The Lurking Fear (1994)

With each passing H.P. Lovecraft film adaptation I see the fact that Guillermo Del Toro's version of AT THE MOUNTAIN OF MADNESS isn't happening gets a little bit more painful. There have been dozens of adaptations of the reclusive writer's work over the past 50 plus years and while there have been some absolute gems of movies, there have been plenty more turds, and until recently with THE CALL OF CTHULHU (which was made by the HPL Historical Society) there hasn't been one very faithful to the source material. Full Moon has done several adaptations of the celebrated writer's work with mixed results.

John Martense has just been released from prison for a crime he didn't commit and is returning to his childhood home of Leffert's Corner. He visits a mortician who is a fmaily friend and is given an old map from his deceased father. The map leads to a graveyard where his father has hidden a stash of money from a heist. Martense arrives at an abandoned church and is confronted by a young woman named Cathryn (Ashley Laurence of the Hellraiser series) and the town doctor (Jeffrey Combs). Soon after a group of criminals looking for the money that was stolen from them by John's father hold's them up until they get what they're after. All the while some hideous inbred monsters lurk in the underbelly of the church hungry to feed their family with the flesh and blood of the townspeople as they have decades.

When you watch a Full Moon film you're instantly aware of it. It will be a low budget production, and more often than not unintentionally funny at some point. The acting will be tolerable at best aside from the odd cast member that can bring some actual ability to the picture (Jeffrey Combs does this in several Full Moon productions). That is the case with LURKING FEAR. The direction is comparable to any direct-to-video horror movie you've seen from the time period on a shoe string budget. There are some decent sets created to give the film the best look possible and you'll never hear me complain that rubber suits were used for the monsters. Practical effects reign supreme when they're a legitimate option. Almost every character was unlikable or at the very least annoying so that you're secretly hoping the monsters get to devour them in a gruesome manner. It did however have some of that damn Full Moon charm that seems to seep into many of their pictures where it is at least somewhat entertaining in an extremely low rent (even slumlord) kind of way.

As far as a faithful Lovecraft adaptaion goes, LURKING FEAR fails like so many others. It is only loosely based on the story to begin with and all atmosphere and tone that Lovecraft put into his fiction was absent here. As a Full Moon film based on a Lovecraft story it is so so. It has the slight entertainment value to it but isn't very good overall and will forever be overshadowed by the king of Lovecraft adaptations Stuart Gordon's CASTLE FREAK (which is actually quite good).

If you're a lover of Full Moon films I'd recommend this to you. If you're an unforgiving lover of all things Howard Philips Lovecraft you should stay away. As it sits with me, it's just another bad HPL movie with a small amount of very cheap entertainment value.

4/10

Gingerdead Man 2: Passion Of The Crust (2008)

Charles Band... what a guy. If you are familiar with Full Moon Pictures you are familiar with Charlie and some of the stories surrounding him and his movie studio. From successful and now classic horror films like Re-Animator and From Beyond to his successful and cult Puppetmaster series to the abysmal films that make up the majority of his filmography that only a sadomasochist would enjoy, the man has been a part of hundreds of movies. Love him or hate him he gets his movies made and distributed. The GINGERDEAD MAN series may never reach the status of genre classic but they have been entertaining.

GINGERDEAD MAN 2: PASSION OF THE CRUST is a sequel to 2005's original which was directed by Charles Band, 3 years later came this equally as silly movie which was directed by Silvia St. Croix, which is an Alan Smithee type deal. Alan Smithee was a name directors were credited as when they didn't want their name attached to a film. Whoever the director was, they did a decent job making a Full Moon movie. GINGERDEAD MAN 2 has the all of the expected fare and follies. There is plenty of laughs both intentional and not, and plenty of drag in the story during a movie with an extremely modest runtime. 72 minutes of movie is closer to a single hour once the backstory of the original and end credits are accounted for.

The movie follows the titled character, a killer gingerbread cookie possessed by the soul of a murderer. After transferring his soul to another character and being baked back into a cookie in the first entry to the series the cookie is transported to the set of Cheatum Studios' newest picture in a bakery box. Needing a body to transport his soul to the killer cookie finds a spell in one of the movie studio's prop books which begins his rampage of terror. It is up to an aging movie star who is sick and tired of working for a movie studio that makes crappy movies to save anyone that hasn't already fallen victim to THE GINGERDEAD MAN.

Where do I even begin? From a film making standpoint this movie (like most Full Moon movies) is awful. The thing is, that is the point of these movies. Charles Band knows exactly the type of movies he makes. They're silly, over the top and certainly not for everyone. The majority are truly painful to sit through, but occasionally he makes one that is really fun to watch. GINGERDEAD MAN 2 falls somewhere in the middle. It starts out with a corny yet oddly silly fairy tale opening, a song about the cookie to the tune of Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", and then spends the duration between corny humor, over the top kills and slooooooooow parts. It does have a certain charm about it similar to the first film, that puts it among the better Full Moon movies of recent years.

Is this movie for everyone? Certainly not. You'll know if it is even worth checking out by reading the plot. Some people like this nonsense, most hate it. I gave it a chance with a few drinks and had some good laughs and a decent time. If they could just get someone that could write a solid 70 minutes instead of a solid 35 minutes they'd have a recipe for success (get it?).

5/10