Ourweekly columnStaff Pickstakes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme andthe "Staff Picks" section was the placetofind outwhat films were worthy of one's time.Of course, our version ofStaff Pickshas a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss outwhich films from a particular subgenre are the best to find great nudity. This week, we return to the wild and wonderful world of Australian exploitation films known as Ozploitation by covering the second wave of flicks released in the 1980s!
That's right, we're heading back down under for more of the greatest exploitation films of all time with our second installment on Ozploitation. Last time we covered the Ozploitation flicks of the 1970sand this time we're heading into the 80s when the excesses got outrageously out of control. While it is admittedly very difficult to top the insanity of Ozploitation's First Wave, the Second Wave has some pretty spectacular and insane films of its own. For a quick refresher, Ozploitationis a wide-ranging cinematic subgenre that includes many other genres like the Sex Romp, Horror/Thriller, and Action, tied together by a typically low budget aesthetic, Australian cast and setting, and extremes in sex, violence, and language. After all, what's an exploitation movie without excesses in those three key areas?
Gone are the subtle subversive messages one could find in the First Wave, replaced instead by excess in nearly every way. While many directors still strove to weave social commentary in with all the mayhem, the vast majority of these films preferred to bludgeon the audience over the head rather than expect them to go deep in thought on any of this content. Much like the films America was churning out in the 1980s, bigger was always considered better and style won the battle over substance. This isn't to say that these statements apply to all the films made in the decade, but when taking a macro view of cinema as a whole in the 1980s, it was much the same in Australia as it was here in the States.
Some other classic examples of Ozploitation's Second Wave that we just don't have time to cover today include Razorback (1984), Fortress (1985), Dead-End Drive In (1986), Cassandra (1987), Next of Kin (1982), Burke Wills (1985), Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981), Pandemonium (1988), One Night Stand (1984), BMX Bandits (1983), and the gloriously titled Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds (1989).For further academic exploration of the Ozploitation movement, check out thefeature length documentaryNot Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!. We'll more than likely cover the Third Wave at some future point in time, but for now, let's dig into Ozploitation's Second Wave...
Nightmares (1980)
Like the film we covered last time, Patrick, the notion of childhood trauma following us into adulthood is also explored and exploited in this ultra-low-budget film that makes up for its lack of resources with plenty of gore and skin! Jenny Neumann stars as Cathy, a traumatized young woman who inadvertently caused the death of her own mother some years back in a car crash. In fact, it was kinda barely her fault, you see, as the mother's loose morals and general irresponsibility caused the crash in the first place because she was making out with her new boyfriend rather than watching the road.
Cathy is now grown up and calling herself Helen, and like most psychotic young women, she's pursuing a career as an actress...
Helen's latest turn finds her starring in a new play titled "Comedy of Blood," but a psychotic killer is on the loose in the theater, picking off her co-stars one by one with broken shards of glass. It doesn't take a degree in cinema studies to figure out that Helen is actually the killer and her latent childhood trauma is manifesting itself in the present via these murderous outbursts.
While the film itself is actually not terribly good, it was the first Australian film to use Steadicam, making it one of the better looking films of the era. It gives all of the first person murder scenes an immediacy that's lacking from pre-Steadicam films, so even though the blood and gore don't look convincing, per se, they are shot and framed very well.
Even more important for our purposes is the nudity and there's quite a bit of it! Sue Jones and Rossana Zuanetti both bare their bods as victims of Helen's murderous rampage, and the film even opens with her promiscuous mother, played by Angela Menzies-Wills, baring her buns in bed with her beau...
**Available to rent, own, or stream free for members via Amazon Prime Video
Pacific Banana (1981)
Last time we covered the Ozploitation classic Alvin Purple and this flick reunites that film's star, Graeme Blundell, with its writer, Alan Hopgood, for another insane sex romp. Directed by Nightmareshelmer John D. Lamond, the film couldn't be further away from that one tonally as it centers around hapless airline pilot Martin (Blundell) who has a strange condition that causes him to sneeze whenever he becomes sexually aroused, though the sneeze immediately makes him go flaccid. What a predicament!
One day, the hot wife of Martin's bosscomes on to Martin and the two get down to some hanky panky. However, when Martin's condition causes her good time to end, she rats him out to her husband, causing Martin to lose his job. He must then take a job flying with Pacific Banana, a ramshackleairline servicing many exotic ports of call. Martin's co-pilot, Paul, is quite the lothario, sleeping with a great many women like Manuia Taie, while also being engaged to two of the airline's stewardesses, Mandy (Alyson Best) and Sally (Deborah Gray)...
MeanwhileCandy Bubbles (Luan Peters) becomes convinced that she's got the cure for what ails poor Martin and attempts to resurrect his dysfunctional dick. Sadly, it doesn't work...
What does end up working, however, is the nubile young daughter of Martin's original boss, played by Ozploitation regular Helen Hemingway. As it turns out, Martin's condition was curable, he just needed the right woman to help him snap the curse...
If you like Alvin Purple or any of the other Ozploitation sex romps, this one will definitely be right up your alley. Just make sure your expectations are in the right place, these films are basically the equivalent of the American Pie movies with lots of sex humor and vague attempts at heartfelt moments that end up looking pretty embarrassing in hindsight.
**Not currently streaming, available to own on DVD via Amazon
Lady Stay Dead (1981)
Handymen got a bad wrap for years thanks to the murderous man among their ranks in the 1981 thriller Lady Stay Dead. Gordon (Chard Hayward) is a deranged handyman working at an upscale mountain motel where his celebrity obsession, singerMarie Coleby (Deborah Coulls) happens to be staying. He divides his time between having sex with a blow-up doll dressed to look like her and just doing some good old fashioned stalking, peeping her in the nude several times...
Poor Marie isn't long for this world, however, and soon finds herself meeting a grisly end at Mason's hands. He then begins a murderous spree to remove any and all evidence of his crime, further complicated by the arrival of Marie's sister Jenny (Louise Howitt). Upon meeting him, Jenny immediately suspects Masonof having something to do with her sister's disappearance, leading her into a trap in which Mason intends to torture and torment her before eventually killing her as well.
This one's in the grand tradition of dangerous loner movies with plenty of grisly violence and nudity to spare. In addition to Deborah Coulls' nude scenes, Louise Howitt also briefly bares her breasts in the shower while Mason stands just outside the door with a pair of hedge clippers...
**Not currently streaming, available to own on DVD via Amazon
Turkey Shoot (1982)
Also known by the titles Escape 2000 andBlood Camp Thatcher, the dystopian sci-fi flickTurkey Shoot finds juvenile delinquents in the far off future of the year 2000 sent to internment camps where they are reprogrammed before being allowed to rejoin society. Such is the fate that befalls our heroes Chris (Olivia Hussey), Rita (Lynda Stoner), and Paul (Steve Railsback), sent to Camp 47 which is under the control of the brutal and sadisticCamp Master Charles Thatcher (Michael Craig).
Thatcher has instituted an annual tradition known as the turkey shoot in which he and several of his close friends and advisors spent 12 hours hunting down five prisoners chosen as that year's turkeys. Though the prisoners are told that they will be released if they survive, no one has lived to tell the tale and the whole thing just operates as a fun and games death sentence. Think The Most Dangerous Game meets The Running Man meets Logan's Run, but with much heavier Australian accents.
This year, the turkeys will of course include Chris, Rita, and Paul, along with their cellmates Griffin and Dodge. Lynda Stoner's ill-fated Rita does show off her buns in two scenes, includingwhile hitting the shower with some uncredited nude extras, and again later when she meets a rather grisly end during the turkey shoot...
Olivia Hussey, who went topless for the very first time in Zeffirelli's Romeo Juliet, utilized a body double for her topless shower scene in the flick, but boobs are boobs no matter to whom they belong...
**Available to rent, own, or stream free for members via Amazon Prime Video
Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)
Finally, while Australia had plenty of their own franchises, it was rare that an established franchise would travel down under for a sequel. However, that's what happened with 1987's Howling III: The Marsupials, arguably the best sequel in the entire franchise. After successfully directingHowling II in America, Australian director Philippe Mora brought the next film to his homeland where he spun a tale of werewolves, Aboriginal people, extinct marsupials, and small penis-looking creatures.
Yes, this film truly has it all, including heavy doses of camp that turned off fans of the genre at the time, but the film has since gone on to be recognized as one of the more subversive horror films of the decade. This was also the first PG-13 entry in the series, but that didn't stop them from sneaking in some skin fromImogen Annesleyas Jerboa, a woman who is part of a strange breed of half-human/half-marsupial hybrid creatures. She transforms into her marsupial form in a barn and gets pleasured by a small penis looking creature...
I mean, come on! If this isn't the exact kind of thing you're expecting from the third entry in a franchise that has blended horror and comedy from the beginning, maybe it's time to change your expectations.
**Available to rent, own, or stream free for members via Amazon Prime Video
