Grindhouse Purgatory - Issue 4

Well, I have read Issue #4 and I can say Pete is still being Pete. After heartfelt obits to James Garner and Eli Wallach, he delivers a two page editorial where he rips me a new a**hole (without mentioning my name, of course, because he knows he can be sued), saying that I have some kind of agenda against him (I don't) and then goes as far to mention that incident where someone faked my death on Facebook, saying that I did it myself (And also calling me a woman-hating, closeted homosexual who has a man-crush on him! I laughed so hard, I think some pee leaked out!). If this came from some coherent and halfway sane person, I would be angry, but since it came from Pete Chiarella (oh, excuse me, 42nd Street Pete, because every schizophrenic has to have an alias), all I could do was laugh, imagining him drooling at the mouth and snot coming out of his nose while he was typing his bile against me. Pete said that he will never change his style of hateful writing, which is why I have named this the Angriest Zine of 2014. He says that my trashing his zine (I gave it three out of five stars on Amazon, but I guess he thinks that is too low) has actually increased his readership (something that I said would probably happen) and that I have to actually buy an issue to review it (Well of course I do; I don't take anything for free because I have standards. This way I can speak my mind freely because I spent my own money. For crying out loud, I don't even accept movie screeners for this website!) The issue looks like every other one: badly laid-out one column articles with plenty of empty white space, but this time with some good guest writers like actor/stuntman Gary Kent (who probably wrote the article to get a free full page plug for his excellent autobiography and other films/books he was responsible for), who writes an interesting article on his experience on THE SAVAGE SEVEN (1968) and pioneering porn director Carter Stevens with Part 1 of his life in the Adult Film Industry; writer Cory Udler scores an interview with the-now 85 year-old Ted V. Mikels, director/producer/ writer of such films as THE CORPSE GRINDERS (1971); writer Ken Kish does a nostalgic article about attending the late, lamented Pearl Road Auto Drive-In located in Cleveland, Ohio; writer Robert Morgan does a piece on the sadly neglected 70's trucker movie WHITE LINE FEVER (1975), starring Jan Michael Vincent; author John Shatzer does an article on giant bug movies of the 50's and another article on why the Internet sucks (it's actually a very interesting take in the subject on how people lost personal connections with each other); writer Josh Hadley does a great article on how print zines will always be better than their digital counterparts (and I couldn't agree more); Bill Adcock does an article on the Bigfoot softcore sex film THE BEAUTIES AND THE BEAST (1973); Dave Kosanke does an article on the porn features of star Amber Lynn and director Bruce Seven. But the majority of articles are written by Chiarella himself (I also believes he uses the name "Dr. Rhonda Baughman" here, since I have never heard of "her" before, although I could be wrong), as he does articles on the Western SABATA (1969); a look back at the long abandoned tradition of double features at movie theaters; a retrospective on the biker films of the 60's & early-70's and how they saved the indy genre (his best article in this 112 page zine); a short article at the almost forgotten film THE CORRUPT ONES (1967); a piece on the film SNUFF (1971/1976) and the furor it caused when it was released; a look back on murdered wrestler Frank "Bruiser" Brody; and articles/interviews by "Dr. Rhonda Baughman" (whose writing style closely resembles Pete's) on SAVAGE STREETS (1984) star Johnny Venokur; 2014 interviews with 80's Scream Queens Linnea Quigley, Brinke Stevens and Michelle Bauer, who have done a new movie together with director David DeCoteau; and an interview with actor Ken Abraham (look him up on IMDb). On the positive side, there are no fake interviews (which Pete says in his editorial upsets me because I read FANGORIA!), the writing is a little sharper and the zine more varied in its subjects. Hey, Pete: You take things much too personally and you have to get used to people not agreeing with you 100% of the time. That's the way of the world. Get use to it. You still are angry, but insulting me is like a badge of honor. And it helped your readership grow. You should be thanking me instead of spreading lies about me. Oh, well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. And also Pete: My website, called Critical Condition (www.critcononline.com) has been on the Internet since 1999 and before that in zine form since 1982. I probably get more readers in one day on my site than all four of your issues have been read by different people. And it's not a $2.00 website. It takes a lot of work and money to keep it looking old school, but my guess is that you wouldn't know how to even begin to create your own website (And not a blog, Anyone can have a blog.). It actually takes work to keep it updated and relevant. I not only live live in the past, I also live in the here and now.

This Rag just keeps getting better. I have all 4 issues and the latest is a monster. It reminds me of the awesome Gore Gazzette from back in the day. Reading the last few issuses of GP has made me dig through my closet to find my Fanzine box from back in the 80's. I have every issue Rick Sullivan's Gore Gazztte stashed in that box along with numerous issues of Trashfiend, Sleazoid Express, etc. Back in 1981 I subscribed to several, but the Gore Gazette ruled! I have several hand written letters from Rick Sullivan to me calling me a Cow Fu#@er, etc. because I live in Texas. You have got to love the guy! I also bought tons of classic One Sheet Horror movie posters from Rick Sullivan for $8 each. All the early 80's Horror/Splatter stuff and I still have them all.My favorite part of GP are the articles on how it was back in the day going to all the Movie House slime pits to actually see these films live. These forgotten movie palace slime pits are so foreign to my mall movie house experience. I also enjoyed the Blood Island triolgy in issue #2. I remember seeing Brides of Blood when I was around 12 years old I have the original American One Sheet in my collection. Keep up the good work Pete and Group. I am looking forward to #5.

So much to like packed in to this magazine. Discovered a lot of cool stuff and learned a lot too.

Awesome mag! I fell in love with this magazine from the very first pages where they called out lifeless, impossible to take seriously, loser-uber-troll Fred Ad-mattle-man. If that guy flames you ya know you're doing something right. His pathetic jealously outbursts are legendary. I'm collecting all of these!

Great read.