Blood Shack (The Chooper)

Blood Shack (The Chooper). Ray Dennis Steckler (as Wolfgang Schmidt), 1971.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 55 minutes.

Summary: Both versions of the film included two scenes of calf roping and dogging. Neither is graphic nor shows evidence of the calves being injured, but the calves are in extreme distress as they struggle and nice people do not do this.  

Details:

1) The two rodeo sequences in the Blood Shack version (55 minutes) include calf roping at 33:59 - 34:57 and 47:40 - 48:29, with the balance of the rodeo footage being bull riding and barrel racing.

2) The two rodeo sequences in the The Chooper version (70 minutes) include the same calf ropings at 45:19 - 45:50 and 1:02:01 - 1:02:54, and add a few additional minutes of pony riding and a parade.

There is much internet discussion about how Steckler was required to extend the length of this film and complied by inserting an irrelevant visit to the rodeo. Padding is abundant but the reported evidence is jumbled. The 55-minute Blood Shack was not padded with rodeo footage to create the 70-minute version called The Chooper. Both versions are padded with irrelevancies such as scenes of Steckler’s children at play and both have two rodeo sequences connected by a voice-over “we had such a good time that we went back again the next day.” The Chooper tacks on maybe two more minutes of rodeo scenes, but the bulk of that film’s additional 15 minutes comes from added scenes including one in “the screenwriting office” decorated with lobby cards from other Steckler films and head shots of the new owner who, it is explained, was the former leading lady in those films whew.

The longer version, The Chooper, is a more entertaining viewing experience because it adds: 1) a good Steckler-style title sequence with fun horror comic graphics; 2) at least two pieces of original music with character-specific lyrics; 3) additional moody exterior shots with voice-overs, in classic 70’s horror fashion and possibly the best aspect of the films; 4) additional short scenes and blocks of dialogue seemingly added to explain questions raised by Blood Shack such as Why is there suddenly a puppy? and Why does the ranch house have a prominent framed photo of the city slicker relative who just inherited the property?

Girl in Trouble

Girl in Trouble. Brandon Chase (as Lee Beale), 1963.

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Edition screened: Included on Something Weird DVD Teen Turmoil Triple Feature, released 2004. English language. Runtime approximately 82 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

 

Another of these interchangeably generic and abysmally boring small-town-girl-goes-to-the-big-city films that kids these days insist on calling sexploitation despite the fact that there is no sex nor anything sexy in the film, and the only thing that is exploited is the poor suitcase that the girl flings onto a bed or shoves into the backseat of a car fifteen times.

The SW disc also includes A Good Time with a Bad Girl and Bad Girls Do Cry. 

Violence in a Women’s Prison

Violence in a Women’s Prison (Violenza in un carcere femminile). Bruno Mattei, 1982.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. English language with original Italian as an option. Runtime approximately 98 minutes.

Summary: Depiction of killing a cockroach.

Details:

1) Around the 35 minute mark, Emmanuelle pushes at some black rats with her feet. The rats aren’t kicked or otherwise hurt.

2) Earlier in the film we see an inmate talking nicely to a cockroach that she keeps in a small cage made of toothpicks. At 1:02:50 the cage is smashed underfoot, presumably with the cockroach inside although we see no bug gore.

Magnificent Obsession (Stahl)

Magnificent Obsession. John Stahl, 1935.

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Edition screened: Included with Criterion Blu-ray #497 Magnificent Obsession, released 2019. English language. Runtime approximately 102 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

Criterion includes this early adaptation of the Lloyd C. Douglas novel as a bonus Blu-ray in their release of Douglas Sirk’s (superior) 1954 Magnificent Obsession. 

The Velvet Underground (Haynes)

The Velvet Underground. Todd Haynes, 2021.

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Edition screened: Criterion Blu-ray #1164, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 120 minutes.

Summary: No animals or references to animals in the film.

The Criterion release also includes three short films made by associates of Warhol and The Velvet Underground, and relevant to the environment of the time and place:

• Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1965 Jonas Mekas, 12 minutes)

• Venus in Furs (1965 Piero Heliczer, 22 minutes)

• Walden: Diaries, Notes, and Sketches [excerpt] (1969 Jonas Mekas, 8 minutes)

Sinthia: The Devil’s Doll

Sinthia: The Devil’s Doll. Ray Dennis Steckler (as Sven Christian), 1969.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler, released 2022. English language. Runtime approximately 77 minutes.

Summary: No depictions of violence or harm to animals.

This is about as good and bad as an erotic underground performance art film possibly could be.

Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day. Garry Marshall, 2010.

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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 125 minutes.

Summary: Trivializing account of a dog killed in a house fire; no visual component.

The Nest

The Nest. Sean Durkin, 2020.

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Edition screened: Shout! Factory Blu-ray, released 2021. English language. Runtime approximately 107 minutes.

Summary: Recurring images of a dead horse.

Details:

1) Several times after the family moves to England we hear the horse whinnying in distress and kicking in his stall.

2) While the loving trainer is riding her horse, the horse gently collapses and rolls over in impending death. She strokes the horse in tearful panic as the animal wheezes. 50:40 - 51:16

2) A neighboring farmer is enlisted to shoot the suffering horse, 55:10-55:20. We hear the gun shot but the visual component is obscured.

3) The trainer and her two children cover the beloved horse’s body with sheets, then we see the body transported in the bucket of a loader and dumped into a grave, 58:12 - 1:00:50.  The dumping of the horse’s body is upsetting.

4) The trainer’s young son leads them to the horse’s grave to find that the body now is barely covered with a small amount of dirt, as though it has risen to the surface on its own. She scoops dirt away in tearful confusion to expose more of the animal, as though hoping it might still be alive. 1:37:17- 1:39:03

This excellent film is not spoiled by excessive explanation about the horse’s death, the mysterious circumstances at the grave, nor several other unexplained incidents in the house. The Nest is recommended despite the sad death of the beautiful horse. My notes above are adequate to allow you to skip the horse scenes if you wish, but you must watch the important scenes between those vignettes to understand the film.

Hard Wood: The Adult Features of Ed Wood

Hard Wood: The Adult Features of Ed Wood. Ed Wood Jr. and Boris Petroff, 1962-1975.

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Edition screened: Severin Blu-ray set, released 2024. English language. Runtime of four feature films approximately 239 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals in any film.

The Severin set includes four feature films:

• ‘Necromania’: A Tale of Weird Love! (1971, Ed Wood Jr. as Don Miller, 53 minutes)
Watchable and unexpectedly sensual.

• The Only House in Town (1971, Ed Wood Jr. as Flint Holloway, 54 minutes)
Almost unwatchable; mostly disjointed scenes of chasing around in a semi-derelict house. Internet comments that the film is “unfinished” are generous.

• The Young Marrieds (1972, Ed Wood Jr. as Richard Trent, 68 minutes)
Also unexpectedly sensual and moderately entertaining.

• Shotgun Wedding (1962, Boris Petroff; written by Ed Wood Jr. as Larry Lee, 64 minutes)
This harmless hicksploitation film with no nudity or erotic content of any sort is the winner in the bunch. It would pass as an unusually entertaining double-length episode of The Beverley Hillbillies and features three attractive young women in Ozark-sexy getups who break into scenes with lines like “Pa! The preacher fell in the hog wallow!” 

The sophisticated musical score of Shotgun Wedding is striking. Because the script, acting, and production are indistinguishable from The Beverley Hillbillies or Petticoat Junction, one expects mindless bits of incidental music dolloped out two or three measures at a time rather than a well-executed bebop groove that runs almost continuously. The show-stopping scene is the wedding dance. We see a barn dance trio of banjo, acoustic guitar, and dobro, but we hear an excellent Dick Dale-style lounge-surf instrumental, fully choreographed for four couples and featuring one male dancer whose exceptionally polished moves and poise prove him as a serious professional dancer.

Opposite to Shotgun Wedding in every way are a series of nine mid-1970s stag loops made by Ed Wood Jr., included as bonus material on The Young Marrieds. Each of these is about 8:15 long, silent with clunky subtitles that stay on the screen for a long time and establish mood more than they summarize dialogue. Many feature John Holmes opposite the same red-haired actress. With the exception of The Two Faces of Kim, which consists simply of a transexual woman standing in front of a mirror shaving and doing her makeup to transform from Kim to Kim, these films are shockingly crude and obscene. Erotic features from the 1970s and 80s currently distributed by boutique labels often mention “The Golden Age of Pornography.” I never really contemplated the significance of that phrase until these aggressively seedy loops made me turn up my collar and slink down the disreputable other side of the street.

• 15″ Commercial (1974)

• Devil Cult (1973)

• Doc’s House Call (1973)

• Girl on a Bike (1973)

• Notorious Landlady (1974)

• The Two Faces of Kim (1975)

• The Virgin Next Door (1974)

• The Virgin Next Door Part Two (1974)

• Western Lust (1973) 

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade

Emanuelle and the White Slave Trade (La via della prostituzione). Joe D’Amato, 1978.

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Edition screened: Included in Severin Blu-ray box set The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle, released 2023. Italian with English dub. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals. 1.5/5❤

Becoming Led Zeppelin

Becoming Led Zeppelin. Bernard MacMahon, 2025.

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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 122 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.

A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

 A Big Bold Beautiful Journey. Kogonada, 2025.

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Edition screened: Watched online. English language. Runtime approximately 109 minutes.

Summary: No particular depictions of violence or harm to animals.