For two decades after Day of the Dead, George Romero didn't do any new movies with zombies. I'm not sure if that was because Day of the Dead didn't get great initial reviews or if he was just burned out on zombies. Maybe it was a combination of both. But when it was announced that Romero would be doing a new zombie movie called Land of the Dead (2005), I was very excited. By that point, I knew the first three films very well. Being able to finally see one in theaters meant a lot to me back then and it still does.

With a cast made up of people like Dennis Hopper (Blue Velvet), John Leguizamo (Summer of Sam), Asia Argento (Demons 2), and Robert Joy (The Dark Half), Land of the Dead is a welcome entry to the Dead series. Set apart from the others by many years, it still manages to bring some of that charm that the first three movies contained inside a modern environment. Was it as impressive as the first three movies, especially Dawn of the Dead or Day of the Dead? Not quite, even with a big company name like Universal behind it. But it wasn't bad either, coming from a guy who hadn't touched zombie movies for twenty years.

So quit picking your nose and join me for another... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

If Dawn of the Dead was an upgrade of Night of the Living Dead, then George Romero's Day of the Dead (1985) was an upgrade to zombie genre as a whole. Even better make-up for the zombies and better gore effects? Check. A polished score by John Harrison that never feels out of place? Check. A great cast of characters who all grow on you in one way or another (yes, that includes this movie's main and, well, only living female character, unlike those two before...)? Check. This movie has it all and that's despite having its budget chopped in half, forcing Romero to change much of his original script to fit the lower budget, keeping only some of the characters and the basic ideas of the original script.

This was the first Romero movie I actually owned, having blind bought it on VHS in a store at the mall, and much like the previous two movies, it had me hooked from the start, despite my young self being completely fucking horrified by the amount of gore in the movie. Seriously, after seeing this movie enough times, it caused me to become almost completely desensitized to gore in other movies. But even before I knew as much about the Dead movies as I do now, I knew that this was a movie much better polished and better put together than its predecessors. Starring Joe Pilato (Wishmaster), Richard Liberty (The Crazies), Gary Klar (Miami Blues), John Amplas (Martin), Taso Stavrakis (Knightriders), and a bunch of other cool people who I don't recognize from anything else, this movie wasn't received very well when it came out, but in more recent times, things have changed for it.

Try not to "choke on 'em" while you read this entry of... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) was released exactly ten years after his first zombie masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead. In many ways, it's an upgrade of the first movie. It's in color, there's a lot more violence, the locations are grander, and the music is now a combination of stock music and music recorded by Italian progressive rock band Goblin, who were brought in by the movie's producer, Italian horror director Dario Argento. When I first saw Dawn of the Dead around 2000 or so, I didn't even realize that it was a sequel to anything, but I knew from the first moments of the movie inside of the television studio that I was watching a movie that was going to be nothing like anything I'd ever seen before. The music alone told me that. And it only got even better from there.

Starring Ken Foree (From Beyond), Scott Reiniger (Knightriders), Gaylen Ross (Madman), and David Emge (Basket Case 2), with Tom Savini (From Dusk Till Dawn, who also did the special effects in this), John Amplas (Martin), and Taso Stavrakis (Knightriders) in small roles, it's the ultimate zombie movie. With its greyish blue zombies, pink blood, and shopping mall setting, Dawn of the Dead has quite possibly left behind an even bigger footprint in the history of zombie movies than its predecessor, again showing just what can be accomplished on a low budget and again proving that back then, George Romero knew exactly how to make his zombie movies stand out from the rest of the zombie movies that were cropping up during that time.

Stock up on your lighter fluid and Spam and get ready for another... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

In wanting to do something special on Trash Epics for October, I've decided to write a four-part series of reviews, which will cover the first four movies of George Romero's Dead series: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Day of the Dead (1985), and Land of the Dead (2005). I'm skipping Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009), both because they kind of reboot the series and because no one cares much about them anyway. And I'm not going to beat around the bush here: I love this series. It's easily my favorite horror series and these reviews will most certainly reflect that.

Night of the Living Dead is, appropriately, the first movie that I saw in the Dead series. I only have a few vague memories of that first time, but I do very clearly remember being frightened by it and I'd say for good reason. A cemetery, a farmhouse, no vehicle to get away in, no way to contact anyone for help, and the recently deceased wandering around, pursuing and attacking anyone who's still alive. All perfect, classic, horror movie elements, elements that have been inspiring, ripped off, and spoofed many times since, because Night of the Living Dead is, for good reason, considered the beginning of what people now think of as your typical zombie.

Grab a gun, board up your doors and windows, and join me for another... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

In honor of autumn, I figured it would be fitting to do some seasonal content. For most of us, seasonal content means horror movies. I spent the past few weeks trying to come up with a list of the best Halloween films... but I couldn't. I'm terrible at making lists, which is why I took another approach...

I have tweaked the media search to sort by ratings now. What this means is that we can make definitive Trash Epics lists just by voting and filtering by a keyword. For example, I present to you a list we an all influence:

The Greatest Halloween Movies Ever
https://trashepics.com/media/?category=1&limit=31&sort=value&tags=halloween
(according to us)

Moderators can add as many titles as they wish. All you gotta do is vote, because we wont have a damn weighted system like IMDB. Continue »

When most horror fans think of cannibal movies, they probably think of the ones that came out of Italy during the 1970's and 1980's, particularly those by Ruggero Deodato. But Antonia Bird's Ravenous (1999) has nothing to do with Italy and their cannibal movies, besides the fact that it's also a cannibal movie. I wouldn't even call it inspired by those. It's nowhere near as gory, though it's still quite bloody.

Featuring Guy Pearce (Memento), Robert Carlyle (28 Weeks Later), Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and David Arquette (Scream series), Ravenous goes back into the 1800's and seemingly taking inspiration from the Donner Party, proceeds to explore just what kind of lengths men will go to when they need to survive in the wilderness.

So grab a severed arm or leg to snack on and join me for another... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

When I was a kid, I remember seeing a few short parts of George McCowan's Frogs (1972) on TV. Of course, since I was a giant pussy about horror movies as a kid, I never sat down to watch it in full. But I recently noticed that it's on Netflix and decided to finally see this movie in its entirety, despite the somewhat low rating it seems to generally receive.

Sam Elliott (Tombstone, The Big Lebowski) stars in this cheesy movie about frogs and other reptiles who have had enough of humanity's bullshit. Just look at the poster if you don't believe me on the cheesy part. A human hand dangling out of a giant frog's mouth! Unfortunately, that never actually happens in the movie except for this animated frog at the very end of the credits, but I think it still really sets the tone for what you should expect from the movie.

Find out if this is 1970's cheese worth watching with another... Reviews with Ballz! Continue »

Here's an interesting little film. Why it's apart of the Troma catalogue is beyond me, as it would be a better fit on a Something Weird Video double feature with some William Grefe' snooze-fest. An interesting film nonetheless. Written by none other than Larry Cohen of all people. But something about this film annoys me. Several things, actually. First off, the main character, Janet. This disagr... Continue »

As horror fans, we are used to seeing graphic and bloody depictions. That stuff is just common place in this day and age. But even the most jaded horror fan will still squirm uncomfortably whenever children are depicted as being abused, both physically and sexually. That kinda stuff is just too taboo, especially if the scenes happen to be graphic. Children of the Dark isn't a horror movie, but is just about as horrifying as anything you could see. Continue »

I have seen the light. An atheist no more, I can say to you, hand on heart, that there is a God. And, what’s more I can prove it. Continue »

Our hero...

Pop quiz no 1 – What do you know about Captain America?

Well, of course you know the basics.

In 1941, as US involvement in WWII seems inevitable, weakling Steve Rogers wants to enlist in the US Army to help fight the Nazis. His is quickly rejected, but his bravery and determination will not be undone, so he volunteers to take an experimental super soldier serum, which gives him increased stren... Continue »

Back in 2006, Slaughtered Vomit Dolls finally hit the shelves as Lucifer Valentines debut was finally released. The cover art was childish, but freaky, like something an infant would draw to express that they were being abused. It's simplistic design, along with the fucked up title was enough to intrigue me. But I didn't watch it. I was too scared.

This in itself should cue you into the sort of bloke that Lucifer Valentine is. He's scary. Like really scary. As far as I can tell, his identity has been kept secret from the internet. No one knows what he looks like, and the few that have worked with him sure as hell aren't telling. Continue »

Pornography: From the Greek pornographus - writing about prostitutes



One of the earliest forms of pornography discovered by archaeologists is graffiti scrawled on the walls of ancient Rome. These scribbles were drawn by commoners, depicting senators and other powerful figures being boned by horses or dogs.

When The Marquis de Sade unleashed his most famous pornographic novel, Justine, onto the masses, it was described by Napoleon Bonaparte himself as "the most abominable book ever engendered by the most depraved imagination". His earlier masterwork, The 120 Days of Sodom, has since been labelled by a literary critic as an "unsurpassed novel of terror and signal act of terrorism" and as a "book of purest destruction". Continue »

I've been following James Rolfe's work for years now. To most people, he's The Angry Video Game Nerd, but to me, he's more than that. He's an inspiration. He reviews shitty old games for a living, but he also knows film, and has a true passion for what he does. He wouldn't have become such a legend if his heart wasn't in the right place.

Over the years, he's always teased us with a review for the alleged worst game of all time: Atari's E.T. However, he would take it up a notch and not do a mere review, but an entire movie based on the mystery of this turkey, taking the premise of his debut feature into the Atari landfill territory. This bases our film on actual facts, whereas several Atari games where in fact buried in a landfill in New Mexico. Read about it on Wikipedia if you don't believe me, because Wikipedia always tells the truth... right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_video_game_burial Continue »

For those of you who have 20 minutes to spend, why not spend them here, watching this short clip. With a title like 'Merry Little Christmas' it can't be that bad, right? Wrong. It's chock filled with brutal violence, rape and mutilations. Guaranteed to disturb you. Go on, watch it. But be warned, you'll be needing a shower afterwards....



Enjoy....

Here we can talk all things comics. I originally intended this zone just to be for comicbook movies, but why? There are so many trashy and epicy comics and graphic novels - and creators! - that it seemed far too narrow in scope to just make it be about the movies.

To start us off, though, here's a little introduction... Continue »

We've all come to this site and gotten bored with it, because of how aimlessly vague it is. Well not anymore, because now, we have purpose. Now, we have Trash Zones https://trashepics.com/sub/.

A lot of users had been interested in having their own corner of this website to specialize in a unique theme. I finally got crackin' and worked those in here. I've given them database support, which means they can be easily edited to suit your needs. I try to automate everything worthwhile on this site. The less I have to do to maintain it, the better. I'm a lazy man, so anyone running a zone will help me keep this site active. Continue »

For some reason this movie reminded me of Hills Have Eyes meets Tremors. Basically it's about the Haskin family camping out New Years Eve 1999 escaping from all the Y2K hysteria in the isolated forests of Sierra Diablos Mountains. However during their getaway they are kidnapped by hillbillies. While the family struggles to fight the hillbilly family, some type of creature comes up from the groun... Continue »

What is it?

I'd go with Zombie Lake. And I generally like Franco and Rollin. So, needless to say that one was not only awful, but a letdown too. The concept was actually decent, but was handled horribly.

I heard about this one from Troma. As with most rec's, they all come from our very own Professor Stokes of B-Movies. I was told very little, all I knew was it would be in a similar vein to the movie Things. Now I loved Things. It was one of the most unique and hypnotising movies I had seen in a long time. So I was eager to check this one out. Once I did, like Things, I found it very difficult to articulate must feelings. All I knew was I liked it.

Lets start with the plot. We follow our hero, Cody, a thin and scrawny looking dude with 80s hair and awesome sunnies. Cody is a bit concerned about his mum, who is obsessed with one of those TV evangelists. His mum reckons she has a tumour in her lungs cos the TV guy says so, but she is healed through the TV and a minute later coughs up the tumour and places it in the bin... as you do...

Well, this is no ordinary tumour, it's alive! We know this because it convulses and breathes in the bin. But no one seems to take notice of that, or its foul order. Not until it walks (yes, try to imagine a tumour walking, I know you can do it) into Cody's mouth while he's asleep. Now Cody is coughing up blood and has a new blood thirst, to kill for the abomination which is controlling him. Continue »

Curtains opens with Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) an actress practicing her role for Audra. Stryker (John Vernon) tells her Audra would never do that and then somehow convinces her to check into an insane asylum. He tells her it will help her become Audra. But what Samantha doesn't know Stryker plans on leaving her there and casting another actress as Audra. Stryker invites six actresses to come to his place for the weekend for a casting session to see if one of them can be Audra. Continue »

I am getting ready to start writing my first review for the Slasher Zone. It will be up probably tomorrow. I decided to do a small review for The Slasher Movie Book. Written by J.A. Kerswell who also runs https://www.hysteria-lives.co.uk/ which is a a great site to check out slasher reviews. The book is filled with knowledge about slasher/gialli/krimi movies. It has hundreds of titles from well known (Hallowe... Continue »

Sure. It's original alright. But what exactly is IT? Well, a lot of things, really. Wacky, vulgar, bizarre, confusing, trippy, peculiar, pointless, strangely upbeat, definitely hilarious at times, but mostly random. Very, very random. What kind of childhood must one endure to one day grow up and have ideas like these go through their head, and then actually manage to make a movie about it? What type of delusional fuck has the balls to explain this nonsense to the people he wants as his stars? And how'd he get so many semi-hot naked chicks to lend him their naked bodies and shitty acting? Alot of mystery surrounding this one. I've seen Meat Weed Madness a couple times over the years, and I can honestly say that I still don't know quite what to make of it. And I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

Marijuana grown with human flesh.Yeah. That's what this movie is about. The Farmers of a magical Southern plantation called Meat Weed Manor grow the best weed on the planet using said method. How or why this works obviously isn't the issue here. That subject is just never really tackled. What is the Issue, you ask? Well, uh... nudity, I guess. Nudity and sleaziness. We'll just go with that. I'm sure there's something more to it, but whatevs. Anyway, four Southern Belles stumble upon the beautiful plantation, and are immediately welcomed by Lord Meat Weed, to stick around for a while, and to try out some product, which makes them go mad and make out with each other, which is by far the most normal thing to happen the entire duration of this movie. Continue »

I've spouted this off to you guys several times, but nobody listens. Seriously... why the fuck don't you guys want free money?! I've gotten hundreds of dollars off of Amazon over the past few years by doing this, and it's completely legal. I've just made the process take a less time out of your day. Continue »

Poor Harold. A life long nerd. This guy has no social skills. He's an ugly motherfucker with greasy hair, stupid clothes, an, annoying voice. He's irritating, his peers make fun of him and his only friend is his mother, who he seems to not like all that much. Yeah, Harold Kunkle is a nerd if there ever was such a thing. A frinedless, comic book-collecting virgin for life. But he's still a person with feelings just like everybody else. And just like everybody else, Harold has his breaking point.

Poor awkward bastard wants to be cool so bad. But just doesn't get it. And nobody gets him. It seems as if it's simply not in him to be cool. Is there seriously no hope for Harold? Enter Slick Dick. Possibly Harold's one and only hope for social salvation. Infomercial douche bag, Slick Dick seems to know all the right things to say, and do, and how to dress, and most importantly, how to be confident. Or maybe it's just those Back To The Future Part II Solar Shades he was wearing. Either way, Harold the nerd needs all the advice he can get if he's serious about getting out of this rut and possibly getting his fuck on. Harold is desperate enough to try anything at this point. So he orders Slick Dick's motivational tape. Finally, the secrets of coolness will be revealed. And if Slick Dick turns out to be full of shit... well, then there's always that killing spree Harold has been considering. Continue »