The Last Horror Film (1982)

A New York taxi driver stalks a beautiful actress attending the Cannes Film Festival, which coincides with a series of violent killings of the lady's friends.

Director:

David Winters

Writers:

Judd Hamilton, David Winters

Stars:

J'Len Winters, John Kelly, Joe Spinell

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
J'Len Winters	...	Girl In Jaccuzi / Beach Girl Teaser
John Kelly	...	Man In Theatre
Joe Spinell	...	Vinny (as Joe Spinnel)
Simone Overman	...	Woman #1 In Theatre
Malgosia Casey	...	Woman #2 In Theatre
Patty Salier	...	Woman #3 In Theatre
Chip Hamilton	...	New York Man
George Valismis	...	New York Man
Peter D'Arcy	...	New York Man (as Peter Darcy)
Filomena Spagnuolo	...	Vinny's Mother (as Mary Spinnel)
Don Talley	...	Cowboy
Mai Britt Finseth	...	Bikini Girl / Beach Girl
Valerie	...	Bikini Girl
Caroline Munro	...	Jana Bates
Robert Paget	...	Screening Room Jury

Storyline

Vinny is obsessed with famous actress Jana Bates and is determined to have her star in his movie. He travels to the Cannes Film Festival in France to try and convince her. Unfortunately, he goes about things in a rather unprofessional manner and people invloved with Jana Bates begin to disappear.

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Plot Keywords:

cannes film festival | cannes | france | stalker | cult film | 

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Taglines:

Inescapable fear descends upon the French Riviera.

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Official Sites:

Troma

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 July 1985 (France)

Also Known As:

Fanatical Extreme

Filming Locations:

Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Box Office

Budget:

$2,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shere Productions, Winters Hollywood Entertainment Holdings Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Joe Spinell's mother Filomena Spagnuolo plays his mother in this film.

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Goofs

A crew person can be glimpsed laying down on the ground throwing fake blood up at Brett while Vinny is slashing him with a chainsaw.

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Quotes

Vinny Durand: Hi, Ma.
Vinny's Mother: Hi, Vinny. You're home early. What's wrong? Are you sick?
Vinny Durand: I'm fine. Couldn't be better. I'm home early because I just got my round-trip plane ticket. I'm leaving tomorrow for Europe. I'm going to the south of France for the Cannes Film Festival, Ma!
Vinny's Mother: [as Vinny goes to his room to pack] Vinny, stop talking about those crazy ideas of yours. I made baked macaroni. You don't eat right. You need more proten so you wouldn't have to think of those crazy ideas.
Vinny Durand: I don't know why you think my ideas...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

End cast list is presented in order of appearance.

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Alternate Versions

The UK DVD is an edited version, missing some of the violence from the "Night Caller" film-within-a-film sequence and the chainsaw murder at the end. The older UK video release on the Intervision label was uncut.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

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Soundtracks

You're Just a Dreamer
Written and performed by Jesse Frederick and Jeff Koz

User Reviews

Worth a pound of anyone's money.

I bought this on DVD from a Poundland for, hey! - a pound. It was re-titled as 'Fanatic'. Actually it was a double bill. Another schlock flick who's title I forget was on the flip side of the disc. So in effect, I got the Spinell picture for 50p. I'd say it was money well spent.

This was shot on the hoof at the 1981 Cannes film festival. Joe is a taxi driver who goes there to seek out his idol/wet dream Caroline Munro. Caroline appears with her then real life spouse Judd Hamilton. Husband and wife are both dubbed, and Caroline looks pretty much as she did when she was a hostess on '3-2-1' with Ted Rogers. The film bears little resemblance to the previous Spinell/Munro vehicle, 'Maniac'. That was grim, gory and reprehensible. This is light, silly and incomprehensible.

'The last horror film' seemed to receive an inordinate amount of coverage in the British film fantasy magazine 'Starburst' at the time. I can now see why: Spinell appears reading a copy of said periodical. Reciprocal publicity. There are also numerous references to other films, especially Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' (which Joe appeared in). In fact, there is a vaguely interesting blurring of film reality and fantasy and 'real' reality and fantasy throughout. Generally, though, it's a mess. Scenes just seem to rear up out of nowhere. But if you're interested in such things, the footage of Cannes and the general nakedness of the female cast will provide fifty pence's worth of entertainment.

There's a nice story on the Spinell documentary included on the Anchor Bay 'Maniac' disc which pertains to the making of this film. The cast and crew were staying at a rather expensive Cannes hotel, and due to the penurious nature of the budget found themselves unable to foot the extravagant bill. Spinell, Winters, Munro and all concerned therefore decided to do a runner in the middle of the night and catch the nearest plane home. Pity they didn't film that little episode and stick it in here along with everything else.

Watch out for Joe's verbal sparring with his real life mother Filomena (aka Mary). Pretty funny.