October Horror Challenge 2016 - Days 12, 13

Day 12 gets underway with a film that I enjoy more each time I watch it. COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE gives ample time to disfigured vampires, beautiful women and Paul Naschy at the top of his game. It's a bit of a different take than most vampire films of this period but will satisfy gothic horror fans' appetites.

Next was BIKINI PARTY MASSACRE and all I can say is that there is no reason to watch this piece of shit other than to see some boobies. This is awful filmmaking. This isn't even filmmaking. This is using Windows 98 graphics for backgrounds and special effects. Fuck this thing.

Now for more disappointment...

HORROR HOUSE ON HIGHWAY 5 is a weird mess of a slasher, haunted house, serial killer film but not weird enough to save the film from being a drag and somewhat difficult to make it through. There's a few scenes that kept it from being a total loss but I'm not a fan.

And from the same director comes HELLBENT - an equally weird, cough syrup fueled ride where a musician sells his soul to the devil... kind of. It's a bit more enjoyable than HHOH5 but equally disjointed and barely worth a watch.

The next few films all come from director Steve Latshaw who made his money doing straight to video junk in the 90s. This is fun junk however, total cheeseball camp type stuff. No it's not really good but it's entertaining and in the case of BIOHAZARD 2 it does have a cool monster just like the first one.

Then there's DARK UNIVERSE an Alien ripoff set in the Florida swamps. Again, it's shitty but in a good way. It even has some decent effects at times.

And the Latshaw films come to a close with the first movie of day 13 - JACK-O. I apologize that I'm not saying much about each of them but there really isn't a whole lot to say - They're 90s straight to video trashy fun. This one features a killer jack-o-lantern and Linnea Quigley shower scene. It's pretty terrible but oh so fun.

It had been a long long time since I last saw RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES and I didn't know if I'd care for it at this point but I did. It felt like less offensive version of a Troma film with that same oddball humor and corny meta storytelling. This is great satire.

And we close on a down note with HOLIDAYS which is probably the least fun I've had with a horror anthology in a long time. It's not all bad but there's plenty of bad in it and even the better parts are just bland with a been there done that" feeling. The high point is the Easter story which features the a gross Easter Bunny. Oh and Fuck Kevin Smith and his fucking terrible Halloween segment.

Today's Rundown
Count Dracula's Great Love - 7/10
Bikini Party Massacre - 1.5/10
Horror House On Highway 5 - 3/10
Hellbent - 4/10
Biohazard 2 - 6/10
Dark Universe - 6/10
Jack-O - 6/10
Return Of The Killer Tomatoes - 7/10
Holidays - 4/10

October Horror Challenge 2016 - Days 9, 10, 11

After this post I'll almost be caught up! Woohoo! Thanks for keeping up with me as always.

Day 9 began with POD (no, not the band), a movie I found on Netflix that only had one real reason for me to check it out - Lauren Ashley Carter co-stars in it and she's been one of my new favorite actresses as she continually turns in great performances as I see more and more of her work. This movie centers around a man who has holed up in a cabin in the woods who has apparently lost his mind and is paranoid that the government is watching him because he has discovered a secret gov't experiment and has one locked up. His siblings go to try and help him but find that he's mentally broken and that they should have stayed away as he previously warned. The movie itself is okay, nothing special but the performances really carry the film and without above average performances the movie would be a total failure. It's not something I plan on revisiting but it was worth a single viewing.

I had a free Redbox rental to use so I decided to use it on THE SHALLOWS because there was very little of interest besides that. I'm not a big fan of shark movies, even the best of them have never done much for me but I figured if Robert Englund had good things to say about it when I met him a couple weeks back I figured it was worth checking out with a free rental. Well, Blake Lively is gorgeous and hanging out with her for 90 minutes in a bikini makes it all worthwhile. And as Robert Englund said it is beautifully photographed. The movie isn't bad a very passable horror thriller but the end gets a little ridiculous with the shark that is stalking Blake Lively and some of the CGI is questionable at those points.

Day 9 was apparently for films I was very lukewarm on because it rounded out with THE FINAL GIRLS which is an interesting love letter to the slasher film that has some really good ideas but fails to really capture the actual spirit of the slasher film. This is one case where I truly think the PG-13 rating dragged the film down quite a bit as it holds the film back from recreating the violent death scenes and gratuitous nudity that the 80s body count films were known for. I think without those elements you can't have a truly great homage and love letter to the genre. The film was also heavy in comedy but many of the jokes simply weren't funny.

Day 10 began with a viewing of THE HILLS HAVE EYES remake from 2006 which I had not watched in a long time, possibly since the DVD was originally released. The last time I watched it I remember thinking I liked it more than Wes Craven's original but having given this another viewing and fairly recent viewings of the original that feeling has certainly changed. I still think Alex Aja's remake is a damn good remake and one of the better horror films of the mid 2000s that makes great use of an interesting setting and is wildly violent and gory.

Next was another Ivan Cardoso film and it was the one I was most excited for, 2005's A WEREWOLF IN THE AMAZON starring Paul Naschy and in a dual role no less! Well it was a messy film that you could tell was low budget and had questionable production values at times but damn if it wasn't fun. It's a total mashup of werewolf horror, sexy jungle adventure film with Amazon warrior women and a Dr. Moreau sequel all rolled into one campy Brazilian production. And hell, Naschy turned in a solid performance and the werewolf makeup wasn't half bad.

Rounding up the 10th day of the challenge was THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN which I had heard good things about including that it was one of the best found footage movies of recent memory. Those reviews aren't wrong, it was a pretty solid film though the further it went along the more unbelievable it got. It starts out with a documentary crew following a woman and her mother who is suffering from Alzheimer's in their routine but the ladies illness quickly takes a strange turn and it's apparent that something demonic is going on. The parts of the film based in reality are the best and probably the scariest. You don't need special effects to show how scary it can be when the human mind betrays you and breaks down.

And onto day 11, the final day for this update.

Jim Jarmusch's ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE is a damn interesting film and a beautiful film and a brilliantly acted film. It's not really a horror film despite three of the four main characters being vampires there is really only one horror-esq scene and besides that there's not a lot going on in the movie but it's endlessly intriguing and engaging. The cast has incredible chemistry and watching them (Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, Anton Yelchin and Mia Wasikowska) simply interact and live their lives while keeping their identities secret is endlessly mesmerizing.

KILLER'S MOON was next and I really really wanted to like this movie. Hell, I wanted to love this movie. Four men who have been tested with experimental drugs and dream therapy have escaped the hospital and are terrorizing a group of school girls at a small countryside inn after their bus broke down. The psychos are total sleazeballs, threatening the girls both sexually and physically and killing off plenty of people that get in the way of their drug induced frenzy. The problem is the film only teases us with the sleaze and violence never seizing the opportunity to turn this movie from something that's just OK and making it an infamous piece of exploitation film history.

Day 11 ended on a high note as the movie I was most anticipated in seeing finally hit US theaters - SHIN GODZILLA, the brand new Godzilla film from Toho. Words couldn't properly explain my excitement and I wasn't disappointed. SHIN GODZILLA features the most different take on Godzilla we've ever seen, possibly the most violent and destructive version we've ever seen and it's also an extremely stylish movie. Toho took some chances with this one but most of them pay off. If you're a fan of Godzilla do whatever you have to do to see this in theaters.

Today's Rundown
Pod - 4/10
The Shallows - 4.5/10
The Final Girls - 5/10
The Hills Have Eyes - 7/10
A Werewolf In The Amazon - 6/10
The Taking Of Deborah Logan - 6/10
Only Lovers Left Alive - 8/10
Killer's Moon - 4.5/10
Shin Godzilla - 8/10

THE SIMILARS (aka Los Parecidos) - Press Release and Trailer

RELEASE DATE: November 15, 2016

DIRECTED BY: Isaac Ezban

CAST: Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Fernando Becerril, Humberto Busto

SYNOPSIS: On the rainy night of October 2, 1968, eight people waiting in a remote bus station for a bus heading to Mexico City start experiencing a strange phenomenon. Threatened by paranoia and fear, the strangers show the best and worst of themselves as they try to unravel the mysterious condition that is invading each of them like a virus.

October Horror Challenge 2016 - Days 6, 7, 8

Falling behind on writing. Must catch up.

Day 6 started with END OF THE WORLD featuring Christopher Lee. Here's the long and short of it-It fucking sucks and its only redeeming quality is Christopher Lee. Don't both.

Next was THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK which is a gothic horror film by Riccardo Freda co-starring Barbara Steele. Freda is a director who I seem to appreciate more and more with each new film I discover from him and I'll watch anything with Barbara Steele in it even though she's done some total garbage. This ends up being a disappointing experience as it's rather aimless, not knowing what it really wants to do or be and wastes some talented performers, nice sets and a few creepy scenes.

Day 6 closed out with RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE, a 1943 film starring Bela Lugosi as, you guessed it, a vampire. It's easy to see his English and overall acting had improved from Dracula a decade earlier as he seems much more comfortable here. The movie is interesting as Lugosi has a hechman slave under his curse who happens to be a werewolf. Early on he's easily defeated but the film takes place during the war and a bomb unearths the vampire and he takes on another identity to get closer to the woman he loves until he has a showdown with her and his former slave. This movie is a good one. Really well done classic horror if a bit too standard.

Day 7's only movie was a revisit of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE while in a total daze of being absolutely exhausted. This movie remains one of my 5 favorite films of all time.

Day 8 we got back on track a bit with 3 more movies including a pair from Ivan Cardoso, the cousin to Coffin Joe. I was excited to check these out as they're fairly rarely seen films and hardly ever discussed. Well, Cardoso is not the filmmaker his much more famous cousin is but he does make some clever and interesting horror flicks. THE SECRET OF THE MUMMY is from 1982 and feels more like a production from the 40s. It has a heavy romantic angle, a goofy sense of humor and some questionable effects and character design. It's not a bad film, as it is paced well and Cardoso does take after Coffin Joe a bit in that he manages to fit in some nudity and explicit violence. 

Then was Cardoso's THE SEVEN VAMPIRES from 1986 which could have been really but ends up giving me a very similar overall feeling to the earlier mummy film. What starts out with a Botanist importing a rare carnivorous plant from Africa that has several heads similar to that of Medusa's snake hair that eat meat and apparently turn anyone they bite into vampires ends up as a far less interesting goofy vampire movie. Had the film focused more on this bizarre and fairly original killer plant idea I think it could have been great. 

This post comes to a close with a long overdue viewing of ROAD GAMES which frankly did not live up to expectations. I've always heard just how great this movie is and while I think it's well made and features a pair of great performances from Stacey Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis I just found the movie to have long stretches of nothingness. I think there's 30 excellent minutes in here stretched out to 90. I like it but I was hoping to love it.

Today's Rundown

End Of The World - 2/10

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock - 5.5/10

The Return Of The Vampire - 7/10

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 10/10

The Secret Of The Mummy - 4.5/10

The Seven Vampires - 4.5/10

Road Games - 6/10

ClownTown Dark Delicacies Signing Event

ACTORS & FILMMAKERS OF “CLOWNTOWN” TO 

PARTICIPATE AT IN-STORE DVD SIGNING 

 Signing at Dark Delicacies, Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. in Burbank

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 11, 2016) –  Join the actors and filmmakers for the horror film CLOWNTOWN from ITN Distribution on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2016 at 2:00pm at Dark Delicacies in Burbank ( 3512 W Magnolia Blvd.) for an in-store signing on behalf of the film’s DVD release. Writer Jeff Miller (Axe Giant: The Wrath of Paul Bunyan) and director Tom Nagel (“The Retrieval”) will be on hand along with the film’s stars: Brian Nagel (Katy Perry’s “Roar”), Lauren Elise (Justin Lin’s “Help”), Andrew Staton (“Relentless”), Katie Keene (Union Furnace), Jeff Denton (The Beast of Bray Road) and Ryan Pilz. CLOWNTOWN is now available on Video on Demand and on DVD for an SRP of $15.00.

 

In CLOWNTOWN, a group of friends get stranded in a seemingly abandoned town and find themselves stalked by a gang of violent psychopaths dressed as clowns. The film is loosely inspired by the clowns who terrorized Bakersfield, Calif. in 2014.

 

For additional details: 

http://www.darkdel.com/store/p559/Sat%2C_Oct_15th_2_pm%3A_Clowntown_DVD.html

And be sure to check out our review of CLOWNTOWN HERE! 

DOOMED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ROGER CORMAN'S THE FANTASTIC FOUR

USA/2015
Directed By: Marty Langford
Written By: Marty Langford
Starring: Roger Corman, Carl Ciarfalio, Joseph Culp
Release Date: October 11, 2016

Comic book fans today have it good. Marvel and DC both have cinematic and television universes upon which to build new and exciting stories. However, it was not so long ago that we lived in very dark times. I myself have been guilty of dismissing some modern superhero films because they "didn't get a character right" or it "strays too far from the source material", but when I was a young comic book fan I took what was given to me and I accepted it whether it was good or bad. Being a Marvel fan was especially frustrating. DC fans had solid Batman and Superman films, but I vividly remember the frustration of not being able to find a copy of the 70's made-for-tv Dr. Strange film, the disappointment of seeing Daredevil in one of the Incredible Hulk movies, and watching my favorite hero, Spider-Man, disgraced on national television in the form of a 70's television series. But I took those lemons and I made lemonade. Terrible, terrible lemonade.

I was never very big into The Fantastic Four, but like other fans I heard stories of the infamous Roger Corman produced Fantastic Four movie, made for an insanely low budget and almost immediately shelved, never to see the light of day. It was said that the film was never meant to be released. That it was only made so that the studio could retain the rights to the property. But was that really the case? As anyone who has seen one of the many bootleg copies of the film that are floating around the internet and convention circuit can tell you, there was no lack of effort put into the film. Most of the problems with the film are budgetary, as it's obvious that a lot of people involved in the making of the film had great love for the source material. Why put that much effort into a film that will never be released?

That's the question posed by Doomed: The Untold Story Of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four. Doomed chronicles the troubled production of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four from start to finish and beyond through interviews with the cast and crew of the film. It's a fascinating look into the politics of making a film that unfortunately emerges with just as many questions as it came in with. While there may be few clear answers, Doomed is a fantastic documentary that would serve as a great companion piece to the film that is simultaneously both the worst and best Fantastic Four movie ever made.

Review by Shawn Wolfe

October Horror Challenge 2016 - Days 3, 4, 5

Days 3, 4 and 5 were a surprisingly solid stretch without any real stinkers. It's nice to enjoy to many movies in a row.

First up was THE MIND'S EYE which I reviewed in full so if you didn't read that be sure to check it out HERE

AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS was next and was a decent Gothic chiller that suffers from a convoluted plot that really holds everything back. The film picks up the energy and excitement a bit when Peter Cushing shows up just after the halfway point and we get to see some really memorable scenes including a man smashing open a tomb, ripping the skeleton from it and wrestling around with it. Glorious.

Day 3 came to a close with THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS, a creature feature from the late 50s centering around a coastal town that is under attack by a large fishman type monster that has a penchant for ripping the head's off his victims. It's standard creature feature fare but that isn't a bad thing.

I started day 4 off with GRIMEWAVE - a 2013 production released on DVD by Wild Eye Releasing and let me tell you how funny, offensive and raunchy this one is. It's a perfect movie to get wasted with! The legendary Cock Face Killer crosses paths with some of New Orleans toughest gangs, ninjas and drug dealers and puts and end to anyone having sex! GRIMEWAVE is super low budget, would fit alongside Troma's recent output and isn't for everybody but if it sounds up your alley definitely check it out.

Next up was PHANTASM RAVAGER which was one of my most anticipated movies. I knew to keep my expectations in check as the film didn't have huge budget and it is the 5th entry into the series and by this point things tend to start going downhill but the PHANTASM series is one of the most consistent in terms of quality so I was still wildly excited and I can't say I was let down. The film is very much a proper PHANTASM film, expanding a bit on the ever growing mythos as it takes place across various planes of time and space. Angus Scrimm is still excellent as The Tall Man but I wish we got a bit more of him. The film brings back the heartfelt companionship and brotherhood of the first film. The film is flawed, with some shaky acting and CGI but overall I think any PHANTASM fans will enjoy this entry.

IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE was next and was another highly entertaining 50's creature freature that I can't believe I hadn't seen before. I sort of fell in love with this movie as a group of astronauts stranded on Mars are being stalked on board their ship by a hulking alien creature that resembles the Gillman. It's a bit claustrophobic and has good tension and would make a great double feature with The Monster Of Piedras Blancas.

And then was my first re-watch of the challenge - CHOPPING MALL - I had to check out the new Blu-ray and it looks awesome for the most part. If you don't know about this one then you've been living under a rock in the horror world. An 80s slasher set inside a mall but the killer isn't a masked psychopath, it's a squad of security robots run amok frying everyone with their laser beams! Kelli Maroney, Barbara Cramption and lot's of gore sum up this Jim Wynorski classic.

My favorite first time viewing so far is MALATESTA'S CARNIVAL OF BLOOD. I want to watch this bizarre fever dream of a movie over and over. It lacks almost any narrative instead going for this surrealistic approach of a carnival filled with cannibals and oddball killers who take out the families who move in to work at the carnival. I love how low budget and raw it is because it only adds to the realism and familiarity to the setting.

Next up was BLUE SUNSHINE - another re-watch thanks to a new Blu-ray and this movie might get better with each viewing. Jeff Lieberman made some excellent films in the 70s and 80s and this one about a strand of acid creating crazed killers a decade later is something more fans should be aware of. It's well acted and has a good story.

THE RIFT is next up and I'll be giving it a full review very soon so I'll keep this brief and say if you're a fan of JP Simon's other films like Slugs or Pieces you'll enjoy The Rift.

And finally to wrap up this post was William Friedkin's THE GUARDIAN from 1990. This was an interesting fairy tale type horror film that felt very much like a Saturday afternoon made-for-TV movie. It does have some great gory scenes and nudity which keep things interesting. I enjoyed it but I'm not in love with it.

Today's Rundown
The Mind's Eye - 7/10
And Now The Screaming Starts - 6/10
The Monster Of Piedras Blancas - 6/10
Grimewave - 6/10
Phantasm Ravager - 6.5/10
It The Terror From Beyond Space - 7/10
Chopping Mall - 8.5/10
Malatesta's Carnival Of Blood - 8.5/10
Blue Sunshine - 8/10
The Rift - 7/10
The Guardian - 6/10