God put us on the Earth to enjoy books and movies. In His eternal wisdom His representatives brought us physical media in which to enjoy the divine harvest. He wants us to love, cherish, and preserve the creations of art bestowed upon us. It is our duty to protect the offerings we have received. To ensure the evil influences that would control the appreciation of art. To fight Satanic streaming services by purchasing and collecting the manna we've been entrusted with.

As a reward for our loyalty, we are given bountiful extras with our movies. Documentaries, profiles, interviews, and, praise be, commentary tracks.

I try. Lord knows I do, but I am merely a humble sinner. I occasionally stream. I feel dirty afterward, and I beg for forgiveness. I only hope that He, in His abiding benevolence, will allow me to enter the videostore/bookstore in the sky when my days of watching and reading on this plane have ended.

I streamed Skinamarinck because I was hot to see it. I have the Blu-ray on preorder. I slipped into darkness again recently.

Back around 1989 my late movie friend Dennis told me he taped a movie from cable. It was called Slipping Into Darkness. We decided to watch it that very evening. Both of us liked the movie, and I thought about it the next day. Slipping Into Darkness haunted my thoughts, and I watched it again by myself the next night.

Those old VHS tapes are long gone. I was thinking about Slipping Into Darkness a couple of weeks ago, and I looked for it at Amazon. No DVD, no Blu-ray. The movie was on laserdisc, which was kind of impressive, but I never owned a player.

Slipping Into Darkness is currently streaming on Prime for free, so I compromised my ethics again and watched it.

First I looked at the comments. People hated Slipping Into Darkness. One guy claimed it is the worst movie he's ever seen. Undaunted, I proceeded.

Yes, Slipping Into Darkness is a raw production. Most people would be better off with the latest computer-generated streaming series than watch it. However, once again the movie crept into my head and stayed there.

Slipping Into Darkness takes place in a washed-out Nebraska town. A depressed area, there isn't much for young people to do. Get a dead end job at the lone factory, join the local biker club and scrabble out a semi-illegal existence, or leave.

Fritz was a biker, but he left to enter the straight life. The gang are displeased about it. Fritz's little brother is mentally challenged, but everyone loves the boy. Enter a trio of rich-bitch mean girls out looking for kicks.

Little bro is killed by a train and everyone mourns. However, evidence points to the girls as perpetrators of the tragedy. The slovenly local cops aren't too concerned, so Fritz looks into the matter. The bikers join in uneasy alliance. This unleashes a torrent of suppressed passion, frustration, and rage from the bikers and Fritz.

It's fairly routine stuff, but the revelation of what happened to Fritz's brother is truly chilling.

The effects in Slipping Into Darkness are crude, but lively. I both cringed and applauded when a thrown knife goes right through a character's skull.

The realm of exploitation cinema has almost always been a male domain. Roger Corman employed women in his crews, but for the most part these kind of films rely heavily on female nudity and macho theatrics. Slipping Into Darkness was written and directed by Eleanor Gaver. A woman's perspective gives the movie an emotionally visceral depth usually absent in low budget action features. She shows a lot of potential in Slipping Into Darkness. Gaver did some other little movies after this one, but she deserved bigger things.

Written by Mark Sieber

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