Are you excited for Wolfcop? Good. You should be. It’s a fantastic little slice of Teen Wolf meets Robocop viewed through an old-school splatter film lens. Ever since the release of the much-beloved box office bomb Grindhouse, we’ve been seeing these kinds of movies a lot more frequently. We have a whole crop of filmmakers that grew up on 70s and 80s exploitation and now they also have an audience to market to. Not everyone’s heard of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! but everyone know who Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are, so bomb or not, it brought attention to something that was once totally cult…and I couldn’t be happier. Wolfcop hits DVD and Bluray in the states on March 10th, 2015, but here are five modern exploitation flicks to check out while you wait.
Dear God, No!
This is a movie about a scumbag biker gang raping and murdering their way through the countryside until they finally get what’s coming to them. This is maybe the least well-known of the movies on this list, but it may also be the most authentic. While some films find inspiration in old exploitation movies or contain stylistic homages to them, Dead God, No! simply is an exploitation movie. It’s got terrible acting, weird pacing, odd directorial choices and of course plenty of bloodshed and nudity. It’s fairly impressive in how it can run the gamut from a fun and cheesy gore-fest to actually entering some truly disturbing territory. It’s got an insane final act and the ending is just bizarre. Plus the whole biker gang wears an image of the impaled woman from Cannibal Holocaust on their jackets. Check it out if you really like the old school exploitation
Before the Twisted Twins were the talk of the town for American Mary, they came out with a little number titled Dead Hooker in a Trunk and even then you could tell that they were going to be something special. This is a much lower budget effort but shows just how clever and creative they can be as filmmakers. Dead Hooker in a Trunk is kind of like The Hangover if “waking up to find your friend missing” was replaced with “waking up to find a dead body in your car.” Hilarity ensues. What follows is a blood soaked adventure with plenty of humor and some real character moments. This one blurs the line between the grindhouse and the arthouse in a number of scenes, which to me is what makes it stand out. Not to mention hearing a female voice in a subgenre that is often soaked in testosterone is a nice change of pace.
Drive Angry
To me, Drive Angry was the Ghost Rider movie we never got to see. It follows Nic Cage as a dead man escaped from hell seeking revenge on the murderous cult that killed his daughter. I didn’t expect much when I first saw this, but it won me over immediately. I think there were some serious issues with the marketing of this one. People went in expecting The Fast and the Furious but instead they got Race With the Devil. This is a love letter to 70s carsploitation and for my money it’s a better take on it than Tarantino’s Death Proof (sorry, not sorry). The one who really steals the show here is William Fichtner as “The Accountant.” The way he plays this totally otherworldly character is hilarious to watch and the carnage that ensues in his wake is a blast to experience. [Check out managing editor Tyler Doupe’s pro Drive Angry retrospective here.]
Father’s Day
Astron 6 are killing the game these days. Between this, Manborg, and the upcoming The Editor they’re making some serious waves. Father’s Day is about a lot of things, mainly a serial killer that specifically targets fathers. There’s more to it than that (way more), but going in that’s all you should really know. The plot goes in a lot of weird directions and spoiling even a small amount of that would be a real shame. Just expect a lot of humor, gore, and bizarre antics. This is a film that’ll make you laugh one minute and cringe the next, shocked that they went there.
Hobo With a Shotgun
Look… if the title of this movie alone doesn’t get you pumped then I don’t know what to tell you other than that it’s obviously not your cup of tea. This is the story of a Hobo with a Shotgun and it’s awesome. Starting as a faux trailer on the aforementioned Grindhouse double feature we follow an unnamed hobo blasting his way through the worst city on earth as he delivers justice one shell at a time. This movie doesn’t pull its punches and has some intense gore throughout. It’s about as over the top as possible. This is gory to a cartoonish degree, which it what makes it so fun. On top of that they somehow convinced Rutger freakin’ Hauer to be in this thing, and I’m glad they did. He’s certainly not the same man he was in his Bladerunner days, but that’s great because he completely disappears into the role. Finally…we have The Plague. Oh God, The Plague! What even are these guys? They look like they walked right off of a retelling of The Road Warrior if they replaced all of the actors with robots. I’ve never wanted a spinoff so much.
