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Overall Rating : 5/10
Directed By : Al Adamson
Robert Dix (Blood of Dracula's Castle)
John Carradine (Silent Night, Bloody Night)
Geoffrey Land
Jill Jacobson
Supplied By : Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Jun. 21, 2007
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| PLOT FIVE BLOODY GRAVES - A renegade tribe of monstrous, murdering, bloodthirsty redskins are on the war path and every settler will pay with his or her scalp. The lone man who can stop them is Ben Thompson, who rides the desert high plains with Death and Terror as his only companions. Ben seeks vengeance on Satago, the evil Apache chief who butchered his wife on their wedding day, and he teams up with Satago’s half-brother to track him down and string him up for the vultures. When the death-dealing duo come upon a wrecked stagecoach carrying prostitutes and a preacher, they battle to keep the survivors alive and in one piece in savage Indian territory. NURSE SHERRI - Theatrical Version and Alternate Unrated Cut An evil necromancer has died and his restless demonic spirit invades the body of sexy nurse Sherri. Transformed into a maniacal killing machine, Sherri stalks the hospital corridors turning them blood-red with terror and madness. Impaling, slicing and dicing anyone in her path, Sherri’s only hope becomes two friends who must unearth and destroy the necromancer’s rotting corpse, thus sending the monstrous spirit back down to hell. |
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| THE REVIEW FIVE BLOODY GRAVES (1970) FIVE BLOODY GRAVES is about a former law-man named Ben Thomson who returns to town with revenge on his mind. It seems that a renagade tribe of redskins have taken over the land and anyone whom cross their paths will die. Ben's revenge happens to be aimed at the merciless leader of the Apache's Santago. It was Santago whom killed the beloved wife of Thompson in a previous attempt to shoot down Thompson. When it seems that everyone is falling at the hands of Santago's tribe, Ben Thompson is one man who won't back down, as he is determined to rid the land of every last of the murderous tribe. In FIVE BLOODY GRAVES, just about every old-time Western film cliché is in tact. There are the rough and tough cowboy types to the very stereotyped images of an Indian( yelling banshees, with face paint and their weapons drawn). there are also the prostitutes and the men that "own" them, their ownership can be proven by as little as a poker game victory. The plot is basic, a tough cowboy type loses his wife to a rough and ruthless indian, now who wouldn't want to get revenge, for their wife's wrongful death? I know I would. As a sort of add on, the story is narrated by "Death" himself/itself, and it explains Ben Thomson to be some kind of lone messenger of death, as if he delivers people to him/ it. I thought this angle of the story was the most intriguing thing about it, but unfortunately that's where it ends. The film has a difficult time staying on it's plot, as a matter of fact, at a certain point the film has so much happening, that the plot is essentially lost, and to me in the end, became less interesting. The film obviously has a shoestring budget as it appears that most of the Indians are Caucasian actors and actresses painted brown(or at least that's what it seems). The score is also extremely mismatched and really, at times has no place in a Western flick, it seems as if these tracks were borrowed from other films/sources and have no relevance to some of the scenes in which they accompany. This release of FIVE BLOODY GRAVES that comes along with NURSE SHERRI in this Double Feature set, appears to have been edited from it's original cut. The original cut is listed as 88 minutes in run time, whereas this release is only 81 minutes - It has been noted that the original cut had a rape scene and other various scenes, in which I did not see in this release - but again, I couldn't tell you how valid that information is. Overall, FIVE BLOODY GRAVES is a western that was advertised in the trailer as being gruesome, but really it is just a film that is outdated and surpassed by growing cinema advancement. As I said it starts with a decent plot, and ends in no more than a mess, with all previous motives lost. RATING : 2.5/10 NURSE SHERRI (1978) The 1978 Drive-In gem, NURSE SHERRI, is obviously about a young nurse named Sherri, who just so happens to become possessed by a demonic spirit. When a Satanic cult leader by the name of goes in for an operation, something goes wrong, resulting in the man's death. His evil spirit is then eventually, as you would guess, is transferred into the innocent body of young Sherri. Soon Sherri begins embarking on a vicious and shameless killing spree, all fueled by the spirit of Reanhauer. Coincidentally a football star whom is now a patient after being blinded in a car accident, just happens to be the Grandson of a voodoo priestess. The man offers a solution of how to rid Sherri of the evil, and that is to dig up and burn the remains of the cult leader, and so they set out to do just that. After not liking the first feature in this set, FIVE BLOODY GRAVES much, I understandably held little hope for this, the second film directed by Adamson that is featured here. Shot in 1978, 8 years after FIVE BLOODY GRAVES, NURSE SHERRI, while still not the best film in the world, shows vast improvement, not only in direction, but in sense of plot for Adamson. With FIVE BLOODY GRAVES, I complained about how it started off with a steady plot, ultimately ending in a shambled mess, but here in NURSE SHERRI the plot is firm, but most importantly, the film sticks to it, and in the end, unlike FIVE BLOODY GRAVES, makes a lot of sense. It does take awhile for Nurse Sherri to pick up and get to the meat of the story, but before it does there are a lot of non-sensical gratuitous nude scenes, mostly involving the star of the film, the well endowed Jill Jacobson. As a guy, i'm not complaining about this as Jill is great to behold, just making a matter of evaluation. The rest of the film plays out much like THE EXORCIST, as a matter of fact, the film's trailer, boasts this film as being "scarier than THE EXORCIST", and while that sounds more like a joke than a true statement(because that's far from the truth) - NURSE SHERRI is still quite entertaining in the most tongue in cheek kind of ways. The version I watched was the Unrated Alternate cut, included on the 2nd disc of this 2 disc set, so I cannot tell you the differences between the two cuts. However it seems as if this cut may have more nudity and gore intact. Shoot me, but NURSE SHERRI, by Al Adamson is pretty good! Although the plot is extremely cheesy in nature it is straight-forward, solid, and most of all entertaining. It's the type of film, that gave reason for going to the Drive-in in the first place. With all of the remakes being made today, a film like NURSE SHERRI should be modernized, but that will never happen because it's not well known, but to me it would make a great remake. RATING : 4.5/10 |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THIS SET In this Al Adamson Drive-In Double feature, one film is far greater than the other, with Adamson's older work, NURSE SHERRI being the prize of this set. But I have to give it to POP Cinema for the great presentation that they give the films here. The menu on the first disc makes it feel like a real live Drive-In experience fully equipped with Intermission, and Refreshment trailers and all, as Bonus Features! I give the 2 disc set an overall rating of 5. This DVD will be released on July. 10, 2006 |
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