Featured Filmmaker Bill Burke drops his TOP 11 GENRE PICKS for your viewing pleasure…

Dig it!

THE LAST HUNTER – Saw it in a Times Square theatre with a deranged audience, and it was unforgettable. I’m also a huge Margheriti fan for his crazy science fiction films, which display his amazing ability to do incredible miniatures. Why Vietnam B-movies never became the new black is impossible for me to understand.

HORROR HOSPITAL – Saw it as a kid in a theatre where it was retitled EASTWORLD to make people think it was a sequel to WESTWORLD. An over-the-top riot with mad scientists, an evil dwarf (little person to be more PC), zombies annoying hippies, and a lot of gore for its time.

SUPERVIXENS – Neck and Neck with BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS on the Russ Meyer hit parade, but the outrageous blend of humor, violence, and Charles Napier’s outrageous performance makes this one a benchmark.

ZOMBIE – An early VHS find, and an amazing movie. Not only is there the outrageous gore quotient, but as you continue to watch, it just gets better – with great production design and cinematography. You can add THE BEYOND to the same list, for pretty much for the same reasons.

SEX AND ZEN – Fantastic HK softcore with amazingly funny scenes, and erotic stuff that is both funny, outrageous, and quite sizzling. If Amy Yip does nothing for you, consult a physician.

KING KONG – Not a grindhouse movie, but pure entertainment. A big comic book adventure with a very complex psychology running beneath it. It must have been incredibly shocking, and basically the STAR WARS of its day. Legions of filmmakers heard the clarion call the day they saw it.

KILL BABY KILL – Bava’s amazing ghost film, hidden behind a sleazy title. Brilliant.

DANGER DIABOLIK – My favorite comic book movie, Bava trumps them all. Honorable mention for BLACK SUNDAY and BLACK SABBATH.

ALICE – Jan Svankmajer’s take on Alice in Wonderland, which weirded me out as a child, and I still find it enthralling. Runner-up on the weird Czech hit parade for VALERIE AND HER WEEK OF WONDERS.

BLACK GESTAPO – In so many ways the absolute gutter of Blaxploitation, but it’s so wrong it’s just right. It’s a shame that nobody has released a non-VHS bootleg of it. You would still want to take a shower afterwards, but at least it would be in the right aspect ratio. I actually owned the paperback novelization in Jr High, because the TV commercial was so amazing, but the movie never got to my little cow town. Plus it had Uschi Digard, even if only for a few minutes. Arguably the most beautiful woman to ever grace a sexploitation ———

That is one cool list from one cool guy. Why Bigfoot is not present and accounted for, however, baffles me.

To each his own, I reckon.

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BILL BURKE

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Jon Abrams

Editor-In-Chief at Daily Grindhouse

Jon Abrams is a New York-based writer, cartoonist, and committed cinemaniac whose complete work and credits can be found at his site, Demon’s Resume. You can contact him on Twitter as @JonZilla___.