), who plays loud techno music all hours of the day while noisily working out. 

The racket becomes unbearable for William, so he works up the nerve to confront Vlad face to face, but through a series of mishaps ends up accidentally decapitating the man. Rather than go to the police, William first dismembers then disposes of the corpse — or at least he tries.

Vlad, it turns out, can still talk and control his severed limbs, and he continues tormenting William, returning to his apartment after being dumped in the woods. Fortunately, the pair manage to bury the hatchet and become friends. Unfortunately, keeping one murder secret inevitably means William has to kill again. From there, the bodies start piling up. 

Writers Mike Benner, Jared Logan and Charlies A. Pieper, along with director Josh Forbes (Contracted: Phase 2), craft a tale that need not be taken too seriously. The film is deeply silly in the best ways possible. It’s a gorier Bugs Bunny cartoon, a less perverse Re-Animator. Ray particularly shines as the hapless William, while Winter, using a thick Romanian accent and wearing prosthetics so heavy he’s unrecognizable, quite literally disappears into his role. Hollywood veteran Gabe Bartalos designed Winter’s makeup, and his resume includes work on Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Frankenhooker and several Leprechaun films, to name just a few. 

With just under an hour and a half runtime, Destroy All Neighbors is a quick, hilarious and gory good time. Put it on when you want something goofy and gross, but not too heavy. —Christopher Shultz

Get it at Amazon.

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