About Greg Baty

Greg is a lifelong genre film fan who digs boobs, blood and beer. He also enjoys old school punk rock, comic books and spending time with his beautiful wife Ellen and his cats Sydney and Alabama. Greg is the webmaster, Editor in Chief and Head Writer for Cinesploitation.

Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay coming from Synapse Films

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Greg Baty

Following a meteor crash, Tokyo falls into a state of martial law where violence and crime is running rampant. Adding insult to injury, a chemical reaction from the meteor causes a deadly virus to spread through the streets – and turning the dead into flesh-eating zombies! K-ko (Japanese wrestling darling, Cutie Suzuki) in her bulletproof leather-and-blade “Battle Suit” to the rescue, in cult director Kazuo “Gaira” Komizu’s camptastic gorefest, BATTLE GIRL: THE LIVING DEAD IN TOKYO BAY ! Chock full of over-the-top special-effects and a fresh new-wave synth soundtrack, BATTLE GIRL: THE LIVING DEAD IN TOKYO BAY is the latest in the ASIAN CULT CINEMA COLLECTION courtesy of SYNAPSE FILMS. Continue reading →

First trailers for Shane Ryan’s new film “Abducted Girl: An American Sex Slave”

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Greg Baty

Director Shane Ryan was attacked by the media a few weeks ago when he announced production of Abducted Girl: An American Sex Slave, and was accused of making a Jaycee Dugard porn film. “I think an 8 year old can clearly see it’s not a porn movie” says Ryan, “nor are we making Jaycee Dugard’s actual story and I’m very sorry she heard about it that way”. In March of 2009 (months before Jaycee’s discovery) Ryan said that he would be making a sex trafficking film and admitted after hearing about Jaycee and her 18 years of living in captivity that he was merely inspired, like any story teller, filmmaker or media, would be. He wanted to tell a similar situation. Ryan often tackles sexual subject matters in his films, whether it’s rape, incest or pedophilia because “it scares the hell of out me and I don’t understand why it happens. Sex slavery being the creepiest thing yet”. Abducted Girl is set to hit theatres sometime in 2010 for a limited run. His last film Warning!!! Pedophile Released, about the girl victim of an accused pedophile and her 6 year wait for him to be released from prison, hit DVD last December. – Alter Ego Cinema (READ MORE FOR THE TRAILERS) Continue reading →

Nun of That (2009, DVD Review)

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Greg Baty

Directed By: Richard Griffin

Cast: Sarah Nicklin, Alexandra Cipolla, Shanette Wilson, Ruth Sullivan, Rich Tretheway, Brandon Luis Aponte, Michael Reed, Debbie Rochon, Lloyd Kaufman

Camp Motion Pictures / NTSC Region 1 / Unrated / 16×9 Widescreen / Dolby Digital Stereo / 93 minutes / PURCHASE

“Thats one helluva NUN!”

For the most part nunsploitation is associated with naughty nuns locked away in convents and worshipping their sapphic desires. The sub-genre conjures up images of big-breasted, lusty sisters giving in to their most carnal desires and blaspheming wherever and whenever possible. Satan worship, lesbianism, fucking priests, fucking demons, fucking themselves, S&M; they do it all and it’s the backbone of nunsploitation. But what of violence? Ass-kicking, no-guns or guts-barred ultra-violence? There aren’t many action-horror nun exploitation movies to speak of – the only one that comes to mind in Killer Nun (aka Suor Omicidi, 1978). But add to the action-horror aspect a slap-stick comedy element complete with a throwback “grindhouse” mentality and you’ve pretty much whittled down the list to one flick; Nun of That.

Troubled nun Sister Kelly Johnson (Sarah Nicklin who looks like Leelee Sobieski’s hot sister) is thrown out of her convent for violent behavior and is gunned down by a trio of nuns in an alleyway after being attacked by – and killing – some thugs who tried to rape her. She wakes up in the afterlife only to be told by a singing and dancing Jesus that she is being given a second chance of sorts by becoming part of the “Order of the Black Habit” – a group of nuns that act as enforcers for the Catholic church. She has been rechristened “Sister Wrath” to join the other members who are also named after the seven deadly sins. Their next mission is to kill every one of the “Big Mama Rizzo” crime family. When some of Mama’s boys start turning up murdered, she hires “Viper Goldstein”, the meanest and most efficient black Jewish assassin money can buy and his associates the Bronowitz Brothers (who are masters in Jew-Jitsu) to hunt down the killer nuns and take them out.

Nun of That is an absurdly hysterical and uber-violent nunsploitation action-horror-comedy that is a ton of fun to watch. Nun puns, a pop music singing Christ, a tranny mob boss, a black Jewish assassin with “Star of David” throwing stars, nuns praying to God for cock… it’s all just so blasphemous, wrong and funny as shit. My favorite quote had to be “You’re so unlucky you could fall into a barrel of tits and come out sucking your thumb!”. Oh, the humanity! Writer/director Richard Griffin mixed all of these genres without making a mess of the story or being annoying with forced jokes. The CGI effects were awful which added to the goofy good time but the make-up was pretty damn good for such a movie and there was lots of blood and gore to show it off. The only gripe I have is the lack of tits. Yes, there is one shower scene with a nice pair, but that’s it in the bare breast department. In a over-the-top romp like this, I want more bOObahs! Even when the nuns were getting it on, they did it with their clothes on… DAMMIT!

Camp Motion Picture and Scorpio Film Releasing have done the world of cinematic sinners a favor with this release. There aren’t enough new nunsploitation films coming out. Especially ones that are a lot of fun to watch. This is definitely multiple-watch DVD. It’s one that I could pop in anytime and have a blast every time. It would especially be a great party movie to have on in the background while you are getting shit-faced and throwing up in the potted plants. The disk video quality is great but the audio is a little low and muffled throughout. The DVD extras include a “making of” featurette called “Breaking the Habit”, commentaries by the filmmaker and cast, and exploitation trailer vault and a great four minute short film on which the feature-length film was based also called Nun of That. It has some of the same characters but it’s a very different plot based on the same idea shot in a trailer-type format. Pick this disk up from Alternative Cinema and count your blessings when you do.

WARNING!!! Pedophile Released (2009, Review)

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Greg Baty

Director: Shane Ryan

Cast: Kai Lanette, Shane Ryan, Joanna Angel, Molly Wryn

Alter Ego Cinema / NTSC Region 1 / Unrated / 1.78:1 Widescreen / Surround / Color – B&W / 115 minutes / PURCHASE

There are some subjects that filmmakers tend shy away from for fear of backlash and/or ridicule; racism, alternative sexuality, mental illness, etc. And there are are other subjects, darker and more taboo subjects, that even the most maverick of filmmakers won’t touch. At the top of that list almost has to be pedophilia, which is defined as “a psychological disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a sexual preference for prepubescent children”. Not only would this particular material get people’s hackles up and no doubt make people look at the director/writer/producer sideways, but it would be very hard to shoot in any “real” way. Of course there is the off-screen, alluded to, “oh, we could never show a child that way” train of thought that Mr. Made-for-Lifetime TV may take. But to make a gritty, real-life, emotional film about the horrible subject matter would take some real balls. And to add to that, making the movie from the pedophile’s point of view would take XXL balls. Well Shane Ryan and his extra-extra large testicles have done just that.

Echo is a twelve year old girl who is in love with Malachi, an 18 year old guy who feels the same way about her. Even though they both swear they have never had sex or done anything inappropriate, he is arrested and thrown in prison for fucking a minor. We meet up with Echo three years into his sentence and we see that she has turned into a troubled teenager who gets gang-raped, believes she is pregnant from the assault, and is thrown out of her parent’s home for being a troublemaker. A year and a half later, when she is sixteen, we learn that she has hardened and learned the ways of the streets; selling her body, shoplifting and doing what she must to survive. After the six years are up and Echo has turned 18 (re: legal), Malachi comes back to town and the two meet up only to be met with struggles and hardships that come with being a convicted child rapist and the time apart that may have torn them apart.

I don’t even know how to begin to give my thoughts on this film. So let me start by saying that WARNING!!! is not your typical exploitation movie. There is no gratuitous nudity for shits and giggles. No nods and winks to other movies or cheesy chuckles. There is nothing here to give you any hope that humanity isn’t a warped and judgmental shit pile. Shane Ryan along with writing collaborator Kai Lanette – who also plays “Echo” – have created an unsettling, thought provoking, minimalistic and visually/aurally striking movie that grabs you by the guts and won’t let go. The direction and cinematography work hand-in-hand with the editing that uses filters, colors, blurs and zooms to convey the starkness of the story at hand. You would think that a woman in her mid-20s would be a ridiculous choice to play a young pre-teen/teenage girl but Kai Lanette is haunting as the tortured Echo. I want to give her a big hug and tell her everything is going to be okay just thinking about her in the movie. She is fucking brilliant. And the (assumed) original score could not have been bleaker or more effective. The only bad thing I can think to say about it is that the dialogue tends to get buried in some spots, but I’ll take that any day in such a film.

All of that being said, I have to say – as I’ve pointed out with other films like the August Underground trilogy – I will probably never watch WARNING!!! again. It’s just too fucking real and emotional. Too wrenching and harsh. The majority of the story is told through visuals with very little dialogue which, subconsciously, really fucks with you in more of a base way. I still can’t get some of the scenes out of my head. Damn you Shane and Kai! If you are looking for a good-time flick with giggling, big-titted bimbos, fun, over-the-top violence and gore, look somewhere else. But if you want to be challenged by what I can only classify as “art-house” exploitation, please support filmmakers with GIANT cajones like Shane Ryan and co. and pick this disk up.