If you thought the borderland between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was absent of contract killers and Chinese vampires, you’d be dead wrong. With guns loaded and fangs bared, GOD OF VAMPIRES is here for a gory good time on a tiny budget.
Author: Matt S.
Occasional writer, media dabbler.
Cold Steel (1987)
A seasonally appropriate 1980s action movie gem that will stuff you with riveting car chases, massive explosions, a crazed villain, and Adam Ant wielding stolen firearms.
Witchtrap (1989)
This feels like the sort of underappreciated horror movie one would find in a stack of DVDs at a rural chalet you booked through Airbnb. For my money, it’s probably good enough to take home with you along with the stolen silverware.
Fighting Spirit (1992)
A film where underground kickboxing, blindness, bar fighting, vomiting at the morgue, and a fuzzy guitar soundtrack collide.
Raw Force (1982)
A group of martial artists from a California karate club board a cruise ship destined for Warrior’s Island, a remote stomping ground for zombie martial artists. Will they make it to their destination or be forced back to port on account of a norovirus outbreak?
Blue Vengeance (1989)
I’ve used plenty of ride share apps and I’d like to think that if my driver ever said, “if you gotta piss, piss out the window. Cause I’m on a quest … I’m searching for the gates of hell,” that I would launch myself from the moving vehicle ASAP. If I somehow survived, I would never get in a stranger’s car again. This is one of the lessons from BLUE VENGEANCE, a strange film I enjoyed.
Trained to Kill (1989)
If you love weird and wild action cinema of the 1980s, you owe it to yourself to find a copy of this film. It features an incredible cast, a Japanese-influenced sword fight, wild shoot-outs, rocket launcher attacks, dirtbike chases, dirtbike crashes into cardboard, carsplosions, hand-to-hand fights, throat rips, and a single, spiked fingerless glove.
Psycho Kickboxer (1997)
Kickboxing. Drugs. Radio DJs. Vigilante violence. Virginia exteriors. These are the core elements in the cinematic playbook of PSYCHO KICKBOXER.
Treasure of the Ninja (1987)
A martial arts special agent travels halfway across the world to help a team of archaeologists hunt for treasure. Along the way, they’ll fight ninjas, zombie ninjas, a zombie ninja final boss, and a jerk from Florida with a mustache.
L.A. Streetfighters (1985)
An entertaining and low-budget gang-violence-via-martial-arts romp that served as a cinematic launchpad for some of the bigger figures in the American martial arts b-movie scene of the 1980s.
The Weapons of Death (1981)
It seems almost far-fetched now, but there was once a time when San Francisco was filled with leather bars and martial arts schools instead of unaffordable housing and tech startups. Like a limp body flying over the bar and smashing only the bottom-shelf vodka, THE WEAPONS OF DEATH comes out of nowhere to surprise and delight.
Kung Fu Wonder Child (1986)
The decade of the 1980s was a banner era for the fantasy film all across the globe. KUNG FU WONDER CHILD probably isn’t the only one to feature bathroom humor alongside martial arts and magic, but it might be the only one that has a monster with blonde bangs and Yukari Oshima kicking dudes into trees.
Fearless Tiger (1991)
When his brother overdoses on a new designer drug called “nirvana,” a fresh MBA graduate must choose between the stable pursuits of marriage and a burgeoning family business, or traveling to Hong Kong to learn kung fu and fight drug dealers.
Sword of Heaven (1985)
A mystical sword formed from a meteorite. A nun in a wheelchair flying off a cliff. A motorcycle riding hero in a red cocktail dress. All these random threads converge in the misshapen, cable-knit sweater of a 1980s action film that is SWORD OF HEAVEN.
Violent Streets (1974)
This is a lean and mean 1970s yakuza exploitation picture that plays with a lot of genre tropes – rival groups, old ways versus young guns, etc. – all capped off by a deeply fatalistic streak. And mannequins!
Death Ray Dive 