Tag: USA

Directed by Jack Weis [Other horror films: Crypt of Dark Secrets (1976)]

This is a movie that I’ve long wanted to see, and for the longest time, I’ve pretty much known it wasn’t going to be that great, which is certainly accurate after finally having seen it.

In many ways, I was reminded of the classic H.G. Lewis flick Blood Feast from 1963, from a sacrificial killer to decent gore, only it wasn’t near as engaging (Blood Feast, on a side-note, isn’t really an amazing movie, but in many ways, it blows this out of the water). The main problem was that this was so repetitive, almost to the point of parody.

Step one, the killer enters a bar and asks for someone evil. Step two, the evil woman accompanies him back to his apartment. Step three, the killer offers some wine. Step four, they go to a room where oil is rubbed on the evil woman’s nude body before she’s tied up and stabbed through the hand, sliced on the sole of her foot, and lastly, slit from her gut upward. This happened three times in the movie with minimal variation. The first time was fine, and the gore is decently gruesome (or it tries), but God, is it as dull as it sounds? Is it ever.

It doesn’t help that the main protagonist of Mardi Gras Massacre is a woman-hitting cop (which isn’t surprising, as a rather high amount of cops beat their spouses) with the sympathy level of a KKK Grand Wizard, played by Curt Dawson. None of his investigation was particularly interesting or noteworthy, and when he slaps his girlfriend (Gwen Arment) twice, I hoped for a painful death that he never got. Instead, the girl apologized to him and they got back together. Fantastic character arc – love it. The killer, played by William Metzo, did the best of everyone, and possessed a certain charm, so if you see this one for any reason, do it for Metzo.

Also worth noting, I’m not opposed to disco. I love me some Bee Gees, Tavares, KC and the Sunshine Band, and a handful of others, but when your whole soundtrack is composed of generally generic disco, I’m going to have a problem, which I did. It was sort of funny, but boy, just like the repetitive nature of the plot, the soundtrack got really old.

With a title like Mardi Gras Massacre, I personally think people would expect a movie more wild and fun, but this is neither. It’s not a great film whatsoever, and it’s pretty close to being too dull to classify as a ‘so-bad-it’s-good’ film. The best I can say is that the gore is decent, but even that can’t make up for the unlikable characters or the dull nature of the film.

4.5/10

This was discussed on Fight Evil’s podcast. Listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this below.

Directed by Chuck Russell [Other horror films: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), Bless the Child (2000)]

Often considered one of the better remakes of the 1980’s, I’d only seen The Blob once before, edited on Chiller, prior to seeing it again. It certainly holds up better than what I remember, and all-in-all, it’s an enjoyable film.

There’s a little unpacking I have to do first, though. The original Blob, from 1958, is one of my favorite horror films. It’s a movie I grew up on, and I’ve watched my VHS copy so many times, I’m surprised the tape’s not frayed. When I first saw the remake, edited as it was, I went in with the idea nothing could match up to the original, given how much I loved it, and with that frame of mind going in, it didn’t. I didn’t hate the film when I first saw it, but I didn’t think it was particularly good, either.

I now see that The Blob is a good movie, though the 1958 version is still my go-to.

The effects in the film are probably the best of the 1980’s, and there’s a lot of gruesome body melting here, all of which is appreciated. I preferred the simpler look of the Blob from the original, but this is still okay. The multitude of deaths in the film, many of which are rather violent, certainly make the film even more memorable. Also, the conclusion as a whole, though somewhat expected, was still a lot of fun.

Shawnee Smith (best known, perhaps, as her role of Amanda from the Saw films) does solidly here as a kick-ass cheerleader. Kevin Dillon (who is a guy I’ve never heard of before) also did great job in his anti-authority teen role. Perhaps most disappointing here is Jeffrey DeMunn, who is an actor I really like, having appeared in Storm of the Century, The Green Mile, and The Mist. He’s great here, make no mistake, but I feel they could have done a lot more with him than they did. Lastly, both Joe Seneca (who played an utterly detestable character) and Art LaFleur stood out positively also.

Overall, I think The Blob is a good film, and a very enjoyable piece of 80’s horror. It doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original, but it’s an enjoyable film all the same, and though I don’t agree, I can certainly see why many prefer it to the original 50’s classic.

8/10

This was covered on a Fight Evil podcast. If interested, listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this one below.

Directed by Rick Roessler [Other horror films: N/A]

When I first saw this one some years ago, I went away with a vaguely lukewarm feeling. I didn’t hate Slaughterhouse by any means, but I wanted more from it than I got. Watching it again after all that time, I’ve come to appreciate the movie a little bit more, and while I could have done without some of the more overt comedic influences, I generally found this an enjoyable slasher.

One thing I really thought they got right was the setting, a disused slaughterhouse, and the simple, yet effective, design of Buddy (the main antagonist) is pretty solid. Joe B. Barton is just a hulking monster in this, and that humongous cleaver he carries around with him was another good choice.

Hell, even the story is mildly interesting, as many of the killings are a form of revenge by a man about to be kicked out of his home. It’s just unfortunate that some teenagers got mixed up in it, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but hey, at least we got some pretty decent kills (slit throat, and other galores). They even did a close up of a fingertip being sliced open, which looked damn painful.

I don’t think Joe B. Barton is the end-all be-all as far as casting is concerned here. William Houck is decent as the concerned sheriff, Sherry Leigh a solid final girl. Jeff Wright was even okay at times. Don Barrett, who played Buddy’s father, was way over-the-top at various points throughout the film, but I also felt somewhat sympathetic to him. I thought perhaps he was one of the more compelling characters here.

The problem, though, is the creeping comedic influence into the movie. You can tell during the opening credits, as we’re shown the process of butchering a pig (to be honest, that was a solid beginning, so no complaints there), but overlaying the graphic imagery was a hideously upbeat number that never should have been released. Later in the film, there’s just a silly moment with Buddy pretending to be a cop, and it was that type of stuff that rubbed me the wrong way.

Despite sometimes be labeled a ‘black comedy’ though, a lot of this movie was decently solid, and gave me what I was looking for. Great setting, solid kills, a memorable antagonist, so it’s mostly a rewarding affair.

I do have to give a shout-out to the deathgrind band Mortician – I know that much of their music isn’t particularly well-loved, but it was their song based off this film that first introduced me to this, and while, like I said, I didn’t like it the first time around, I wasn’t really that displeased with the final product this time around.

7.5/10

Slaughterhouse is one of the films that has been covered on Fight Evil’s podcast. Listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this one below.

Directed by Jonathan Milott [Other horror films: Becky (2020)] & Cary Murnion [Other horror films: Becky (2020)]

I didn’t go into this one with many expectations, which is probably a positive, as I doubt that Cooties could have surpassed them. For a zombie comedy, Cooties is definitely a competently made film, and it may even be a good movie, but I don’t think it’s particularly great in any way.

The higher-budget production here looks nice, and we’re given a decent amount of mildly interesting characters, but the movie doesn’t really transcend the feel of an average film. Special effects, cinematography, it’s all decent, but at the same time, I really didn’t see much in here that’s likely to be either that memorable or that praise-worthy, mainly because zombie comedies are a tough sub-genre to crack anyway.

One high selling point here is the cast, of course. I never much cared for the star, being Elijah Wood (an actor who I personally haven’t seen in much, but is most well-known for Lord of the Rings), and I could have done entirely without Rainn Wilson’s (The Office) character, and now that I think on it, the characters played by Jack McBrayer, Nasim Pedrad, and Peter Kwong didn’t add much either.

If it weren’t for Alison Pill and Leigh Whannell, this would have been a much harder movie to swallow. I didn’t necessarily love Alison Pill’s character, but she did have much the same attitude her character from The Newsroom possessed, and I generally liked her spunk. Whannell, of course, played Adam in the first Saw movie, and though he’s noticeably older here, his socially awkward, scientifically-detached character is quite a lot of fun. Shout-out to Matt Jones’ (Badger from Breaking Bad) single appearance, which was nice, but the brunt of the enjoyment from performances came from Pill and Whannell.

The comedy here is moderately balanced, but it can really get a bit overboard at times (and many of these times revolve around Wilson’s ridiculous character, who seems right out of a Will Ferrell movie), which didn’t help matters. The gore was pretty solid, and I did like seeing zombie kids get taken down, but some parts were just too silly, and much of the ending itself was sort of suspect.

There’s also not near as much a sense as dread as you’d hope. Virtually none of the main characters die. One seems to have been torn apart, but they pop up at the end of the film, along with another character who had gone missing. I just didn’t get how at least three of the more likely suspects weren’t killed off, just to give us a sense of some type of real danger, but it just never happened.

Cooties isn’t a bad film, but it really should have been better, especially with the budget and solid cast members. I don’t think it really broke ground in the zombie comedy genre, even with zombie kids and teachers kicking their asses, but like I said, it’s still a competent enough film. It’s just not memorable, or really remarkable whatsoever.

7/10

Directed by Tom McLoughlin [Other horror films: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), Sometimes They Come Back (1991), The Haunting of Helen Walker (1995)] & Michael Schroeder [Other horror films: Out of the Dark (1988)]

I don’t think that this early 80’s entry to the genre is all that special. I’ve seen it twice, and while I rather like the atmosphere and much of the story, I’m not entirely enamored by it. That said, it’s almost certainly worth a look if you’re a fan of 80’s horror, despite it not being amazing.

A good girl needing to spend a night in a mausoleum (because she just has to get into this sorority-type clique) where a recently-deceased telekinetic killer has been interred makes for a fun movie, despite there being a hell of a lot of set up. I don’t think any real action starts up until about an hour into the movie. That said, in it’s 80’s way, One Dark Night is still fun.

Meg Tilly isn’t a name I know (though she was later in Psycho II), but she does really admirably here, and I rather liked her somewhat adorable nature. This can also be said for Elizabeth Daily, who was the most hesitant of the sorority girls. She didn’t do that much past a certain point, but I enjoyed her time on-screen. Most others don’t make much of an impression, including Leslie Speights, Robin Evans, David Mason Daniels, and Melissa Newman. Obviously, Adam West was interesting to see, but he adds little to the movie.

The supernatural killer here is interesting, especially as he uses his powers to raise the corpses of the mausoleum to attack the girls. I’m not really big on the whole telekinetic killer thing, but it was sort of cool seeing him barely move yet able to cause such mayhem and horrific chaos. On a related note, the special effects are decent, especially toward the end, so kudos there.

One Dark Night isn’t really a classic in any sense, but it is harmless fun, despite the long set-up and somewhat shaky conclusion. For fans of 80’s horror, I don’t see a good reason not to give it a shot.

7.5/10

And for more, One Dark Night was covered on the Fight Evil podcast, so if you want to listen to Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this one, enjoy.

Directed by Tom Chaney [Other horror films: The Wind Walker (2019)]

This is a pretty horrible movie, and seems like a combination of a more competently-made Things (1989), combining ideas with The Evil Dead, but damn it, I do think it has a bit of charm, which is probably what’s expected from a Troma movie.

There’s an okay story here, which is somewhat goofy at times, but what makes it work a bit better than expected is the stop motion used on the titular wendigo, which looks more to me like a centaur. Even so, I appreciated the attempt, and seeing him rip through a cabin’s roof and grab someone was a pleasure.

As far as performances go, it was a mixed bag. Lori Baker, Patrick Butler, and Devlin Burton were all accessibly decent, but Ron Asheton’s performance was so awful, it almost wipes out the positive aspects of everyone else. His hamminess was off the charts, but luckily, he doesn’t have the chance to quite ruin every scene, which I guess is something.

Speaking of Asheton, who was a member of Iggy Pop/The Stooges, it was probably his idea to throw such an awful and discordant soundtrack into the mix. The music itself is bad and often out of place, but what’s worse is that the audio was mixed poorly, and it’s not uncommon for the lyrics of songs to be on the same audio level as characters in the movie, which was distracting as hell.

Another thing I really could have done without were the two news flash sequences, which literally added nothing to the story. There wasn’t anything in them particularly funny or note-worthy, and at least six, seven minutes of time is just wasted.

Hey, at least we got some okay decapitations, including one done by a pterodactyl demon-type thing, which was a solid sequence, so kudos there.

Frostbiter isn’t a movie that comes highly recommended, and I do find the movie below average, but in it’s mediocrity, I do think the movie has a bit of charm, and I actually could see myself giving this one another watch in the future.

6/10

Directed by Steve Miner [Other horror films: Friday the 13th Part III (1982), House (1985), Warlock (1989), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Lake Placid (1999), Day of the Dead (2008)]

I think we can all agree that the first Friday the 13th is a great movie, but the second film is probably a bit better. That’s always been my feeling on it, anyway, but at the same time, the first five films of this series are all pretty solid in their own way, and all are above average. The second part isn’t the best of the five, but it is pretty damn solid.

The kills here are great. I think there’s only one that’s particularly weak, but most of them are of high quality, from the razor-wire garrote, and double impalement by spear to a machete to the face, hammer to the head, and of course the upside throat-slitting. Though Tom Savini wasn’t involved in this one, I thought the kills were all pretty great, which is nice to see.

Character-wise, there are some memorable ones here. Paul (John Furey) wasn’t that memorable, but Ginny (Amy Steel, also from the classic April Fool’s Day) was a fantastic character, and with her child psychology interest, she was a good choice of protagonist, as she, above anyone else, could even have the potential to get through to Jason (which she does, in a way). Ted (Stuart Charno) was pretty fun too, and unlike many in these films, finds a happier ending, which was a nice surprise.

The couples Terry (Kirsten Baker) and Scott (Russell Todd, later in Chopping Mall), along with Jeff (Bill Randolph) and Sandra (Marta Kober), don’t particularly interest me (though Baker did have a solid nude sequence), but all their deaths were welcomed. Mark (Tom McBride) and Vickie (Lauren-Marie Taylor, later in Girls Nite Out), though, were both enjoyable characters, Vickie in particular, as she was the cutest girl here, and I really liked her personality. Same for Mark, as a wheelchair-bound character in a slasher isn’t something you see everyday.

Seeing Adrienne King come back for the opening was decently fun, and did set up the movie well, but I don’t know how much I care for Jason going so far out of his way just to get revenge. Still, I’m glad they went as far as to bring King back, however briefly.

As for Jason, I really like his portrayal here. He runs, he makes mistakes (him breaking that chair toward the end always struck me as funny), he gets knocked down – Jason here seems a lot more human than he does in later films, and I thought that worked well. I also like the sack over his head – I get that the hockey mask is iconic, but I thought he looked reasonably frightening here, so I had no complaints. Steve Dash did great here as Jason, so it’s a shame he never played him again (though Warrington Gillette was credited as Jason, apparently Dash, the stunt double, played Jason for much of the film).

Of course, the ending is good fun, what with a rainstorm and characters finding bodies, getting killed, all that good stuff. Much like with the first film, I really enjoyed the finale, though I think the first one was better (though we do get a very clever way to deceive Jason here, which I thought was quite ingenious). Still, a lot of frantic running and fighting happen here in the final twenty minutes, and it’s all good fun, even the somewhat dreamily mysterious conclusion (we never really do find out what happens to Paul). I’m just happy that decapitated head didn’t wink, or something, because I won’t lie – they were definitely thinking of doing that.

Friday the 13th Part 2 isn’t the perfect slasher, but I do think it’s a lot of fun, and the likable and memorable characters here are certainly worth watching, and there are a few solidly funny quips here too (‘No seconds on desserts,’ or ‘the one with the puck’). I never hesitate to watch this one, and while I think the first movie has a better finale, Part II is a bit more enjoyable overall.

8.5/10

This is one of the films covered on the Fight Evil podcast, so if you’re into cool shit brah, here’s Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discussing this classic.

Directed by Joseph Mangine [Other horror films: N/A]

I’ll be forthcoming and admit that I didn’t go into this one with high expectations. Truthfully, I was thinking that I’d rather dislike it. But as it turns out, not only did I enjoy it, but despite some very glaring problems, I actually rather loved it.

I want to talk about the big problem with the film first before I go into praising it incessantly. We never find out what exactly the monsters are, or where they come from, or what they want, or why they want it. They seem to come out at night to kill, and that’s about all we know about them. Some of their designs are a bit off, but for most of the main ones, I thought they were decent (such as the one with ropes). Also, it could be argued that the film doesn’t have much coherency.

All of that said, though, I had a great time with this.

In a somewhat unique choice, Neon Maniacs plays itself pretty straight for most of the film. With a title like it has, you’d expect endless camp and maybe silly comedy (think Troma), but aside from a few funny lines (and the scene at the turnstiles), the movie’s nothing like that (which goes a long way to explain why I enjoyed it more than I thought I would). The characters know they’re in danger, and there’s a pretty somber tone throughout, especially toward the end (speaking of which, that final line is fantastic).

There’s a lot of great scenes here, such as the really cool pool sequence and much of the battle of the bands finale. That battle of the bands was fun especially because I actually really liked that first song, ‘Baby Lied.’ It was catchy and totally my jam. Even ignoring the fun music, though, when it randomly cut to Donna Locke’s character sitting atop the speakers and cheering, dressed as a vampire, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Donna Locke is perhaps the number one reason I loved this film. Her character’s utterly adorable, and is a lot more interesting and proactive than the actual main character of the film (played by Leilani Sarelle). She directs low-budget horror films, fights off a few monsters single-handedly, goes to investigate and videotape the monsters, and consistently tries to hook up with Sarelle in order to fight against them. Donna Locke’s character is utterly badass, and it’s a damn shame that Locke has never appeared in anything else. I really liked her character, and cheered whenever she was onscreen.

Clyde Hayes and Leilani Sarelle do well too, they’re just not nearly as memorable. Hayes previously appeared in the fourth Friday the 13th, but he was more prominent here, which worked well, as he was decently action-oriented. The scenes in which Hayes, Sarelle, and Locke worked together in order to fight off the monsters were all rather fun, so props to that.

Neon Maniacs surprised me. It has pretty good special effects, some effectively atmospheric sequences (such as Locke traveling in the fog), memorable characters, decent deaths, and enjoyable music, all tied together with a would-be campy plot played generally straight. I will admit to being taken aback, but that was my mistake. A really enjoyable movie, despite the origins of the monsters never being made clear.

8.5/10

This is one of the first movies Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I covered on our Fight Evil, so listen below as we awkwardly discuss it.