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Post by DSR on Jul 6, 2019 20:47:51 GMT -5
BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA (1966) - One of the last two films from prolific low-budget director William Beaudine, the other being the companion piece JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.
The former outlaw Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) has gone straight. He's now working as the foreman of a ranch owned by Ms. Mary Ann Bentley, and Billy also happens to be dating Ms. Bentley's daughter Betty (Melinda Plowman).
The elder Bentley woman has has been gone for a while, to collect her brother, James Underhill, who lives in Boston and bring him back West to help run the ranch. Along the way, their stagecoach picks up the other half of our titular duo, Dracula (John Carradine, who previously played the count for Universal's HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA two decades prior). Mary Ann Bentley blathers on to her bloodsucking co-passenger about the successful ranch and, more importantly, her beautiful daughter. She even shows ol' Drac a picture of the young woman, setting his black heart all aflutter.
The Count devises a plan: when the stagecoach stops for the night, he attacks a Native American girl, then abandons the party. The Natives attack the stagecoach, leaving no survivors. Dracula circles back to collect Mr. Underhill's identification papers and then heads to the Bentley ranch. He'll claim to be Betty's uncle (she's never seen her actual uncle so she won't know the difference) and quickly take the status of Head of the Household. Dracula's ultimate goal is to seduce young Betty Bentley and turn her into a creature of the night just like himself. It falls to Billy the Kid to learn the truth about the man masquerading as Mr. Underhill before it's too late for his bride-to-be!
A very cheap mix of horror and western cliches, with typical-for-the-type production values (witness the ever popular rubber-bat-on-a-string). Carradine is fun as "dirty old man" Drac, lusting after the young woman. And when he's in full vampire mode, he's snarling like a dog at a mailman. Otherwise our leads are bland, and the film is never particularly great at being a western or a horror movie. It's got a few unintended laughs but it's a pretty basic spook-show. Check it out if it's on Svengoolie or some other horror host's show.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jul 7, 2019 20:18:59 GMT -5
My review of Leprechaun 4: In Space (1997)
Oh, man, Leprechaun 4: In Space is amazing. It’s one of those movies that’s completely aware of its own ridiculousness and takes it all in stride. Yeah, it’s easy, even just based on the title alone, to completely write it off. Just up and moving to outer space smacks of desperation but, honestly, so what? Especially when the results are this fun? The longevity of the Leprechaun franchise is already inexplicable enough so I welcome any absurd direction it takes.
And, wow, does this film take the hardest left turn. Here are just a few things going on here: a leprechaun bursts out a man’s crotch, a cyborg is injected with blue juice to become a nasty spider creature thing, there is a nightclub on a spaceship, said leprechaun kills a guy with a light saber, etc. I love how it’s never explained how the leprechaun has lived till 2096 or how he even got into outer space in the first place. I love how little effort went into portraying outer space convincingly, complete with graphics that wouldn’t be out of place in a Windows ’97 tutorial.
For as much as the concept of the film itself funny, I don’t find any of its attempts at humor to be that good. I mean, the taste in humor got a hell of a lot worse in the Hood movies where it verged into some deeply problematic territory, but a lot of the actual jokes here are tired. When it’s legit funny, it’s when it’s bulldozing into every silly idea it can muster at an alarming speed. A leprechaun making sex puns? Meh. A night club that just happens to be on a spaceship with an open bar? I’m rolling. Sometimes laughs can come from the realization that someone out there actually thought to put all of this stuff into one movie and got away with it, and I think that’s where the film’s enjoyment lies.
I’m not gonna tell you that you should watch this, but I will say you’re missing out on one heck of a good time if you don’t. For the most part, it absolutely nails what it’s trying to accomplish. It’s the film you watch late at night, in bed with your eyes half-open. Perhaps you convince yourself you’re dreaming it but, no, it’s a real movie a studio actually greenlit. Who says there’s no magic in movies anymore?
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Post by DSR on Jul 8, 2019 17:01:37 GMT -5
While I was out shopping earlier today, I stopped in my local Barnes & Noble and picked up the latest issue of Rue Morgue magazine. Just under the title is a symbol that reads "Queer Fear Special Issue" and the cover depicts Freddy Krueger in a rainbow-hued tattered sweater instead of his usual green-and-red. While the main attraction of this issue is an interview with Mark Patton, star of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE, there's a number of LGBTQ-themed articles within.
I haven't read the whole mag yet, but I did flip to a one-page article about THE MAD GHOUL, Universal's 1943 b-horror programmer that I've mentioned several times as one of my absolute favorite old-school horrors. The film (I'll try to be brief) concerns a college chemistry professor (George Zucco) who is in love with his top student's girlfriend (Evelyn Ankers). The girlfriend is a singer who is actually in love with her piano accompanist (Turhan Bey). Zucco uses an ancient Mayan concoction to turn his top student (David Bruce) into a zombie. Zombie boy would then kill the piano player and himself, removing two sides from the love rectangle and leaving a straight line from professor to singer.
The Rue Morgue article, by Paul Corupe, focuses on the dynamic between Zucco and Bruce's characters: the elder Zucco character manipulating Bruce's into becoming something he's not is read as a metaphor for attempts to convert someone from one sexual orientation to another. EDIT: I should clarify, Corupe doesn't believe that LGBTQ people are predatory, he's saying the film's subtext attempts to utilize this fear held by the audience of the time.
I've never read the film this way, and I still don't, but I do think it's a fascinating interpretation. And honestly, I'm glad THE MAD GHOUL is getting this kind of discussion at all. Between this little article, the cover story of Classic Monsters of the Movies #10 last year, and later this month THE MAD GHOUL making its Blu-Ray debut in Shout Factory's Universal Horror Collection: Volume 2, maybe THE MAD GHOUL will finally have a happy ending with a whole new audience.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,387
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Post by mystermystery on Jul 8, 2019 20:43:19 GMT -5
BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA (1966) - One of the last two films from prolific low-budget director William Beaudine, the other being the companion piece JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER. The former outlaw Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) has gone straight. He's now working as the foreman of a ranch owned by Ms. Mary Ann Bentley, and Billy also happens to be dating Ms. Bentley's daughter Betty (Melinda Plowman). The elder Bentley woman has has been gone for a while, to collect her brother, James Underhill, who lives in Boston and bring him back West to help run the ranch. Along the way, their stagecoach picks up the other half of our titular duo, Dracula (John Carradine, who previously played the count for Universal's HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA two decades prior). Mary Ann Bentley blathers on to her bloodsucking co-passenger about the successful ranch and, more importantly, her beautiful daughter. She even shows ol' Drac a picture of the young woman, setting his black heart all aflutter. The Count devises a plan: when the stagecoach stops for the night, he attacks a Native American girl, then abandons the party. The Natives attack the stagecoach, leaving no survivors. Dracula circles back to collect Mr. Underhill's identification papers and then heads to the Bentley ranch. He'll claim to be Betty's uncle (she's never seen her actual uncle so she won't know the difference) and quickly take the status of Head of the Household. Dracula's ultimate goal is to seduce young Betty Bentley and turn her into a creature of the night just like himself. It falls to Billy the Kid to learn the truth about the man masquerading as Mr. Underhill before it's too late for his bride-to-be! A very cheap mix of horror and western cliches, with typical-for-the-type production values (witness the ever popular rubber-bat-on-a-string). Carradine is fun as "dirty old man" Drac, lusting after the young woman. And when he's in full vampire mode, he's snarling like a dog at a mailman. Otherwise our leads are bland, and the film is never particularly great at being a western or a horror movie. It's got a few unintended laughs but it's a pretty basic spook-show. Check it out if it's on Svengoolie or some other horror host's show. I remember getting a Two-Pack DVD of Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Always liked JJMFD better but I will always love the scene where Billy the Kid does the old "Out of bullets? THROW THE GUN" at Dracula.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 8, 2019 20:53:46 GMT -5
I just finished my Something Weird triple feature of The Ultimate Degenerate / The Lusting Hours / In Hot Blood. They’re mostly just black and white 1960’s skin flicks rather than horror. However one of them ends with the main character getting murdered with a meat cleaver. I won’t spoil which one it is
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,471
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 8, 2019 21:04:13 GMT -5
A friend bought me that triple feature set last year for Xmas.Still need to watch it.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,387
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Post by mystermystery on Jul 8, 2019 21:18:52 GMT -5
I've been trying to keep up with the Hulu "Into the Dark" monthly horror/thriller with a holiday connection (which apparently was renewed for a second year of flicks).
THEY COME KNOCKING is the Father's Day selection that follows a father and his two daughters as they road trip to follow the path that led to him proposing to their mother (whose ashes are in an old bottle of assumed wine they shared during said trip). Inner turmoil and regret from watching the mother die from cancer is compounded when they manage to stop in a place with (get this) no cell phone connection and end up dealing with mysterious figures in the dark who ask to come in and giggle about how if you won't let them, they'll make you come out.
It was a fine movie but really kind of "there" for me. Nothing too exciting or mood inducing with an ending that felt very contrived. I wouldn't really recommend it.
CULTURE SHOCK is the Independence Day selection that, of course, follows a Mexican woman trying to cross the US Border before the birth of her child and the weird world she wakes to when captured by Border Control. The tone is nuts in this one, swinging wildly and not really landing anything strong. There's a little more to get from this one than THEY COME KNOCKING, though.
~~~~~~
Besides that, Shudder currently has John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS which is still daggone legit as all of Carpenter's work. Donald Pleasence is fantastic. Victor Wong is fantastic. Even Alice Cooper as an evil possessed hobo is good stuff.
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Post by DSR on Jul 8, 2019 21:22:18 GMT -5
BILLY THE KID VERSUS DRACULA (1966) - One of the last two films from prolific low-budget director William Beaudine, the other being the companion piece JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER. The former outlaw Billy the Kid (Chuck Courtney) has gone straight. He's now working as the foreman of a ranch owned by Ms. Mary Ann Bentley, and Billy also happens to be dating Ms. Bentley's daughter Betty (Melinda Plowman). The elder Bentley woman has has been gone for a while, to collect her brother, James Underhill, who lives in Boston and bring him back West to help run the ranch. Along the way, their stagecoach picks up the other half of our titular duo, Dracula (John Carradine, who previously played the count for Universal's HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and HOUSE OF DRACULA two decades prior). Mary Ann Bentley blathers on to her bloodsucking co-passenger about the successful ranch and, more importantly, her beautiful daughter. She even shows ol' Drac a picture of the young woman, setting his black heart all aflutter. The Count devises a plan: when the stagecoach stops for the night, he attacks a Native American girl, then abandons the party. The Natives attack the stagecoach, leaving no survivors. Dracula circles back to collect Mr. Underhill's identification papers and then heads to the Bentley ranch. He'll claim to be Betty's uncle (she's never seen her actual uncle so she won't know the difference) and quickly take the status of Head of the Household. Dracula's ultimate goal is to seduce young Betty Bentley and turn her into a creature of the night just like himself. It falls to Billy the Kid to learn the truth about the man masquerading as Mr. Underhill before it's too late for his bride-to-be! A very cheap mix of horror and western cliches, with typical-for-the-type production values (witness the ever popular rubber-bat-on-a-string). Carradine is fun as "dirty old man" Drac, lusting after the young woman. And when he's in full vampire mode, he's snarling like a dog at a mailman. Otherwise our leads are bland, and the film is never particularly great at being a western or a horror movie. It's got a few unintended laughs but it's a pretty basic spook-show. Check it out if it's on Svengoolie or some other horror host's show. I remember getting a Two-Pack DVD of Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula and Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter. Always liked JJMFD better but I will always love the scene where Billy the Kid does the old "Out of bullets? THROW THE GUN" at Dracula. Hardest I've laughed in a good while!
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 11, 2019 19:40:37 GMT -5
I just watched Delirium (1987). As far as I can tell the moral of the story is big tits will make a man go insane. Oh yes, also sometimes it’s the biggest pervert that ends up being the hero.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jul 11, 2019 20:05:56 GMT -5
I watched City of the Dead a.k.a. Horror Hotel this week and finally discovered where Rob Zombie got the "superstition, fear, and jealousy" part for "Dragula." I feel I've unlocked the secret to understanding the world at large.
Also, does it get any more badass than a cult of druids getting set on fire by a giant crucifix?
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Post by DSR on Jul 11, 2019 21:30:07 GMT -5
I just watched Delirium (1987). As far as I can tell the moral of the story is big tits will make a man go insane. Oh yes, also sometimes it’s the biggest pervert that ends up being the hero. I love that movie. It's cheesy as hell, but it's so much fun. I watched City of the Dead a.k.a. Horror Hotel this week and finally discovered where Rob Zombie got the "superstition, fear, and jealousy" part for "Dragula." I feel I've unlocked the secret to understanding the world at large. Also, does it get any more badass than a cult of druids getting set on fire by a giant crucifix? Semi-related:
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on Jul 12, 2019 0:36:12 GMT -5
Apparently Crawl (that killer gator during a hurricane film) is getting great reviews
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,471
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 12, 2019 1:58:11 GMT -5
I've been trying to keep up with the Hulu "Into the Dark" monthly horror/thriller with a holiday connection (which apparently was renewed for a second year of flicks). THEY COME KNOCKING is the Father's Day selection that follows a father and his two daughters as they road trip to follow the path that led to him proposing to their mother (whose ashes are in an old bottle of assumed wine they shared during said trip). Inner turmoil and regret from watching the mother die from cancer is compounded when they manage to stop in a place with (get this) no cell phone connection and end up dealing with mysterious figures in the dark who ask to come in and giggle about how if you won't let them, they'll make you come out. It was a fine movie but really kind of "there" for me. Nothing too exciting or mood inducing with an ending that felt very contrived. I wouldn't really recommend it. CULTURE SHOCK is the Independence Day selection that, of course, follows a Mexican woman trying to cross the US Border before the birth of her child and the weird world she wakes to when captured by Border Control. The tone is nuts in this one, swinging wildly and not really landing anything strong. There's a little more to get from this one than THEY COME KNOCKING, though. ~~~~~~ Besides that, Shudder currently has John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS which is still daggone legit as all of Carpenter's work. Donald Pleasence is fantastic. Victor Wong is fantastic. Even Alice Cooper as an evil possessed hobo is good stuff. Been meaning to check out the Hulu monthly horror flicks. I watched half of Shark Attack 3 and it was the most generic killer shark movie out of the at least 20 I have seen.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,471
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 12, 2019 2:00:16 GMT -5
I just watched Delirium (1987). As far as I can tell the moral of the story is big tits will make a man go insane. Oh yes, also sometimes it’s the biggest pervert that ends up being the hero. I love that movie. It's cheesy as hell, but it's so much fun. I watched City of the Dead a.k.a. Horror Hotel this week and finally discovered where Rob Zombie got the "superstition, fear, and jealousy" part for "Dragula." I feel I've unlocked the secret to understanding the world at large. Also, does it get any more badass than a cult of druids getting set on fire by a giant crucifix? Semi-related: I LOVE LADY FRANKENSTEIN. Somehow I never saw it in the VHS days. Got it on a Brentwood pack. It was the standard US cut and I must have watched it 10 times. Ended up getting the first uncut DVD,wish I could remember what website put that together. Then got a later release that was uncut and looked much better. It is a really neat twist on the standard Frankenstein movie formula.
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mystermystery
Dennis Stamp
Still in the White Hummer
Posts: 4,387
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Post by mystermystery on Jul 12, 2019 20:11:25 GMT -5
To prep for CRAWL, I was recommended BURNING BRIGHT, a movie where a woman is stuck in her house during a hurricane with a Bengal Tiger. I mean, I can be goofy and play with the plots but BURNING BRIGHT was a really fun, tense film.
The more fleshed out plot follows a woman who is trying to get her brother put into a school/place that can deal with his autism while she goes to attend college (having pushed back her scholarship twice and on the verge of losing it) but discovers that she can't afford her brother's new...home(?) because her stepfather drained her bank account because he wants to start an animal park Safari and spent everything on a daggone BENGAL TIGER that has, of all things, my second favorite acting musician MEATLOAF as its salesman/hype man.
So, yeah. Storm keeps you in, Tiger is somehow in the house. It's a good flick that tries to use real shots of the tiger as much as possible because it realizes what the CGI looks like, but does the best it can with that.
I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 and I'd recommend it. If CRAWL is half as tense as BURNING BRIGHT, the theater experience should be a thrill.
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Jul 12, 2019 22:20:58 GMT -5
My review of Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
Alice, Sweet Alice is, to this day, one of the most unheralded horror films of its era. It’s the closest an American film has come to capturing the look and feel of an Italian giallo, much thanks to its distinct visual style. Yellow raincoats, a doll mask, and soft communion colors are set against worn New Jersey apartments and abandoned buildings. Beneath the facade of primness and pretty Sunday dresses is a dark, ugly truth. Argento would be proud.
Though the plot takes the shape of a fairly standard whodunnit, its the juicy religious drama that really give it the film its punch. I can’t even begin to explain how much I love watching sanctimonious church folks snipping at each other and boy does this film deliver in that department. The adult characters are by and large hypocrites. Characters raise great issue over things like premarital sex and divorce while engaging in assorted assholery and, for one of them, a murder spree. Thanks to its abundance of communion imagery, I feel like I could write an entire essay on the film’s religious subtext alone.
The moral ambiguity of the characters is the film’s strongest quality. Director Alfred Sole doesn’t spell out anything for us in how we should feel about these people. Even our title character appears to be in the midst of psychological deterioration. While it’s clear from the start that Alice is just a red herring, the film doesn’t let her off the hook. It goes to some lengths to show there’s something deeply wrong with her that extends well beyond sibling jealousy and parental neglect. This is thanks to the great work by Paula Sheppard, who is given the awkward task of playing a 12-year old when she herself was 19 at the time of filming.
Elsewhere, Jane Lowry is a freakin’ tour de force as Alice’s aunt Annie, who is in turns perfectly shrill and effortlessly hatable. Mildred Clinton is delightfully unhinged as Mrs. Tredoni but if she’s just unsettling at best, Alphonso DeNoble is an absolute nightmare as the Spages’ predatory, cat-loving landlord. It’s a performance made all the more impressive considering DeNoble had no real professional training in acting prior to this. He’s not the killer but, as this film makes quite clear, bad people come in all sorts of varieties.
Thanks to its complicated relationship with religion and lack of likable characters, I can see why Alice, Sweet Alice hasn’t quite been embraced by mainstream audiences, but that’s okay. This weird little gem is just for us. You don’t even need to be a major Brooke Shields fan to watch this. It’s that damn good.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,471
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 14, 2019 4:06:25 GMT -5
Evil Sister(1999)
You know you are in for a crappy film when even IMDB doesn't have a poster for a film......
From what I can find this movie got a tiny VHS release in 1999 and disappeared until 2005 or so. When Brentwood/BCI got the rights and put it out on a few of their cheap horror film multipacks. I bought one of those with this movie on it back in 2006. Saw maybe 10 minutes of Evil Sister and turned it off.
Seems Linda's sister Roxanne has spent the last 15 years in a mental hospital.Roxanne is getting released and the only family she has is her sister and her sister's husband. Roxanne moves in with them. And pretty obviously starts flirting with the husband.
We also learn Roxanne is into black magic. And we get to see one of her black magic ceremonies. Which is just an excuse to add even more nudity to this shit sandwich of a film. Yep this movie is one of the many late 90s horror/softcore porn films. You know stuff like the Witchcraft series.
You can tell Evil Sister was made on a tiny budget. It appears to been filmed on VHS then in post a process was used to make it appear to have been made on film. The noise of the camera is so loud it sometimes drowns out the dialogue. The acting is fairly bad. With Roxanne and the long haired midget with a pedo-stache being the only half way decent actors in the film. The gore is decent for the budget. Even if the multiple stabbings and knife attacks clearly do not touch the skin.
Found out a sequel was made in 2001. No one from this film is in it. And it appears to not even follow the great lead the end of Evil Sister left.
Evil Sister really feels like a R rated version of a Lifetime Original movie. If you removed the abundant nudity this could play on pretty much any channel on cable.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 14, 2019 10:01:13 GMT -5
Watching the big box of British Horror released by Shriek Show. Frightmare (1974) is an interesting take on cannibalism. It’s also on Amazon Prime for anyone interested.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,471
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Jul 16, 2019 0:37:46 GMT -5
Ok I don't know why but I feel the urge to torture myself...
Discovered a few minutes ago that on Tubi TV they have Witchcraft 16! I have most of the first 13. Knew 14,15,16 were filmed back to back but had never seen proof they got any kind of release.
It's 1 hour 10 minutes Witchcraft XVI Hollywood Coven!
EDIT It opened with a Cinemax after dark style sex scene before the credits. The credits are long and look like someone watched too much Buffy and Charmed.
EDIT EDIT
HOLY f*** They are going Vista Street Entertainment Meta!!! The film is set on the set of Crystal Force. Which is another series of crap Vista Street put out back when Witchcraft was getting a sequel most years.
EDIT EDIT EDIT Crap they appear to be ripping off the plot of Witchcraft 11 Sisters in Blood. But switched a jr college production of Macbeth to a crappy DTV Skinamax horror.
EDIT x 4 Now they are using the pre credits scene from Witchcraft 11 Sisters in Blood...And more footage from the same film but from the end scene with the poltergeuist attack. And they are saying it is a Crystal Force film.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Jul 16, 2019 16:37:52 GMT -5
Unfortunately the big box of British horror ended with more a whimper than a bang. Despite the title Die Screaming, Marianne is really more a painfully slow thriller than horror.
This box set was actually all Pete Walker films, but I guess he wasn’t a big enough name to promote it as such. He is still alive, but not directing films anymore. His feature film career only lasted 15 years and contained as many films. His horror stuff seems to be his best stuff, but he directed some other stuff like sex comedies and thrillers as well.
From this box set I’d rank the films oddly enough in the same order I watched them:
Frightmare House of Whipcord The Flesh and Blood Show Die Screaming, Marianne
I’d say Frightmare and House of Whipcord are decent though the latter was in need of trimming about 20 minutes.
The Flesh and Blood Show was the most disappointing of the bunch. It has an awesome title and I had high hopes, but it is painfully slow. Also, even with killings being done in an abandoned building it somehow manages not to feel much like a horror movie.
Die Screaming, Marianne is the worst though.
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