Stealing a page from Marty's long running cult thread, I figured we could start one over here on this board for horror and sci-fi flicks. Here are two of my latest:

THE CHANNELER (1990) - A teacher and a group of college students head up to a mountain area to do something I can't remember but end up fighting demons that somehow escaped from a mine. Along the way they receive help from Dan Haggerty and Richard Harrison (who isn't even credited at the IMDb). Man, this is one bad movie. Somehow everything Haggerty starred in during this time period (this, REPO JAKE, ELVES) just drags and drags and drags. The plot is relatively simply but director Grant Austin Waldman does his best to fudge it up. Seriously, by the time it ended I need a notepad to figure out the entire thing. The best scene has Haggerty finding out something about someone's blood and racing to tell the others on his motorbike. He gets knocked off and killed so we never learn what he found out! There are some bad effects and one nude scene that can't help cover the taxing cost to one's brain from the entire film. Also starring FOR alum Jay Richardson.

DREAM DEMON (1988) - A British stab at the popular dream subgenre in the 80s that ends up coming off like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET mixed with REPULSION. Virginal Diana (Jemma Redgrave) is preparing to get married when she begins having a number of vivid dreams that end up having effects on the real world. Directed by Harley Cokeliss, DREAM DEMON does have one thing going for it in that it perfectly captures the surreal nature of dreams. I can't tell you the number of times I have dreamt of pushing my hand through someones pus filled face, only to fall down a pit a few seconds later and have a guy on fire run out of nowhere (seriously). The film also attempts to have a mystery involving the house where Diana lives but it is put together so haphazardly that little of it makes sense. Is the house evil? If so, how is the house evil? Is Diana possessed? We never really know. Regardless, it is worth checking out once if you are starved for some of the bizarre dreams and visuals.

I've only seen one recently, and it was a bad one:

Un Delitto poco comun (1988) aka Phantom of Death, directed by Ruggero Deodato and starring Michael York. York plays a concert pianist who contracts a rare disease that turns him into a mad killer while it simultaneously makes him grow older and uglier, until by the end he looks like Nick Nolte's mug shot. Donald Pleasance plays the police inspector investigating York's murders and he goes through a gamut of emotions, from stunned to frozen to comatose. The English version is dubbed oddly, with the actual voices of the English speaking actors recorded on film and all other, non-English actors dubbed in. Skip it.

Since you mentioned PHANTOM OF DEATH, maybe we can get Mobius poster Jon Barnett to relay his Michael York/PHANTOM OF DEATH story?

Odd film. I didn't know what to think of it at the time. I rented it with another teenage dream horror film, the Australian STONES OF DEATH which was considerably less imaginative.

The only horror film I've watched recently was FUNERAL HOME, one of those "slasher" films from the eighties that was actually professionally shot (though the transfer makes this hard to appreciate) with cinematography by Mark Irwin, production design by Roy Forge Smith, and a score by Jerry Fielding. Love the last shot.

I actually haven't seen a lot of horror movies lately. I've got the two Luciano Ercoli gialli, the new UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING and SARABAND to get through before I can watch anything else.

Lately, I've taken a break from the ever-expanding pile of DVDs and decided to pluck a few unwatched items from the VHS pile. And the latest is...

DR BLACK & MR HYDE - wow. I love blaxploitation but this is bad! It has a Jeykyll and Hyde origin, then turns into a black horror version of Jack the Ripper and then finally finishes with an ending right out of KING KONG. Terrible film, but needless to say I loved it. And the make-up effects were by Stan Winston?!?

Yesterday I splashed out a whole 99p on an old VHS of HUMANOID WOMAN which, if I'm not mistaken, is an edited-down-then-dubbed version of an old Russian sci-fi movie. It looks absolutely awful, so I look forward to viewing it.

Does THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN count?

Once you get past Stan Winston's silly Hyde makeup, I think William Crain's film is actually a pretty good one. The makeup in and of itself isn't so awful, but Larry LeBron's screenplay insists that everyone who encounters Hyde believes him to be a Caucasian, even those who see him up close. Since Hyde really looks like Bernie Casey with a layer of flour covering his face and some white around the bottom edge of his Afro, illusions of Casey actually transforming into a white man are immediately shattered.

However, Casey works hard at pulling off the illusion, and his performance is an excellent one, lending his character a kindly, dignified manner that contrasts harshly with the animalistic Hyde. LeBron and Crain work hard to establish the racial metaphors in Casey's transformation; instead of the class divide present in Robert Louis Stevenson's story, DR. BLACK is about the "evils" of selling out to white society. It's too bad Dimension didn't pony up a few more bucks that would have honed the rough edges, since the script and Casey deserved better.

I recently watched the Aussie "horror" film THIRST -- a modern-day (1979) vampire tale which deals with a international vampire cabal, complete with human "blood cows" that are used to feed the elites that make up the vampire community.

It was interesting, though padded-out, and not at all scary.

I have a question if any of the board members have seen this: it's never explained what the benefits of being a vampire are (eternal life, super-human strength, etc.) in the context of the film. Did I miss something?

I've seen it, but not recently. Were the vampires immortal? I know they really wanted Chantal Contouri to join, but I don't remember why. I do remember Henry Silva's cool death scene though.

I just watched:

VENOM: Not nearly as horrid as many reviews would have you believe, but it wasn't all that great. A decent time-passer/rental. Good attempt to try making a franchisable (is that a word?) character [a la Freddy/Michael/Jason]. Guy gets trapped underwater in an upside down car with a suitcase full of snakes in which many evil souls are trapped (nope... not kiddin')... gets bit and becomes a super-villain filled with the evil of all the snakes. Cue the senseless teenage death, massive house destruction and silly tomb-voodoo-hoosywatsis. The super-smokin-hot Agnes Bruckner makes this one worth a watch.

SKELETON KEY: Another one that I enjoyed, in a PG-13 sorta way. I liked the atmosphere and pacing and I did kinda dig the uber-twist at the end. I got a good chuckle outta the ending. I'm a sucker for movies dealing with voodoo (or, in this case, hoodoo). Kate Hudson isn't bad to look at, either. Peter Sarsgaard redeems himself here after the absolutely unwatchable FLIGHTPLAN (which I watched a few weeks ago... bleh... does that count as "horror" or just "horrible"?).

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They never say! The reason the cabal is interested is because she's descended from E. Bathory, but if that were important, then why didn't they recruit her parents?

I kept waiting for one of the characters to reveal why someone would want to join the vampire society, but it never comes.

On a side note, about halfway through I realized that I had seen this before -- during the first days of cable TV (at least in the suburbs of Detroit). THIRST, along with THE LONG WEEKEND and TOURIST TRAP were in heavy rotation at that time.

I just watched BLOODY MOVIE based on John Charles' semi-positive review in VIDEO WATCHDOG. Curse you, John Charles! This late-'80s slasher movie is pretty awful, presenting six youths prowling around the deserted mansion owned by long-missing silent-movie star "Lance Hayward" and getting picked off one by one by someone re-enacting death scenes from Hayward's old films. Every once in awhile, a past-his-prime B-level actor pops up like Sammy Davis, Jr. peering through a window at Batman and Robin walking up the side of a skyscraper on the old TV series, but just for about two minutes--long enough to get whacked in a bloody manner. Alan Hale ("Skipperrrrrrrrrr!") gets to live, but Dan Haggerty (GRIZZLY ADAMS), Aldo Ray and Cameron Mitchell get smoked in a hurry. John Ireland figures in the ridiculous and confusing climax, and Michelle Bauer has a full-frontal nude scene (so it ain't all bad). The sets are cheap and the sound is crummy, and I'm not surprised to read claims that it never received any kind of release until Retromedia's recent DVD.

I just watched BLOODY MOVIE based on John Charles' semi-positive review in VIDEO WATCHDOG. Curse you, John Charles! This late-'80s slasher movie is pretty awful

Well, I had just finished watching LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER right before this one...

Seriously, I think BLOODY MOVIE is fun for what it is and, having seen many far, far, far worse slasher films over the years, I've certainly got the background.

John Charles

Yeah, OK, next to Steckler, BLOODY MOVIE does look pretty damn good.

Woohoo! A dozen posts into the thread and we have TWO Dan Haggerty films.

Are you implying that LAS VEGAS - S.K.U. (SERIAL KILLER UNIT) is not a classic? Well, you're probably right if you are. And for such a cheap film, here comes my cheap plug for my review:

http://s8.invisionfree.com/MHVF/index.php?showtopic=4843

I just watched The Fog remake...I shouldn't have done it...you all warned me, but I watched it anyway. I was suitably punished. What a terrible movie.

Oh wait... HAHAH... I watched the remake of THE FOG too and completely blocked it out of my mind! I totally forgot to mention it in my post above, which should be a clue as to how memorable it was.

Worst horror film I've seen in quite a long time. A useless remake...

THE CURSE (1987) aka THE FARM

"Nathan, what is wrong with your chickens?"

I've got to admit THE CURSE is one of the best comedies I have seen in a long time. Too bad they wanted it to be a serious horror film! A meteorite lands in a small farm in Tennessee and soon poisons the well water. This in turn creates a virus that starts driving everyone mad as their skin beings to peel off. Hey, its another movie Eli Roth ripped off! An uncredited adaption of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour from Outer Space," this film is only noteable for three things. First, it marks actor David Keith's directorial debut. Second, it stars a young Wil Wheaton and his sister Amy. Third, it may be the only film in history to feature a hot woman trying to get it on with Claude Akins only to have him yell, "No!" Keith is actually a decent director but the film yearns for a widescreen release. If one wants to look deeper into the film, it can be seen as a battle between religion vs. science. When Akins wife gets sick, his plan is to keep her locked up and pray until she gets better while the local doctor wants her to get medical help. But I doubt Keith and co. wanted that much. They wanted to show a movie where people turn gooey and maggots spew characters. And they do that with fine color (interestingly, Lucio Fulci worked on the film in aiding Keith so maybe this is his influence?). For some reason the film opens with what should be the movie's punchline. A fine dumb viewing for late night and not much else.

BEGINNING OF THE END (1957)--Directed by Bert I. Gordon. Stars Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, Morris Ankrum, Thomas B. Henry. I have a soft spot for this film simply because it’s set in my hometown. All the references to (real towns) Ludlow, Rantoul, Paxton, Champaign and Urbana are fun, even though Gordon forgot to hide the Southern California mountain ranges. This ridiculous movie is obviously based on THEM! and stars Graves as a government scientist who engineers a radioactive pesticide that creates giant crops. Unfortunately, it also creates thousands of giant locusts. They destroy Ludlow, Rantoul and Joliet on their path of destruction towards Chicago. Instead of building fake-looking mechanical locusts, special effects “wizard” Gordon used unsatisfactory mattes of real insects. They're made to attack Chicago skyscrapers by having them walk on glossy photos of buildings! Believe it or not, Irwin Allen appropriated Gordon’s climax for THE SWARM two decades later. Music by Albert Glasser.

INFERNO (1980) - The recent talk of the new "Three Mothers" film made me revisit this one over the weekend. I really do love the dreamlike quality of this film. Argento perfectly captures the involuntary sensations that come with dreams with the key/water sequence being a personal highlight (I've dreamt stuff very similar). The library sequence is still supremely creepy. Unfortunately, lead Leigh McCloskey is still as terrible as ever. I always hope that I would watch the film again one day and he would magically be okay but that isn't the case. Dang he is awful.

I just caught up with THE FANTASTIC 4

It wasn't nearly as bad as I suspected it might be. It's extraordinarily well-cast: Chiklis is a natural here but even Jessica Alba, a woman I was sure would never deliver a believable performance on screen, does okay as Sue Storm. (Not like it's a real complicated role, of course.) (But still.) The effects are okay and they get the gizmos right, and it's bright the way the comic book always was and the interactions are especially believable, fraught with the daily annoyances that plague us all.

It's still kind of blah, though. I think part of the problem is that there's, oddly, too much personal interaction. A comic book movie that only has a couple of action sequences seems to miss the point, somehow.

The other problem is kind of unavoidable: I just don't think this series was all that good or interesting to begin with. I'm not sure there's a movie to be found -- I think this particular cast of characters has not aged well. F4 belongs to a sunnier, generally more innocent time, I think.

doug

METAMORPHOSIS: THE ALIEN FACTOR (1993) - Not to be confused with George Eastman's METAMORPHOSIS (1990) or Don Dohler's THE ALIEN FACTOR (1978), this low budget flick originally began life as THE DEADLY SPAWN 2. In some respects, this plays like a bigger budget remake. So, if you are looking for another rip roaring alien on the loose (this time in a Government facility) then this is perfect with its nonstop special effects. You have everything from lifesize slimey alien props to some fantastic stop motion animation. Granted, the acting and script are terrible. The best performance is by Marcus Powell as the evil head of the Talos Corporation. He seems to be channeling David Gale from RE-ANIMATOR or, even more appropriate, SYNGENOR. Director Glenn Takakjian doesn't really have a sense of style or pacing (the office talk filled with flashbacks is amazingly bad) but once it gets down to people vs. aliens, he delivers the goods.

Somthing called The Birds. It's very visual...

Spoilers are bound to follow.

I've just been watching Steamboy (2004), from the director of Akira, that while flawed, is quite a visual feast... and I can only think of one other anime that tackles the same kind of era/feel, and that's Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky. The steam engine war machines are pretty cool, the action is often grabbing, though the story at times doesn't always work. And one of the characters, a young girl, is pretty off putting from the moment she emerges onscreen to her final very false feeling 'redemption' moment. On the other hand, the Victorean London is an interesting deviation to the norm, and while the characters in general may not be fully realized, there's still enough there, mixed with visuals and a story that's enough to keep it going, that do work.

Cowboy Bebop, the series. I'd watched the movie, and was looking forward to the series. Someone let me borrow it and Steamboy. The saddest thing here, is that it comes to an end. It felt like there was at least one or two more good seasons left in this 3 season run. The crew doesn't even fully assemble until the last episode of the first season. The story follows a couple bounty hunters (Spike and Jet, one a tough nosed excop with a mechanical arm, the other a martial arts hitting ex gang member), and their forming crew (against their better wishes), as they track down bounties all over the solar system, many times to disastrous results. Along the way, they pick up Faye, a beautiful 20s aged woman with no past who decides to join them, a possibly unnaturally intelligent dog named Haim, and a really whacky young girl whose also a proficiant hacker (which happens to be the three things that Spike dislikes the most). There's a great dynamic between the crew. When they aren't bounty huntin', they're exploring the strings of their past. The result is fun and engaging. The kind of experience you don't want to end.

Also, I rented Toolbox Murders, by Tobe Hooper. I've only watched half of it so far, and the first murder was so badly staged. They were doing flashes, to represent lightning, and it just looked so fake and visually very blah. I also watched a trailer for Crocadile, also directed by Tobe Hooper, and I wonder where the director of TCM 1/2 and Poltergeist went? Cause he certainly isn't here. The rest of Toolbox so far is pretty standard slasher movie type.

Never heard of it...

:rolleyes:

Toolbox Murders, finished. Well, this is your typical slasher film out of the 80s... complete with killer who can magically attack from anywhere, and some pretty obvious turns toward the end. If that's your cup of tea, you should really enjoy it.

THE GHOSTING (1991) - A Jack Nicholson look-a-like and his family become caretakers of an empty church but not before they find out that a man murdered his wife and two kids there several years before. This ain't THE SHINING kids...it's THE GHOSTING! Coincidentally, the family views the church the same night the crazed killer breaks out of an insane asylum. Even more coincidentally, dad runs him over on the way to meet his family and secretly buries the corpse. So now dad, a troubled Vietnam vet, must endure the ghost of the maniac taunting him in addition to dealing with his family. This is one rough ride. It is made even worse by the fact it runs nearly 2 hours, which is 16 hours in bad movie time. The films "highlights" include the mom forcing her crippled daughter to walk (and cradling her after she falls) and when the dad says he couldn't get a job as a short order cook because he had to take a lie detector test (!). Lowlights include just about everything else from a attack by a phony dinosaur to almost all of the dialogue. Filmed in Spokane, this is the only feature film credit by one Walt Hefner (thank goodness!). Lead Charlie Shores looks like a cross between the "new" Dean Koontz and a thin Jack Nicholson (no doubt a factor in his casting). Check out the trailer at the film's official website if you dare:

http://www.theghosting.com/index.html

COCOON (1985) - I originally saw this in theaters 20 years ago and hadn't seen it since. Despite the odd Don Ameche breakdancing scene (wah?) and old people sex jokes (ah!), it holds up amazingly well. I think Ron Howard did a great job making a Steven Spielberg sci-fi film and one ups ol' Steve by actually having sympathetic characters with real dilemmas. My biggest problem is that several subplots seem tacked on in order to resonate with the audience. The best example is the relationship with Wilford Brimley and his grandson where the kid pops up once and then disappear for an hour before suddenly being a major part of the end. Regardless, this features an amazing cast starring as unlikely movie heroes. Now if only I could work up the courage to revisit COCOON: THE RETURN.

The eternally senior Brimley (who was 50 when he made the film) is the only oldster left from the cast of COCOON, with the passing of Maureen Stapleton last week. I like it, too, but, do not RETURN.

Another quick piece of COCOON trivia - it opened the same day (June 21) as LIFEFORCE and beat it to a pulp. Sometimes good does triumph over evil!

SCREAMTIME (1983) -- Finally caught up with this odd horror anthology film that I first became familiar with via a preview on the Lightning Video release of BLADE IN THE DARK. The film features three British horror tales with US-shot wrap-around footage. The US stuff is proficiently shot and offers a nice view of a New York in the early eighties and gives a sense of just how big a novelty video was in that era (when tapes for sell-through wasn't even a thought). The three tales are scripted by one Michael Armstrong (can anyone confirm if this is the writer/director of MARK OF THE DEVIL and THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HORROR?). The first tells of the trials of a children's entertainer (I've always found Punch and Judy creepy) when his wife and stepson tell him to get rid of the puppets or else. This one has a good number of jump-worth moments and throws in a predictable "twist" just as the killings start to get monotonous. The second story has a housewife seemingly experiencing psychic visions of murders in her new house. The twist on this one probably was genuinely surprising at the time. For me, it was unexpected but routine. The third story has a young man working as a handyman in the house of two old women with a garden full of sinister gnomes and fairies. There are a couple jump-worthy moments in this one but its definately the weakest of the three. Not great, but a good time-waster.

IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH (1970) -- Directed by Sergio Bergonzelli (BLOOD DELIRIUM) though looking like something started by Riccardo Freda (and shot by Mario Bava during his warm, sunny FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON period) and finished by either Renato Polselli or Andrea Bianchi. A genuinely odd film with decapitations, flesh-eating vultures, Etruscan bones, and Fernando Sancho in a bubble-bath (yikes!). The plot isn't so much confused as intentionally though nonsensically diverting.

I've also got CRAZY DESIRES OF THE MURDERER aka MORBID VICES OF A GOVERNESS to watch. I'll let you know.

Also, see my review of Marcello Avallone's MAYA (1988) in the Euro section.

I recently saw:

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

This was the only Halloween I hadn't seen. UK BBC screened this uncut with lots of gore and some nudity.

The climax made no sense at all (neither did the beginning - a 15 year old girl (who looks like 21) who has been imprisoned for 6 years is forced to gives birth to a baby who's father we never know). What was the relationship between Myers and the devil cult and why did he do what he did to them at the end? At least there was a lot more blood than part 4's and 5.

I then checked out the IMDB and apparently it was extensively re-shot after adverse preview screenings and Donald Pleasence had already died by then so they had to work around this (which is why it doesn't make sense at the end). Apparently a bootleg print called "The Producer's Cut" (the original workprint screening) doing the rounds on ebay has 40m odd of differences to the theatrical version.

The Snake People

One of Boris Karloff's last films - his bits were shot in LA by Jack Hill and then integrated into a Mexican picture. This was terrible (this is the Chills 50 DVD box set which contains very poor quality transfers but is extremely cheap) but at least it was the uncut print (the UK VHS called Cult of the Dead is missing 20m). The funniest moment is at the end when a Karloff stand-in is used intercut with shots of the real Boris wearing a completely different mask from the stand-in (and Boris speaks in his own voice and then the stand-in speaks in a completely different voice !!).

Dead Time Stories

A three-part anthology flick from 1985 in which a bloke tells his nephew revamped versions of childrens' fairy stories complete with gore, latex f/x and some nudity. This is a very childish film (the third story in particular) consisting of performers who give the impression that they are in a children's pantomine all overacting to various degrees. It does portray what an adult might think a ten year-old would like to see but that hardly makes it appealing to adults.

Scream Bloody Murder

I liked this - it's really sick and has loads of gore although the print in the Chills 50 box was obviously trimmed in a few murders. There's not much plot but we follow a deranged young man with an oedipus complex around (he murders his dad in the first scene and then loses his arm under a combine harvester) who gets psychotic every time he sees any sexual activity. He falls in love with a beatnik painter - played by the same actress who plays his mother whom he has already murdered - who moonlights as a prostitute (she hangs around on her veranda and aks him "friend or customer"). It's pretty variably made and acted but very much a no-holds barred experience with an uncompromising ending.

COCOON: THE RETURN (1988) - Okay, I didn't listen to my (or Bob's) better judgment and returned to this COCOON sequel. Ouch! To give you an idea of how wrongheaded this follow-up is, the opening ten minutes features a scene where an old man tries to commit suicide and it is played for laughs. So the old folks and the Anterians are back on earth. While the aliens try to save the cocoons with returning Steve Guttenberg, the old folks run around for a few days and find out they are old again on earth (but not before schooling some young punks on the basketball court). Everyone one from the original is back (lead alien Brian Dennehy only for a cameo though) with Courtney Cox the only major new addition as a young scientist who is studying one of the captured cocoons. The biggest problem with the film is it really has no reason to exist. Well, outside of making money of course. It is shot so blandly that it looks almost like a TV movie and the human drama, a major strength of the first film, is so un-subtle this time around. The film even ends with highlights from the first film over the end credits as if to say, "Hey, you remember the good time you had back then. Let's try and transfer some of that feeling over to this one." Yuck.

Yeah, there is a longer cut out there but it sucks just as much too. Some fans seem to equate this elusive cut with being good but it isn't. I was doing an article on it but quit because it was just a waste of my time (and I love wasting my time).

Ha, I have a couple of friends and semi-friends in this, including the other Allen Rickman. My favorite character was the one who kept saying "I'm getting too old for this shit!"

. . . I recently purchased GINGER SNAPS - THE TRILOGY from amazon.com in Canada (I and II are presented anamorphic) and rewatched the wonderful first film in the series last evening; the script is still excellent, fresh, and very funny, as is the acting by all concerned (particularly the two young women who play Ginger and Brigitte - there is some interesting rehearsal footage included showing these two actors getting into character), and the direction really moves things along . . . sorry to say, the makeup and special effects toward the end would no doubt have been improved by a larger budget (it works best during the first half when the creature is not seen very well); but all things considered, this would seem to stand a chance of becoming a low-budget classic over the years, and is certainly much more fun to watch than most of the overblown stuff coming out of Hollywood . . . I am yet to see numbers II and III, but I will get around to it pretty soon . . .

It's the dream sequence that gets me - it goes so far beyond cheese it's unreal. Look! Guttenberg's future! He's happy! You can tell he's happy, he's in a big house and he smokes a pipe. Very, very bad film.

I saw this theatrically (did parts 4 and 5 play in theaters?), and it received a vocal jeering from the college-aged audience. It makes no sense, it isn't scary, and it stinks. Other than that, it's pretty cool. I can't believe 40 more minutes could make it good.

Yeah, they did. Pt. 4, released in Oct. 19988, actually opened at #1 the weekend it came out (prompting many an article to mention how Myers was back and the formula switch with pt. 3 sucked). Pt. 5 opened a year later at number 2 behind the much more horrific LOOK WHO'S TALKING. Both films were released by Galaxy International.

I'll never forget a screening of HALLOWEEN: H20 in Illnois where the audience went absolutely nuts when Myers first appeared. He just walked in the background and everyone screamed as if the emotion fear had just been invented at that point. It was puzzling.