It's Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987)

Director: Larry Cohen

Writer: Larry Cohen

Composer: Laurie Johnson

Starring: Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, James Dixon, Gerrit Graham, Macdonald Carey, Neal Israel, Art Lund, Ann Dane, William Watson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: They do something worse than kill. They multiply.

Plot: The mutant babies have been placed by court order on a deserted island. Appalled by the cycnicism and exploitation of the children by the legal system and the media, the man responsible for them leads an expedition to the island to free them.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Larry Cohen wrote and directed all three IT'S ALIVE pictures and even though none of them are great, I do appreciate how he continues the story.  You can tell that he cared enough to do something different with each one.  This one's got some great stuff like stop motion animated killer mutant babies.  The kills are fun and nearly all of this wacky shit happens on an island where the babies have been left to live in isolation.  Can it get better?  You betcha.  A successful business man and game hunter shows up to kill him some babies and naturally underestimates his prey.  But that's not the story Cohen sticks with.  It gets weirder and weirder.  I'd say it's probably worth watching just for how bonkers the story gets.  What about that cast?  Michael Moriarty and Karen Black?  Cohen got good talent for his pictures, I'll say that much.  They're great.  Moriarty does a great job in an unusual way.  He plays the father of a mutant baby, Stephen Jarvis, unlike what any other actor would probably do and it works.  I might be over-selling it but I enjoyed it for the camp horror that it is.  I'd suggest watching it with a group and toss some liquor sauce into the mix.  The Warner Bros. IT'S ALIVE Triple Feature DVD set features the film in anamorphic widescreen.  The only extras are the trailer (fullscreen) and a commentary track by Cohen. 

The Comeback (1978)

Director: Pete Walker

Writers: Murray Smith, Michael Sloan

Composer: Stanley Myers

Starring: Jack Jones, Pamela Stephenson, David Doyle, Bill Owen, Sheila Keith, Holly Palance, Peter Turner, Richard Johnson, Patrick Brock, June Chadwick, Penny Irving, Jeff Silk

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Millions loved him, could someone hate him enough to kill and kill again?

Plot: A singer holes up at a sinister estate to write new songs for his act. The ghost of his murdered wife begins to haunt him, then the person who actually killed her shows up at the mansion.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This one's a slow go and if you've seen a few Pete Walker pictures then you'll know how that goes.   A few minutes in you get a nice grisly, vicious kill.   There are a couple more in the picture with the final one being accidental and neat.  The killer was a surprise to me but these things only help a little considering the mystery lasts for an hour and a half.  Pop sensation Jack Jones does a rather good job in the lead as the, surprise, pop singer working on his next album.  If you dig the slow burn, leisurely paced mystery pictures that straddle the lines of an Italian Giallo, then this might do it for you.  For me, it held my interest somewhat but it's ultimately ho-hum.  The Shriek Show DVD, part of the Pete Walker Collection, presents the film in fullscreen.  The only extras you get are the trailer (also fullscreen), trailers for five other Walker pictures, a photo gallery and text film notes.

Mulberry St (2006)

Director: Jim Mickle

Writers: Nick Damici, Jim Mickle

Composer: Andreas Kapsalis

Starring: Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre, Tim House, Larry Fleischman, Larry Medich, Javier Picayo, Antone Pagan, John Hoyt, Lou Torres

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The neighborhood is changing...

Plot: A deadly infection breaks out in Manhattan, causing humans to devolve into blood-thirsty rat creatures. Six recently evicted tenants must survive the night and protect their downtown apartment building as the city quickly spirals out of control.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Clocking in at around 77 minutes (plus a few more for the end credits), this picture is a quick watch and doesn't have any slow spots to speak of.  I dig the introduction of the characters and the relationship of the tenants.  They're social and neighborly, something I don't have experience with.  I wouldn't recognize my neighbors if I passed them on the sidewalk.  The characters are likable.  Even though the outbreak starts immediately and it slowly grows, it's not until halfway into the picture that the shit really hits the fan and stays hit until the end (and a nice ending it is).  The handheld, always moving camera can get annoying.  It's not my bag.  I wouldn't mind it so much if there were spots where it would stay still.  There's a good amount of gore and horror.  I thought it was a bit silly that the infected took on physical characteristics of rats like A LOT of hair all over their faces but OK.  I'll go along with it.  I've bought into stranger things than that.   It's a bad horror flick and probably one of the better 8 Films to Die For (from 2007) that I've seen.

Vampire Hunters (2003)

Original title: Jian Shi da Shi Dai

AKA: The Era of Vampires

Director: Wellson Chin

Writer: Hark Tsui

Composer: J.M. Logan

Starring: Ken Chang, Michael Man-Kin Chow, Suet Lam, Kwok-Kwan Chan, Anya, Rongguang Yu, Horace Lee Wai Shing, Chun Hua Ji, Kuan Tai Chen, Lik-Chi Lee, Wang Zhen Lin, Zou Na, Yat-Fei Wong, Mei-Yee Sze, Kin-Yan Lee, Steve Blum, Richard Cansino

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Five heroes. A coven of vampires. A lot of bad blood.

Plot: In 19th century China, an evil monk awakens a nest of vampires hell-bent on devouring human life. Now, a quartet of heroes trained in the Taoist Mao Shan school of magic and their master must use their unique powers to destroy the Vampire King and its lethal coven before it is too late.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This was surprisingly fun...at times.  The four actors that comprise the group (named Rain, Wind, Thunder and Lightning (I think)) have good chemistry together.  What's more is that they're fun and obviously fond of each other.  The pacing is pretty good.  I was rarely bored but the film felt long despite the 90 minute cut I saw (IMDb lists a longer cut by an additional 22 minutes).  The fighting was nicely choreographed and the editing doesn't cut away as bad as some pictures.  The scenes aren't quickly chopped up which is a good thing.  If you're looking for some vampire kung fu action then I'd say check this one out.  It's at least worth a look.  The Columbia DVD sports a nice anamorphic widescreen image with audio in Cantonese (with English subtitles), English and French (with English subtitles).  The only extras are trailers for COWBOY BEBOP, NATIONAL SECURITY and TIME AND TIDE.

Sisters (1972)

Director: Brian De Palma

Writers: Brian De Palma, Louisa Rose

Composer: Bernard Herrmann

Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson, Barnard Hughes, Mary Davenport, Dolph Sweet, Olympia Dukakis

More info: IMDb

Tagline: No one will be seated during SHOCK RECOVERY PERIOD!

Plot: A journalist witnesses a brutal murder in a neighboring apartment, but the police do not believe that the crime took place. With the help of a private detective, she seeks out the truth.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I swear this picture is just as good now as it was the first time I saw it probably thirty years ago (and all of the times in between).  Margot Kidder is just adorable.  She's fantastic as is the rest of the cast.  Fans of De Palma are familiar with his love for all things Alfred Hitchcock.  In the 70s he made several pictures that paid homage to the Master of Suspense beginning with this one.  Not only is it a good horror/thriller but De Palma shows his deft skill at manipulation in the way that Hitchcock did.  And if you're going to elicit Hitchcock, why not use his favorite composer, Bernard Herrmann?  The score is wonderfully brutal.  I love it!  I don't know if this is under-appreciated or even overlooked in De Palma's catalog, because I've known about it all of my adult life, but it should be more widely talked about.  The Criterion DVD looks great with an anamorphic widescreen image.  The only extras you get are text based and photos like the pressbook and behind the scenes photos.  This needs a commentary track.  Maybe a subsequent release did better on the extras.

Dark Places (1973)

Director: Don Sharp

Writers: Ed Brennan, Joseph Van Winkle, James Hannah Jr., Don Sharp

Composer: Wilfred Josephs

Starring: Christopher Lee, Joan Collins, Herbert Lom, Robert Hardy, Jane Birkin, Jean Marsh

More info: IMDb

Tagline: There is more than death waiting for you in Dark Places.

Plot: A scheming couple plot to conceal a hidden cache of stolen money from its rightful owner. The only problem is that the house they plan to hide it in is haunted.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I had higher hopes for this one for the cast alone.  They do an OK job but you could easily make the case that everyone except for Hardy was just going by the numbers.  The script doesn't light any fires so you could blame that, too.  And then there's the direction or the overall bland vibe of the picture.   It's borderline so slow that it's boring the pieces out of me.  The ending was great but it's such a slog to get to that once you're there, you're glad it's almost over.  Pass.

A Cold Night's Death (1973)

Director: Jerrold Freedman

Writer: Christopher Knopf

Composer: Gil Melle

Starring: Robert Culp, Eli Wallach, Michael C. Gwynne, Vic Perrin

More info: IMDb

Plot: Scientists Culp and Wallach suspect that there is someone other than their research primates inhabiting their polar station.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

You can't go wrong with Culp or Wallach.  For 95% of the picture it's just these two guys at odds with each other as their stay drags on.  It doesn't help that all of the interiors are obviously filmed on a set but then this was made for TV so the budget was a concern.  But you don't watch these things for the sets, it's all about the story and acting and this is a good one.  Besides these guys, the best part about it is the final ten minutes.  I was riveted.  It's a short flick (about 75 minutes) but it could probably use some cutting back.  The mid section is a bit tedious. 

Willow Creek (2013)

Director: Bobcat Goldthwait

Writer: Bobcat Goldthwait

Starring: Alexie Gilmore, Bryce Johnson, Laura Montagna, Bucky Sinister, Peter Jason, Timmy Red, Steven Streufert, Shaun L. White Guy Sr., Nita Rowley, Tom Yamarone

More info: IMDb

Tagline: EXISTING SOON

Plot: A couple go into the woods of the Pacific Northwest to find the location of the famous 1967 Patterson Bigfoot sighting.  Will they find what they're looking for or will it find them?

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I REALLY like Bobcat Goldthwait's directorial work.  A lot.  This one finds him delving into found footage territory.  It's OK but that might not be entirely the fault of any one person or even the film.  Found footage has been done to death.  Let's get to the good.  It looks good, the locations are gorgeous.  That's a huge plus.  The film opens with the Bigfoot hunters Jim and Kelly (he's a believer and she is not) driving on a twisted road very much like the opening in THE SHINING (1980) to the point that I thought it could be the same spot.  The characters are likable, especially Kelly.  Jim's obsession can get a little annoying but I get it.  When you're passionate about something it shines through, especially when no one else shares it.  It's not clear why he's still an ass about her not believing and you get the idea that he's just finding out.  That would be something you'd think they would've discussed at length prior to this little adventure.

They meet some fun and some unsavory characters along the way until they're ultimately alone in the woods in their tent.  That's when the real fun starts.  From here, it's all noises outside the tent.  There's an 18 minute long single take of the two of them listening and getting scared.  It goes on longer than you'd expect and it's impressive.  One of the things I found frightening about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) were the noises at night, that which you couldn't see and your mind had to fill in the blanks.  That's much more powerful sometimes than seeing the boogeyman.  It was the same thing for this film.  And what happens afterward is very good and nicely handled.  This was reportedly shot in five days.  I wonder what the budget was.  It couldn't have been much considering the small crew needed, few actors, short shooting schedule, no score, etc.  It's a good movie but if you're burned out on found footage then you should probably keep on moving.  I'm a sucker for horror movies set in the woods so I've got a built in higher tolerance for this sort of thing.  Now I want to go to Willow Creek and pitch a tent with my best gal.

The Dark Sky DVD features the film in anamorphic widescreen.  The extras are a commentary with Goldthwait and the two leads, a deleted scene (fun but short - 5 min), a pointless Bryce Johnson's making of featurette (utterly pointless.  It's 12 minutes of a crew member trying on Bigfoot feet to walk around the creek bed) and the trailer (anamorphic widescreen).

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Original title: El Espinazo del Diablo

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writers: Guillermo del Toro, Antonio Trashorras, David Munoz

Composer: Javier Navarrete

Starring: Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Fernando Tielve, Inigo Garces, Irene Visedo, Jose Manuel Lorenzo, Francisco Maestre, Junio Valverde

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The living will always be more dangerous than the dead.

Plot: After Carlos, a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War, arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets that he must uncover.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

When this hit video 15 or 16 years ago I was working at a video store and took home THE OTHERS (2001) which was out at the same time.  That one left me disappointed and so the next night I hoped to correct that by taking this one home.  This is much better.  Maybe someday I might revisit the former but I doubt it (I just thought is was too slow and I figured out what was going on too early) but BACKBONE is a good one.  It's more drama than horror but it works firmly as both.  I dig the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War.  That just adds to the depth.  The acting is excellent, even the kids.  It's a great looking picture with cameras almost in a slow, continuous motion.  The only thing I have to gripe about is something that's in all of del Torro's movies and that's his hard on for everything making a sound.  Pick up a slug and there's a loud squishy sound.  Pick up an apple with your hand and it makes a louder than normal sound and this goes on and on.  Why?  Someday I'd like to have a deep discussion about sound in movies with someone who is in the business.  I've got questions.  One thing I dig is the feel of the picture.  You can tell this isn't a Hollywood movie.  It's got a foreign feel and that's to its benefit.  I've grown as a film fan over the years.  When I first saw this, it was refreshing and unusual.  Now it's just a very good film.  Watch more foreign films.

All Cheerleaders Die (2013)

Directors: Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson

Writers: Lucky McKee, Chris Sivertson

Composer: Mads Heldtberg

Starring: Caitlin Stasey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Brooke Butler, Tom Williamson, Michael Bowen, Reanin Johannink. Leah Parker

More info: IMDb

Tagline: You can't kill their spirit.

Plot: A rebel girl signs up a group of cheerleaders to help her take down the captain of their high school football team, but a supernatural turn of events thrusts the girls into a different battle.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

From the first few minutes you get a good idea for what you're in for.  It's going to be a deliciously good dark comedy horror.  And that's what you get.  Well, you actually get two films.  What starts out as one thing, it ends as another.  It does what FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996) did but it's a lot smoother and natural in this picture.   It's fun, the kills are fun, Maddie is a great character and the ending is balls out insanely fun.  Where's the sequel, y'all?  It's a wild picture in a lot of ways but one thing I dug was not liking the cheerleaders (except for Maddie) until 'that thing' happens and then I dig 'em.  It's a cool shift that I didn't see coming.  The Image DVD anamorphic widescreen print looks great but there's only one extra and that's a behind the scenes featurette (24 mim).  A commentary would've been better.  It's OK to hear the actors talk about their characters but in this case I'd like to hear what the directors had to say.  This is a remake of McKee and Sivertson's first film by the same name from 2001.  Now to get my hands on that one...

The Witch (2015)

Director: Robert Eggers

Writer: Robert Eggers

Composer: Mark Korven

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Julian Richings, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Daniel Chaudhry

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A New-England Folktale.

Plot: A family in 1630s New England is torn apart by the forces of witchcraft, black magic and possession.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Wow!  Congratulations to writer/director Robert Eggars on his impressive film debut.  I loved it.  The atmosphere is thick and dreary, much like how I suspect it would've been living like they did.  It's a story that I suspect will be enhanced with a second viewing.  And the music!  Wow!  Mark Korven's score perfectly compliments the dreariness and the mystery.  The only thing that bothered me were the couple of jump scares where a hand or something appeared out of nowhere with a loud bang in the music.  Other than that, it was one of the most creative scores I've heard in a long time.  The movie is only an hour and a half long but it feels longer and that's a good thing.  After the first few minutes I was captivated.  The story unfolds slowly but deliberately.   The last act gets justifiably frantic when the shit goes down and the ending is just fantastic.  It's so nice to see a small film like this that feels so fresh and takes its subject so seriously.  I watched some of the extras and there was a lot of care taken to make this film and it shows.  Highly recommended. 

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Writer: Max Ehrlich

Composer: Jerry Goldsmith

Starring: Michael Sarrazin, Jennifer O'Neill, Margot Kidder, Cornelia Sharpe, Paul Hecht, Tony Stephano, Norman Burton, Anne Ives, Debralee Scott, Jon Richards, Steve Franken, Fred Stuthman

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Suppose you knew who you had been in your previous life. Where you had lived...whom you had loved and how you had died. What then?

Plot: When college professor Peter Proud begins to experience flashbacks from a previous incarnation, he is mysteriously drawn to a place he has never been before but which is troubling familiar. As if drawn to her by cosmic force, he soon finds himself unwittingly in the company of his previous incarnation's wife. This woman, Marcia Curtis, recognizes in Peter startling characteristics which he shares with her dead husband, Jeff.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Good flick.  I'd like to have watched a nice widescreen print but you take what you can get.  You can watch the whole thing on YouTube at the moment (above).  There is an element of horror but it's mostly a drama mystery that doesn't play out like you think it might.  There's this weird thing going on when Peter (Sarrazin) falls for Ann (O'Neill) and he knows that his is her biological father's reincarnation.  So mentally he's falling in love (with benefits) with his daughter but physically he has no connection.  That's a strange thing to wrap your head around.  It's one of those 'how you you handle it' situations.  It's a well-made film with good performances, score and the like.  I like Goldsmith's score but I got the sense that John Barry would've played up the mystery and romance better.  This picture would've been a good fit for Barry.  The ending is great.  Avoid spoilers for this one.  Oh yeah, for you Margot Kidder fans. there's this...

The Sheriff's Strange Son (1982)

Original title: El Extrano Hijo del Sheriff

Director: Fernando Duran Rojas

Writers: Eric del Castillo, Barbara Gil

Composer: Rafael Carrion

Starring: Mario Almada, Eric del Castillo, Rosa Gloria Chagoyan, Alfredo Gutierrez, Luis Mario Quiroz, Roberto Carfiedo, Alicia Encinas

More info: IMDb
 
Plot: Set in the old west, the sheriff's wife gives birth to conjoined twins, she dies during labor and the ashamed sheriff decides to hide his children, years later he force the town doctor to surgically separate the kids but during the intervention one of them dies and his evil spirit possess his brother to take revenge.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

SPOILERS ON THE DUSTY TRAIL!!!  YARRRRR!!!

Westerns and horror are two of my favorite genres and I'll watch just about anything when they mix the two.  This Mexican oddity is a must-see for that reason alone.  It's a revenge flick for the dead conjoined twin who didn't survive the separation and he's pissed!  The movie's less than an hour and a half and it takes most of that time to get to the good stuff like the dead kid using his supernatural powers to kill everyone that has any responsibility in his death including his father hanging by his neck!  He's just the first casualty.

As others die, it feels like it's going to continue until the doctor who performed the operation gets some extensive notes in the mail on how to perform an exorcism!  I know, right?  Sweet!  Now the movie is almost over.  He performs the exorcism attended by the surviving kid and the beautiful young woman who ran the orphanage.  The chanting is over and everything goes quiet.  Success!  Nope.  The kid is dead.  Shit!  Then the woman drops dead.  More silence.  The fuck?  Then she gets up and she's possessed by the first dead kid and she cycles through his voice, the other kid's voice and her own.  The end.  What the hell?  Keep going, damn it!  You can see this isn't any normal Western.  The first half (and more) suffers from the usual drama that's dragged out a little more than necessary but it's what you get in the last half hour once the dead kid shows up that gets thing rolling and moving fast. 

The Dead (2010)

Directors: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford

Writers: Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford

Composer: Imran Ahmad

Starring: Rob Freeman, Prince David Oseia, David Dontoh, Ben Crowe, Glenn Salvage, Dan Morgon

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  The feeding begins.

Plot: An American mercenary, the sole survivor of a plane crash, has to run the gauntlet across Africa, battling with the living dead.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

This British production filmed in Burkina Faso and Ghana (both in West Africa) is a breath of fresh air in the midst of a gazillion zombie movies.  It's great.  I loved it.  The music goes a long way in this picture.  It's more atmospheric than melodic and it works very, very well.  The cast is wonderful.  It's mostly just Freeman and Oseia (who work well together) but it's the small roles that shine in their performance and in their authenticity.  The locations are beautiful and unusual for the genre.  The zombie effects are well done, too, and from what I've read they're mostly practical effects.  It shows.  And one thing I enjoyed immensely is how quiet the zombies are.  They're shamblers and they don't make a sound.  No loud-ass gargling or vocal noises.  It's so nice to NOT HEAR them.  I find that more menacing and realistic (as long as we're suspending our disbelief that this is even possible).  Oh, and the story?  It boils down to two characters trying to survive long enough to reach their destination.  Nice ending, too.  Highly recommended.

Behind the Mask (1932)

Director: John Francis Dillon

Writer: Jo Swerling

Starring: Jack Holt, Constance Cummings, Boris Karloff, Claude King, Bertha Mann, Edward Van Sloan, Willard Robertson, Thomas E. Jackson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A SLINKING FIEND - SKULKING TERROR - MAD MURDER!

Plot: A federal agent goes undercover to infiltrate a drug smuggling operation headed by a mysterious Mr. X, a criminal mastermind whose identity is unknown even to his henchmen. Mr. X is also running a bogus hospital where victims are killed on the operating table, and their coffins stuffed with narcotics. The drug-filled coffins are then buried in a cemetery.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Mabye.

I watched this hoping it was a horror movie like IMDb said.  It's got a horror element as far as the morbid tone of killing folks and stuffing their coffins with drugs and burying them in a graveyard.  Now, normally I'd say you know what you're going to get when the villain, who runs a big time drug ring, is called Mr. X but this picture is a little better than that.  For starters, you've got Edward Van Sloan (Van Helsing from DRACULA (1931) as well as being in FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and THE MUMMY (1932)) as the devious Mr. X.  And you've also got Boris Karloff as Mr. X's enforcer.  You actually get to see a little acting range from Karloff for a change.  Like a lot of pictures from this time, there's very little music which doesn't help.  Still, there are some nice moments of people dying and coming close to it.  Mr. X doesn't mess around and neither does Boris Karloff.  And that ending!  Nice!!!  I suspect this was a welcome picture for horror fans of the early 30s.  It can't compete with the likes of DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN and the MUMMY but then it's not trying to and it succeeds on its own merit.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)

Director: Gene Fowler Jr.

Writers: Herman Cohen, Aben Kandel

Composer: Paul Dunlap

Starring: Michael Landon, Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell, Charles Willcox, Dawn Richard, Barney Phillips, Ken Miller, Cynthia Chenault, Michael Rougas, Robert Griffin, Joseph Mell, Malcolm Atterbury, Eddie Marr, Vladimir Sokoloff, Louise Lewis, S. John Launer, Guy Williams, Dorothy Crehan

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The most amazing motion picture of our time!

Plot: A hypnotherapist uses a temperamental teenager as guinea pig for a serum which transforms him into a vicious werewolf.

My rating:

Will I watch it again?  No.

How about that hyperbolic tagline?  If this is true then we've got a serious teenage werewolf problem on our hands that's been festering in secrecy for 60 years.  This picture made a sweet bundle back then by capitalizing on the teenage market.  Now I'm sure this was a great picture to take your best gal to the drive-in because it's borderline boring enough to ensure she'd rather suck face and curl her bobbysox than to pay attention to what's on the screen.  It's a novelty to look back on this to see Landon in his first starring feature role.  It's a goofy picture but it doesn't lean enough on the culture of teenager or the things they dig, largely music.  It also doesn't have much that's fun in the way of werewolf horror.  It's OK but the filmmakers didn't try hard enough to make a good horror movie.  It's more of a picture that transforms the werewolf idea into some punk ass bitch with anger issues who recently went through puberty.  I didn't have any sympathy for anyone and I was hoping for more werewolf kills.  But then I should feel bad for not diggin' on the most amazing motion picture of our (or their) time.  If I suddenly stop updating this blog then you'll know it was werewolves that took my ass out.  Avenge me.

The Exotic Ones (1968)

Director: Ron Ormond

Writer: Ron Ormond

Starring: Georgette Dante, Sleepy LaBeef, Ron Ormond, June Russell, Diane Marshall, June Carr, Sam Tarpley, Harris Martin, Ed Livingston

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Bayou Bigfoot Does Bourbon Street

Plot: A trio of hunters in the Louisiana bayous capture a monster called the Swamp Thing. They take it to New Orleans where (naturally) they display it in a strip joint. When the monster's favorite stripper gets into a fight with another stripper, he breaks loose and starts killing.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Lets' see you do that.  Seriously, please send me videos

of you doing that with fiery tassels.

Say, kids, do ya like your 60s exploitation?  How about strippers that can actually dance and know how to use tassels?  Well, how about trapsin' around the French Quarter in New Orleans circa 1968?  Then what about capturing a swamp creature and making it part of the stripper variety show at a struggling titty bar?  No?  Then I reckon you're just going to miss out on some wild entertainment.  OK, so there's no nudity AT. ALL!  But there are a lot of good lookin' broads that are almost nekkid. 

The first half hour is a blast with girls auditioning their acts for hire at the local French Quarter titty bar.  Once the gangster B-plot and the monster C-plot get involved things start to drag a lot.  Then it all picks up in the last ten minutes with a great cat fight between a couple of strippers, the escape of The Swamp Thing going on a killing spree and then it just kind of ends with a Russ Meyer-ish voice over telling us about sleaze on Bourbon Street.  Cut out the middle nonsense and you've got yourself a great flick to toss on at a party.  If I had a time machine one thing I'd do is visit New Orleans strip joints in the 60s and 70s.  It looks like it'd be a blast.  Except for the crazy swamp monsters on the loose killin' strippers part.  Not cool.

Altered States (1980)

Director: Ken Russell

Writer: Paddy Chayefsky

Composer: John Corigliano

Starring: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, Thaao Penghlis, Miguel Godreau, Dori Brenner, Peter Brandon, Charles White-Eagle, Drew Barrymore, John Larroquette

More info: IMDb

Tagline: When he heard his cry for help it wasn't human

Plot: A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

I hadn't seen this in at least 35 years.  It was trippy as shit back then and it hasn't changed.  I haven't read the novel but it feels like this might've been a challenge bringing it to film.  It's loaded with wild imagery and effects.  For that reason alone it's worth checking out.  It feels like it's more intellectual that it boils down to.  The performances are good and the score by John Corigliano, a classical composer brought in for his first film, is just as bonkers as the visuals.  I've always thought it might be neat to slink into an isolation tank but after seeing this again I'm not sure if I could take it.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Director: Dwight H. Little

Writers: Alan B. McElroy, Dhani Lipsius, Larry Rattner, Benjamin Ruffner

Composer: Alan Howarth

Starring: Donald Pleasance, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr, Kathleen Kinmont, Sasha Jenson, Gene Ross, Carmen Filpi, Donre Sampson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Ten Years Ago HE Changed The Face Of Halloween. Tonight HE'S BACK!

Plot: Ten years after his original massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece on Halloween. Can Dr. Loomis stop him?

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

Well here's a good sequel.  I really wasn't expecting much because I go into these things as each sequel having diminishing returns.  Yeah, it's not as good as the second picture but it's still fun.  There's definitely something supernatural going on with Michael Myers.  There's no way he can do what he does and survive everything.  I don't care, though, because what I wanted was a good 80s slasher horror picture and that's what I got.  Howarth's use of the main theme is well placed.  He holds off using it until it's the right moment and it's effective.  It's always fun having Pleasence back.  The kid (Danielle Harris) does a fine job.  And how about that balls-out, fucking insane ending?  I loved it!  Michael gets in a couple of good kills.  The suspense is done well enough and I dug how Michael ended up at the house where everyone was holed up.  The atmosphere, score and vibe are firmly seated in the 80s and it was nice to be back in Haddenfield after all these years.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Writers: Tommy Lee Wallace

Composers: John Carpenter, Alan Howarth

Starring: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy, Michael Currie, Ralph Strait, Jadeen Barbor, Brad Schacter, Garn Stephens, Nancy Kyes, Jonathan Terry, Al Berry, Maidie Norman, Jamie Lee Curtis

More info: IMDb

Tagline: ...and now the earth will run with blood again!

Plot: Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

I hope I'm not alone in feeling this way but when I saw this in the early 80s on a tape rental, I was expecting another HALLOWEEN movie with Michael Myers and I was, at very least, disappointed (if not pissed) that it was not the further adventures of an unstoppable killer.  Many years later I watched it again and I rather enjoyed it.  Carpenter never intended for the first movie to continue but instead have a series of films that had one thing in common and that's that they all took place on Halloween.  Well, I like it.  Two things make this totally watchable and that's Carpenter & Howarth's synth score and the wonderful Tom Atkins (and at near 50 he was looking great and he was in great shape, judging from his nude scene).  The music oozes classic Carpenter pictures.  Atkins is just all kinds of fun and he's sometimes delivering lines a little differently than what anyone else would and they feel genuine.  That adds a lot to his performance.  The story isn't as solid as it should've been.  There's a chunk of the picture where not much happens as far as unfolding the mystery is concerned but it's still enjoyable and that's what matters. But it does have one great little ending.  I score films based on how much I enjoy them, not on the merits of their technical aspects.  I don't care much about budgets, special effects and all.  It's what's on screen and how I react that counts.  Knowing where Carpenter wanted to take this series and make it one big anthology, that' would've been a neat way to treat the series.  At the same time I'd still like to see Myers killin' folks.

The Monolith Monsters (1957)

Director: John Sherwood

Writers: Norman Jolley, Robert M. Fresco, Jack Arnold

Composers: Irving Gertz,  Henry Mancini, Herman Stein

Starring: Grant Williams, Lola Albright, Les Tremayne, Trevor Bardette, Phil Harvey, William Flaherty, Harry Jackson, Richard H. Cutting, Paul Frees, William Schallert

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!

Plot: Rocks from a meteor which grow when in contact with water threaten a sleepy Southwestern desert community.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

This is an OK, by the numbers 50s sci-fi/horror flick that benefits from a good cast and crew.  One thing that keeps this from being great is the formulaic story and how mundane it can be.  The effects for the monoliths are fantastic!  I loved how they grew, broke apart and then the new pieces grew.  That was really neat.  It's a shame that there aren't any big names in the cast or actors who became stars later.  That alone would add to the cool factor.  This is one of five classic sci-fi horror movies from the 50s in the Universal DVD set The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection.  This flick is fullframe as it was theatrically shown.  The only extra is the theatrical trailer.  It's a great set.

Grim Prairie Tales (1990)

Director: Wayne Coe

Writer: Wayne Coe

Composer: Steve Dancz

Starring: James Earl Jones, Brad Dourif, Will Hare, Marc McClure, Michelle Joyner, William Atherton, Lisa Eichhorn, Wendy J. Cooke, Scott Paulin, Jennifer Barlow

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Hit The Trail...To Terror.

Plot: A cynical bounty hunter and a clerk traveling through the prairie rest by the campfire telling four stories of terror to each other.

My rating:  7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Wow, what a surprise this turned out to be!  Jones and Dourif are the two storytellers and boy are they fun together!  They work well off each other and I can't remember the last time I saw Jones having so much fun.  The stories are all pretty good.  I say pretty good because a couple of them are VERY short and feel like they could've/should've been expanded (the first and last were like that).  I enjoyed the diversity of the stories, too.  The one with the family arriving to their plot of land to build on had value of being reality-based horror but also of showing hope for bad people.  The others had supernatural elements to them.  It's rare that I like all of the stories from a horror anthology, especially one like this film that has more than the usual.  I thoroughly enjoyed this picture and the ending was hilarious.  The IMDb trivia says that Coe planned on a sequel that never happened.  This is his only film.  I'd like to know more about this cat.  He made one fine movie.  And what do you know...Janusz Kaminski, the cinematographer on this picture (his second film) has been Steven Spielberg's DP since SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)!!!  The only print I could find is a horrible VHS copy.  I'll definitely get this if it ever comes out on DVD and this picture deserves a proper release with commentary and all the extras they can muster.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Director: Jack Arnold

Writer: Richard Matheson

Composers: Irving Gertz, Earl E. Lawrence, Hans J. Salter, Herman Stein

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Almost beyond the imagination . . . A strange adventure into the unknown!

Plot: When Scott Carey begins to shrink because of exposure to a combination of radiation and insecticide, medical science is powerless to help him.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Good movie.  Good effects.  The spider fight was great and it made for a great action piece at the end of the picture.  Something that didn't make sense was why he didn't go back to the scientist that halted his shrinking.  It might've been touched on when I blinked or something.  I guess that doesn't matter much because most people were going to the theaters to see a guy shrink and face wild obstacles us giants take for granted.  That's the real spectacle.  It's not all doll houses and big bugs.  There are some neat ideas that Scott (Williams) is faced with and he ponders them.  The ending leaves him and the viewer wondering about his fate as well as wondering if there are others like him (who encountered the mystery mist) and if this is the fate of mankind (one of many reasons I dig Matheson's work).  It's an interesting and fun ride if a little slow at times.  This is one of five classic sci-fi horror movies from the 50s in the Universal DVD set The Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection.  This flick is anamorphic widescreen and it looks great.  The only extra is the theatrical trailer (also anamorphic wide).  It's a great set.

Dracula Exotica (1980)

Director: Shaun Costello

Writer: Kenneth Schwartz

Composer: ???

Starring: Jamie Gillis, Samantha Fox, Vanessa del Rio, Eric Edwards, Roger Caine, Gordon G. Duvall, Bobby Astyr, Murry Bukofski, Alba Bonn, Leigh Hope, Terry Yule, Carol Markoe, Inez de Falla, Denise Sloan, Diana Sloan, Herschel Savage, Donald Blank, Ron Jeremy, Randy West

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He came to bite... and ate the whole thing

Plot: Sailing to the USA, smuggler Vita Valdez stabs Count Dracula, but he bites her. A necrophiliac morgue attendant reveals she became a vampire. She becomes Dracula's secretary but turns a sergeant into a vampire against Dracula.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

Oh, no!  Not wax play!  The horror!

At an hour and forty minutes this XXX movie is a lot longer than usual, but then this one is different than your usual porno.  There's a good attempt at telling a fun story.  There are some genuinely funny moments.  Dracula gets off the boat in America and kills a few folks on the boat and dock.  Then he attacks Vanessa Del Rio, strips her, bites her neck and boob, goes down on her and out of nowhere asks, "Can you type?".  Fucking classic.  The answer, for those dying to know, is 50 wpm.  It looks like Dracula just picked himself up a secretary. 

Here's another.  There's a disturbing turning hilarious scene when Anatole (Astyr) arrives at an apartment where his teenage daughter is all innocent like.  She calls him Daddy, he gives her a lollipop and they talk about daughter/fathers stuff. Then he fingers her telling her it's a butterfly chasing its wings.  It's creepy.  Naturally, they fuck.  I kept thinking, "They're really going there.".  After all, this was practically the 70s.

Afterward, she answers the phone and she's completely out of character.  It was role play all along and the girl was Sally (Fox) in disguise.  The man on the other end of the phone tells her to kill him.  She does by continuing the play time with Anatole and puts a gun barrel in his butt.  Bam.  The movie has its funny moments but not enough.  There are little spots here an there that couldv'e been shortened to help with the pacing and length but it's more entertaining than most porn features I've seen from the 70s.  The fuck scenes are OK.  There isn't any effort into creating any genuine horror but it is one of the few pornos from the era that dabbled in horror.  The best acting goes to Murray Bukofski as Chikopnik, his only IMDb credit.  The the award for "I Didn't Know He Could Juggle" goes to Ron Jeremy for an early scene when he's juggling oranges while getting blown. 

The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Original title: Korkarlen

Director: Victor Sjostrom

Writers: Selma Lagerlof, Victor Sjostrom

Composer: Matti Bye (for the 1998 release?)

Starring: Victor Sjostrom, Hilda Borgstrom, Tore Svennberg, Astrid Holm, Concordia Selander, Lisa Lundholm, Tor Weijden, Einar Axelsson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Metro's Sensational Production

Plot: On New Year's Eve, the driver of a ghostly carriage forces a drunken man to reflect on his selfish, wasted life.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

It's so rare that I watch silent pictures and it's not by design.  I just don't seem to get around to them as much as I'd like.  This one's been on my radar for a few years and I'm glad I finally got around to it.  I loved it.   Victor Sjostrom as David Holm is fantastic and he plays a real bastard.  The little things he does facially are remarkable.  They brought me further into not only the story but it gave him even more depth.  There's a nice use of tinting like having blue for night and so on.  And that got even better when the neat visual effects were thrown in. 
 

There are several nice shots, shots that I wouldn't have expected in a movie made almost a hundred years ago.  Another thing I dug was the scenes aren't chronological.  There's a good deal of skipping around with the timeline.  It made for a little confusion at times but it also helped hold my attention.  Some of it was possibly unnecessary, and so were some of the scenes which led to covering the same ground story-wise.   Hey, does this look familiar?

"Here's Davey!"

When David started going to town on the door to get to his wife I was hoping for a shot similar to THE SHINING (1980) but this is as close as Sjostrom got. The ending had me all choked up.  Call me surprised.  It was heartbreaking and beautiful and it's all thanks to Sjostrom's performance.  He really is magnificent in this.  I would've preferred a much darker ending (which it looked like it was going there but turned on me) but I'm happy with what is there.  The score by Matti Bye is gorgeous.  I see YouTube has the movie in full with a much darker score.  I watched a few minutes of it and it sounds like that will be the one I watch the next time.  If you've never seen a silent film or only a few, you might want to start somewhere else as this one runs about an hour and forty-seven minutes which is probably more than what most people are willing to take in that are unfamiliar with type of thing.  I really enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing it again someday and with this other contemporary score.  Congratulations for reading this far.  This picture is less of a horror movie than a drama but it does have horror and fantasy elements which might be enough to draw the horror fans in.  That's what prompted me to see it and I'm not disappointed in the least.