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Post by DSR on Mar 31, 2021 2:03:32 GMT -5
50 States Horror Project: Texas
DEATH BY LOVE (1990) comes to us from first-time writer/director/producer Alan Grant. Grant also decided to star in this SOV picture as middle-aged sculptor Joel Falk. When we first meet Joel, he's chatting up an attractive young lady while out on a jog. Joel and the girl quickly hit it off, and we're treated to a montage of the two falling for one another.
One day Joel goes to visit his lady love, only to find the police at her house. Joel barges in and finds his girlfriend dead from a neck wound! The police investigation seems to pinpoint one of Joel's childhood friends, an oddball named Ed. Joel recalls Ed being something of a Satan worshipper as a kid, and the police believe Ed is killing these girls (Joel's girlfriend is NOT the first) in the name of Satan.
Some time passes (the film isn't really clear on how much) and Joel has got himself a new girlfriend. The new of them are hidden away at a secluded cabin so Joel can work on a sculpture. Well, not so well hidden away, as Ed shows up stalking around the premises, watching Joel and his newest lover engaging in some sexual activities. Shockingly, Ed is keeping a safe distance from the action when we learn Joel's sinister secret: he's killing his own girlfriends by transforming into a demon and drinking their blood!
Ed has simply been monitoring Joel's actions, but seems too scared to do anything about them (or doesn't know how exactly to stop a demon, so he's reluctant to try). Ed will soon have to take the fight to Joel, as the sculptor's latest lover happens to be Ed's niece!
DEATH BY LOVE spends a lot more time on the love aspect, with several scenes of Joel making love to pretty women (I guess writing, directing, and starring in the flick has its perks). The death parts of the film are generally subdued. A modest makeup effect for a neck wound, and very little blood. Joel's demonic transformation is fairly understated, as well: some black fingernails and a few prosthetics on Alan Grant's face giving him a prominent brow and some more defined cheekbones. His face winds up looking like a caricature of Quentin Tarantino!
As a horror film, DEATH BY LOVE leaves a lot to be desired. There's very little suspense or horrific atmosphere. The soundtrack is largely smooth jazz like you would've heard on a phone sex ad on late night TV back in the day! The best non-nudity part of the flick was the twist about Joel being a demon (which I spoiled for you guys...sorry).
You can find better horror AND better titillation elsewhere.
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Square
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
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Square-Because he looks good at all the right angles.
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Post by Square on Mar 31, 2021 8:53:52 GMT -5
A show that goes out on my channel reviewed Neon Maniacs, so I ended up watching that. In a world where movie remakes happen nearly ever other day why in god's name has no one picked this up yet?!
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 1, 2021 5:56:48 GMT -5
Night of the Creeps* *bluray* This jumped all over the place (part zombie movie, part alien parasite movie, part college comedy movie) but it all worked in the end. It also had a good 1950’s sci-fi vibe to it. Tom Atkins was in it and anything with him always gets my attention. The two lead males were really good too. I really bought a deep friendship between the two. The gore was great. The comedy was good. A real good slab of 1980’s horror that shouldn’t be passed on.
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Post by DSR on Apr 2, 2021 0:43:43 GMT -5
NOT part of the 50 States Horror Project, this one was just appropriate for the day.
KILLER PARTY (1986) comes to us from Canadian director William Fruet (FUNERAL HOME, SPASMS) and was written by Barney Cohen (FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER).
Three college girls pledge a sorority. Hell Night for them seems to be the usual brand of hazing when things take a turn for the supernatural: tables shake, glasses break, a door locks itself, culminating in one of the girls, Vivia (Sherry Willis-Birch, FINAL EXAM) being placed in a guillotine by a maniac and getting decapitated in front of her would-be sorority sisters!
BUT WAIT! It's a prank! Seems this girl's a wanna-be Tom Savini, and she set the whole thing up! Vivia and her friends ultimately get into the sorority. And just in time for a big April Fool's Day costume party. Seems the more seasoned girls of the sorority want Vivia to pull the prank again and scare the guys they invited to the party. What's more, this little shindig is being held at a long abandoned frat house where a college student died under mysterious circumstances several years ago!
The night of the party seems perfectly normal, with attractive young men and women drinking and dancing in their costumes. But then these partygoers start getting picked off one-by-one by a lunatic in scuba gear! Is it possible the dead student has risen from his grave to enact revenge?!
KILLER PARTY was made under the working titles FOOL'S NIGHT and THE APRIL FOOL, and before the actual plot gets going, the film begins with two fake-outs. First, a woman at a funeral secretly tells the occupant of the coffin that she's glad the other party is dead! The coffin opens and the corpse pulls the woman in! This turns out to be a movie playing at a drive-in theater. A girl on a date at said drive-in then leaves the car to get popcorn. When she returns, her date is gone and she is quickly attacked by a drooling madman with a knife. This turns out to be the intro to a Thriller-esque music video that one of the main trio of college girls is watching on TV.
These two fake-outs back-to-back set a tone for the film that nothing is to be taken seriously. The frivolous tone continues throughout the flick, as horror elements are downplayed for college sex-comedy shenanigans (a la ANIMAL HOUSE). There are a couple of seemingly genuine murder scenes before the titular party, but the deaths either happen off-camera or happen so quick that they don't register. Also, the aforementioned girl-being-guillotined prank is so elaborate that it sets a precedent for the rest of the film...
Under certain circumstances, I think a film that starts out as this goofy piss-take on a horror set-up and switches to a genuine horror flick could be satisfying. Unfortunately, MGM decided to cut any gore out of the film save for tiny trickles of blood from the mouths of victims. So even though (SPOILER ALERT!) there actually IS a supernatural killer picking off everybody at the party, it still looks like this could all be a prank within the narrative of the film! So even when it turns out our main characters are actually in life-threatening peril, you're waiting for the victims to open their eyes, smile, and say "GOTCHA!" all the way up until the end credits roll and the flick is over.
KILLER PARTY has an interesting premise and a bitchin' soundtrack if you're into 80s synth-rock, but doesn't adequately convey when it raises its own stakes, so it comes off as a 90 minute long misfire overall.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2021 3:14:09 GMT -5
Finally had a chance to watch my Shout Factory bluray of Event Horizon (still need to buy a frame for the poster) So excited to see a proper release of this, and it's been delayed like 4 times since last year. Have a ton of nostalgia for this movie and love every minute of it. It was even my staff pick at one point when I worked at Blockbuster
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 2, 2021 4:55:38 GMT -5
Rock ‘N’ Roll Nightmare/the Edge of Hell* *DVD* If you can make it through an hour of torturous sex scenes, bad acting and awesome music you’ll be treated to maybe the greatest battle of good verses evil ever set to film. The Avengers verses Thanos < Batman verses the Joker < Frodo verses the Ring < Darth Vader verses Luke Skywalker < Satan verses Jon-Mikl Thor
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,399
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 2, 2021 17:50:20 GMT -5
Zombie Nightmare with Thor and Tia Carrerre is even better.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 2, 2021 18:30:39 GMT -5
Zombie Nightmare with Thor and Tia Carrerre is even better. I saw that in the bonus features. Looked awesome.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Apr 2, 2021 19:03:55 GMT -5
Laserblast. 1977.
When I heard of the movie I looked forward to some cheesy fun and was I ever in the wrong. It was just cheesy. Which would have been great if they had embraced it from start to finish rather than have a boring slow build the movie did not deserve.
I did like the aliens, even though they looked like stop motion done with a little boy's toys.
The lead was a decade too old to play a teenager and he worked better as a creepy possessed monster. And I liked seeing the nerd from Grease play an asshole.
The explosions was very impressive but there was so many of them it became tedious after a while and the laser's power was very inconsistent.
Worth a one time watch if you have nothing else to do.
2 Leatherface-like tantrums out of 5.
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Post by prettynami on Apr 2, 2021 19:10:56 GMT -5
Laserblast. 1977. When I heard of the movie I looked forward to some cheesy fun and was I ever in the wrong. It was just cheesy. Which would have been great if they had embraced it from start to finish rather than have a boring slow build the movie did not deserve. I did like the aliens, even though they looked like stop motion done with a little boy's toys. The lead was a decade too old to play a teenager and he worked better as a creepy possessed monster. And I liked seeing the nerd from Grease play an asshole. The explosions was very impressive but there was so many of them it became tedious after a while and the laser's power was very inconsistent. Worth a one time watch if you have nothing else to do. 2 Leatherface-like tantrums out of 5. Man, Leonard Maltin sure liked it more than you. Hehehehe.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 3, 2021 3:30:47 GMT -5
The Burning Moon* *DVD* A collection of short stories (not many) told by a drug addled young man to his younger sister as bedtime stories. They follow the basic horror tropes (an escaped lunatic killer and a crooked priest) but are presented in only the way that underground German cinema of the early-1990’s can. That means extremely gory violence. But I was expecting more. It was brutal but I’ve seen brutaller. Everyone was just as angry as they are in any of the other German gore movies I’ve seen. But this paled in comparison to the Violent Shit series, which is gorier, more explicit, grittier and more visually stunning.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 3, 2021 3:48:14 GMT -5
For Ultimo Gallos here’s an updated picture of my collection, with ten or so more on the “to watch” pile or still in the mail.
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,399
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 3, 2021 12:03:26 GMT -5
Great collection. Needs more Andy Milligan.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 3, 2021 14:29:13 GMT -5
Great collection. Needs more Andy Milligan. He’s that guy that did the Ghastly Ones, right?
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,399
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Apr 3, 2021 14:32:25 GMT -5
Great collection. Needs more Andy Milligan. He’s that guy that did the Ghastly Ones, right? Yep. Guru the Mad Monk should be on Youtube. I never gave a crap about his movies until Video Watchdog did a 3 issue long article on him. Started re-watching Milligan's films and became a fan.
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Post by DSR on Apr 3, 2021 15:13:29 GMT -5
He’s that guy that did the Ghastly Ones, right? Yep. Guru the Mad Monk should be on Youtube. I never gave a crap about his movies until Video Watchdog did a 3 issue long article on him. Started re-watching Milligan's films and became a fan. Severin Films just put out a blu-ray set with a bunch of Milligan's flicks on it. Did you pick that up? I'm not familiar with the man's work, but I know a couple of his films are on Tubi, so I plan on checking them out soon.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 3, 2021 18:04:30 GMT -5
Yep. Guru the Mad Monk should be on Youtube. I never gave a crap about his movies until Video Watchdog did a 3 issue long article on him. Started re-watching Milligan's films and became a fan. Severin Films just put out a blu-ray set with a bunch of Milligan's flicks on it. Did you pick that up? I'm not familiar with the man's work, but I know a couple of his films are on Tubi, so I plan on checking them out soon. I’ve seen the Ghastly Ones and Seeds of Sin and they’re both extremely trashy exploitation that makes Ed Woods movies look like Martin Scorsese
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Post by KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! on Apr 3, 2021 18:17:09 GMT -5
Severin Films just put out a blu-ray set with a bunch of Milligan's flicks on it. Did you pick that up? I'm not familiar with the man's work, but I know a couple of his films are on Tubi, so I plan on checking them out soon. I’ve seen the Ghastly Ones and Seeds of Sin and they’re both extremely trashy exploitation that makes Ed Woods movies look like Martin Scorsese The Something Weird Video double feature of those has an oodle of bonus features too that I still have to get to. I imagine that Severin Blu-ray set unleashes more Milligan than any sane person would ever need lol.
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adamclark52
El Dandy
I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me
Posts: 8,139
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Post by adamclark52 on Apr 3, 2021 18:38:48 GMT -5
I’ve seen the Ghastly Ones and Seeds of Sin and they’re both extremely trashy exploitation that makes Ed Woods movies look like Martin Scorsese The Something Weird Video double feature of those has an oodle of bonus features too that I still have to get to. I imagine that Severin Blu-ray set unleashes more Milligan than any sane person would ever need lol. I found it for $130, so paying that for Andy Milligan movies would validate your insanity
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Post by Jumpin' Jesse Walsh on Apr 3, 2021 20:03:06 GMT -5
Watching some Argento this weekend and I'm pretty sure it's a requisite for all his movies, and the giallo genre in general, to have a character named Carlo who eventually dies.
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