SHOCK CINEMA
HOME PAGE
SUBSCRIPTIONS
AND BACK
ISSUES
FILM REVIEW
ARCHIVE
Hundreds of
Reviews from
Past Issues!
AD RATES
MAGAZINE
REVIEW INDEX

An A-Z List of
SC Print Reviews
SHOCK CINEMA
FACEBOOK
PAGE
SHOCK CINEMA
INSTAGRAM
PAGE
MISTER KEYES
At the Flicks
and Shit
SHOCK CINEMA
Film Favorites
SHOCKING
LINKS

Our Favorite Sites
'Chirashi'
MOVIE POSTERS

A Gallery of
Japanese
Film Posters

"Some of the 
best bizarre
film commentary
going... with sharp,
no-nonsense
verdicts."
Manohla Dargis,
The Village Voice
 
"One of the few 
review zines you
can actually read
and learn from...
You need this."
Joe Bob Briggs 
 
"Whenever you 
see a film critic,
pick up a brick and
throw it at him...
No great damage
can be done
to his head."
Jonas Mekas 

 

 Need more info?
 E-mail us at:

 shockcin@aol.com





















ALABAMA'S GHOST (1972; Just For the Hell Of It).

There's absolutely no way to describe this film and make it sound remotely coherent. But what else could you expect from director Fredric Hobbs, the low-budget/high-weirdness auteur who blessed (obviously confused) drive-in patrons with ROSELAND, THE GODMONSTER OF INDIAN FLATS and (the still M.I.A.) TROIKA. Amateurish, convoluted and insanely stupid, this supernatural blaxploitation gut-buster is the celluloid equivalent of a wicked hangover. And I'll give you odds that after only a few minutes you too will be muttering, "What the fuck am I watching?"... First, let's get the backstory out of the way: Hitler's long-missing scientist, Dr. Caligula, goes to Calcutta to interview famed magician Carter The Great, concerning his discovery of a "super-substance" called Raw Zeta. Resembling a super-duper hashish, it can also be refined and used to enslave humans. Soon after, Carter disappears and is announced dead, and so begins this unfathomable dip into dime-store dreck. While a Dixieland jazz band of old farts croaks the theme song, Alabama (Christopher Brooks, who seems to turn up in all of Hobbs' films) is a funky, stoner Brother who discovers a hidden underground crypt underneath the nightclub. Yes, it's the tomb of Carter, with all of his magical garb, tricks and stash of Raw Zeta -- which Alabama immediately smokes up. Deciding to use the equipment to become "Alabama, King of the Cosmos" and accompanied by Carter's grand-niece, Zoerae (Peggy Browne), he follows in Carter's footsteps by evoking spirits in a crappy nightclub act. But after being seduced by preening groupies and a prissy agent, Alabama hits the road with an act that mixes humdrum rock music, writhing dancers and psychedelic spookiness... becoming an unlikely, cross-country sensation. But when Alabama agrees to divulge Carter's famous Disappearing Elephant Trick, the bad mojo kicks in. There's a magic box that leads to a nightmarish (ha!) dimension featuring the ghost of Carter (played by another member of Hobbs' troupe, E. Kerrigan Prescott). And why not toss in a vampire conspiracy, ready to destroy civilization? Add a robot Alabama, biker vampires, voodoo ceremonies, plus an assembly-line of vampire victims, and you've got a movie with the subtlety of a ball-peen hammer to the temple. And just wait until you get a gander at Alabama's jaw-dropping car -- a bitchin' sculpture-on-wheels that looks like he's driving a Bosch-designed chariot. If you think you're bewildered now, that feeling is squared when you're actually watching this amazing flick. Padded out with authentically-hideous, early-1970s threads and increasingly stoopid surrealism, this outrageous outing from the great-and-powerful Fredric Hobbs proves that he truly is the unsung king of cut-rate cinematic insanity.

© 1998 by Steven Puchalski.