Category: Reviews

Directed by Brian De Palma [Other horror films: Sisters (1972), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), The Fury (1978), Raising Cain (1992)]

For many reasons, Carrie has never been a favorite of mine. I generally enjoy the novel (and the rather unique, journalistic approach the novel takes to the events), but the story itself isn’t really my cup of tea. I enjoy movies that include revenge as much as many horror fans, and the prom sequence here is pretty spectacular, but in terms of enjoyment, the prom sequence (along with the finale as a whole), is about all the movie has to offer.

Don’t get me wrong – many of the main cast members here shine beautifully, such as Sissy Spacek (her performance, especially during the emotionally-tumultuous prom scene is fantastic) as Carrie, and she definitely does a great job. Playing her mother, a religious nutcase (more so than usual), Piper Laurie does amazing. I really liked William Cobb (who later starred in the horror-comedy House), and he too shone, especially during the prom sequence. John Travolta was more a curiosity than anything, and the three actresses Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, and Amy Irving didn’t really do much for me. It was nice, though, to see P.J. Soles (Lynda from Halloween), despite her character being utterly irredeemable.

That’s one of the big problems for me in this movie – save for Spacek’s Carrie and Buckley’s character, and perhaps Cobb’s, there’s virtually no characters in the movie worth liking. As far as I’m concerned, Carrie never should have been left with a mother so utterly insane, period, and should have been moved out of the house. Related, if the school had done the proper thing and expelled each and every girl who heinously humiliated Carrie at the beginning, like they should have, things may have gone better instead of spiraling out of control.

Carrie didn’t do anything wrong in the movie, as far as I could tell (which is why, near the end, when there’s a spray-painted comment ‘Carrie White burns in hell’, I shake my head in frustration), and the sole blame of the incidents falls squarely and solely on Chris, Billy, and Norma. I think this is my biggest frustration, because none of those actually responsible for this really get the death they deserved, which was not at all satisfactory.

Parts of the movie just piss me off (such as the principal not having every single student who mocked Carrie expelled as his first reaction to the incident), and it’s hard to really enjoy a movie when there’s few characters to root for. I love the 70’s vibe (though that really odd comedic scene in the tuxedo shop, I could have done without), and I know that many 70’s films are a bit on the slower side, but very little of much interest happens before the prom scene, and that’s a problem.

The prom sequence is amazing. I loved the muted dialogue during the laughing, I loved the split screens, and even before the prank got pulled, I loved how Katt’s character really seemed to be enjoying his time with Carrie, and tried to get her to come out of her shell some. It was masterfully done, and if the rest of the movie was done as well as the prom was, then this would easily be in my top horror films for the decade.

Here’s the issue: I can think of at least 25 other horror films from the 1970’s that I’d rather watch again over this one. In fact, I will list ten horror films from the 1970’s that I find infinitely superior and far more enjoyable than Carrie: 1) The Wicker Man, 2) Deep Red, 3) Phantasm, 4) Halloween, 5) The Omen, 6) Burnt Offerings, 7) Theatre of Blood, 8) Don’t Torture a Duckling, 9) Rituals, and 10) The Hills Have Eyes. And I can name many more than that, if need be.

Carrie is a classic to so many people, but a single, albeit fantastic, sequence, doesn’t make something a classic to me. Obviously, if Carrie is one of your favorite 70s flicks, by all means, hold onto that. But it’s nowhere in my Top 50 horror flicks of the 1970’s, and it’s not a movie that I find myself going back to. Overall, there are some great performances here, and some really solid content, but the movie is below average in my opinion, and it’s not something I particularly enjoy much.

6/10

This is one of the films discussed on Fight Evil’s podcast, so if you’re interested in hearing Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss and somewhat debate this one, by all means, listen below.

Directed by William Lustig [Other horror films: Maniac (1980), Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1992), Uncle Sam (1996)]

This is a film I’ve seen before, and my initial positive feelings I had after first viewing it haven’t much changed. It’s not an amazing movie, but it’s a very solid late 80’s slasher with supernatural underpinnings.

My biggest complaint with the film is that some scenes strike me as oddly cut, as if there was supposed to be a bit more to them. Nothing story-wise is missing, and it mostly only happened during the first thirty minutes, but it was certainly noticeable. Another thing is story-based – while I enjoy movies focused around revenge, I generally like having some sense of sympathy for the individual seeking revenge, which was entirely lacking here.

I’m not much a fan of police, given the history of their brutality toward various minority communities (at least in the USA), not to mention outright murder and other sickening, indefensible acts, so when there’s a cop who is thrown into prison for police brutality, as the killer cop in this film was, and he ends up getting attacked in prison, I can’t help but cheer for the prisoners. Many cops are bad enough, but the violent, zero tolerance officers, as Cordell seemingly was, are certainly not worth sympathy.

Tom Atkins (Night of the Creeps and Halloween III: Season of the Witch) does well here, though I can’t say I overly care for where his story takes him. More interesting is Bruce Campbell (of The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II fame), who is fun to see here. He doesn’t necessarily blow the roof off the building, but his character was pretty interesting. Laurene Landon isn’t a name I know, but she does fine here, thought she’s nothing overly special. Someone who is special, though, is Robert D’Zar, with his imposing physique that totally makes the character of Matt Cordell the memorable killer that he is. Though he has little dialogue, D’Zar really steals the scenes he’s in.

There are some great death scenes in the film, and also a solid use of flashbacks. For the kills, perhaps the breakout sequence, along with the St. Patrick’s Day scenes, are my favorite, but most of the deaths here, even the strangulations, are solid. I did enjoy the flashbacks, giving us more meat to the story, and certainly never boring (which is something that could really be said for most of Maniac Cop, as it consistently keeps up a good pace). Also, while it was somewhat quick, I enjoyed the conclusion also.

As the movie stands, Maniac Cop isn’t amazing, like I said. It’s certainly a lot of fun, and I love how Cordell’s character has a consistent aura of mystery around him (such as obscuring his face until the finale), but it’s not a film I’d rate nearly as high as some other 80’s classics. This all said, Maniac Cop is a good viewing, and a solid rewatch, certainly one that I’d recommend to anyone interested.

8/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s podcast, so if interested, listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss it and having fun.

Directed by Joy N. Houck Jr. [Other horror films: Women and Bloody Terror (1970), The Night of the Strangler (1972), Creature from Black Lake (1976)]

This proto-slasher isn’t without potential, but unfortunately, the quality of the widely-available print leaves a hell of a lot to be desired, so despite some decent scenes in the film, along with a solid finale, much of the film is almost intolerably mediocre.

Gerald McRaney, an actor I don’t know (though this is his first of many roles) did decent as a young man potentially breaking down. Playing his long-time doctor, Herbert Nelson does well also. We don’t particularly see a lot of Evelyn Hendricks, but she had some okay time in the limelight. Pretty much no other characters really mattered, as they appeared for just a few minutes before getting killed.

My problems with Night of Bloody Horror notwithstanding, the kill scenes are all decent. There’s an individual getting stabbed in the eye with a needle, someone taking an ax to the chest, and another getting their hand chopped off. I wanted more build-up to these scenes, you know, with some actual tension, but the scenes themselves are good.

I get the sense that this was partially inspired by Psycho, one of the most well-known proto-slashers, but despite the fact Night of Bloody Horror managed to get made in color, it doesn’t come close to outshining it’s spiritual predecessor. A lot of this, in my view, has to do with both how muddy the color can sometimes be, along with the rather muffled sound of much of the audio.

There was a movie that came out a few years after this, on a side-note, titled Three on a Meathook; also, Scream Bloody Murder (Fred Holbert starring), and both of these films, along with being proto-slashers, share a lot in common with Night of Bloody Horror. Of the three, though it came first, Night of Bloody Horror is probably my least favorite. Even when I first saw it, I wasn’t overly impressed, and now, while I see that it has potential, it just doesn’t really work that well.

5.5/10

Directed by Murray Mintz [Other horror films: N/A]

What could have been a promising early slasher of the 1980’s was ultimately little more than a rather dull crime/drama flick with elements of horror sprinkled in far too sparingly.

Cardiac Arrest, what with it’s feel, had the sensibilities of a 70’s flick, and while I don’t have an issue with 70’s crime flicks (The Laughing Policeman and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three are both films I enjoyed), I can’t say that much of this wasn’t utterly dry. I liked the main detectives well enough, but that wasn’t enough to keep the story interesting.

As it was Garry Goodrow and Michael Paul Chan did fine as the two main detectives, and I sort of liked the way they worked together, but Cardiac Arrest was 80% crime, 15% drama, and 5% horror, and that might be generous. I found the story, for a crime movie, decent, but it was very far from engaging.

Unfortunately, the poster for the film foreshadows a lot more promise than what the film is ever able to deliver, because save one or two scenes, this barely counts as a horror film. It hurts more because this is one that I’ve been interesting in seeing for at least six years – truth be told, past a certain point, I wasn’t expecting much, but I was still somewhat disappointed.

The really sad thing is that, if this wasn’t put out there as a horror film, it would have probably made a decent television pilot, like The Streets of San Francisco’s hour-and-a-half pilot that dealt with Satanism. But as a movie that’s marketed toward horror fans, Cardiac Arrest was just way too dull and meandering.

5/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s podcast, so if you want to listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss Cardiac Arrest, by all means, enjoy.

Directed by Paul Ziller [Other horror films: Snakehead Terror (2004), Swarmed (2005), Beyond Loch Ness (2008), Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008), Troglodyte (2008), Ba’al (2008), Iron Invader (2011), Ghost Storm (2011)]

Pledge Night’s not great, by any means, but there’s enough here to keep me entertained, and having seen this one twice now, I can say it’s somewhere around average.

There’s one thing I want to get out of the way first before jumping into this one: I detest and abhor fraternities and their hazings. It’s nothing more than psychological (and sometimes physical) torture, bolstered by nothing but pointless tradition and the psychology behind sunk costs. You can find a list of those who have died during hazing practices, and once you understand that many in Greek life still willingly join organizations that haze, and don’t speak up about it, you may be able to understand my utter disgust with sororities and fraternities.

I bring that up because the first forty minutes of this movie deals with the hazing of six pledges to [insert random Greek alphabet here]. Is some of it harmless? Sure, but almost all of it is psychological torture, and shows that the organization is not one worth being in to begin with. As a few of the pledges say, though, if they hadn’t attempted to pledge to a frat, their fathers would be disappointed (macho men wanting their sons to go through abuse – great parenting).

After forty minutes of this, we get to the horror, in which the zombie/demon of a previous pledge who died during a hazing (which is within the realm of possibility, as to this day, kids are still being killed by Greek life) returns and goes on a rampage. Oh, also another Greek brother also kills a few people, but it’s not entirely clear if that guy was just driven to his behavior by his own mental instability or somehow possessed by Sid, the returning pledge.

Of the six pledges, only James Davies fails to make an impression. It’s true that both David Neal Evans and Robert Lentini don’t add much, but as this is the only acting role from either, I don’t much hold that against them. Dennis Sullivan (who is memorable only due to his hella slick haircut) and Craig Derrick are both fun, but neither really gets that much to do past a certain point.

The two main characters, played by Todd Eastland and Shannon McMahon, are good, though I will admit to McMahon being virtually indistinguishable from the other Sorority girls there (all three had small nude scenes, so kudos there, I guess). Michael T. Henderson is pretty solid in his role, and Arthur Lundquist, who played the potentially possessed Frat brother, really did come across as reasonably insane at times (that cackle was top notch).

I wouldn’t say many of the kills are really good, but there are a few memorable ones here regardless, such as the cherry bomb scene, a strangulation sequence, an okay electrocution, and this dude getting stabbed in the back multiple times. That last kill mentioned was almost my favorite, but then a girl got killed by an electric egg beater, which wasn’t much in the way of gory, but it did have character.

The problem here is that the killer, Sid, spews these one-liners which really lack comedic value. Up until his appearance in the film, one could easily be excused for not seeing this as a comedy-horror, but then Sid comes in and ruins the perception. It’s not as bad as Freddy later got, but it wasn’t really worth it either. Related, there is one scene in which Sid emerges from someone’s body, which reminded me of a much lower quality version of the classic scene from Freddy’s Revenge, so hey, that’s worth seeing.

I will say, though, there was one funny line – ‘Maybe we should turn the light off as a group’ – that cracked me up considerably.

Pledge Night isn’t a movie I loved when I first saw it, but it is reasonably watchable. It’s enjoyable to an extent, and while I wish they had gotten to the horror aspects quicker (forty minutes in seems a bit of a long wait), it’s still okay. If you’re a fan of late 80’s horror, this movie fits the bill, so give it a go. Just be aware that it may not stand out come the credits.

6.5/10

This is one of the films covered on Fight Evil’s podcast. Listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss it below.

Directed by Bud Townsend [Other horror films: Nightmare in Wax (1969)]

Perhaps better known under the (admittedly more memorable) title Terror at Red Wolf Inn, Terror House is an interesting, though ultimately somewhat forgettable, little movie.

The plot is of mild interest, what with young women being lured to a remote inn for a vacation, only to eventually be killed and consumed by the elderly cannibalistic owners, and it’s that cannibal aspect that I find most unique. Two years before The Texas Chain Saw Massacre hit the scene, we have a movie with a cannibalistic family going after people, which makes me wonder why this one isn’t mentioned a bit more.

Truth be told, there’s not a whole lot I wanted to touch upon on Terror House, but a few things stand out, such as the peacefully catchy opening song (credited as ‘My Dream’ by Marilyn Lovell), a folk-county piece that pulls you into the movie. Okay, it’s not that good, but it was a nice, somewhat cheesy, song, and it looks like I’ll have to rip it from the movie itself as no other videos seem to exist of it online.

Within the film, two scenes stand out, both of which are amazingly ridiculous. In the first scene, our main character Regina (played by Linda Gillen) finds out she’s won a vacation to the mysterious Red Wolf Inn, and excited beyond comprehension, she runs out of her dorm room to tell her neighbors, or anyone, that ‘I’m a winner! I won! I’m a winner!’ Such exuberance has nary been witnessed before on screen. It’s just hilarious.

Also hilarious is when a somewhat off man named Baby John (played by John Neilson) sees a shark swimming near the shore, and he freaks out, screaming ‘SHARK!’ and then mercilessly beating it to death on a rock, then once done, turns to Regina, only to say that he loves her. He walks away. Regina’s confused. Cue end scene.

Despite what these two scenes might otherwise suggest, like most 70’s horror, Terror House generally took itself seriously. The older cast members (Arthur Space and Mary Jackson) were both seemingly sweet, but turned out rather sadistic, and while there’s not much in the way of gore here, there were a few solidly suspenseful sequences that weren’t too shabby.

Linda Gillen wasn’t amazing here, but she did have that youthful naiveté that I sort of appreciated, though how she fell for a guy like Baby John (John Neilson), I’ll never understand. She did seem a little bit of a ditz, so maybe she didn’t think too much on it. Neilson, for his part, was sort of interesting, as his character was conflicted between following the family tradition or breaking free of the madness and finding a potential stability. Both Arthur Space and Mary Jackson were fun, all things considered.

As interesting as portions of Terror House are, there’s also a fair share of dull sequences, such as multiple scenes eating dinner (always awkward), or just a general slow-moving plot. Mill Creek Entertainment’s copy of the movie isn’t great, but at least this got a DVD release, however cheap, because otherwise, I suspect this would even more unknown.

The conclusion of the film was questionable, but I did appreciate the layout of the credits (setting things up like an old-fashioned menu, which was pretty cute). Overall, while the goofy scenes are a treat, I don’t think Terror House is a movie that I’d revisit all that often, and can only tepidly recommend it for a single watch.

5.5/10