Tag: USA

Directed by Barbara Stepansky [Other horror films: I Hate L.A. (2011), Fugue (2011), 7 from Etheria (2017)]

Oftentimes, Hurt has a bleak and pretty atmospheric feel, and despite it’s not-so-stellar story, I actually think it’s a movie that’s worth watching, should slow-burns be your thing.

Taking place in a desert junkyard many miles from civilization really helped increase the feel of utter isolation, which in turn helped dramatically with the moody, aforementioned bleak feel the film possesses. It doesn’t hurt that the circumstances the main characters are placed in are rather realistic, going into financial ruin after the death of a provider. More importantly, I think most of the drama here worked, as well as most of the tension.

It does take a little while to get moving, though, so luckily some of the main performances are pretty solid. Jackson Rathbone and Johanna Braddy make for a solid brother-sister dynamic – their scenes felt decidedly more real than many of the other relationships in the film. Sofia Vassilieva does pretty good as a creepy little girl, and doesn’t come off as annoying as many other child actresses can. The mother, played by Melora Walters, came across as the most stale character here, and though the performance improves as the movie goes on, she always seems to be the weak link.

Since the movie does move at a slower pace, I’m happy to say that the increasing tension as the film carries on seemed solid. Given that there’s not much in the way of gore here, it’s good that some of the performances and tension worked out. The story itself has some holes in it, but I sort of like the direction the movie went in.

I think I first saw this film five, maybe six years ago. Perhaps longer. I just know that I wasn’t overly thrilled with it when I first saw it. This time around, while it’s far from a perfect film, I do think I appreciate it quite a bit more. Generally, this film’s gotten tepid responses, and I get it, but as for me, I was moderately pleased with this re-watch.

7.5/10

Directed by Chuck Russell [Other horror films: The Blob (1988), Bless the Child (2000)]

This is one of those films I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it. Without a doubt the best movie in the Elm Street series save the first one, Dream Warriors does almost everything right.

Like most movies in this series, this is sort of a hard one to take an overall look at, what with the fact I’ve seen it around eight to ten times, thereabouts. There are portions that feel a bit out there, such as the whole mysterious nun (who communicated to Neil, but not to Nancy, for some reason), and while it led to a pretty good origin of Freddy’s birth (‘the bastard son of a hundred maniacs’ – such a great description), it didn’t really feel like it fit. That said, it added something interesting to the film, so I don’t really begrudge it.

The whole ‘dream powers’ thing is the type of idea that, in many other movies, I’d find sort of ridiculous, but it’s done really well here. I still laugh a bit at how Ira Heiden’s character looks while a magician, but still, I think they did a fine job blending some lighter fantasy with the dark horror elements. Speaking of which, I absolutely love the opening to this one – the papier-mâché house, the utterly creepy dream, and then the suicide attempt. Grabs your attention right from the start.

The special effects, too, are damn good. My favorite death is the whole marionette kill, and the scene with Freddy in the stars, cutting the strings, has always been a favorite of mine of the series. Freddy-snake looks a little suspect, but the skeleton sequence is solid, so that’s a plus.

There’s no performance here that disappoints. It’s great to see Heather Langenkamp back, along with John Saxon (despite neither one having particularly happy endings). Jennifer Rubin, for some reason, stood out, along with Ken Sagoes and Patricia Arquette (who is, behind Nancy, my favorite lead character of the series). Of course, Englund gets the highest praise – while more comedic influence is creeping into his character, he’s still plenty menacing here.

And “Dream Warriors” by Dokken? What a kick-ass song.

Honestly, there’s not much about this movie that I don’t like. I don’t think it’s a perfect 10/10, but at the same time, I can’t really pinpoint my perceived issues with the film. Perhaps it comes from the sub-plot regarding Freddy’s mother, and the fact that despite thinking that he’d finally be put to rest, he’s clearly still an active spirit come the end of the film. It is a bit bothersome that he’s been seemingly destroyed three times (if you want to count the half-assed ending of the first film), but he seems immune to defeat.

All that said, though, without a doubt, this is the finest Elm Street film past the original, and I don’t believe I’ll ever really get tired of it. A solid film overall.

8.5/10

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

Directed by Jeff Burr [Other horror films: The Offspring (1987), Stepfather II (1989), Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990), Puppet Master 4 (1993), Puppet Master 5 (1994), Night of the Scarecrow (1995), The Werewolf Reborn! (1998), Phantom Town (1999), Straight Into Darkness (2004), Frankenstein & the Werewolf Reborn! (2005), Devil’s Den (2006), Mil Mascaras vs. Aztec Mummy (2007), Resurrection (2010), Puppet Master: Blitzkrieg Massacre (2018), American Resurrection (2022), Carnage Collection – Puppet Master: Trunk Full of Terror (2022)]

While plenty of factors in this sequel should work, something holds this movie back from possessing the same emotional resonance that the first Pumpkinhead had.

Exactly what holds this back, I’m not entirely sure. The story certainly wasn’t bad, and the group of kids who did wrong here got more characterization than the group from the first movie, but something felt like it was missing. Part of this may be due to the lackluster cast, and the fact that the Pumpkinhead creature design felt weaker certainly didn’t help matters.

Andrew Robinson (who played Larry in Hellraiser, and may have been miscast here) as a town sheriff never really felt as though the part worked for him. I just didn’t get the ‘sheriff’ vibe from him. Playing his daughter was Ami Dolenz (who also starred in Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway), who did okay, and certainly looked good, but didn’t have as important a place in the plot as you might think. Gloria Hendry (who is most well-known from many 70’s blaxplotation flicks) felt a bit too peppy in her role, and the only other individual of note was Soleil Moon Frye (who starred as the title character in the 80’s series Punky Brewster), who was another actress who I wished got more screen-time than she ended up having.

Straight-to-video, Pumpkinhead II still tried for a somewhat ambitious plot, utilizing many flashbacks and juxtapositions which ultimately don’t really do that much. It’s a shame, too, as I really think that the story in this movie is pretty solid. It’s just held back from something, be it the budget, the performances, whatever. The director, Jeff Burr (behind other films, most notably From a Whisper to a Scream and the third Texas Chainsaw Massacre) certainly had a decent film brewing, but couldn’t quite make it work.

For what this is, I wouldn’t go out of my way to call this a bad film, or even a bad sequel, but I’d just say it falls a bit below average. At least it has decent gore at times, but otherwise, it’s not really anything that special.

6/10

Directed by Stephen Cognetti [Other horror films: Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018), Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019)]

Like few found footage movies before it (Ghostwatch being the one that most comes to mind), Hell House LLC blew me away, and seeing it a second time, little of the impact was lost.

Done by seeming to be a documentary about a tragedy that occurred in a haunted house attraction, with interviews of journalists and authors, and mixing that up with different forms of media such as video captured from the event and put on YouTube, this film goes beyond a simple ‘one guy holds camera and films creepy stuff’ idea. It feels real, and even the multitude of movie (provided by videotapes of the haunted house crew in the months leading up to the tragedy) have an uneasy vibe about them.

One of the reasons much of this movie really works out well (even for rewatches) is the fact that many of the scares are quite subtle. Sure, the clown scenes were openly terrifying, but there are others that you could easily miss watching through this the first few times (such as unexplained figures, creepy shadows, that type of thing). And even the more obvious scares, such as the frantic, chaotic ending in the basement and the clown scenes have an organic feel to them. Nothing here really seems forced.

The cast throughout did a fine job, and really, no one stands out with a bad performance. All of the main performances made a good impact, and while no one blew me away, they all did competently enough as to not really cause any hindrance on the story.

I’ve spoken quite a bit about my problems regarding many modern found footage horror films, but that’s not to say that I can’t enjoy a good found footage movie when I run into one, this movie being a good case. It has enough flexibility and story-telling techniques going on that it strikes me, even after having seen it twice, as something special. A great film, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any fellow fans of horror.

8.5/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s seventh podcast by Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and myself. Give it a listen below.

Directed by Frank R. Strayer [Other horror films: The Monster Walks (1932), The Ghost Walks (1934), Condemned to Live (1935)]

I saw this once before, and this black-and-white flick, while not really classic, still holds up pretty well.

Just a few years since Dracula came out, I found it interesting how one of the main conflicts of the film is whether the deaths in a small village can be attributed to supernatural means (a vampire) or more pedestrian means (a serial killer). Of course, folklore runs rampant, and most villagers are terrified of the possibility of vampire attacks. Throw in a town misfit who has a thing for bats, and you have a potentially dangerous situation.

Really, the film is pretty fun, what with these elements coming together with both a solid cast and some occasionally interesting cinematography, creating a somewhat moody and mostly enjoyable film. The biggest problem are the dollops of comedy thrown in, mostly coming from Maude Eburne (who was also one of the actresses who brought down my enjoyment of The Bat Whispers, on a side-note).

The rest of the cast are extraordinarily good, though. Melvyn Douglas (who appeared a year earlier in The Old Dark House, and much later in 1981’s Ghost Story) made for a pretty good protagonist, and his conflicts against the superstitious villagers as to the cause of these deaths were a rather nice touch. Fay Wray (from Doctor X, The Most Dangerous Game, Mystery of the Wax Museum, King Kong, and Black Moon) didn’t really do all that much, but was a very fair piece of eye candy. Dwight Frye was fun to see here, as he played both Fritz from Frankenstein, and more memorably, Renfield from Dracula. He did good in this film, playing the mentally-handicapped village weirdo.

Lionel Atwill, of course, had a fantastic presence, and his various roles in other horror movies only help – his impressive horror resume includes Doctor X, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Murders in the Zoo, Secret of the Blue Room, Mark of the Vampire, Son of Frankenstein, The Gorilla, Man-Made Monster, The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Ghost of Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Doctor Rx, Night Monster, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, Fog Island, and House of Dracula. Certainly not as prolific as Bela Lugosi, but still, he added a lot to both this movie and early genre pieces, as demonstrated by his impressive resume.

Frank Strayer, the director, who did a few other horror films from the time, didn’t really add a lot to the genre, despite how much I enjoy both this one and The Monster Walks. Still, he did well with the limited budget he had, and made a little moody piece, so that’s commendable.

The unnecessary comedic elements aside, The Vampire Bat is a rather solid black-and-white flick, and while it’s nowhere near the classic nature of Frankenstein, Dracula, or any of the Universal films, it’s still a good way to spend an hour, and if a fan of this classic period of horror, I’d recommend giving it a go.

8/10

Directed by Matt Reeves [Other horror films: Future Shock (1994, segment ‘Mr. Petrified Forrest’), Let Me In (2010)]

I saw Cloverfield many years back, and didn’t remember much about it. It’s pretty clear why, as this film isn’t really that far removed from a multitude of other found footage flicks. It is, however, quite a step above them in some ways.

This is an action-packed film – trucks being thrown around, buildings crashing down, plenty of military firepower being utilized. It was chaotic, which is what this movie did amazingly well – it caught the chaos of this terrifying attack beautifully. Is it a bit annoying that often things aren’t in focus and multiple characters are speaking at once, creating a mostly unintelligible babble of sound? Very much so, but that is realistic. The chaos here was intense, and this movie got it down pat.

Most of the performances here were fine. I personally liked both Michael Stahl-David and Lizzy Caplan. I couldn’t stand T.J. Miller, though. I get that different people react to wild situations in different ways, but Miller’s character drove me up the wall. His flippant commentary at times just felt utterly bewildering given the grim situation they were in. This isn’t to say people wouldn’t want to lighten the mood, but can’t that guy ever shut up?

Somewhat related, the first 18 minutes of the film are pretty much utterly mind-numbing. It does somewhat set up the characters we follow around for the next hour, but it could have been cut down by at least six, seven minutes. As soon as the first earthquake-type event happened, everything picked up nicely, though.

I enjoyed the design of the monster, at least what we saw of it, and though I’d like to have some kind of origin to tie with it, I get entirely why there wasn’t one presented. My one gripe is that the spider/crab creatures (seemingly parasites created by the main creature) seemed way too similar to the spiders in The Mist, which came out just a year earlier. Luckily, they weren’t used that often, but really, this did feel, at times, like a found footage version of The Mist, which sort of hampered the film a bit.

Found footage isn’t a style of horror that’s often done well. Sure, there’s good films out there, such as [Rec] and As Above, So Below, but more often than not, found footage seems to be the cheap go-to style for amateurish film-makers, and they flood the horror genre. Cloverfield manages to catch the chaos, though, that few of these movies seem to do, and so while I don’t love the movie, and I find Miller irksome beyond belief, this is a decent flick to put on to pass the night away.

7/10

Directed by Tim Ritter [Other horror films: Twisted Illusions (1985), Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness (1986), Killing Spree (1987), Wicked Games (1994), Creep (1995), Alien Agenda: Endangered Species (1998), Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare 3 (1998), Twisted Illusions 2 (2004), Deadly Dares: Truth or Dare Part IV (2011), Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8) (2013, segment ‘Switchblade Insane’), I Dared You! Truth or Dare Part 5 (2017), Trashsploitation (2018, segment ‘Truth or Dare’), Hi-Death (2018, segment ‘Dealers of Death’), Zombarella’s House of Whorrors (2019, segment ‘Cosmic Desires’), Sharks of the Corn (2021)]

Tim Ritter’s first film (made when he was a teenager), this is one that I’ve literally wanted to see ever since I first heard about it many years back. It went pretty much as expected, for better or for worse.

Firstly, the story was rather lacking. Part of this was because both the video and audio quality of the copy I managed to see were atrocious, but those technical aspects aside, the story doesn’t have a lot to offer, and toward the end, when things take sort of a supernatural turn (which didn’t seem explained all that well, and felt shoehorned in there), I didn’t care for it.

It’s the gore that would probably interest most people, though, and it’s generally pretty good. A pencil in the eye, a throat-slitting, multiple dismemberments. All decent stuff. I just wish that the camera and lighting had been better, so we could have gotten a fuller effect of the mayhem.

Acting throughout was all pretty stale, though the individual who played the detective was hilariously over-active. I don’t know the actor’s name (he’s not listed on IMDb, and the credits of the film only list the actors, not the roles they play), but the way that man delivered his dialogue, in a long, rambling, “I don’t need books anyway, who needs books?” was beautiful to behold. No one else stands out, but for an extraordinarily amateurish film, that’s not really a negative.

And amateurish it was. Even stripping away the problems with the audio and video, the story wasn’t great, and more so, felt moderately hollow at times. Plenty of lower-budget films possess more feeling than much of this one did, but I mostly chalk that up to this being Ritter’s first film. On a slight side-note, I’ve only seen one other Ritter movie, being the somewhat enjoyable Killing Spree from 1987. I certainly wouldn’t judge his output on this one, as it’s his first outing.

Day of the Reaper certainly has a place in the genre, especially among SOV fans. It’s never quite as gory as some of Schiff’s work (such as They Don’t Cut the Grass Anymore), or really as gory as H.G. Lewis’ material, but it still shows promise, despite all it’s shortcomings. Truthfully, though, I wouldn’t say I enjoyed it, but if you’re a fan of early SOV horror flicks, or a major Ritter fan, I’d check it out if you’re able to find it.

5/10

Directed by Steve Hudgins [Other horror films: Maniac on the Loose (2008), Hell Is Full (2010), Spirit Stalkers (2012), The Caretakers (2014), It Lives in the Attic (2016)]

For a low-budget film, this monster movie is generally a pretty enjoyable watch.

While on-screen kills are almost entirely absent, there is quite a bit of blood splatter throughout the film, so while there’s not a high quantity of good kills, the movie still feels rather gory. That, mixed with the memorable characters and interesting story (well, more interesting than what you might initially expect), really meld everything together well.

Plenty of the performances here were pretty fun. I won’t say many of them were good in the traditional sense, but I had fun all the same. Amanda Stone was sassy, with an enjoyable screen presence (I just wish that she had become more relevant to the plot than she eventually did). Randy Hardesty played an interesting character, and could perhaps be called the hero of the film. Overall, a good performance.

Emily Fitzmaurice had one of the shrillest screams I’ve ever heard, and did well playing the dumb, blonde bimbo. And Tom Dolan? He stole every scene he graced us with. Loved his over-the-top style. Overall, though, I don’t think anyone here really stuck out in a negative fashion.

Firmly tongue-in-cheek, GoatSucker took some interesting routes, threw in some deeper characters than you might expect in a lower-budget flick, and wrapped it up with some decent suspense. It is true that the film felt a bit long at times – maybe they could have cut it down by a bit, like five or ten minutes. Still, if you can get past some of the downsides, and revel in the fact there aren’t many chupacabra flicks out there, you may have fun with this one.

7/10