Class of 1999 (1990)

August 28, 2018

Directed by: Mark L. Lester

Written by: Mark L. Lester, C. Courtney Joyner

Starring: Bradley Gregg, Traci Lind, Malcolm McDowell

Budget: $5,200,000

Quote: "The mind is a terrible thing to waste - don't make me waste yours."

Trivia: According to Director Mark L. Lester, the two films that influenced the visual style of the film were both The Road Warrior and The Asphault Jungle. The Road Warrior influences are completely noticeable in the look of the cars and the school itself on the outside.



Alright, this movie is much more of a scifi flick than a horror movie, but it does have certain horror elements, TubiTV had it listed as a horror film, and it was a pretty fun film. Watching this, I vaguely remembered this from my childhood. I must've been ten and saw it a couple years after it came out. I didn't remember much other than robot teachers killing kids, some weird drug that kids crack under their nose and one of the teachers mentions playing war games. The movie is actually pretty good and it has punk kids as the heroes (what was it about the eighties movies making criminals be either punks or rastas?). The film also has Clockwork Orange's Alex, Mr. Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach as a military nut with bleached hair, white eye contacts and a terrible mustache, and Ms. Foxy Brown herself, the beautiful Pam Grier. I guess that's what we'll all look like in 1999. Also, if you look real closely, you can see a very young Rose McGowan in her first movie role. Like, Clockwork Orange, this film focuses on a bleak future with the young run roughshod and have crippled society. This also seemed to be a common fear of the Reagan Era (and shortly thereafter).

Hereditary (2018)

August 27, 2018

Directed by: Ari Aster

Written by: Ari Aster

Starring: Toni Collette, Miley Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne

Budget: $10,000,000

Quote: "Well, now your sister is dead! And I know you miss her and I know it was an accident and I know you're in pain and I wish could take that away for you. I WISH I could shield you from the knowledge that you did what you did, but you're sister is dead! She's gone forever!"

Trivia: In an interview, Alex Wolff explains that he wanted to actually break his own nose for the scene where his character slams his head into a desk. When it was time for the scene to be shot, Wolff slams his head into the desk only to discover that the top was foam and the bottom was hard. He dislocated his jaw (which is a previous injury the actor has had) for the scene.

I started this horror journey back in the beginning of July and when asking my friends what horror/scary movies I should watch the two that came up over and over were A Quiet Place and Hereditary. A Quiet Place was good but I think Hereditary is great. It is actually a legitimately scary movie! It's a slow burn so if you are planning on seeing it, give it patience, it more than pays off in the end.

Slumber Party Massacre 2 (1987)

August 26, 2018

Directed by: Deborah Brock

Written by: Deborah Brock

Starring: Crystal Bernard, Jennifer Rhodes, Kimberly McArthur

Budget: $500,000

Quote: "I am you, and you are me, until we go all the way."

Trivia: Many characters in the movie have names in homage to other horror movies. Not only Officers Krueger and Voorhies, but Courtney's last name is Bates. The neighbors from the original have been renamed the Cravens instead of the Deverauxs in homage to&nbspWes Craven. One of the main characters is named Sally Burns because Marilyn Burns played Sally Hardesty in the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).


I am now in my mid-thirties and grew up in the 1990s. What that means is that I spent much of my adolescence walking the horror aisle of the local Blockbuster. Without the internet and no access to Fangoria magazine I had to rely on the covers and pictures on the back of the VHS cases when deciding on which movies to rent. I am pretty sure I watched all three of the Slumber Party Massacres. I didn't remember the first or the third, but I have a very vivid memory of watching the second one. This is because it is such a bizarre movie. Having to outdo the original which was already literally a parody of itself, the second one has one of the weirdest villains in horror movie history. Several minutes of the film are dedicated to impromptu music videos. Slumber Party Massacre II is a movie that takes nothing seriously, especially itself. The movie takes campiness to extremes and the genre is better for it.

Blood Feast (1963)

August 25, 2018

Directed by: Hershell Gordon Lewis

Written by: Allison Louise Downe (Hershell Gordon Lewis)

Starring: William Kerwin, Mal Arnold, Connie Mason

Budget: $24,500

Quote: "Have you ever had... an Egyptian Feast?... A feast like this has not been performed in 5000 years."

Trivia: Producer David F. Friedman came up with some very effective publicity stunts for "Blood Feast" which included giving theater goers vomit bags reading "You may need this when you see 'Blood Feast'" and obtaining an injunction against the film in Sarasota, Florida, which of course only generated more interest in the film.


"Have you ever  an Egyptian feast?" And so begins Hershell Gordon Lewis' move from sexploitation director to the king of gore. Blood Feast came out in 1963. Let's just take a minute to let that sink in. The Beatles were playing Ed Sullivan. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lawrence of Arabia will win best picture at the 1963 at the Academy Awards that still have two different awards for Black and White and Color films. In the midst of this, came Blood Feast. The first gore film (double check on this, I could be wrong). I can just imagine how insane this film must have seen to viewers in 1963. The acting is atrocious, the film itself is not made particularly well, but what it does have going to itself is gore. Hershell Gordon Lewis will go on to make a good dozen other gore films throughout his career, but this was the first one and the one that won him the throne as the King of Gore.

Piranha (1978)

August 24, 2018

Directed by: Joe Dante

Written by: Richard Robinson, John Sayles

Starring: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies-Ulrich

Budget: $600,000

Quote: People eat fish, Grogan. Fish don't eat people.

Trivia: Universal Studios attempted to sue New World for spoofing Jaws (1975). However, Steven Spielberg saw the movie in advance and loved it. After that, Universal dropped the lawsuit.





The horror genre has always fed off of its own successes. Whenever one of its own hits, you can expect dozens of imitations to hit the theaters or go straight to video. Most of these ripoffs are really, really terrible. But every now and then there comes a couple of great ones. Friday the 13th was the filmmakers attempt at doing Halloween. Italian director Lucio Fulci blatantly ripped off George Romero's zombie films with his own Zombi (Zombie 2). And then there's Piranha. Created for the sole purpose of capitalizing on Jaws' success, Piranha is actually a really fun movie with a lot going for it in its own right. Produced by the lord of exploitation, Roger Corman, Piranha also marks the directorial debut of Joe Dante who will go on to to fame with Gremlins, the Howling, and the "It's a Good Life" segment from the 1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie. Piranha captures the fun of the late seventies and ins't afraid to push the boundaries of taste a bit.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

August 23, 2018

Directed by: Amy Holden Jones

Written by: Rita Mae Brown

Starring: Michelle Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villela

Budget: $250,000

Quote: "You're pretty. All of you are very pretty. I love you. It takes a lot of love for a person to... do this. You know you want it. You'll like it. Yes..."

Trivia: Rita Mae Brown wrote a screenplay for a parody of teen/slasher flicks and titled it "Sleepless Nights". However, when she submitted it to the producers, they filmed it as if it weren't a parody and retitled it "Slumber Party Massacre". As a result, the movie displays a lot more humor, both intended and unintended, than others of this genre.

Drill, baby drill! From Roger Corman (who else?) comes one of the most aggressively misogynistic films of the 1980s. In this movie, women are literally being torn apart by a long phallic tool wielded by a crazed man. The film is chocked full of gratuitous nudity and tracking shots that are meant to purposefully exploit the female body (they move to key areas during shower scenes and group clothes changing scenes). Meanwhile, the girls in the film wear next to nothing are too focused on boys to realize they are about to be murdered. This leaves all of us with the important question, what sicko wrote and directed this filth? Written and directed by women. In fact the entire Slumber Party Massacre franchise is directed by women (See how I set up that amazing twist at the end? See? Alright, I'm no M. Night Shyamalan, but at least I didn't make you sit through 90 minutes of people running away from wind like he did in The Happening... seriously M. Night, what happened?).

Hellraiser (1988)

August 22, 2018

Directed by: Clive Barker

Written by: Clive Barker

Starring: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence

Budget: $1,000,000

Quote: "I thought I'd gone to the limits. I hadn't. The Cenobites gave me an experience beyond limits. Pain and pleasure, indivisible."

Trivia: The Chatterer and Butterball Cenobites had dialogue in the original script. However, when their make-up made coherent speech impossible, their lines were given to the Female Cenobite and especially Pinhead, which helped to cement his reputation as the film's trademark character.


I remember first seeing Hellraiser at my friend Josh's house who lived across the street when I was way too young. The monster Frank was terrifying to me. But it was the scene at the end when he is laughs to himself "Jesus wept" before his head is torn apart by chains that has been forever burnt into my mind.

There is really nothing that I can write about Hellraiser that has not already been written a thousand times before so I'm going to skip what happens in the film and make this one short and hopefully sweet. I have seen this movie a dozen times before but wanted to watch it for two reasons. First, Joe Bob Briggs hosted this movie on his now famous The Last Drive In and I love his commentary and insights. Second, my wife has never seen any of the Hellraisers before and I felt it was part of my marital duty to make sure she doesn't go through life without seeing this gem. The movie is bad ass!

The New York Ripper (1982)

August 21, 2018

Directed by: Lucio Fulci

Written by: Gianfranco Clerici and Lucio Fulci

Starring: Jack Hedley, Almanta Suska, Howard Ross

Quote: "He used a blade. Stuck it up her joy trail, and slit her wide open. He could have done a slightly better job if he had more time. But overall, it was a good, efficient butchery."

Trivia: Kitty's death by razor blade was originally longer and more gruesome. Why the extra violence was cut is unsure, but images found on the Japanese DVD cover confirm that more gore was filmed.





This is another film that received very negative reviews. Allmovies claimed that director Lucio Fulci tried to appeal "to the lowest common denominator as never before in his career, Fulci showed with this blatant play for the sicko slasher crowd that the days of well-plotted, stylish Italian horror were gone, replaced with the most vicious sort of sexual violence and perversion." I don't disagree with the above review. The movie is vile, crude, and mean-spirited. It lacks the sleek cinematography and beauty of Mario Bava and Dario Argento's Giallo films. But, who the hell says that movies need to be beautiful? Especially when it comes to the slasher genre! Sometimes movies should be disgusting. Sometimes movies should be offensive. Sometimes the world can be a pretty ugly place and this movie is a reflection of fact. The movie is yet another of the historic Video Nasty films banned in the UK. Event today, the 2011 DVD had several minutes censored from it in the UK.

Prom Night II: Hello, Mary Lou (1988)

August 20, 2018

Directed by: Bruce Pittman

Written by: Ron Oliver

Starring: Lisa Schrage, Michael Ironside, Wendy Lyon

Budget: $1.5 Million

Quote: "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been three months since my last confession. I've disobeyed my parents many times. I've taken the Lord's name in vain many times. I've had sinful relations, with boys at my school. Many boys, many times... And one more thing... I loved every minute of it."

Trivia: When tasked with directing reshoots, first-time director Ron Oliver called Wes Craven for some advise on directing a teen horror film. His advice was, "Give them a scare, give them a hard-on, send them home."

If you read my discussion on the first movie, you know I was not a fan of the first Prom Night. Although it is considered a slasher classic (along with the other Slashers in the holy trinity: Halloween and Friday the 13th), it is simply not a great movie. Slow paced, terrible soundtrack, and more style than substance. Prom Night II on the other hand is absolutely incredible! One critic described the film as the Blue Velvet of high school horror pictures. This description fits perfectly. It has all the things that make high school slashers great: shower scenes, teen drama, and of course lots of teenagers being killed in myriad of ways. But what makes this film so great is the extra elements that they add into the film. The filmmakers include surrealist elements, they blur the lines between reality, dreams, fantasy and flashbacks. The movie is what the original one should have been. It is what the original one would have been had I been on acid when I watched it. Oh, and it doesn't have that horrible disco soundtrack and pointless five minute Jamie Lee disco dance scene.

Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)

August 19, 2018

Directed by: Darren Lynn Bousman

Written by: Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich

Starring: Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, Alexa PenaVega

Budget: $8,500,000

Quote: "I'm the monster. I'm the villain. What perfection. What precision! Keen incisions, I deliver. Unscathed organs, I deliver. Repossession, I deliver. I'm the Repo! Legal assassin!"

Trivia: Rotti was originally supposed to cough up blood onto his handkerchief after Amber reveals her botched surgery face to him, but actor Paul Sorvino refused to cough up blood. As a result, the handkerchief remains clean during the scene.



I read a few of the critic's reviews for this film and they are pretty brutal:

• "The film is bad -- not good-bad, tacky-bad or fun-bad, just plain awful and nearly unwatchable. - Mark Olson, Los Angeles Times
• "The Genetic Opera is weak on a couple of things a musical needs: music and lyrics." - Kyle Smith, New York Post
• "The grim finality of the ensuing pietà suggests the last act of Hamlet or, rather, Hamlet 2--so embarrassing that, for the first time, I wanted to avert my eyes from the screen, although that might have also been because Repo! appears to have been shot with a cell phone." - J Hoberman, Village Voice
• "Misery is enduring this Rocky Horror Paris Show." - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Luckily I didn't find any of this to be true. The film is bizarre: A horror musical about a dystopian future where organs can be repossessed for delinquent payments. But, there is something really endearing in its weirdness. Repo! simply does not give a crap whether you like it or not. It is loud, brash, campy, and damn fun. Admittedly, the film, by all rights, should probably never have been made. There was almost no way that it was ever going to recoup the $8.5 million budget that the film cost. Unfortunately not a big enough audience for this type of film. But I wish there was!

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

August 18, 2018

Directed by: Dwight H. Little

Written by: Alan B. McElroy

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris

Budget: $5,000,000

Quote: "Hey, I got a town full of beer bellies running around in the dark with shotguns! Who's gonna be next? Somebody's wife? Somebody's kid? I can't stand by for that."

Trivia: In the original script the opening shot was of a long hospital corridor suddenly blowing up and throwing Loomis from the explosion, in a reference to the end of Halloween II (1981). In order to show how Loomis survived. it was later decided the film should not have any connections to the predecessors and the explosive opening was never shot.

Alright, I was up in Hollywood at a hotel waiting to see my friend's band open up for The Weirdos (if you haven't yet, do yourself a favor, find and listen to their album Weird World) while I watched this film. Maybe I wasn't in the right head space when I watched it but I could not get into this film.

It takes place ten years after Michael tried to kill Laurie at the hospital and he's been in a coma since then. Somehow both he and the world's worst psychiatrist turned detective Sam Loomis survived Loomis blowing up the room they were in. Oh, and Laurie died in a car crash sometime over the past ten years (they couldn't afford Jamie Lee so they had to do something to explain her away). While being transferred to another hospital, Michael wakes up after hearing Laurie had a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). From there it is the usually, Michael killing randos on his way to get Jamie. He throws a guy into a power voltage thing causing the power to go out throughout town. Eventually he gets to Julie's house. There is the cat and mouse games with Julie, her babysitter and her babysitter's boyfriend. Eventually Michael is killed. Then End?

Hell of the Living Dead (1980)

August 17, 2018

Directed by: Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso

Written by: Claudio Fragasso and Jose Maria Cunilles

Starring: Margie Newton, Franco Garafalo, Selan Karay

Quote: "What's the matter? Dissapointed? Sorry, boys! I guess I'm not on the menu after all! Ha, ha, ha, don't let it worry ya! I figure we'll all meet again... in hell!"

Trivia:  Stock footage from the film Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali (1974) was used for the native scenes. Nuova Guinea, l'isola dei cannibali, aka Guinea Ama, has been recently re-released on DVD as The Real Cannibal Holocaust.





Okay, so sometimes there are movies that are just perfect. The acting is incredible, the story pulls the viewer in, and the cinematography is stunning. Casablanca and Citizen Kane are two examples. I would also put most of David Lynch's films into this category. Then there are movies that are great for the opposite reasons. The story line meanders, the acting is over-the-top and the dialogue is silly. Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space and Tommy Wiseau's The Room are two classic examples of this. For me, Hell of the Living Dead falls into that category. It is a terrible movie and I loved every minute of it! The gore is excessive, the actors are caricatures of what Italy thinks tough Americans should be, and the plot makes almost no sense. It is sexist. It is stupid. It is mean spirited. It is great!

Visiting Hours (1982)

August 16, 2018

Directed by: Jean-Claude Lord

Written by: Brian Taggert

Starring: Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl

Budget: 5,500,000 CAD (Canadian)

Tagline: There is no known cure.....for MURDER.

Trivia: The limp Michael Ironside sports at the end of the movie was real. He broke his ankle on the first day of filming.







Another infamous "Video Nasty"! One of 72 films that the British government banned as being obscene. Trivia for the film claims that the version banned was the same version that had been cut for cinematic release in the UK. Either way, the film is dark, gritty and violent but not overly bloody like many of the other Video Nasties. The film also has an impressive cast of Hollywood actors: William Shatner, Lee Grant, and Michael Ironside. While the film is a bit slow and probably could've afforded to have ten minutes cut out of the middle of it, it creates a dark mood and has a lot of very suspenseful scenes. Unlike the excessively gory films that were becoming popular in the 1980s, Visiting Hours success is due to the amazing performance of Michael Ironside as the psychotic murderer Colt Hawker. It's Ironside's performance that makes the film so memorable and do disturbing.

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

August 15, 2018

Directed by: James DeMonaco

Written by: James DeMonaco

Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Kiele Sanchez

Budget: $9,000,000

Quotes: "The unwritten Purge rule: don't save lives. Tonight we take lives. We make things manageable. Unfortunately the citizens aren't killing enough. So we supplement it all to keep things balanced. It's important work the NFFA does and we can't have any interference. We can't have heroes... oh no sir... no heroes."

Trivia: Edwin Hodge plays Dante Bishop, the homeless man in the original The Purge (2013) that the son lets in. He is also in this movie as the same character and he saves the group at the Wealthy People's Party. He is part of the group that try to defend the less wealthy people.

Until a few weeks ago, I had never seen any of the Purge movies. I liked the premise, but just had never gotten around to watching it. When I finally watched the first Purge, I was a little disappointed with it. The premise seemed hamstrung by the setting taking place entirely within a house. It seemed no different than The Strangers and/or Panic Room. Just another home invasion movie. That's why I was excited to watch the second film. I was hoping for a movie closer to Escape From New York. The Purge: Anarchy follows a few characters that come together in the city streets and as the title suggest, it has a more anarchic feel to it than the first one. The film also has some strong social and political messages that I wasn't expecting.

The Witch (2015)

August 14th 2018

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Written by: Robert Eggers

Starring:  Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

Budget: $3,500,000

Quote: "Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?"

Trivia: The premise is based on America's first witch hysteria in colonial New England, set 62 years before the infamous "Salem Witch Trials" which occurred in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.


The Witch is a beautiful film set in the late 1600s New England area. The film looks at seventh century witchcraft both real and imagined and the fears of the early Puritan New England settlers. The film does a great job of emphasizing the paranoia that existed at the time while including some truly disgusting scenes. The film is expertly crafted to both portray the 1600s while also emphasizing the fear and menacing aspects of the film. Shot using natural light and candles and with a score of discordant instruments the film has both a minimalist and surreal feel to it. The viewer is never quite sure what is real and what is an illusion. Perhaps, oxymoronically, both are correct.

Night of the Demons (1988)

August 13, 2018

Directed by: Kevin Tenney

Written by: Joe Augustyn

Starring: Linnea Quigley, Amelia Kinkade, Cathy Podewell

Budget: $1,200,000

Quote: Isn't that a little chancy? I mean this IS Halloween, the night when all the creepy things are supposed to stalk the earth. I mean there's no telling what we'll drudge up, especially in this old place.

Trivia: Linnea Quigley (Suzanne) and special effects artist Steve Johnson met when she came in to get the mold for her fake breasts done. They were later married.

First off, I will watch any movie that has Linnea Quigley who is without a doubt my absolute favorite scream queen (sorry Jamie Lee, you're great, but Linnea was my first movie love). Linnea's character Suzanne is the standout in the film. Sexy, trashy, and crude, Suzanne represents the punk rock aesthetic of the 1980s. There are also a bunch of other great characters (and caricatures). The plot is simple (think Lamberto Bava's Demons) to give way to the demonic attacks, nudity, and great dialogue one-liners. And if that wasn't enough, there is a great demonic possession choreographed dance scene to Bauhaus' Stigmata Martyr. If you love punk rock horror movies like Return of the Living Dead as much as I do, this movie is an absolute must see.

A Quiet Place (2018)

August 12, 2018

Directed by: John Krasinski

Written by: Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, John Krasinski

Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds

Budget: $17,000,000

Quote: "Who are we if we can't protect them? We have to protect them?"

Trivia: Actor-director John Krasinski has said that the single greatest compliment he received regarding the film, was in a tweet from the master of the horror story himself, Stephen King: "A QUIET PLACE is an extraordinary piece of work. Terrific acting, but the main thing is the SILENCE, and how it makes the camera's eye open wide in a way few movies manage."

Looking at the Stephen King tweet in the trivia above, I feel like King hit the nail right on the head with regards to why this movie is so successful. The acting, the monster, the story are all great, but it is the silence that really brings you into the film. It is this silence that heightens everything else in the film. It heightens emotions, fears, and really causes the viewer to empathize with the characters creating an anxiety that mirrors the characters on the screen. So many times during the film I found myself wondering to myself what I would do if I found myself in this situation. The film stars John Krasinsky (best known as Jim from The Office) who both cowrites and directs. Krasinski understands pacing and is able to really balance excitement and anticipation. Like a slow zombie film, it isn't the fear that you are going to die today, but the anxiety of knowing that eventually you will be killed.

Blue Sunshine (1977)

August 11, 2018

Directed by: Jeff Lieberman

Written by: Jeff Lieberman

Starring:  Zalman King, Deborah Winters, Mark Goddard

Budget: $550,000

Quote: "No! Johnny, no! No more chocolate pudding! I made that for your father, now stop it!"

Trivia: According to director Jeff Lieberman, New York music clubs such as CBGB's would often screen the film as backing visuals during performances of punk bands such as The Ramones, particularly the disco-attack scene. He humorously felt that this was a way for these performers to "shit on" and express their overall distain for the disco scene.

Holy smokes, this movie is dripping with 1970s weirdness! There is an attack in a disco. There is an LSD party scene. There is a car chase. And the entire movie plays out like a "Just Say No" after school special. It is everything that your mom and Nancy Reagan warned you about. If you try drugs then you will go bald ten years later and murder the people closest to you. Thanks for the warning Nancy! The plot is pretty unique and the movie has a really fun quality to it. While watching it, it is obvious that Jeff Lieberman put his heart into the film thereby creating a fun uniquely 1970s piece of horror.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (with Drinking Game) (1984)

August 10, 2018

Directed by: Wes Craven

Written by: Wes Craven

Starring:  Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

Budget: $1,800,000

Quote: One, two, Freddy's coming for you. / Three, four, better lock your door. / Five, six, grab your crucifix. / Seven, eight, gonna stay up late. / Nine, ten, never sleep again.

Trivia: Freddy Krueger has under seven minutes of screentime.





I could write about the movie, but I have already seen it dozens of times, and most likely you have seen it a dozen times too so I will spare us both a discussion on a film that has already been discussed to death. It's amazing. Wes Craven is god. Great concept. Great actors. Great special effects. Et cetera. So instead of a film discussion, I will be looking at the A Nightmare on Elm Street drinking game that I got from Drinking Game Zone.

Killer Nun (1979)

August 9, 2018

Directed by: Guilio Berruti

Written by: Builio Berruti

Starring:  Anita Ekberg, Paola Morra, Alida Valli

Tagline: From the Secret Files of the Vatican!

Trivia: Italian censorship visa # 73203 delivered on 13-3-1979.









Killer Nun is yet another of the infamous "Video Nasties" banned then censored in the UK during the "moral panic" of the 1980s. I've written briefly about this in previous movie posts, but if you're curious, there is a great two part documentary or just read the wiki. Basically, British politicians and conservative parents wanted a scapegoat for the wrongs of the world and instead of doing anything constructive to ail the social ills, they found that it was easier to blame it on violent movies. Giving them political clout and a sense of self-righteousness, they banned 72 films. I'm hoping to watch all of them.

Demon Wind (1990)

August 8, 2018

Directed by: Charles Phillip Moore

Written by: Charles Phillip Moore

Starring:  Eric Larson, Francine Lapensée, Rufus Norris

Budget: $500,000

Tagline: It'll Blow You Away!

Trivia: Lou Diamond Phillips was married to one of the assistant directors on this film. Phillips frequently visited the set during the shooting of the movie and even played a demon under a pseudonym.




Demon Wind is one of those movies that I never got around to seeing, but so many people choose it as one of their favorite guilty pleasures. A bad movie that they love. I want to apologize to all those people, but I could not get into this film. I'm sure it's because I'm watching it for the first time as a thirty five year old and have no nostalgic attachment to the film. While, I was not a fan of the film, it did have a lot of cool moments and is not without some merit. If you haven't seen it and need a quick synopsis: It's the plot of Evil Dead mixed with Lamberto Bava's Demons with no budget or acting ability.

Tenebre (1982)

August 7, 2018

Directed by: Dario Argento
Written by: Dario Argento

Starring:  Anthony Franciosa, Giuliano Gemma, Christian Borromeo

Quote: "The impulse had become irresistible. There was only one answer to the fury that tortured him. And so he committed his first act of murder. He had broken the most deep-rooted taboo, and found not guilt, not anxiety or fear, but freedom. Any humiliation which stood in his way could be swept aside by the simple act of annihilation: Murder."

Trivia: In Germany, the film is still banned after 25 years of its release. The film has never been released uncut in Germany and according to the FSK (the official censorship in Germany), it never will.

I don't know how he does it, but Dario Argento has the uncanny talent of turning horrific scenes into some of the beautiful moments in film. I've only seen a small handful of Argento's films and was excited to watch Tenebre. This film does not disappoint. The film score is done by the incredible horror synth band Goblin and is absolutely amazing. The web of confusion the film creates around the mysterious killer is fascinating. The killings are beautifully disgusting. And the women in the film are ridiculously beautiful. Oh, and it is yet another one of the infamous "Video Nasties" banned in the UK during the 1980s.

Nightmare (1981)

August 6, 2018

Directed by: Romano Scavolini

Written by: Romano Scavolini

Starring:  Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, C.J. Cooke

Quote: SORRY? You lose a dangerously psychotic patient from a secret experimental drug program, and all you can say is "I'm sorry"?

Trivia: The film's original UK distributor was sent to prison for releasing an unapproved version.





I never heard of this movie but was scrolling through Amazon Prime Video and came across it. It mentioned that it was banned in the UK during the 1980s as part of the the "Video Nasties" censorship movement. I grew up listening to punk rock and remember the Damned had a song called Nasty that talks about "Video Nasties." I didn't know what that meant at the time but after seeing a documentary on Shutter called Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Video Tape I decided that sooner or later I would try to watch them all. The video nasties were 72 films that were deemed offensive by British government organizations and banned. Nightmare is one of the illustrious seventy two. The movie is gory, dark, disturbing, and has a filthiness to it that was no doubt why it was chosen. It could also be that the killer killed a child (off screen), a big no no in movie rules. I loved it.

The Fog (1980)

August 5, 2018

Directed by: John Carpenter

Written by: John Carpenter, Debra Hill

Starring: Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh

Budget: $1,000,000

Quotes:  But it is told by the fishermen, and their fathers and grandfathers, that when the fog returns to Antonio Bay, the men at the bottom of the sea, out in the water by Spivey Point will rise up and search for the campfire that led them to their dark, icy death.

Trivia: Although the film cost just over $1 million to make, Avco Embassy spent three times that amount on advertising and promotion. This included TV ads, radio ads, print ads, and the studio even installed fog machines (at a cost of $350 each) in the lobbies of selected cinemas where the film was showing.

I decided to continue my horror sojourn with another John Carpenter film. With Carpenter, you know you are getting something original, unique and fun. This film is no exception. Unlike some of his other films, The Fog is a pretty straight forward ghost story without the twists and turns of some of his other films (having just watched In the Mouth of Madness, that film immediately comes to mind). with all the essential Carpenter elements: John Carpenter score, supernatural elements, Jamie Lee Curtis, great practical effects. Also, the film has the beautiful Adrienne Barbeau thrown in as a bonus!

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

August 4, 2018

Directed by: John Carpenter

Written by: Michael De Luca

Starring:  Sam Neill, Jürgen Prochnow, Julie Carmen

Budget: $8,000,000

Quote: Every species can smell its own extinction. The last ones left won't have a pretty time with it. In ten years, maybe less, the human race will just be a bedtime story for their children. A myth, nothing more

Trivia: The Sutter Cane character is clearly based on John Carpenter's friend Stephen King, even referencing King's New England roots, with Hobb's End filling in for King's Castle Rock. Carpenter directed a film version of King's Christine (1983).

I've been on a John Carpenter kick for a bit now and one of his most beloved films that I have never seen is In the Mouth of Madness. Starring the younger doctor (the Dinosaurs came from birds guy) from Jurassic Park (Sam Neill), In the Mouth of Madness is a horror film that belongs in the H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror tradition. It is bleak, depressing, full of despair, and absent of any clear narrative. Upon watching, one gets that feeling that they are experiencing the same madness that the characters are dealing with in the film. Madness, reality, sanity, and insanity are all subjective terms in the universe this film creates. Directed by John Carpenter, this film has some of the best practical effects anyone could ask for!

Ghoulies Go to College (Ghoulies III) (1991)

August 3, 2018

Directed by: John Carl Beuchler

Written by: Brent Olson

Starring:  Evan MacKenzie, Kevin McCarthy, Eva LaRue

Tagline: Out of the bowl... and TOTALLY out of control

Trivia: This movie is the film debut of actor Matthew Lillard.









Alright, I'm going to make this a quick one. Growing up Ghoulies II was one of my favorite films. It had some horror elements to it while being largely a comedy. It was one of those bad movies that are so fun. This one however was just bad. It tries to be a comedy but I have no idea who it thinks its comedic audience is. The jokes, score, and sound effects are extremely reminiscent of a "made for TV" Disney movie or Nickelodeon Show. It seemed straight out of iCarly. So one might think, maybe they are making a scary movie for kids (like the previous one, or Troll, or Gremlins). Wrong. The movie is so choked full of nudity that it got an R rating.

Evil Ed (1995)

August 2, 2018

Directed by: Anders Jacobsson

Written by: Anders Jacobsson, Göran Lundström, Christer Ohlsso

Starring: Johan Rudebeck, Per Löfberg, Olof Rhodin

Budget: 250,000 (SEK)

Quote: There is a scene in this movie were a girl get's raped by a beaver and is then shot in the head with a bazooka

Trivia: Sweden had until 1996 a policy about censor any movies that had any sex or violence scenes. Evil Ed was actually made as a protest against that policy.


Man, this was a really great film! It was heavily inspired by Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies (hence the title) but felt more at home with Peter Jackson's early gore fest films: Bad Taste and Dead Alive. The film matches intense gore with slapstick comedy in the best possible way. Honestly, I haven't seen a film do this since those Raimi and Jackson films. Also, the film was created to be as gross as possible as a protest against the strict censorship laws of Sweden. And any time someone can take a shot at censorship, I am all for it! The movie was so effective that the filmmakers were publicly ridiculed on television by the head of the Swedish Film Institute. If it were me, I would proudly display that fact on every business card I had.

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)

August 1, 2018

Directed by: Patrick Lussier

Written by: Todd Farmer, Zane Smith

Starring:  Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith

Budget: $15,000,000

Tagline: Are you ready for your heart to be broken? He's going to do it.

Trivia: The first two characters killed on screen are named Jason and Michael, a homage to characters from the Friday the 13th (1980) and Halloween (1978) series where the killers are non-speaking. A direct reference to the films is how they die - trademark features of the characters.

The night before I watched the originally, and I thought I'd watch the remake to see the comparisons. Full Disclosure: The movie is made to be watched in 3D and I don't have the glasses so I did not get the full experience and some film moments are cheesy because they were create for 3D. That being said, I liked the remake! Being a remake, it outdoes the original in gore and nudity and has  And of course a different twist ending. The storyline is similar to the original with Tom returning to his mining town and there being sexual tension between him, his ex-girlfriend Sarah, and her new boyfriend Axel. And of course, a killer wearing a mining uniform and mask is killing people in a mining town around Valentine's Day. However, there are a lot of changes to the story to make it interesting and not just the same movie but with modern special effects.

My Blood Valentine (1981)

July 31, 2018

Directed by: George Mihalka

Written by: Stephen Miller, John Beaird

Starring: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck

Budget: $2,300,000 (CAD)

Quote: From the heart comes a warning, filled with bloody good cheer, remember what happened as the 14th draws near!

Trivia: My Bloody Valentine (1981) was filmed in Sydney Mines during Cape Breton's economic crisis with the Sydney Steel Corporation. They had pollution problems and were trying to decide whether or not to shut the factory down. It was thought that the filming of My Bloody Valentine (1981) would promote tourism in the province, but it wasn't very effective.

My Bloody Valentine was yet another early eighties slasher that I missed as a kid. I think it didn't have a cool name like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or an awesome cover like other horror movies. It's too bad too because it was a really fun film with a cool concept. It was made the year after Friday the 13th and although the filmmakers admit it was simply their attempt to cash in on the slasher craze (according to interviews in the great horror documentary Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film), this film carves out its own unique niche in the horror slasher genre. It's got great characters, a terrifying killer, and a good twist. Definitely a fun one!

Demons (1985)

July 30, 2018

Directed by: Lamberto Bava

Written by: Dardano Sacchetti, Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini

Starring: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny

Budget: $1,800,000

Tagline: Their Evil Becomes an Orgy of Bloodshed

Trivia: The scene where the cocaine is dropped inside the car and where the characters are picking it back up has been quite a subject of controversy; which led to the scene being censored almost all over the world.



I have to say, so far in this horror movie adventure, Demons is one of the best horror movies I have seen yet! It has some of the greatest practical effect deaths and zombie/demon makeup! An absolutely killer soundtrack and score! Great cinematography! No character development and almost no plot to get in the way of the gore. A film project by some of Italy's greatest horror film directors, this film is a truly incredible film in the eccentric way that only Italy could create.