SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS (1971)

Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadul Things (1971) Dir. Thomas Casey

By Cory C, November 14, 2025

"I'm afraid that Stanley is a little shy around girls"

Every once and awhile you see a movie that genuinely and properly blows your mind. SOMETIMES AUNT MARTHA DOES DREADFUL THINGS (1971), perhaps the first ever live action toxic yaoi film, blew my mind. I'm talking a cross dressing maternal figure ties up his surrogate son, strips him to his underwear, writes "Slut" on his forehead with lipstick, and then chokes him with a pearl necklace levels of bonkers toxic yaoi. This movie really fucking goes for it. It is a reminder movies can do anything and should be less mundane.

The premise: two hardened criminals, Stanley and Paul, are holed up following a jewelry heist. In order to disguise themselves, Paul wears drag and pretends to be "Aunt Martha," Stanley's aunt. They increasingly slip into the roles of Paul as an overbearing maternal figure and Stanley as a rebellious teen. They fight over familiar domestic drama as Paul gets frustrated that Stanley stands with the fridge door open, is growing out his hair too long, and is hanging out with his dirtbag friends. But mostly they fight about Stanley bringing girls home. This infuriates Paul and is the central conflict of the movie. Paul has to kill these women to protect Stanley.

Don't jump to conclusions that this is simply another generic cross-dresser is evil movie. Perish the thought! This is absolutely a yoai movie. Stanley is obviously a repressed gay man who keeps almost hooking up with women then completely freaking out when they try to actually have sex with him. Paul is obviously protective of him against women who are actually trying to force themselves on him. Though his protectiveness feels driven by jealousy more than protectiveness. They are both delightful little lunatics. Imagine Psycho if Norman Bates and Norman Bate's crossdressing as his mother were in a psychosexual kink relationship.

This one is extremely fun. It is like a mash up of PSYCHO (1960), a queer drama, a crime movie, a drive-in exploitation film, and a parody 1960s anti-drug melodramas. It pulls almost all of this off with shocking skill. This one is a gem in the truest sense. Everyone here is having a blast and the pieces work together so much better than they should. The sets, design, filmmaking, and performances all punch above their weight. It's a regional drive in movie from Florida in the 70s so don't expect a high class drama. But do expect to have a great time.

I think this film actually has something interesting to say about compulsory heterosexuality, the phenomenon where many queer people feel social pressure to perform heterosexuality despite their true sexual orientation. Stanley loves to party with friends and do drugs with them. Girls desire him and he even enjoys being desired. But the moment things escalate sexually he becomes repulsed. At one point a woman nearly forces sex onto him in a reversal of the standard grindhouse sexploitation that has the genders of the aggressive and unwilling partners reversed. Unfortunately the filmmakers, despite being remarkably transgressive, seem aware that to make a queer crime drama palletable for the 1970s Florida audience they have to offer up a lot of TnA (and no hog or man butt). Ironically, this reality of the market mirrors the compulsory heteronomativity that seems to be a theme in the movie itself.

All told this is a bizzare and wonderful film. When you see such a strange and potent combination of ideas it reminds you that films and stories can do more, be bolder and weirder and more transgressive. When they let their freak flags fly, movies are more entertaining. This one is a must see.

COLOR ME BLOOD RED

Color Me Blood Red (1965) Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis

By Cory C, November 11, 2025

It would probably be sacrilege to make a website named SPLATTER and not talk about Herschell Gordon Lewis (HG Lewis), the father of the splatter film genre. He is widely credited with creating the genre in 1963 with BLOOD FEAST, a film about an Egyptian caterer hired for a party who takes it upon himself to make a special cannibalistic feast for the unknowing and guileless guests. 1963 was a big year for HG Lewis, who in the same year also created the brand new sexploitation genre of so-called “roughies” with SKUM OF THE EARTH. These films, made with miniscule budgets, amateur actors, and DIY ingenuity, were surprise successes. They catapulted HG Lewis into some of the most productive filmmaking years in history as he released 23 films between 1963 and 1968. Most of these were in the splatter/gore genre and designed for regional releases at drive-ins and small theaters especially in the Chicago-land area.

BLOOD FEAST and SKUM OF THE EARTH are bizarrely entertaining even today and have an interesting role in film history. If you’re reading a site like SPLATTER, you may have the precise level of brainrot to properly enjoy them. My personal favorite HG Lewis movie TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! was released in 1964 a year before COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965). You don’t even need that much brainrot to love it. It’s a deep fried southern gore flick whose influence is felt in movies like DELIVERANCE (1972) and whose tropes of southern hick killers remained relevant enough to be parodied decades later in TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL (2010). Following a two year creative stretch that would rival the most influential 2 years of any career in film, it’s easy to see COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965) as a bit of a disappointment. It’s more derivative, less creative, and less entertaining than much of HG Lewis’s output at this time. Nevertheless, it is worth a viewing for those looking to dig deeper into the catalog of one of filmmaking’s most interesting and influential outsiders.

COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965) follows Adam Sorg, an artist, who is derided by critics. His paintings can’t capture that je ne sais quoi. In particular, he just can’t find the correct hue of red to make his artistic vision a reality. When the woman he’s in a situationship with accidentally cuts herself and gets blood on a canvas he realizes that he has found the exact correct hue of red for his paintings. I am sure you can guess where this is going. He takes more and more extreme actions to get blood for his paintings, ultimately resorting to murder. Gordon Oas-Heim who plays Sorg gives a pretty good performance all things considered. With HG Lewis films you’ll learn quickly not to take a decent performance for granted. Given that the effects in this one are not as impressive as many other HG Lewis films, Gordon Oas-Heim’s manic performance as Sorg is a saving grace for this film.

If this entire concept sounds familiar to you, it may be because you have seen Roger Corman’s A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959). In that horror comedy, a man desperate for approval from the beatnik art scene keeps accidentally killing animals and people and turning them into statues. Seeking approval from the art scene he begins to kill intentionally. The natural comparisons between the two films are not flattering for COLOR ME BLOOD RED (1965). It’s less entertaining, more plodding, doesn’t have Dick Miller’s dynamite performance and the concept loses too much of the humor in HG Lewis’s hands.

Still, there is something here to be enjoyed. The manic, psychotic artist willing to do anything for his art, even murder is a potent trope and it’s fun to see the Godfather of Gore HG Lewis experiment with it. This one is not essential viewing, but it is a curio that fans are likely to enjoy.

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

Hell of the Living Dead (1980) Dir. Bruno Mattei (aka Vincent Dawn)

By Cory C, November 10, 2025

"You're all... doomed to a horrible death. Doomed to be eaten up. First, they'll kill you... then afterwards... you'll be eaten... be eaten... devoured... by men like you... your brothers..."

Initially I got this movie for two very understandable reasons. A used copy of the Severin 4k UHD was pretty cheap at a store I was at and it is a blatant DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) rip off directed by someone who had the temerity and sense of humor to use the pseudonym "Vincent Dawn." So sure, why not give the 1980 Italian film HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (aka NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES) (1980) a try?

I later found out that Vincent Dawn was Bruno Mattei who made a career at the tail end of eurotrash cinema viability by making unofficial sequals. CRUEL JAWS (1995) is about a killer shark. SHOCKING DARK (1989) is about a terminator. NIGHT KILLER (1990) is about a dream haunting killer with claws who is definitely *not* Freddy Krueger. So for me to stumble on this cinematic genius's DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) sequel (maybe prequel?) is can't miss stuff.

When this sucker started up and I saw that Goblin, whose DEEP RED (1975) score may be my favorite in film history, scored this movie I knew I was in for a treat. Well scored is generous. It's more like they took Goblin songs from other better films but taking stuff from better films is just a part of their creative process! Regardless, Goblin sounds great as always.

Let me be realistic. The effects look cheap, but are mostly fun enough. The acting is bad, but you weren't here for the acting were you? The plot spins its wheels for 30 minutes in the middle. The film bafflingly pads its run time, which is about 10 minutes too long, with 6 minutes of stock footage mostly of random animals. And yet, behind all the early 80s eurotrash, there is a film trying to say something that is fairly entertaining and sounds good some of the time (Oh Goblin, my Goblin).

This one opens at some kind of nuclear or chemical facility where a guy gets bitten by a radioactive rat and becomes a zombie. An aside, I was unsurprised to learn that director Bruno Mattei (aka Vincent Dawn)'s next most well known film is RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984). This guy has a thing for rat-pacolypses.

The movie moves on from here where we see your friendly neighborhood American black ops strike squad slaughter a group of eco-terrorist who apparently are guilty of using violent means to try to stop the apocalypse. In true blue amber waves of grain American fashion the strike squad shoots first and doesn't ask questions later.

Meanwhile, they can't reach the chemical plant in Papua New Guinea which makes the strike force think the terrorists hit there too, but we the audience know it is because they are zombies. Dramatic irony!

On their way there they meet a reporter who discovers the zombies when a zombie kid played by a child actor who truly has an all-time stinker face (see picture) turns cannibalistic. Oh well.

This is euro trash cinema so of course the reporter has to get naked to fit in with the local Papau New Guinea tribe. This is an especially dumb moment even in the annals of eurosleaze as you watch a professional reporter strip naked except for a cheap miniskirt made of leaves. Then she dances with a tribe and gets body paint in some ritual. None of this is relevant to the movie, but Italian horror directors from this era understood that like 40% of their paying customers were proto-gooners.

After that nonsense we get into the meat of the Zombie hijinks. People get eaten. They learn they need to shoot them in the head. A cat jumps out of the stomach of an undead granny. They forgot to shoot them in the head over and over. A guy uses a playground slide. Exactly one zombie gets set on fire. Etc...

They do eventually make it to the chemical plant. The journalist learns that Hope's chemical facility was trying to solve overpopulation by making zombies to eat the developing world. And now they are the zombies. This is more dramatic irony. The zombies then get the reporter who just *had* to see what was going on. They kill her by pushing her eyes out of her face from the inside of her head. This is dramatic irony too I assume. I'm not sure I know what dramatic irony is. But it was dramatic. Probably the best effect of the movie, though competition isn't exactly fierce here.