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Post by prettynami on Oct 1, 2020 20:21:18 GMT -5
My first movie is...
1: SOMETHING EVIL (TV Movie - 1972) - Your usual "Two City Folks Move Onto A Rural Plot of Land With Strange Goings Ons" movies. And by usual I mean usual, this is definitely paint by numbers. Plot wise everything is predictable and revolves around the spooked wife who sees stuff and the disbelieving husband - with an added dash of random commercial production team shindigs (the husband works in the production of commercials or something).
The characters are also the usual in this. The husband and wife are both annoying pricks. The people they surrounded themselves are more of the same. We have a "creepy" rural help figure as well. Oh and of course a professor who studies the occult.
Horror wise not much goes on. Most everything takes place off screen or a character gets bathed in white light. The peak horror is when a cartoon attacks two party goers on the way home - causing them to crash off the road Toonces style and explode. Well, I suppose the parties themselves (the insistent parties this couple throws permeates the movie) are horror. They are like literally attending a crap party, with 100s of shrill people talking over each other. True horror.
This was pretty weak even for a made for TV movie - I would give it a 1 out of 5. Not off to a good start!!! hahaha.
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Post by prettynami on Oct 1, 2020 21:48:52 GMT -5
Followed by:
2. BLOODSTREAM (1985) - A dude makes horror movies (namely BLOODSTREAM!) for a sleazeball, sleazeball shortchanges him and calls his movies shit. He then conspires with the sleazeballs secretary to get revenge on all those who wronged him by making them the special effect in his latest horror project!
The plot wasn't too terrible and was sort of interesting... But it was a long confusing road to get to the meat of the plot. The bulk of the film was devoted to him watching other horror movies on tv like DEATH SEX and what not. I guess they were supposed to be the works of the people he was aiming to kill, but for the longest time it was completely unclear... Just 30+ minutes of a guy watching disconnected horror movies and screaming at the TV. There is a subplot of the secretary loving the killerman for some reason, and stealing headshots of his victims FOR SOME REASON... She also get the sleazeball to inadvertently change some contracts so the killerman would actually get paid and what not... But that leads to her downfall cause he was in the scheme for the purity of film and death or some crap.
The movie is the British and the actors are very British. The acting is pretty mundane to terrible. The film says made in 1985 but it screams filmed in 1972. Looks very rough, film quality and special effects wise. Camera work is basically non existent, and the special effects are papermache, cake, or wax with bright red blood. The special effects are so wonky and terrible they are great! The kills are bizarrely set up, the killer films all his kills for his movie and everyone can plainly see the camera before they bite it but say something like they can't. It is all quite weird.
Overall, despite it looking like crap and being executed like crap - the stuff that was there or could have been there when combined with the wonky parts made the movie fairly enjoyable. The first special effects, which are right off the bat so you will know whether you will like it or not right away, set the tone of what to expect with a crazy skeleton head dissolving thing with eye popping. The movie sorta comes together right towards the end plot wise - and the movies within a movie were fun. I'd give it a 3 out of 5 based on that terrible effects but interesting albeit terrible executed premise.
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Paul
Vegeta
Posts: 9,274
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Post by Paul on Oct 1, 2020 21:55:28 GMT -5
Here's 10 minutes of classic horror commercials from our friend Matt at Dinosaur Dracula:
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 1, 2020 22:24:49 GMT -5
I did another 1970’s horror double feature for tonight’s viewing. I started with Terror (1978) just because it was the other movie on the Gorehouse Greats disc that had Stanley on it. During Terror there is a poster for the movie Satan’s Slave (1976) in it. Since that movie is also on the Gorehouse Greats set I figured I’d watch that one too since I enjoyed Terror and figured they’d be related somehow. Sure enough both are English movies directed by Norman J. Warren.
For a budget release the widescreen print of Terror looks absolutely beautiful. The movie is about a guy who runs his own film company and decides to make a movie about a witch who cursed his ancestors.
After a screening of the film along with his filmmaker friends they start partying. During this his only living relative (a cousin he had only met a week ago) gets hypnotized by one of the actors. She then attacks her cousin with a sword. No one dies just then but sure enough an actress ends up viciously murdered at the party. Plenty more die by the movie’s end.
The movie seems like it wants to be a whodunnit, but I’d recommend just turning your brain off and not focusing on that part of it. Instead enjoy all the chaos and murder this story has to offer. Also a fun side note Chewbacca himself Peter Mayhew makes a cameo and it’s even teased he’s the killer.
Satan’s Slave isn’t as fun as it has a lot less action and consistent mayhem. Although it starts promising enough with a Satanic cult making a human sacrifice. Another early scene is seemingly unrelated and features a woman being murdered by an English gentleman she had just met.
We finally get a more coherent plot when a young woman is canoodling with her boyfriend. He appears disappointed she has to go away with her parents to visit a strange uncle she never met before.
Just as they are arriving at the uncle’s mansion they crash into a fence. The mother looks dead though the father says she’s alright. The girl jumps out of the car and the damn thing explodes.
The uncle calms her and we see that his son is the same man shown earlier killing a woman. So right off the bat we know something is messed up about them. The rest of the movie is spent finding out just what that is.
If you still buy DVDs and don’t have the Gorehouse Greats collection I’d recommend it. You can find it on eBay selling for under $6 including free shipping. Both prints of these movies look superb as does Stanley. They aren’t all like that though. I fast forwarded through a little of Trip With The Teacher since I plan to watch that one tomorrow and it’s back to bad VHS quality!
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,475
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 1, 2020 23:06:15 GMT -5
My first movie is... 1: SOMETHING EVIL (TV Movie - 1972) - Your usual "Two City Folks Move Onto A Rural Plot of Land With Strange Goings Ons" movies. And by usual I mean usual, this is definitely paint by numbers. Plot wise everything is predictable and revolves around the spooked wife who sees stuff and the disbelieving husband - with an added dash of random commercial production team shindigs (the husband works in the production of commercials or something). The characters are also the usual in this. The husband and wife are both annoying pricks. The people they surrounded themselves are more of the same. We have a "creepy" rural help figure as well. Oh and of course a professor who studies the occult. Horror wise not much goes on. Most everything takes place off screen or a character gets bathed in white light. The peak horror is when a cartoon attacks two party goers on the way home - causing them to crash off the road Toonces style and explode. Well, I suppose the parties themselves (the insistent parties this couple throws permeates the movie) are horror. They are like literally attending a crap party, with 100s of shrill people talking over each other. True horror. This was pretty weak even for a made for TV movie - I would give it a 1 out of 5. Not off to a good start!!! hahaha. IIRC you did a bunch of made for tv horror last year. Is Something Evil on youtube? If so please hook me up with a link. I have a thing for 70s made for tv horror. Like Home for the Holidays with Sally Fields. I had never heard of it. Got it on one of those Echo Bridge 20 horror films for 5 buck packs. Found out the VHS release is rare. And the echo bridge dvd is the only digital release. And it is a great proto-slasher.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,475
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 1, 2020 23:10:20 GMT -5
I did another 1970’s horror double feature for tonight’s viewing. I started with Terror (1978) just because it was the other movie on the Gorehouse Greats disc that had Stanley on it. During Terror there is a poster for the movie Satan’s Slave (1976) in it. Since that movie is also on the Gorehouse Greats set I figured I’d watch that one too since I enjoyed Terror and figured they’d be related somehow. Sure enough both are English movies directed by Norman J. Warren. For a budget release the widescreen print of Terror looks absolutely beautiful. The movie is about a guy who runs his own film company and decides to make a movie about a witch who cursed his ancestors. After a screening of the film along with his filmmaker friends they start partying. During this his only living relative (a cousin he had only met a week ago) gets hypnotized by one of the actors. She then attacks her cousin with a sword. No one dies just then but sure enough an actress ends up viciously murdered at the party. Plenty more die by the movie’s end. The movie seems like it wants to be a whodunnit, but I’d recommend just turning your brain off and not focusing on that part of it. Instead enjoy all the chaos and murder this story has to offer. Also a fun side note Chewbacca himself Peter Mayhew makes a cameo and it’s even teased he’s the killer. Satan’s Slave isn’t as fun as it has a lot less action and consistent mayhem. Although it starts promising enough with a Satanic cult making a human sacrifice. Another early scene is seemingly unrelated and features a woman being murdered by an English gentleman she had just met. We finally get a more coherent plot when a young woman is canoodling with her boyfriend. He appears disappointed she has to go away with her parents to visit a strange uncle she never met before. Just as they are arriving at the uncle’s mansion they crash into a fence. The mother looks dead though the father says she’s alright. The girl jumps out of the car and the damn thing explodes. The uncle calms her and we see that his son is the same man shown earlier killing a woman. So right off the bat we know something is messed up about them. The rest of the movie is spent finding out just what that is. If you still buy DVDs and don’t have the Gorehouse Greats collection I’d recommend it. You can find it on eBay selling for under $6 including free shipping. Both prints of these movies look superb as does Stanley. They aren’t all like that though. I fast forwarded through a little of Trip With The Teacher since I plan to watch that one tomorrow and it’s back to bad VHS quality! That Gorehouse Greats set is a great deal. I got it years ago for like 5 or 7 bucks at Walmart. Satan's Slave IIRC got a nice Blu Ray release. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FM-0TqueGI&list=PLRHp_kTrHXPP95YTd3bJ1KKQrSVrjCtyj and there is a playlist with that entire event.
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Post by DSR on Oct 2, 2020 1:51:00 GMT -5
I started off my horror watching for the month with SUSPIRIA (1977). I think I covered it well enough in my last post in this thread, so we'll move onto my second watch:
ATOM AGE VAMPIRE (1960) - A beautiful woman is disfigured in a car accident, and when tried and true medical methods can't restore her looks, she is whisked away by a doctor with an experimental treatment. It works temporarily, but the doctor needs to kill other women in order to keep bringing his patient back to her regular level of hotness. He's infatuated with her, so he wants to do it, but since he doesn't have the nerve, he changes himself into a Mr. Hyde-style monster to get the job done.
The Italian release of this film is an hour and 45 minutes long, but I watched a truncated public domain print that ran an hour and 9! The 69 minute version is watchable, I enjoy the stop-motion animated effects used for some of the transformations and the doctor getting hammy when he professes his love for his patient. Though overall, this feels like a retread of classic Universal Horror territory and doesn't do anything innovative or even really interesting with the material. Not bad, I guess, but not essential viewing.
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4real
Wade Wilson
Posts: 27,840
Member is Online
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Post by 4real on Oct 2, 2020 5:04:54 GMT -5
Going to attempt to watch one Horror movie a day if I can, last night I watched Gerald’s Game for the first time. Excellent film that floored me by the end. The skin ripping scene yeah that was nasty. My one complaint and it’s only a nit pick was I had assumed going in that there would be more tripped out visions then there actually was. But still excellent film highly recommended.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,475
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 2, 2020 9:31:38 GMT -5
Going to attempt to watch one Horror movie a day if I can, last night I watched Gerald’s Game for the first time. Excellent film that floored me by the end. The skin ripping scene yeah that was nasty. My one complaint and it’s only a nit pick was I had assumed going in that there would be more tripped out visions then there actually was. But still excellent film highly recommended. I need to see that one again. I watched it but was distracted. Day 2 Evil Bong High Five TITLE-Evil Bong High 5 SOURCE-Tubi TV streaming service Well at least this time the movie is over an hour. Which I hope means we get a full plot. Rabbit,Larnell,Sarah and Velicity are stuck in Bong World. But Rabbit thinks he has figured a way out. He has created a new way of life called Nothing Head. When he empty's his mind he has access to great powers. But before he can use his new powers to escape the Bong World,EeBee shows up and says she is sending Larnell,Rabbit and Gingerdead Man to the real world. Where they have to make a shitpile of money in a short amount of time. If they don't EeBee's evil women,played by Pornstar Skin Diamond and some generic looking blonde lady,will pleasure Sarah and Velicity to death. Read the rest and see screenshots at 31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 02 Evil Bong High FiveAnd Codyll covered Hammer's Curse of Frankenstein today. Hope yall are having a good day.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 2, 2020 10:34:24 GMT -5
My first movie is... 1: SOMETHING EVIL (TV Movie - 1972) - Your usual "Two City Folks Move Onto A Rural Plot of Land With Strange Goings Ons" movies. And by usual I mean usual, this is definitely paint by numbers. Plot wise everything is predictable and revolves around the spooked wife who sees stuff and the disbelieving husband - with an added dash of random commercial production team shindigs (the husband works in the production of commercials or something). The characters are also the usual in this. The husband and wife are both annoying pricks. The people they surrounded themselves are more of the same. We have a "creepy" rural help figure as well. Oh and of course a professor who studies the occult. Horror wise not much goes on. Most everything takes place off screen or a character gets bathed in white light. The peak horror is when a cartoon attacks two party goers on the way home - causing them to crash off the road Toonces style and explode. Well, I suppose the parties themselves (the insistent parties this couple throws permeates the movie) are horror. They are like literally attending a crap party, with 100s of shrill people talking over each other. True horror. This was pretty weak even for a made for TV movie - I would give it a 1 out of 5. Not off to a good start!!! hahaha. IIRC you did a bunch of made for tv horror last year. Is Something Evil on youtube? If so please hook me up with a link. I have a thing for 70s made for tv horror. Like Home for the Holidays with Sally Fields. I had never heard of it. Got it on one of those Echo Bridge 20 horror films for 5 buck packs. Found out the VHS release is rare. And the echo bridge dvd is the only digital release. And it is a great proto-slasher. This set right?I just got that one too, but have yet to watch anything on it. Any recommendations? I like that they have some older movies in the set in addition to the more recent low budget stuff. Bay Coven looks like the only pre-2000s movie that is close to being pure horror. This is another one of those collections that mix in some thriller and suspense films to pad out the set. A Lure: Teen Fight Club is a more recent one in the collection that has my interest just because of the weird title.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,475
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 2, 2020 13:19:48 GMT -5
IIRC you did a bunch of made for tv horror last year. Is Something Evil on youtube? If so please hook me up with a link. I have a thing for 70s made for tv horror. Like Home for the Holidays with Sally Fields. I had never heard of it. Got it on one of those Echo Bridge 20 horror films for 5 buck packs. Found out the VHS release is rare. And the echo bridge dvd is the only digital release. And it is a great proto-slasher. This set right?youtu.be/pvWet15IPf8I just got that one too, but have yet to watch anything on it. Any recommendations? I like that they have some older movies in the set in addition to the more recent low budget stuff. Bay Coven looks like the only pre-2000s movie that is close to being pure horror. This is another one of those collections that mix in some thriller and suspense films to pad out the set. A Lure: Teen Fight Club is a more recent one in the collection that has my interest just because of the weird title. A Lure Teen Fight CLub is horrible. I reviewed it a few years back. If Zipperface is on that set watch it. It's a ok 90s era Slasher. Plus the DVD is uncut. Home for the Holidays is worth seeing. If Hell's Highway is on there skip that too. If you love great art check out Paperbacks from Hell.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 2, 2020 14:07:54 GMT -5
This set right?youtu.be/pvWet15IPf8I just got that one too, but have yet to watch anything on it. Any recommendations? I like that they have some older movies in the set in addition to the more recent low budget stuff. Bay Coven looks like the only pre-2000s movie that is close to being pure horror. This is another one of those collections that mix in some thriller and suspense films to pad out the set. A Lure: Teen Fight Club is a more recent one in the collection that has my interest just because of the weird title. A Lure Teen Fight CLub is horrible. I reviewed it a few years back. If Zipperface is on that set watch it. It's a ok 90s era Slasher. Plus the DVD is uncut. Home for the Holidays is worth seeing. If Hell's Highway is on there skip that too. If you love great art check out Paperbacks from Hell. No Zipperface unfortunately. Home for the Holidays is on there though. I figure I’ll watch them all at some point Cool book! Edit: Speaking of old art work I found this VHS cover of Home for the Holidays: On the budget DVD release they have thumbnail size photos for each movie featured. However only the more recent films have their actual posters. All the older movies have things whipped up in photoshop so they look like they’re for crappy 2000s direct to DVD movies. Here’s the one Home for the Holidays uses on that:
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Post by DSR on Oct 2, 2020 15:21:20 GMT -5
On the budget DVD release they have thumbnail size photos for each movie featured. However only the more recent films have their actual posters. All the older movies have things whipped up in photoshop so they look like they’re for crappy 2000s direct to DVD movies. I was looking through Tubi.TV for some stuff to recommend to a friend, and there's a bunch of really enjoyable movies on there that have just the crappiest updated artwork that makes the movie look like a piece of shit. Like if I just went by their artwork I'd skip a lot of stuff that I genuinely enjoy.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,475
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Oct 2, 2020 16:16:59 GMT -5
That home for the holidays VHS is rare as hell. In my 35 years of collecting VHS I have never ran into a copy in person. And out of all the VHS collectors I know maybe 3 own copies.
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Post by prettynami on Oct 2, 2020 17:12:02 GMT -5
My first movie is... 1: SOMETHING EVIL (TV Movie - 1972) - Your usual "Two City Folks Move Onto A Rural Plot of Land With Strange Goings Ons" movies. And by usual I mean usual, this is definitely paint by numbers. Plot wise everything is predictable and revolves around the spooked wife who sees stuff and the disbelieving husband - with an added dash of random commercial production team shindigs (the husband works in the production of commercials or something). The characters are also the usual in this. The husband and wife are both annoying pricks. The people they surrounded themselves are more of the same. We have a "creepy" rural help figure as well. Oh and of course a professor who studies the occult. Horror wise not much goes on. Most everything takes place off screen or a character gets bathed in white light. The peak horror is when a cartoon attacks two party goers on the way home - causing them to crash off the road Toonces style and explode. Well, I suppose the parties themselves (the insistent parties this couple throws permeates the movie) are horror. They are like literally attending a crap party, with 100s of shrill people talking over each other. True horror. This was pretty weak even for a made for TV movie - I would give it a 1 out of 5. Not off to a good start!!! hahaha. IIRC you did a bunch of made for tv horror last year. Is Something Evil on youtube? If so please hook me up with a link. I have a thing for 70s made for tv horror. Like Home for the Holidays with Sally Fields. I had never heard of it. Got it on one of those Echo Bridge 20 horror films for 5 buck packs. Found out the VHS release is rare. And the echo bridge dvd is the only digital release. And it is a great proto-slasher. Terrible quality (I guess the bloodstream one isn't too bad considering how the movie probably looked out of the can Haha) but both Bloodstream and Something Evil are on the youtubes, which is where I watched them from cause I am a cheap and lazy bastard. Hahaha.
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4real
Wade Wilson
Posts: 27,840
Member is Online
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Post by 4real on Oct 2, 2020 17:16:54 GMT -5
Day 2: Paranormal Activity
I liked this a lot more than I remembered back when it came out. It builds up suspense pretty well. The only thing I would say is having seen it before I know nothing actually shows up until the end so I wasn’t quite as scared this time. Both characters are dicks though. It’s not a masterpiece but deserves its place in horror history.
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Post by prettynami on Oct 2, 2020 17:33:59 GMT -5
I also watched 3. HACK-O-LANTERN (1988) yesterday before I went to bed. I had heard of this one and that it was good but I was very disappointed in it. It follows a family with heavy ties to satan worship and the grisly murders that surrounds one of their ascension to high priesthood or something around halloween one year.
Most of the movie centers around one of three siblings (two brothers and a sister) - one apparently conceived in a terrible manner - and their mother and "grandfather". One of the siblings, I think his name was tommy, is big into satan and is basically a loser who dreams of being in a satanic band or some crap (the highlight of the movie is his dream of this - where they apparently blew all their creativity). The movie is mostly about him, but oddly enough his brother, sister, and their friend/girlfriend seem to get the lion's share of the screen time. All the characters basically talk about him none stop, what he is doing, what his hopes and dreams are, is he the devil's son... Or something. Anyways, all of that is irrelevant because he is basically a non-factor for the whole movie. There are a couple of twists, but they sort of make no sense. I guess the mother is a loon so that explains her twist, but the final twist is explained with a throw away line about blood determining fate or some crap.
The guy playing Tommy looks bizarre and acts bizarre, which I guess is fitting. And the guy playing the grandpa does a pretty knockout job too, as does the guy playing the youngest brother Roger (I assume he is the youngest since the guy playing tommy looks older than the guy playing his grandpa). But woof, the lady playing the sister is rough, as well as the person playing the mother. The special effects are okay to good - I particularly like the style of blood they chose to use it pops but doesn't look too fake and it does a good job covering up some of the less than spectacular props they have. There is a scene with blood spreading out of a sweater that looks particularly nice, the soaking effect is pretty neat. A fairly boobage quotient with some full frontal, if that is your thing. I can't recall anything for the ladies though. Hahahaha. The soundtrack outside of the dream sequence is so boring and uninspired that it could kill the dead.
Somehow, despite some good parts and actually looking like a real movie (movie looks great and not cheap) I somehow didn't enjoy this as much as BLOODSTREAM. It's partially because this was so mundane and badly paced. You get to the dream sequence and then it is mostly downhill from there - couple that with how most of the buildup is tossed out and the characters they devote the most screentime to get the most uninspired deaths... It's sorta a let down. The movie really needed another dream sequence!!! I would give this 2 out of 5. It's not terrible, its just reasonably executed stock fare with a single highlight. I also saw this one on youtube - since I was using a shared stream thing to watch it with other people and youtube is like the only option on there... Haha.
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 3, 2020 0:14:14 GMT -5
I got out of work at 2 PM today and was planning to exercise. However it has been raining out much of the day and the pandemic has taken a bad turn in Massachusetts so I didn't want to risk going to the gym. Long story short I was able to pull off a quadruple feature of horror movies today! Trip with the Teacher (1975) This was another selection from Gorehouse Greats. It was absolutely inspired by Last House on the Left. I have to imagine David Hess was approached to be in this but they couldn't come to an agreement for whatever reason. He would have been perfect as the psycho biker leader in this movie as it is pretty much just Hess' Last House on the Left character. The movie focuses on a small group of four girls doing what the title plainly states. They go for a trip with their teacher to explore Indian ruins and the general desert of Southern California. Along with their hoss of a male bus driver they break down on a seldom visited section of highway. Three bikers come across them and while they don't seem too bad at first (especially one guy) things take a bad turn. The movie is similar to the later made I Spit On Your Grave, only a lot less graphic and with a lot less revenge. However, rest assured there is a good amount of murder, rape, and general mayhem to go around. Surprisingly this was the only movie directed by Earl Barton, a fairly successful choreographer. Oddly enough there is no dancing. The Deadly Bees (1966) This was directed by Freddie Francis who most famously made some of Amicus Films' portmanteau movies, notably Tales from the Crypt (1972). Tragically this is not an anthology about evil killer bees. Instead we get one story and it focuses on Vicki Robbins, a pop singer who has a mental break down. Her psychiatrist advises her to stay with a friend of his who runs a bed and breakfast out of his farm. He also raises bees as a hobby. Astoundingly there is another bee keeper in the neighborhood who may as well be Snidely Whiplash right down to the mustache. When a string of bee attacks occur including one resulting in the death of the farmer's wife, the farmer is the one everyone suspects. However, if you're suspecting a more Snidely Whiplash-esque villain...well you may be on to something. Predictable but with the 1960's charm that defined a lot of Amicus Films this one is an easy watch. I have it as part of the Cult Horror Films Collection which also includes The Skull and The Man Who Could Cheat Death. You can find that set on eBay for under $10. Just don't get it off Amazon where for some reason it is selling for $15+. Bay Coven (1987) I've seen this movie referred to as Eye of the Demon and Bay Cove, but I'll just call it Bay Coven since that's what it was titled on the print I watched. It is about a successful young married couple living in Boston. After meeting another couple and talking about how the other couple lives on the fictitious Devlin Island the husband gets the itch to live there as well. The wife reluctantly agrees to buy a house there. Once there the wife starts getting weird vibes about the residents of the island. It turns out that about 300 years ago (give or take) a pact was made between 13 of the island's inhabitants with the devil. For pledging their allegiance the 13 would receive immortality. One renounced his part of the pact and so the other 12 need a new member to keep the pact. It is a 1980's made for TV movie that features an impressive cast. Woody Harrelson even appears in a surprisingly substantial role that just may blow you away. Much better than those blink and you missed it appearances by name actors in movies like this. Jeff Conaway more or less has that role here. Midnight's Child (1992) Look at that cover art! This has to be something like The Omen maybe with a little more fire and chaos mixed in. Well not quite. Throughout the movie there are constant hints of supernatural elements and Satan, but nothing firmly supernatural happens until literally the last 10 minutes. It is unfortunate too. Prior to that it is pure melodrama. While by no means great you can get a little nostalgia for the older and crazier Lifetime movies watching it. The movie starts off in Stockholm, Sweden where Olivia d'Abo straight up murders her roomate. Why? Well, to steal her identity and take her au pair job in America. In America d'Abo's placement is with a family with one young daughter in a huge ass house in Southern California. The mother is a business woman who is constantly stressed and the father is a movie poster artist who has just started working again. When d'Abo starts she does horribly, but quickly starts becoming like a Swedish Mary Poppins. However, the mother always suspects something is off about the au pair. As this is all going on there are scenes of d'Abo's father in Sweden who urgently is trying to track down d'Abo because he knows exactly what is wrong with her. The melodrama part of it works and is entertaining. With a little more skill the supernatural elements could've been abandoned completely in favor of showcasing the mother's concern of the evil au pair gradually stealing her family away. While that effort is made it all comes off as quite hamfisted (even for a melodrama) and then you have the supernatural Satan stuff shoehorned in at the tail end. - A fun day for movie watching for sure!
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Oct 3, 2020 0:18:04 GMT -5
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Post by DSR on Oct 3, 2020 1:31:01 GMT -5
My third film for the month is Claudio Fragasso's AFTER DEATH (1988). Also known as ZOMBIE 4, the film begins on a tropical island, where a voodoo priest opens the door to Hell and unleashes zombies on the medical researches who failed to save his daughter's life. Twenty years later, a group of soldiers of fortune and their girlfriends arrive at this very same island (not by choice, their motorboat takes them there as though it has a mind of its own). Our heroes learn the island is home to the living dead and attempt to find the way to close that door to Hell before it's too late.
AFTER DEATH is a bit confusing, since there's seemingly nothing differentiating the prologue from the rest of the film. An adult character in the main story turns out to have been a child from the 20 years previous part, but I didn't realize that until the final 20 minutes of the movie where it gets spelled out.
The story itself is pretty well-worn territory, and I don't think there's even an attempt at social commentary here. Fragasso set out to make a splatter film, just faster than the usual splatter film. And with a kickass pseudo-tropical/pseudo-tribal soundtrack to boot. It's a fun little gross-out gore-fest, and that's all it wants to be.
(Incidentally, there is a bit of a plot connection between this and last night's ATOM AGE VAMPIRE. The medical researchers of the prologue where trying to find a cure for cancer. The mad scientist of the earlier movie specifically mentions cancer as one of the things his experiments are trying to cure. Scientists in both films state they are trying to bring life to dead tissues, in almost those exact terms.)
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