Jiggy's Horror Corner

Directed by Ti West [Other horror films: The Roost (2005), Trigger Man (2007), The House of the Devil (2009), The Innkeepers (2011), V/H/S (2012, segment ‘Second Honeymoon’), The ABCs of Death (2012, segment ‘M is for Miscarriage’), The Sacrament (2013), X (2022), Pearl (2022), MaXXXine (2024)]

I sort of wanted to like this movie, if for no other reason, to erase the taste of the first from my mouth. But while this movie had some pretty decent effects and disgustingly heavy gore, I felt extraordinarily lukewarm toward it as the credits began to roll.

Let’s get the good out of the way, which won’t take too long. I liked both Noah Segan and Alexi Wasser in their roles. I thought they played a cute couple, despite not really being a couple until perhaps the end. Neither one has been in much I’ve particularly seen, but they did well here with what they had. The idea behind the film, in which contaminated water spreads the skin-eating disease past the perimeters of the original, was fun. I just don’t think it was executed well.

Lastly, the gore was moderately top-notch. There were two scenes that were frankly difficult to stomach (keywords being “fingernail” and “dick”), and though I felt repulsed, I can’t deny those scenes’ efficacy. The problem is, I expected a bit more during the prom sequence. Sure, every other person was throwing up blood, but come on, that’s it? No body parts falling off? No grisly face melts? It just felt toned down, which could probably be explained by the fact they hadn’t been exposed to the disease long enough for those extreme effects to be seen, but even so, it was disappointing.

Also disappointing was the pretty unexciting first half of the movie. I don’t mind a little high school drama, but come on, get to something good. Occasionally showing us the party cop from the first movie doesn’t do it for me. And while we’re at it, I was pretty disappointed in Giuseppe Andrews’ story-line in the movie. I was hoping for some type of redemption from his actions in the first, but instead, he sort of goes nowhere.

Speaking of useless sequences, though, the final ten minutes, starting in the strip club, didn’t strike me as necessary at all. What did we learn from that? The disease is spreading still? As if that was supposed to take us by surprise…

The animated opening and finale was sort of interesting, but this movie didn’t do much at all for me. I was hoping (though not seriously expecting) a more serious tone, but again, it wasn’t to be. Did I enjoy Spring Fever more than the first movie? Probably, yes, but it’s not by much, and much like the first movie, I really can’t see myself deciding to give this one a re-watch for the enjoyment of it.

5/10

Directed by Sean Byrne [Other horror films: The Loved Ones (2009)]

This is a simple, digestible, yet highly intense and enjoyable, horror flick.

Directed by Sean Byrne (his first full-length movie being 2009’s The Loved Ones, another very solid movie), The Devil’s Candy is pretty straight and to the point, with a moderately short run-time and not all that many characters to play around with. Luckily, this low-fi approach doesn’t much hinder the movie, and in fact, makes the whole thing play out much more intense than I suspect it otherwise would have.

Music, be it heavy metal or deafening ambient, is used to fantastic effect throughout the film. Early on, the metal that daughter Zooey (played by Kiara Glasco) and her father, Jesse (Ethan Embry) bond over really humanizes them as characters, and who can’t help but smile at the mother’s (Shiri Appleby) amusement at the scene? It’s a good way to introduce the main characters of the film, and I think it gives them strong characterization from the off-set. Heavy ambiance is used to additional fantastic effect, especially toward the end – a loud boom, a few seconds pause, another loud boom. That alone assisted in ratcheting up the intensity.

And make no mistake, this movie is intense. While not all that gory, The Devil’s Candy certainly possesses a brutality to it, but also isn’t afraid to throw in some subtle, uncomfortable scenes. Much of the success of this is due to the actor’s fantastic performances.

Ethan Embry and Shiri Appleby both do a really good job, especially Embry during his more intense scenes when he’s spaced out. While both are solid, though, despite not having played all that many noteworthy roles, the true stars are both Kiara Glasco and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Glasco has had some roles in a few television shows (Bitten and Copper, though I’ve seen neither one), and does amazingly here, as we feel her urgency and desperation toward the end. She’s a lovable kid, her love of metal fun, and is a very memorable character. Glasco did very well with her portrayal. Vince is a known quantity, perhaps best known for his role in 2003’s Identity, and here, he’s appropriately creepy, menacing, and brutal.

What helps The Devil’s Candy out the most is the solid cast, and because that cast does so well, what on the surface might seem a simple movie is really an intense ride from start to finish. Because it’s a bit on the shorter side, nothing seems out of place or slow, and everything is paced well. Like I said, it’s a digestible movie that deserves all the praise it can get. One of the best horror movies I’ve seen from the last five years or so.

9/10

Directed by Paul Leni [Other horror films: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924), The Cat and the Canary (1927), The Last Warning (1928)]

Directed by Paul Leni, The Man Who Laughs is a masterfully moody, occasionally tragic, piece of melodrama, with a few spices of horror thrown in.

The historical nature of the plot did the movie well, as the set pieces and costumes all looked rather authentic. The pbrooding nature of the story was well-done too, helped by the score, which, while not perfect, felt as though it could have been the score when first this movie came out, over ninety years ago.

It’s the actors who should get the most accolades, though; Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, Brandon Hurst, Cesare Gravina, and George Siegmann all make this movie a film well worth watching.

Veidt, by this point, may need no introduction. He was in a plethora of silent horror classics, including Furcht (or Fear), Unheimliche Geschichten (Eerie Tales), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), Orlacs Hände (The Hands of Orlac), Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (Waxworks), Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague), and The Last Performance. That’s not even counting the unfortunately-lost Der Januskopf (The Head of Janus), which was an unauthorized version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (much like Nosferatu was to Dracula).

Conrad Veidt got around, and it’s clear, from this movie, to see how. He possessed an extraordinarily emotional range, and his character, the tragic figure of Gwynplaine, was very well-acted. Throughout the film, Veidt’s performance is truly a treat to watch.

Philbin wasn’t in all that many films, but she did co-star in the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, with Lon Chaney, and again, with Veidt, in the 1929 The Last Performance. Here, she plays a beautiful blind woman, named Dea, who is deeply in love with Gwynplaine, despite never having seen his disfigured face. Playing her role convincingly, Philbin stood out strong.

Brandon Hurst, who had small roles in various early horror flicks (such as 1932’s Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1920’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and 1932’s White Zombie) gets credit for playing one of the slimiest silent characters with his portrayal of Barkilphedro. Sinister, yet suave, Hurst did well in showing the sleaziness of his character throughout the whole of the film, and from his very first scene, you can’t help but hold Barkilphedro in abhorrence.

Gravina isn’t much known outside of this movie. He had a few uncredited roles in classics like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera (1923 and 1925), and mainly dabbled in early Italian shorts. Here, he doesn’t get a whole lot of screen-time, but during one scene in particular, his performance broke my heart. Such sad, moving scenes generally aren’t what I’d expect from silent films, but that one just killed me.

Siegmann, who I spoke about also in my review for The Cat and the Canary, isn’t that big a name insofar as horror is concerned, though he did appear in the 1909 short The Sealed Room and 1914’s The Avenging Conscience. Here, he played Dr. Hardquanonne, a rather sadistic individual who disfigured Gwynplaine. I wish that he got more screen-time than he did, because like Hurst, he was a dark force to be reckoned with, but still, this being his final role before his early death, Siegmann did quite well.

The cast of this movie is amazing, and the film, as a whole, is an atmospheric, moody piece of art. While it would be unfair to call it a horror film in the purest definition, The Man Who Laughs is a dark classic, and while the ending is not nearly as tragic as one might expect, there are plenty of sad scenes throughout. I didn’t really appreciate this when I first saw it, and even now, it makes a better drama film than a horror film, without a doubt, but even so, this Leni classic is one that any movie fan should look out for.

8.5/10

Directed by Christopher Leitch [Other horror films: I’ve Been Waiting for You (1998), Secrets in the Walls (2010)]

This television movie is a remake of a 1973 television movie of the same name. In fact, the Dean of the college in this movie is played by Kate Jackson, who played a girl in the original version. I’m suspecting, by-and-large, that the only reason they chose to remake a Satanic 70’s television movie was due to the moderate then-recent success of The Craft (which came out in 1996). I’ve not seen the 70’s movie myself, so I can’t compare them, but I can attest to my feelings that this one is sort of fun.

Now, make no mistake – this is not a good movie. But perhaps due to the lower-quality (if you’ve seen one early 2000’s television movie, you know what I’m talking about), or the utter silliness of some of the special effects (wolves turning into humans, killer lightning bolts striking and lighting girls on fire, and crows/ravens with glowing red eyes), I found that Satan’s School for Girls has some charm.

The cast was okay for a television production. Shannen Doherty did fine as the main character, I guess. I sort of got the sense her heart wasn’t in the movie, but given what the movie is, I think that is moderately forgivable. Daniel Cosgrove (who has appeared frequently in soap operas in the past) played his character a bit generically, but still had a surprise up his sleeves. The aforementioned Kate Jackson did decently well until the end, when she had to deliver some rather cheesy dialogue during the *cue dramatic music* ultimate showdown.

Perhaps my favorite actor was Richard Joseph Paul, who played a sleazy college professor. I mean, this guy dated multiple students (in an all-girl school), and more so, did it openly. He would literally go to parties the students throw and show up with his student squeeze, not even trying to hide it. Paul’s character was a hoot and a half, and if you watch this movie, keep your eye on him, because he’s good fun.

Many aspects of this movie aren’t great. The music is exceptionally weak, the special effects were horrendous (as you’d expect from most TV movies), and very little suspense is ever really felt. Still, though I’ve seen this movie before (I suspect it’s been at least ten years), a few things caught me pleasantly by surprise, and a twist or two took me for a ride. Nothing spectacular, but when I finally figured out where the movie was going (a testament to how much I remembered about it), I thought to myself, “Damn, that’s cool.”

This remake is a goofy, cheesy movie. The epilogue was laugh-your-ass-off awful. But it still had some charm to it, so while I definitely think it’s a bit below average, I do think it’s close. Satan’s School for Girls is far from perfect, but damn it, I still had fun. Take that to the bank.

6.5/10

Directed by David DeCoteau [Other horror films: Dreamaniac (1986), Creepozoids (1987), Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988), Murder Weapon (1989), Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991), Blonde Heaven (1995), Skeletons (1997), Shrieker (1998), Curse of the Puppet Master (1998), Talisman (1998), Frankenstein Reborn! (1998), The Killer Eye (1999), Witchouse (1999), Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (1999), Totem (1999), Retro Puppet Master (1999), Voodoo Academy (2000), Prison of the Dead (2000), The Brotherhood (2001), Final Stab (2001), The Brotherhood 2: Young Warlocks (2001), The Frightening (2002), Wolves of Wall Street (2002), The Brotherhood III: Young Demons (2003), Leeches! (2003), Speed Demon (2003), Ring of Darkness (2004), Tomb of Terror (2004, segment ‘Evil Never Dies’), The Sisterhood (2004), Possessed (2005), The Brotherhood IV: The Complex (2005), Killer Bash (2005), Witches of the Caribbean (2005), Frankenstein & the Werewolf Reborn! (2005), Beastly Boyz (2006), Grizzly Rage (2007), The Raven (2007), House of Usher (2008), The Brotherhood V: Alumni (2009), The Brotherhood VI: Initiation (2009), The Pit and the Pendulum (2009), Nightfall (2009), Puppet Master: Axis of Evil (2010), A Dream Within a Dream (2011), 1313: Wicked Stepbrother (2011), 1313: Actor Slash Model (2011), 1313: Boy Crazies (2011), 1313: Giant Killer Bees! (2011), 1313: Haunted Frat (2011), 1313: Bigfoot Island (2011), 1313: Cougar Cult (2012), Snow White: A Deadly Summer (2012), 1313: Night of the Widow (2012), 1313: Frankenqueen (2012), 2: Voodoo Academy (2012), Immortal Kiss: Queen of the Night (2012), Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft (2013), The Dead Reborn (2013), 3 Wicked Witches (2014), 666: Kreepy Kerry (2014), Devilish Charm (2014), Knock ’em Dead (2014), Bigfoot vs. D.B. Cooper (2014), 90210 Shark Attack (2014), 3 Scream Queens (2014), Evil Exhumed (2016), Sorority Slaughterhouse (2016), Asian Ghost Story (2016), Bloody Blacksmith (2016), Swamp Freak (2017), Puppet Master: Blitzkrieg Massacre (2018), Bunker of Blood: Chapter 6: Zombie Lust: Night Flesh (2018), Bunker of Blood: Chapter 5: Psycho Sideshow: Demon Freaks (2018)]

This movie is wholly too goofy for me to get into. I’m not entirely averse to silly horror movies – when I saw Terror Toons (2002) perhaps five years back, I sort of liked it. But there’s a line to how much I can take, and Nightmare Sisters went far, far past it.

There’s some appeal to the movie, to be sure. Linnea Quigley’s a big name in horror, for good reason, having appeared in such classics as Graduation Day, Silent Night, Deadly Night, The Return of the Living Dead, and Night of the Demons, and she’s a treat to see. Some of the other actors/actresses were decent, such as Brinke Stevens (perhaps the most attractive of the three girls) and William Dristas.

But Nightmare Sisters went overboard with it’s comedic style. The beginning fortune-teller portion overstays its welcome (“Hokey smokes, that’s a lot of ashes,” I admit, did get a slight chuckle), and then it takes something like fifty minutes until we’re given something resembling suspense. The somewhat famous bubble bath scene was okay, but again, after a few minutes, it doesn’t really add anything to the movie aside from more skin, which we really didn’t need.

I first saw this October 2017 during a horror movie challenge, and I was looking forward to it. What exactly I was expecting, I’m not sure, but I was disappointed then, and with a second viewing, I’m disappointed still. It may be a piece of 80’s cheese, and I know that it has it’s fans, but it’s far too cheesy for me.

4/10

Nightmare Sisters was covered on Fight Evil’s eighth podcast, and you can listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I talk about this below.

Directed by Paul Leni [Other horror films: Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924), The Man Who Laughs (1928), The Last Warning (1928)]

A classic of silent cinema for a reason, The Cat and the Canary is a wonderfully-made dark house horror-comedy mix that stands up to this day.

Directed by Paul Leni (Waxworks, The Man Who Laughs, and The Last Warning being his greatest additions to horror besides this), The Cat and the Canary is a very well-done and atmospheric movie, which certainly feels as though it possesses the artistic flair of Leni’s previous Waxworks. The comedy isn’t too pervasive (though one gag does run a little long), and it’s even moderately welcomed at times (the line “I thought I had an appointment, now I’m sure of it” still got a kick out of me).

This silent flick has a lot of flair to it. The inter-titles are cleverly used to indicate mood (shaky text when one is scared, all caps when someone shouts, etc.), and the setting of an old, dark mansion was fun. As was the plot – who doesn’t like a good will-reading, old, dark house mystery, and a killer known as The Cat? Toward the end, when everyone was running around doing their own things, it amazed me how much action a silent movie was able to emulate. And I do mean silent. The print I happened to see this time around had no score, but unlike most silent films, that didn’t really seem to take anything away from the movie. It was still suspenseful when suspense was called for, so it worked out well.

The cast was pretty solid throughout. Laura La Plante (who is also in Leni’s 1928 The Last Warning) did fantastic as the main woman, who everyone thought was going insane. Creighton Hale (who starred also in Seven Footprints to Satan, 1929), who started off a comic relief character, slowly became the hero of the film, and held his own against the killer toward the end of the movie is a show of bravery. Though Tully Marshall wasn’t onscreen for that long a period of time, he also stood out positively.

Martha Mattox, who played a grim housekeeper to great effect, was another solid performance. Mattox, coincidentally, appeared in a couple of early 30’s films I really liked (Murder by the Clock from 1931 and The Monster Walks from 1932) before her early death at 53 in 1933. George Siegmann, like Marshall, only appeared a handful of times, but was also pretty solid. Siegmann, like many of the others I’ve mentioned, has a history with silent horror, not only appearing in Leni’s next movie, The Man Who Laughs from 1928, but also appeared back in 1914’s The Avenging Conscience. As it turns out, Siegmann died in 1928, so The Man Who Laughs would be his final movie.

Lastly, playing a seemingly-sinister doctor, Lucien Littlefield did fantastic. Unfortunately, he only appears toward the tail-end of the film, but it’s still solid enough to stand out.

The Cat and the Canary is a silent horror flick with style, and while I admit I didn’t care for it much the first time I saw it (many years ago, when I was something like 14 or 15), it certainly comes across a far more enjoyable movie now, and is a highlight of the 1920’s.

8.5/10

Directed by Jack Sholder [Other horror films: Alone in the Dark (1982), The Hidden (1987), Natural Selection (1994), Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999), Arachnid (2001), 12 Days of Terror (2004)]

I’ve seen this movie so many times, it’s really hard to take a step back and look at the whole picture. Portions of this movie are really cool, and the special effects are amazing (Freddy popping out of Jesse’s body, Freddy’s melting face at the end, etc.), but the movie, as a final product, is rather nonsensical.

There were subplots that weren’t really expanded on (such as why the house was hot, why things kept catching fire or exploding), elements of Freddy’s abilities that weren’t touched upon the previous movie, and the fact that almost all of Freddy’s appearances toward the end seem to be in this reality, not a dream world, was left completely alone.

The movie is a mess. But as much a mess as it is, I still think it’s fun and rather unique, which makes sense as it’s probably the black sheep of the original series (the first film to Freddy’s Dead).

Despite having a bunch of no-name actors, I think things work out okay. Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, and Marshall Bell are all pretty memorably characters (especially Bell, who dominated as a gay gym coach). The acting isn’t great, and sure, sometimes Myers’ got a bit much, but still, I think it worked. Robert Englund, of course, did well as Freddy.

Somewhat related, while it doesn’t really make sense to me, I did like the whole poolside massacre sequence. Solid stuff, including one of my favorite lines of Freddy’s, being, “You are all my children now.” Again, it doesn’t make sense, but it’s a fun scene.

The original movie is a beloved classic, so any sequel would come as a disappointment, and given that this one is so far removed from the first, it hits this one even harder. And without a doubt, the third movie blows this one out of the water. But still, I’ve seen this movie multiple times, perhaps seven, eight times now, and Freddy’s Revenge is fun. Wish they tried tightening the story, or doing more with Grady, or even touching more on what is obviously Jesse’s battle with his sexuality, but still, it’s a fun mess. And it’s still better than the god-awful fifth movie.

7.5/10

This sequel was covered on episode #32 of Fight Evil’s podcast, so if you wanna hear Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and myself discuss this on, give it a shot.

Directed by Bennett Cohen [Other horror films: N/A]

At under 55 minutes, Midnight Faces doesn’t appear to have a lot going for it on the surface. But if you’re a fan of the old dark house mystery type movies (old dark houses, reading of wills, secret passages, multiple suspects, etc), then I think you’d have a blast with this one.

The plot isn’t any better or any worse than any other dark house mystery, but the setting (a mansion in the Florida swamps) is decently fun. Mildly related, while the copy I saw had multiple issues (which I’ll expand on in a bit), I did like the greenish tint most of this movie had. Really helped the audience feel the more swampy atmosphere.

Despite being short, Midnight Faces has no lack of characters, with eleven individuals popping up now and again. Luckily, most of these people, despite the blurriness of the copy, are easily distinguishable. Francis X. Bushman Jr. does a good job as the main character, and despite the ever-present racial stereotypes of the times, his body man, a character named Trohelius Washington Snapp (played by Martin Turner) was occasionally amusing at times also.

The print I viewed, and I believe to be most common, has a multitude of problems, including color tinting fading from a lighter to a darker shade (at times, almost appearing black-and-white), cropped poorly, generally bad picture quality (even for a silent movie), and a repetitive score (it seemed to loop only three pieces of classical music). On the upside, one of the pieces was Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, which was pleasantly calming.

In short, the commonly available print may not be up to high standards, but if you got a kick out of movies like The Cat and the Canary, The Bat Whispers, One Body Too Many, The Monster Walks, or any number of old dark house mysteries, or if you’re into silent movies, I’d give this one a shot. After seeing this one a few times, I still enjoy it, so maybe others will too.

7.5/10

Directed by Vincent Masciale [Other horror films: N/A]

For all intents and purposes, Fear, Inc. is basically a horror version of The Game (1997). Halfway through the film, the main character himself, Joe (Lucas Neff), alludes to as much.

The plot is certainly similar – bothered by the fact that the haunted house he and his girlfriend often go to isn’t scary enough, Joe decides to take a stranger (Patrick Renna, from Dark Ride and X-Files episode “Bad Blood”) up on his offer and call Fear, Inc., a company that specializes in custom scares. When he does, he finds himself, along with his girlfriend and friends, in very real trouble. Or is it all a game?

Fear, Inc. keeps you guessing on whether or not the whole thing is an elaborate prank, though it’s answered at the end of the film. Plenty of references to other horror films occur, given the fact Joe (again, Neff) is a big horror fan: Friday the 13th, Saw, April’s Fools Day, A Nightmare on Elm Street, randomly Game of Thrones, and even I Know What You Did Last Summer all played a small part in the film, though Saw being the most extensive.

When watching the movie, I didn’t quite know what route it ultimately was going to take – whether it’d be a Seven Footprints to Satan (1929) type ending or not, I went back-and-forth on. Plenty of surprises occur throughout the film, though I think most of them could be expected. The gore, though there’s not a whole lot, is decently done. While many of the actors and actresses feel more generic than not (including Caitlin Stasey, Chris Marquette, and Stephanie Drake), the main character Joe, played by Lucas Neff, did a really good job playing the stoner/goofball/thinks-the-whole-thing’s-a-joke type of guy, and for his short screen time, Richard Riehle (from Hatchet and a few hundred other things – seriously, his IMDb credits are boss) was fun also.

While labeled a comedy/horror, it seemed to me that the comedy was notched down from what it otherwise could have been. There’s a few amusing lines here and there at the beginning, but past a certain point, the film takes a mostly serious tone, which I appreciated. The ending, while foreshadowed, didn’t really work out that well in my opinion, but everything before that made this film a fun romp. I find the film almost above average, partially teetering that line. Generally, though, I’d recommend it.

7/10