BLACK ROSES - "Count The Petals And The Thorns" (1988)

 It's a 'We Will Rock You Wednesday' down in The Dungeon, and another one of those wacky rockin' horror shows from the 80's!

This Heavy Metal gem is called "Black Roses," which is also the name of the band from Hell featured in the movie!!

"Black Roses" is also the name of my favorite song from an album by Clear Light in 1965. I always thought Elektra Records thought they could sell Clear Light as a mixture of The Doors and Love, but then that's just my humble opinion!
You can checkout "Black Roses" by Clear Light yourself right here!!
This song is actually better than any of the music in this movie!

 In a nutshell, this wildly popular Metal band named Black Roses are set to perform an all weekend gig in a small town out in the middle of nowhere. Up to this moment, they've only been a studio band, and this is their first time performing 'Live," or "Dead," if that's what you prefer. The local townfolk ain't too hip on the idea, but after they see what a bunch of decent young people they are, they change their mind! The concert starts with a horrible Metal ballad, so seeing that everything's okay, the adults all leave........

 Off come the coats and out come the leather and the hard riffs!

 The kids all go wild!!

 Creatures from Hell start popping up all over the place!

 It's a good thing the needle is not really on the record, because it looks like it's gonna skip!

 Strange Things are happening everywhere!

 After this transformation, the kids seem very dull in skool the next day!

 Some of the songs are performed by the Black Roses, but they weren't really a group per se, but more of an amalgamation put together by drummer Carmine Appice of the original Vanilla Fudge band. There were real bands in history named both Black Rose, and The Black Roses, but neither of them have anything to do with this movie!
Catchy title, "Black Rose" has been used many times as a song title, most notably by Waylon Jennings, and Thin Lizzy etc.

 Just to show how evil he now is, this kid shoots his Dad for no other reason!

 The cute sweet girl gets turned into this vampire thing!

 The demons are now running the show! This thing's pretty creepy!

 For the final encore, Sal Viviano as Damien shows his true side!

 First off comes the wig!

 Next............Meltdown!!

Now this IS legitimate Death Metal!!

 Amazingly, the band didn't even have to wear makeup!

 "You're Gonna Die Like A Dog!" - Al Perry

 You know when you have that feeling that you're in the wrong place at the wrong time!
"Black Roses" is a total waste of time, but it's kinda fun, and it really does have a cast that includes some very interesting people, like Julie Adams from "Creature From The Black Lagoon," (Julie just passed away in February at the age of 92, and will be greatly missed), Disney animator Frank Dietz as a demon guitarist, and Vincent Pastore aka Salvatore 'Big Pussy' Bonpensiero of "Sopranos" fame!

THE ALIEN / Mike High 'Monster Kid Home Movies' - 1979

Stupid Kids!.. You gotta love 'em, 'specially when they make Monster Kid Home Movies. Just look at this swell title card, made by a kid of course. It'd be nice to be able to read it, but, you know, kids! Anyway, it sez... THE ALIEN!

This one starts with a barrel and some fireworks to simulate a rocket landing. Not really that great, but, I've seen worse. Then, the Alien crawls out of the thing, wow, that must have been one Hell of a cramped ride!

Looks like he had time to stop by The Gap for some threads, but, how did he get those big old hands through those sleeves?!

This dude shows up and decides to chase the Alien, and, get's his ass knocked out!

The Alien is out for blood, and, it looks like he killed... ME! I don't remember anything about shooting this scene, how'd they do that?

Dude is back with his huge seventies Plymouth, Dodge or Chrysler. As the Alien approaches him, the guy slips (on purpose) and awkwardly gets up. He barely gets away from the monster and digs out big time.

The Alien's ready to choke this kid out, when...

Dude is back again! He shoots the Alien but when he checks to see if the thing's dead...

He ends up just another victim! I really dig that tongue hanging out, nice touch!

I want to know one thing, why would you give a deadly Alien baby blue eyes??

Here are the ending credits... Stupid Kids!! Hey, check back Wednesday when Eegah!! will do his best to give us another whacked out post.

BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY - "Unchained Woman" (1979)

 "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century," now this is what I call a real Saturday Night Special!

 This incarnation of Buck Rogers was on TV from 1979 to 1981. 

In 1979 I had a black and white TV that got three channels, my first daughter was born, and I was working seven days a week. Needless to say, I never saw any of this show when it was on the air!

 Season one, episode seven was titled "Unchained Woman," and had Jamie Lee Curtis as the unchained woman guest star, and it's up to Buck to get her out of prison so she can testify against her doofus boyfriend, a crook named Malary Panter.

 Buck Rogers first appeared on the big screen in 1934 in a short called "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century" that had John Dille Jr. as Buck, but the first big twelve episode serial came out in 1939, and Buck was played by Buster Crabbe!

(Switch their names around and it sounds like a country western duo......

Presenting Buster Rogers and Buck Crabbe.)

In the 1950's TV series, Buck was played by Kem Dibbs one season, and Robert Pastene the other.

 But in this 1979 version, Buck Rogers was played by Gil Gerard!

Gil is still working today, and has a couple of films in post-production!

Here he's arriving at the prison! Whack door looks like a big film reel!

 Mel Blanc who did every cartoon voice from Bugs Bunny to Barney Rubble is the voice of Twiki the robot. The other gizmo is a cross between a 1949 Ford headlight and a disco ball!

 Here's a fascinating shot of what personal electronics incoming prisoners have to drop off before entering! Buck's medallion there in the middle is a remote controlled bomb! I don't know what all the other things are, telecommunicators I imagine! That bulky looking one doesn't look too handy!

 Jamie Lee looks really excited about being rescued!

 The place blows to kingdom come and all the android guards are blown to smithereens, and now Buck and his unchained guest have to trek across the desert in search of some of civilization, and a way off this planet!

 But wait, this guard, the one who said his name wasn't Hugo is still functional, and is tracking the couple!

 Hugo is really the best part of the show from here on out, as the robot that takes a lickin', and keeps on tickin'. It's pretty funny, he kicks that styrofoam rock and it curves midair!

 Poor Hugo, the sand squids got him!

 Erin Gray always looks good as Colonel Wilma Deering, Buck's partner!

 A lot of the effects and locations in this show look pretty snazzy!

 Since he's not human, Hugo managed to totally destroy the sand squid in 2 out of 3 rounds!

 With his superhuman strength, Hugo breaks through the wall, and I laughed out loud. He's still on the trail of Buck because he has a bracelet with a transmitter in it, so they take the bracelet off of Buck, and put it on Malary Panter, and the results are pretty funny!

 Hugo chases Malary down with ease through this old movie set!

 Now they've got to deal with Hugo!

 It's really quite interesting that this episode revolves around Hugo, who was played by a Mr. Walter Hunter in his one and only time in front of a camera. I can't find out anything about this guy, not even a birth date!

This role was rough, maybe he just had enough!

So to all the Walter Hunters in the world, this one's for you!

I think it's pretty cool that Buck Rogers can fly around in his mini-jet car and punch out bad guys at the same time! That takes talent!