Tag: USA

Directed by William Wesley [Other horror films: Scarecrows (1988)]

I have to say that Route 666 surprised me. Though by no means would I call the film good in a traditional sense, it can be oddly fun, and I think a lot of that comes from the performances involved here.

To be sure, I have seen Route 666 once before, though like many of the films I’ve watched recently (Swarmed and Hard Ride to Hell, for instance), it’s been so long that I only remembered the vaguest outline of this. In fact, I thought it was a zombie movie going in – which might be an easy mistake to make – only to be surprised that it’s more ghostly in nature.

While pleasant in some ways, which I’ll touch on shortly, it does fall flat in some areas, mostly the story. One of the characters here has a relationship with one of the ghosts, and late in the film, we have a situation where this ghost has to decide whether or not to turn on his ghostly hombres. That comes with the occasional psychic flash a character suffers, and while there’s not many of them, I wasn’t overly impressed with those sequences.

Also, a lot of the action here is quite jerky. I don’t know if I can explain it better than that – the ghosts move in jerky motions, and the action is often in the same vein. It’s not headache-inducing or anything, but it was notable, and not in a positive way, but an annoying one. Lastly, as far as complaints go, I felt some of the antagonists that pop up toward the end could have done with a bit more reasoning behind their actions, and what they were attempting to accomplish struck me as a bit extreme.

Those elements aside, Route 666 isn’t a bad slice of entertainment. A lot of this comes from the central performances of Lou Diamond Phillips, Steven Williams, and Lori Petty. Phillips (who I know from his recurring role on Numb3rs, along with the TV movie Hangman and films such as Bats and Carny) was a lot of fun in this action-oriented film, and worked great with Lori Petty (a couple of episodes of House and Bates Motel, randomly, is where I knew her best from) and Williams (from The X-Files and The Fear Chamber). All three of them were great – I loved Petty’s sassy attitude, and Williams was just fun – and really added a lot to this film.

Out of the rest of the cast, I guess it’s fair to say both Dale Midkiff and L.Q. Jones were decent. Midkiff (of Pet Sematary and Nightmare Weekend fame) took a bit to really stand out, but once he did, I enjoyed his character, and while I didn’t love where Jones’ (The Brotherhood of Satan, The Strange and Deadly Occurrence) story went, it was fine. I did love seeing a brief appearance of Dick Miller (The Howling, Gremlins, and many other films) at the beginning, and Mercedes Colon, who popped up much later in Malignant, appeared, which was sort of random.

If anything makes the movie work, it’s the performances, because the story, while okay, doesn’t entirely cut it, and the gore is pretty non-existent, even when they had a chance for some violent jackhammer action. Someone did get their hand slammed in a door, which did look reasonably painful, and there was some occasionally fun gun-play (many of the characters are in government agencies, so much of the beginning is more action-oriented), but it’s not at all what I’d describe as gory.

Even so, I can’t say that I didn’t find a lot of the movie serviceable. I definitely didn’t love the conclusion, and elements that came up every now and again were less interesting, but overall, I had a better time with that than I thought I was going to. Of course, it being so long, I can’t remember what I thought about Route 666 when I first saw it, but I am pretty sure I enjoyed it a bit more this time around.

Honestly, Route 666 is still below average, but if you want a movie to have a good time with, you could do a lot worse than this one.

6.5/10

Directed by Penelope Buitenhuis [Other horror films: Killer Bees (2002)]

This is another of those movies that I’ve seen before, but it’s been a pretty long time. I believe I caught Hard Ride to Hell on IFC about ten years ago, and while I didn’t like it, I didn’t hate it. Seeing it again, I can sort of understand that feeling, because as much as I like portions of the film, overall, I can’t say it’s a movie I’d want to see too often.

Shaky is a good way to describe the story – elements are reminiscent of popular films from the 70’s, such as Race with the Devil, as the movie deals with a Satanic motorcycle gang, the leader of whom was cast out of Aleister Crowley’s inner circle for his depraved practices. I didn’t hate the story, until we got to the final thirty minutes or so, when another element was thrown in that I just didn’t care for whatsoever.

To the movie’s credit, there are a few pretty solid performances. Among them is Brent Stait (who had Robert Patrick swagger). I don’t know Stait (who appeared briefly in Final Destination 5), but his character here is fantastically bad-ass, and he reminded me of Henry Rollins’ character from Wrong Turn 2, which is a compliment, believe me. Also appearing was Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Freddy vs. Jason, American Mary, and 13 Eerie), who I entirely forgot was in the film. Isabelle’s performance is quite amusing at times, and has a good quote or two (“I don’t know, maybe the demon people-eating biker monsters can’t go in a church!”), so I dug it.

Other performances aren’t as strong. To be fair, Miguel Ferrer (The Night Flier, The Stand, Sightings: Heartland Ghost, and DeepStar Six) wasn’t bad, but I just didn’t get a great feel for his character. He was nice to see, regardless. Brandon Jay McLaren (Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon) also had some strong moments. Laura Mennell, though, felt weak at times, as did both Sebastian Gacki and Brendan Penny. Luckily, Stait, and Isabelle are more than enough to make up for their mild shortcomings.

Another element Hard Ride to Hell brings with a vengeance is the gore. It’s not over-the-top or anything, but there are plenty of violent portions. A man gets his arm cut off (and cauterized shortly thereafter), someone gets their face drug across a highway, another is forced to walk through glass. Toward the end, there’s some chainsaw action, and someone gets both of their hands cut off, which was also fun. Also, there’s a lot of knife action, mainly coming from Stait’s character, so the movie isn’t afraid to give us a little something something.

That’s not enough to make the movie good, though. Honestly, I enjoyed it a bit more than I was expecting, especially after an opening which I found rather weak (it’s about six minutes of characters speaking in Spanish, all without subtitles), but the finale was generally not great. In fact, without the gore and a few good performances, the movie wouldn’t really be worth it. I can’t say Hard Ride to Hell is worth it even with those elements, but they do make the film a lot more palatable.

I didn’t hate Hard Ride to Hell, and given the rather low rating it boasts on IMDb at the moment (3.8/10 with 1,140 votes, as of 11/29/2021), that’s an accomplishment in itself. It’s not a movie that I think I’d gravitate toward too often, but I’d be lying if I didn’t think some characters and gore made it almost worthwhile. I just wish the story had gone a better direction.

6.5/10

Directed by William Wesley [Other horror films: Route 666 (2001)]

So I have two things to say about Scarecrows before writing this review out: for one, Scarecrows is perhaps one of my favorite scarecrow horror films, and two, I am highly intoxicated at the moment.

This is the 155th movie I’ve seen in October of 2021, which is when this is being written. It’s been a long month, and I thought I might celebrate with some Jack Daniels whiskey that I had in my freezer for over a year. I don’t drink often, but I thought tonight might make a good occasion, and so I did.

I’ll say that Scarecrows is a decent movie, though it does possess some elements I can’t say I care for that much, such as how the scarecrows can somehow mimic other people that their victims know. It reminds me of the plants in The Ruins that mimicked cell phones – I didn’t mind it too much in The Ruins, but here, it felt sort of strange giving scarecrows some type of psychic power.

Even with that minor complaint in mind, I always appreciated the gore of this film. It’s not an overly gory film, but there are some solid moments, such as a scarecrow cutting a character;s hand off, and then stabbing his face after covering it with a burlap sack. That as perhaps the best scene, but you also someone who had their organs removed and replaced with only straw and money, which was relatively gruesome, along with someone who was stabbed through the hand with a pitchfork.

Only a couple performances really stand out here, being Michael David Simms, Ted Vernon (Zombie Infection and Bikini Swamp Girl Massacre), and Victoria Christian. Truth be told, Christian was somewhat generic, but I really liked Vernon here, as he was someone who actively partook in abducting people, but seemed to have a decent moral compass (as he took time to bury someone, and tried his hardest to help Christian’s character). Michael David Simms over-acted horribly at times, and I absolutely loved it.

Richard Vidan (also in the obscure Zombie Infection) is somewhat like Vernon’s character, only he doesn’t last near as long. Others, such as Kristina Sanborn and B.J. Turner, had their moments, but overall, it’s hard to say they really stood out all that well.

To be honest, Scarecrows isn’t a great movie. I talk a bit in my Scarecrow County review about the sad state of scarecrow horror films, so I won’t repeat it here, but there’s so few decent scarecrow horror films that a movie like Scarecrows, which definitely has some holes in it’s plot, can stand out positively.

And I think that stands true. Dark Night of the Scarecrow is perhaps a better example of the suspense that can be created within the framework of a scarecrow movie, but Scarecrows demonstrates the type of gore that could make the topic one worth exploring with a more serious attitude.

7.5/10

Directed by Kevin Tenney [Other horror films: Witchboard (1986), The Cellar (1988), Witchtrap (1989), Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway (1993), Pinocchio’s Revenge (1996), The Second Arrival (1998), Endangered Species (2002), Brain Dead (2007)]

Night of the Demons has never been a favorite of mine, but it can be a reasonably fun Halloween fair. It’s a bit silly for me at times, especially once the demons start making their presence known, but it has an engaging enough story and fun characters, so it’s not a bad watch.

I always loved the opening here – an animated look into the house featured in the film, with ghosts as curtains and monsters creeping up the stairs. It’s a fun little opening, getting you in the mood for the Halloween season, and I’ve always appreciated it.

Most of the cast are decent in the roles they’re supposed to play. I personally didn’t care much about Billy Gallo (Sal) or Lance Fenton (Jay), but others, such as the lead Cathy Podewell and the lucky Alvin Alexis, were sympathetic. Hal Havins (Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) was quite quotable, with lines such as “Shut up and drive, bitch!” and “Eat a bowl of fuck!” along with the fascinating exclamation “festering fuckwads!” Certainly a memorable character.

Speaking of memorable, Linnea Quigley’s first scene here is a doozy. It’s a scene that, believe it or not, has stuck with me since I first saw the film, and it’s always fun to watch. Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Graduation Day, Nightmare Sisters) isn’t really an actress that I care that much for, but she does have her moments, and I think this movie is one of her stronger roles.

The special effects here are all reasonably impressive. Night of the Demons isn’t a gory movie, generally, though there are some solid scenes, the best one being someone’s eyes having an unfortunate meeting with someone else’s thumbs. There’s also the somewhat bizarre ending, but it’s all in the spirit of Halloween.

And I think that’s perhaps the best thing about Night of the Demons – the Halloween spirit. Early in the film, we see a rather dark cartoon (The Cobweb Hotel from 1936) playing on TV, we have the animated opening, we see some pumpkins, we have costumes. This film has a solid Halloween vibe, and while it’s nowhere near as good as movies like Trick ‘r Treat or, well, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, it’s still not shabby.

Night of the Demons has never been a favorite, and for as much as it can get right, some of the humor toward the latter half of the film doesn’t do it for me. It’s just a bit goofy at times. It’s never overwhelming, but it’s there, and because of that, with as many times as I’ve seen this, I find the movie just around average. Worth watching for the Halloween vibe, though.

7/10

Directed by William Lustig [Other horror films: Maniac (1980), Maniac Cop (1988), Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1992)]

Uncle Sam might be a good example of a movie that’s better in concept than execution. It’s not a bad film, but I think there was a lot more potential here than what the final product displayed, and while portions were solid, I definitely think the movie could have been more memorable.

I think the basic plot is fun, which deals with the resurrection of a soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Kuwait going around his hometown and killing people. Some of the people he kills seems to be for ideological reasons – such as him going after a teacher who protested Vietnam back in the 1960’s – but others seem to be pure revenge, such as his wife who has moved on.

What makes the story mildly more interesting is that there’s a nephew of his, played by Christopher Ogden, who is quite the patriotic youth, and despite the fact his Uncle Sam wasn’t the nicest person in the world, the kid looks up to him, and respects him. He wants to join the military when he’s older, and do whatever the president tells him to, because “he knows best.”

I don’t know if this movie was intentionally attacking the idea of blind patriotism. I’d like to think so, and the poem spoken during the credits – ‘Desert Storm’ recited by William Smith (yes, the actor, who also has a small role in the film) – leads me to that conclusion, but even if the story is just supposed to be a story (fans of Stephen King’s best novel It should catch that reference), I do enjoy what I perceive as the anti-war message, which is best delivered by Isaac Hayes’ character, who was a soldier himself, and lost a leg in Korea.

And this might go without saying, but this movie never could have been made even five years later. After 9/11, patriotism was at an all-time high (along with other delightful things, like illogical wars and xenophobic attitudes toward Muslims, or those who could almost “look” Muslim, such as Sikhs or Hindus), and movies that questioned such fervent and emotional attitudes probably wouldn’t have done too well. None of this makes Uncle Sam a good movie, but it does make it an interesting movie to look at, at least through the political climate of the nearby years.

The main problem here is that the movie is simply adequate. Some of the kills are solid, such as someone being hung from a flagpole, or a cannon being shot at someone, or even someone getting stabbed by a flag, but I’d argue none of these are great kills, and even the decapitation here doesn’t really stand out. A lot of the film feels somewhat tepid, and while it’s nice to see a slasher shortly before Scream brings the subgenre back to prominence, I can see why this might not do a lot to advance love of the genre.

Of course, none of this is supposed to say the movie’s bad, because I don’t think it is. I think some elements are a bit off, such as Zachary McLemore’s wheelchair-bound character’s unspecified relationship with Uncle Sam, but the movie’s still palatable. It’s just that I think the story had a lot more potential, and while I’m glad they veered away from heavy comedy (there’s surprisingly few one liners here from the killer, which I appreciated), maybe that approach would have given the film a bit more flavor. At the very least, Uncle Sam’s costume design was pretty solid.

Christopher Ogden was good as the patriotic kid, and though I didn’t care for his blind worship of the military, he’s a young boy, and made a fascinating main character. Anne Tremko and Leslie Neale weren’t that relevant, but did have one good scene. Isaac Hayes took a bit to appear, but I rather enjoyed him, and while she didn’t do much at all, it was sort of nice seeing P.J. Soles (Halloween, B.O.R.N., and Carrie) here.

Like I said at the beginning, I think the concept of Uncle Sam is stronger than the final product. Make no mistake, this movie is superior to films like The Tripper, but it’s also true that William Lustig made a much more memorable film in Maniac Cop.

7/10

Directed by George A. Romero [Other horror films: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Hungry Wives (1972), The Amusement Park (1975), Martin (1976), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Creepshow (1982), Day of the Dead (1985), Monkey Shines (1988), Due occhi diabolici (1990, segment ‘The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar’), The Dark Half (1993), Bruiser (2000), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007), Survival of the Dead (2009)]

While The Crazies isn’t a favorite of mine, I always found it a unique take on a not too uncommon story, at least nowadays. It’s a bit meandering at times, but it’s overall solid, and has some strong elements.

It’s hard to pinpoint the antagonistic force here, which is partially why I find the film interesting. Certainly those infected with the virus would count, but the army invading a small Pennsylvania town would count also, and while they were following orders, they were also stealing money and other things (such as fishing poles) from private citizens, so the soldiers here are also sinister. So is the military sending the orders out – a plane crashed that had a bioweapon on it, and because of “national security” they need to round up American citizens like cattle.

Sometimes this is a frustrating movie to watch. It’s like a much more focused version of The Stand. I get needing to contain a virus, but of course if you don’t give adequate information to people, the people will fight back. Those soldiers who were killed throughout the film didn’t deserve that, but the higher ups in the military certainly did, and the fact that, as far as the film itself went, we never saw the story get out to the media about how a bioweapon created by the USA caused this, so appropriate blame could be placed on the American government, was sort of disheartening (not that you could expect anything less from the guy who ended Night of the Living Dead as he did).

My views on unjust military takeovers to cover their own mistakes aside, there are times when The Crazies doesn’t feel exactly well-written. We have our protagonists (Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, and Lane Carroll) and we have our insight into the military’s plans (mostly from Lloyd Hollar), but there are times when things don’t really feel focused. There’s action throughout, mostly revolving around the townspeople defending themselves from the invaders, but there’s still a bit of a dry aura at times here.

Few of the actors and actresses here stood out. I liked Will MacMillan as a lead, especially toward the end, and Harold Wayne Jones got some good scenes in, but it’s Lloyd Hollar’s role as the military colonel I found most interesting. I think he was trying his best with the situation thrown at him, but incompetence from the higher ups just made his job functionally impossible. I felt quite bad for Richard France’s character, and Lynn Lowry (one of the few to make a career of movies, as she was in films such as Beyond the Dunwich Horror, Shivers, and Basement Jack) had some solidly creepy moments.

It’s not at all a gory movie, and to be clear, it’s also rather low budget (though what George A. Romero was able to do with the budget, making a film with a rather fast-paced and tense plot, was impressive). There is a fun scene in which a bunch of townspeople attack the soldiers, one of them attacking with a pitchfork, stabbing a soldier’s wrist. In another scene, there’s a pretty solid headshot. Most of the violence here is due to gunfire, so there’s not many stand out scenes.

Which really applies to the movie as a whole. I’ve only seen it twice now, but despite it not being a great film, I also sort of liked it. It occasionally has a similar vibe to Night of the Living Dead, though as I said, this is significantly faster paced. Portions of the finale are quite tragic, but in a quiet way, and I think that, despite the best efforts of some involved, containing the biological weapon Trixie may not be something that’s even accomplishable.

Definitely a lesser work by Romero, but one that does have some charm, I think The Crazies is really around average. I rate it a little higher, due to the rather creepy suits the soldiers wear throughout, but this certainly isn’t a masterpiece in my eyes.

7.5/10

Directed by Danny Draven [Other horror films: Hell Asylum (2002), Cryptz (2002), Deathbed (2002), Dark Walker (2003), Urban Evil (2005), Tales from the Grave (2006, segment ‘Beyond Death’), I, Vampire (2006), Ghost Month (2009), Reel Evil (2012), The Dead Reborn (2013), Weedjies: Halloweed Night (2019)]

Horrorvision is perhaps one of the most dated films I’ve seen, and it wasn’t necessarily sensical at times, but it still has a bit of charm. It’s a Full Moon movie, and that certainly plays a part, but it’s also a somewhat interesting concept despite the rather poor execution.

I liked some portions of the plot, dealing with a website that, when seen, caused madness and mass murder. It featured early 2000’s technology – QuickTime was referenced, and someone boasted about hacking AOL and sending a virus through someone’s email – and it had that nostalgic charm.

To put a finer point on this, I was born in 1993, so I was pretty young in the early 2000’s, but I remember bits and pieces, especially post-9/11. Remember that site MadBlast? Or perhaps the game site PopCap, with games like PsychoBabble? Bonus.com, one of the best Flash game sites? The early 2000’s is my childhood, and a lot of movies from that time, despite not being good, do hold an appeal to me.

Horrorvision is a good example. It’s a poor film, and probably way too ambitious in it’s goals (it’s partially apocalyptic, which is seen primarily through news reports and via characters hearing about it), but seeing hideous technological monsters (which looked like cheap rejects from films like Hardware and Death Machine) pop out of technological devices (watches, beepers, that type of thing) and cause mayhem can be a decent amount of fun.

There’s also a sequence which features a creature/person called Wetwire that looked like some really bad Doctor Who antagonist. It looked ultra shitty, and I didn’t entirely get the point of this thing, but hey, it had heart. The special effects overall are quite poor, but if you find lower budget films from this time period charming, it might be worth it.

Len Cordova’s overacting at times was a bit much, but it was also funny at every turn, so I dug it. James Black (Zombie Cop) had a Morpheus from The Matrix thing going for him, and he was a fun character. Both Brinke Stevens (The Slumber Party Massacre, Nightmare Sisters, October Moon, and a hundred other movies) and Maggie Rose Fleck get a few good scenes in, especially Fleck, so they were reasonably enjoyable also.

[This is the paragraph where I would possibly compare this to Feardotcom, which has a similar idea, but I’ve not seen Feardotcom in over 15 years, so I’ll just leave this here to remind myself to watch it later on.]

Two more quick notes about Horrorvision: the runtime of this one is quite short, at around an hour and 12 minutes, and a good six minutes of that is traveling sequences (the one that takes place in a desert is the most unnecessary one), but it’s still a quick film, and also, the soundtrack of this was decent. It’s sort of a dark, electric rock type thing – “Strawberry Gashes” by Jack Off Jill played during the credits, which is a band I’ve not thought of in years, which was cool.

In many ways, Horrorvision is a bad movie, but I can’t say I didn’t occasionally feel a glimmer of enjoyment. It’s certainly below average, but I also think it’s somewhat certain I wouldn’t mind giving this another go in the future.

6/10

Directed by Michael S. O’Rourke [Other horror films: Deadly Love (1987)]

Moonstalker may not be a great movie; it’s pretty cheap, and it’s not overly memorable, but I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. For a late 80’s slasher, Moonstalker may not be the type of film you go back to often, but it can be a bit fun.

The story isn’t anything all that unique – a maniac runs around a campsite and kills people. At first, the maniac wears a mask (which is featured on the VHS cover, which, on a side-note, always struck me as a good cover), but that doesn’t last long, as the killer soon dons a Maniac Cop look, being a bulky man wearing sunglasses and a hat. The mask is cooler, but whateves, I can accept change.

Few of the scenes here are great, but there are a few okay kills, such as a quality impalement toward the finale, along with a decent amount of chopped off arms and limbs. Someone gets a throwing knife in their face, which was fun. There’s not much in the way of gore, but for a lower-budget slasher from this time period, I can take it.

I didn’t mind Joe Balogh (Demons 3/Black Demons, Hollywood’s New Blood, Hitcher in the Dark, and Monstrosity) as the lead, and in fact, I thought his story went to an almost interesting place. Jill Foors was okay, Alex Wexler had some moments, and John Marzilli was funny as a hardcore camp counselor, but aside from Balogh, it’s hard to say anyone stands out. Oh, and though I don’t remember her character, I wanted to mention Sioux-z Jessup because it’s a cool name.

Really, there’s not a whole lot to Moonstalker. It starts off with a family on vacation falling prey to the killer, and then the killer attacks a nearby camp, and that’s pretty much the extent to the movie. It rarely gets more complicated than that – there’s no mystery, and only marginal suspense. Even so, I know when I first saw the movie, I thought it was sort of fun, and I still feel much the same way. Plus, it was filmed entirely in snowy Nevada, so that was sort of cool.

It’s not a movie that I suspect many would find great (though the 80’s synth soundtrack is pretty damn phat), and it’s not among the best of late 80’s slashers (Intruder has to be up there), but it’s reasonably fun, and I personally have a good time with it.

7.5/10