Revenger’s Tragedy: From Beyond the Grave (1996)

Plucked from the vault of dear ol’ Zombie Hamster, Matty takes a look at John Eyres’ rollicking, straight-to-video riff on Wes Craven’s Shocker; the surprisingly poignant From Beyond the Grave.

A Kind of Blue: The Sultry Noir of Midnight Blue (1997)

Picture it, if you will; the millennium is fast approaching and VHS is enjoying a record year for sales to which it will never equal again. Times are good. The video rental industry is booming, and accompanying such success is a dizzying number of good quality, medium budget, direct-to-video movies. When DVD showed its first […]

Requiem For a Bad Guy: Dr. Viallini & Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1990)

Matty casts his eye over Glenn Takakjian’s icky sci-schlocker, and the sharp-suited bad guy at its gooey centre. This one’s for you, Dr. V…

Second Thoughts on Double Take (1998): Reflections on a Mark L. Lester thriller

The name Mark Lester seems to be forever suffixed with the bracketed addition of Class of 1984 (1982), Firestarter (1984) and Commando (1985), which are all rightly considered momentous motion pictures. But, this being Zombie Hamster, our main focus of Lester-led adoration lies firmly in the nineties, where film for film, he hit a ten year streak that […]

Without a Trace: Ryan Brookhart talks Straight from Hell (2015)

Here’s a trivia question for all you Charles Band fanatics: Aside from the iconic producer, whose name is most frequently listed on all physical media releases from Full Moon Features? Hands up who said Ryan Brookhart? Indeed, for the best part of a decade the native Ohioan has designed countless key art for the majority […]

Lamenting Leviticus: Joe Ahearne talks B&B

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22) A classic line from Leviticus’ Greatest Hits there, and one that still gets spun two millennia after its authoring by the more fundamentalist Christians in our society. Quite why B-sides such as ‘Do not wear clothing woven of […]

The Junkyard Vault

DTV Junkyard: Bastion of the maligned and champion of the neglected. With a clear remit that stipulates no screeners, no favours, and no kowtowing to film companies, the Junkyard was established in January 2015 to provide spin-free opiniDTV Junkyard 114on on the UK’s direct-to-video industry. Here’s a handy index to discover each of the 327 […]