This week the Grue-Crew hide from the vengeful spirit of an angry assassin, run with "mary jane" on April 20th, and champion the gory adventures of our new favorite luchador. First up is the feature Killing Joan from director Todd Bartoo, where a murdered assassin returns from the grave to get her vengeance. The next film, 4/20 Massacre from director Dylan Reynolds, calls back to classic slasher tropes with style and gore. Director Ryan Prows delivers an impressive debut feature with his remarkable, gory luchador epic Lowlife. Long live El Monstro. The hunt is on for the diamond in the rough. Doc Rotten from Horror News Radio and Jeff Mohr from Decades of Horror: The Classic Era are joined by Rafe Telsch and Vanessa Thompson. 

Gruesome Magazine Podcast - Episode 015
Lowlife - Killing Joan - 4/20 Massacre

KILLING JOAN

“This is a dismal trainwreck.” - Rafe

“I thought to myself, I feel like I’m watching a cross between The Room and a Uwe Boll movie" - Vanessa

“It seemed to me like they found a cheap, decent way to make the black smoke special effect and then built a movie around it.” - Jeff

“It is abysmal. It falls apart on just about every level you can consider from cinematography to composition to dialogue to acting, unfortunately, to the direction." - Doc

An enforcer for the mob enacts her revenge on those who wronged her.

Director: Todd Bartoo
Cast: Jamie Bernadette, Teo Celigo, Erik Aude

4/20 Massacre

“You get some pretty good kills … you get some impending doom.” - Vanessa

“My favorite character was the stoner girl played by Stacy Danger.” - Jeff

“It does feel like a nice 80s slasher at the core. … it had that structure that you’re familiar with in those kinds of out in the woods slasher films and it delivered.” - Doc

A group of five women goes camping in the woods to celebrate a friend's birthday over 4/20 weekend. But when they cross the turf of an illegal marijuana grow-operation they must struggle to survive the living nightmare.

Director: Dylan Reynolds
Cast: Jamie Bernadette, Vanessa Rose Parker, Stacey Danger

Lowlife

“There are things about (Lowlife) I like better than Pulp Fiction. I’d have a hard time finding much wrong with this.” - Jeff

“I really enjoyed watching this. It pulled me in pretty early on, with each jump to a new vignette giving new information, new experience, the new story really kept it compelling.” - Rafe

“This movie is a classic, back alley gangster film with a darkly comedic twist to it.” - Vanessa

“This film grabbed me from the get-go. Every time a new chapter started, I was amazed at how my perception of the previous chapter was changed.” - Doc

The sordid lives of an addict, an ex-con, and a luchador collide when an organ harvesting caper goes very, very wrong.

Director: Ryan Prows
Cast: Niki Micheaux, Ricardo Adam Zarate, Jon Oswald