After the success of William Lustig's Maniac (and Starcrash), the money men decided that Caroline Munro and Joe Spinell were a bit of a dream team so The Last Horror Film was put into production.
Vinny is a New York Driver and as he's played by Joe Spinell, a bit of a scary one at that. He decides to go to Cannes in France for the film festival to track down his favourite actress Jana Bates played by Caroline Munro. Vinny is slightly unhinged and follows her around the festival. The film was actually shot at Cannes and this gives it a nice period look. Keep an eye out for the huge James Bond promotion and don't forget to marvel at Munro's 'Pepe Le Pew' streak hairstyle.
Vinny gets into her hotel room, she's not happy and he menaces her with a broken bottle (see the cover above). Jana makes a run for it wearing just a towel and the hotel guests think its all just a stunt. The film is totally deranged and everyone seems to be in on the joke. Spinell is great and amazingly effective as Vinny as some of his scenes are quite uneasy. He was a great character actor and you can't look away especially when he's losing the plot.
I saw it years ago on video (the old Intervision release) and couldn't really remember a lot. Back then the young me watched literally scores of horror films and they all sort of blurred into one, but the striking video cover always caught my eye.
Some nice extras are on the disc which include a Q&A with Munro, a totally barmy introduction from Lloyd Kaufman for the Troma DVD and some trailers. It's all very 80's and might not suit the kids of today but it's a nice trip back in time and I thought it was rather fun in a barking mad sort of way.
- Starring Caroline Munro Joe Spinell
- Director David Winters
- Distributor 88 Films
