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Witches in the Woods (2019)
Snowbound Survival Horror. The witches are all in your mind.
A group of young people who all seem to have dark secrets and fresh trauma - it must be tough being a college student these days! - go on a skiing trip to Western Massachusetts (actually Canada). On the way there's a detour and they end up going through the mythical, mystical town of Stoughton Falls, where witch trials (and hangings) occurred in the 1690s, but were somehow overshadowed by Salem's drama. One of the guys thinks he knows a shortcut (one guy always does!) and they all end up stranded in the woods during a snowstorm. Two of 'em go out for help, only one comes back, seemingly possessed. Everybody starts dying either via murder, the elements, or misadventure.
As far as survival horror goes (the supernatural twist is nominal), it's ok. The major problem is this: all these people suck. Although it's never actually explained, there's a strong indication that the girl who falls under the thrall of the witchy woods was gang-raped and videotaped in a frat-party incident, and that most of the dudes in the car were there, one way or the other. WHY WOULD THESE PEOPLE GO ON VACATION TOGETHER? Every bit of the dialogue is people bickering. Even the (presumptive) Final Girl is cheating on her boyfriend. As people, they are all such unlikeable zeroes that you can't possibly care about their miserable fate.
In conclusion, if you like watching awful people get hypothermia, this one is for you.
Female Jungle (1955)
Feral 50's murder mystery delivers the greasy goods
This movie is great. Starlet gets snuffed in the first two minutes. Alcoholic cop Lawrence Tierney was at the scene of the crime but was too boozed-up to remember what happened. He tries to piece it all together but everyone around him is a weirdo, liar, or a scuzzball. With Jayne Mansfield and John Carradine. Everybody's younger than I've ever seen them before. It's dark and fast and vicious. Killer grungy noir.
Cry Havoc (2020)
Needs more Bronzi
Right, so this LOW - go lower than that - budget slasher with a Most Dangerous Game twist does the most it can with what it's got, you gotta give it that much. Lack of funds result in some seriously risible Halloween Store moments, especially in the design of unstoppable, possibly non-human killer Havoc, but those can be overlooked if there's enough cheap thrills to go around. Having a plucky reporter interview the eccentric billionaire who created the murder park (really a clump of bare trees) that Havoc runs amuck in was a wily way to get the backstory told without having to pay for much, too. Said reporter is essayed by Emily Sweet, and she's iffy at best in this, kind of a completely charmless Samara Weaving. Anyway, she eventually teams up with a rogue cop that's wandering around shooting everybody. Robert Bronzi (with a dub job) is the cop and if you've never seen the dude before, the reports are true - he's an astonishing deadringer for late 60's era Charles Bronson. I mean, it's wild. So the vigilante and the Final Girl take on the kooky billionaire and the undead killer and it basically goes how you think it might. It would've been nice to have a more Bronzi-centric story, as he is by far the most intriguing aspect of this whole operation, but I'll take what Bronzi I can get.
The script is loosy goosey and again, it's really cheap. But Bronzi is so weirdly compelling that it's worth it just to gaze upon him. As far as exploitation type kicks go, I can at least report that every female actor in the film under 50 shows their boobs and there are a few solid gore gags (top of head ripped off, jaw removal, manual drill through the throat, etc). Not a great film by any stretch, but if you squint just a little, it's got some good stuff.
Director Rene Perez - who churns this stuff out at an alarming pace - really did put every penny on the screen. It was only like 17 pennies, but still.
Carnival of Blood (1970)
More like Carnival of Boredom
"This is my friend Gimpy!"
If you watch this specifically to geek out on the shots of the Coney Island boardwalk in 1970, then it's pretty great. What I wouldn't do for a 40 cent carnival hot dog right now!
As a movie it's a woeful disaster though. No budget proto-slasher trash with a heavy "real people" vibe. Lots of amateurs doing improv for merciless ten-minute takes.
Should be included in any "pre-history of slasher flick" lists, tho.