Before Italian director/writer Lucio Fulci made a name for himself in low-budget (but compelling) early-80s zombie sleaze, he reinvented the giallo genre with his influential and surprisingly well-made LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN.

This double dollop of low-budget sleaze from trash movie clearinghouse Crown International is one of the best offerings in BCI/Eclipse’s “Welcome to the Grindhouse” series of DVDs.

It would be hard to make a film as lurid as LOVE ME DEADLY, but what’s stranger is that this nasty little tale of necrophilia was made back in 1973 with a cast of known celebrities.

Somewhere between the Satanic orgy and the scene where Warren Oates beats a rattlesnake to death with a ski pole, you realize you’re watching one of the finest drive-in movies ever made. RACE WITH THE DEVIL is that rare combination of horror, action, violence, paranoia and 1970s camp.

We ARE watching an early-1980s slasher right? Nearly an hour into THE BURNING, and the body count hasn’t even started. But when the excrement finally hits the oscillating ventilator, it’s well worth the wait.

Although it’s just slightly more shameful than anything you’re likely to see on the Food Network, Jess Franco’s CANNIBALS, a.k.a. MONDO CANNIBALE, a.k.a. WHITE CANNIBAL QUEEN, is still a rather weak sauce.

Franklin, Indiana, will be hosting the Second Annual B-Movie Celebration September 26th thru 28th, 2008. The Celebration will feature screenings of more than 50 classic B-movies, 20 educational seminars and the “world’s largest beach party,” featuring the music of The Moon-Rays.

Well, I never saw it coming: That scene in THE BIG DOLL HOUSE when top-billed Pam Grier’s voluminous character gets shanked to death by her junkie girlfriend. It was about the only unexpected moment in a movie that utterly defined the women-in-prison genre of exploitation.