The Tick Edlund run part 02

The Tick Edlund run part 01

Crazy Man Crazy Gwandanaland TPB Flipthru

Peter Bagge and Me

 

Back when I was 12 I discovered Peter Bagge. I was at this great comic shop over in Biloxi MS. The owner had gotten to know me and knew that I was kinda gotten bored with the stuff DC and Marvel was putting out. "Hey you like Mad Magazine right? Here's the first two issues of Neat Stuff. It is like Mad." I bought them both,and he was great only charged me cover price. Once I was home I kicked back in my bed,put a Ramones cassette into my stereo. Then read both issues. I loved the energy in the art. I loved how Peter Bagge managed to capture what it felt like to be a teen in the mid 80s.

2 weeks later I was back in the comic shop. Telling the owner to put not only Neat Stuff on my pull list but to put anything Peter Bagge did on my pull list. Being a indie title Neat Stuff never came out on a set schedule. But I was lucky about a month after I got those first 2 issues,issue 3 came out. Plus the comic shop got in a small collection of Weirdo. Weirdo was a underground comix started by Robert Crumb. After a short bit Crumb turned the title over Bagge. The owner of the shop was nice and had put aside all the Weirdo issues. Of course I wanted all of them but only had 20 bucks on me. Thankfully this owner was a nice guy. He agreed to put the ones I couldn't buy that day aside and I could get them once I had more money.

Skip ahead a few years.I had turned 15 and was now starting high school. I goto the comic shop and learn that issue 15 is gonna be the last issue of Neat Stuff. I was mad. "Hey calm down. Peter Bagge is starting up a new title." Of course I told him to put this new title on my pull list. Wow even though it was only 4 months between Neat Stuff 15 and the first issue of Hate,it felt like years.

See in Neat Stuff Bagge had a pile of different strips. Goon on the Moon,Studs Kirby and my favorite The Bradleys. Hate was gonna focus on Buddy Bradley. Buddy got tired of being stuck in suburban hell that is New Jersey. So he moved to Seattle. Which was inspired by Peter Bagge's recent move to Seattle. And this was Seattle in the late 80s/early 90s. Long before the grunge music scene blew up. Long before Starbucks took over with their over-priced shitty coffee. 

I loved Hate. Buddy was sharing an apartment with a bunch of similar folks. Working what ever shitty job he could find. And going to lots of concerts. Now I was only 15 back then but I was already going to piles of concerts and it felt like Bagge talking directly to me.

Hate can be divided into two groups really. The first 15 issues were black and white. And had Buddy living in Seattle. Trying to find a girlfriend. And also trying to not get dragged down by the many schemes his friend Stinky got up to. Out of these first 15 issues issue 12 stands out the most to me.

In the issue Buddy and his slightly insane girlfriend Lisa had paid for a dealer's booth at a convention.Buddy was trying to make some extra cash at the con. But this was right before the comic boom of the mid 90s hit. So comics were dead but the bootleg/"Collectors" vhs was booming. Ya know what I'm talking about. The dealers that have on vhs,and in modern days dvd or Blu Ray,stuff that isn't out on that format. In the early 90s you could make big money dealing in vhs copies of stuff like the Green Hornet tv show or one of the many horror/sci fi/cult films that hadn't hit vhs yet.

At this convention there is a bootleg tape dealer,known as Yahtze. Yahtze and Buddy don't get along. While Yahtze is distracted Lisa steals a bag full of Yahtze's bootleg tapes. Our lead couple get a ride home from a long time con dealer and how this guy acts makes Buddy realize he doesn't want to be like him. Lisa and Buddy get upstairs to their apartment. And Lisa tells Buddy about the stolen bag of vhs. Buddy freaks out cause Yahtze is known for being extremely violent. And of course not long after they start watching the first of their stolen vhs there is a knock at the door. It's Yahtze. Yahtze comes in and it looks like Buddy is gonna get his ass handed to him. But Lisa grabs a baseball bat and starts smashing all the VHS. Yahtze gets the fuck out of the apartment. And the issue ends with Buddy and Lisa watching the only tape she didn't smash.

With issue 16 of Hate a lot was changed. First off before this Peter Bagge was doing all the work. He wrote,drew and lettered the comic. With Hate being a pretty big indie hit Fantagraphics wanted to start publishing it in color. Peter recruited Jim Blanchard to handle the inking duties. And IIRC Bagge's wife was hired to do the coloring. Also this is when Hate became more than a comic. Each issue would have articles written by people like Dame Darcy or Selwyn Harris. Plus you got short 1 or 2 page comics from various artists. Bagge's has said he wanted Hate "to become something like Zap Comix. Where you not only get work from a well known creator but also you get stuff from some lesser known creators." I was introduced to so many comic artists and writers through the second half of Hate.

The biggest change was that in issue 16 Buddy and Lisa moved to New Jersey. Buddy was tired of struggling in Seattle. So his plan was to move back in with his mother and hopefully have a better life back where he grew up.Buddy and Lisa had many wacky adventures once they moved to New Jersey. I personally loved it once Buddy started up a collectibles store with a friend. 

Not long before issue 27 came out I moved. Like Buddy I needed a change. So I moved from the MS gulf coast area,where I had lived for 90% of my life,to the Gulf Coast area of TX. Got lucky and found a great comic shop with in two weeks of moving to TX. And added bonus the owner of the comic shop was also a Peter Bagge fan. Whenever a new issue came out I would hit up the comic shop on new comic day. Buy my comics. Then the owner and I would sit down at the back of the shop. At the tables that once it hit 3pm would be full of people playing Magic the Gathering. We would read the new issues of Hate and PReacher.

March of 97 it is new comic day. I took my lunch break hour from work to goto the comic shop. I walk in and Jeff the owner has a upset look on his face. "Hate is ending with issue 30!" Fuck! I kept wondering why Peter Bagge was ending the series. It was a huge seller. 

Issue 29 came out not long before Xmas in 97. I remember reading it while riding back to MS for Xmas.Once I got back from my Xmas vacation I sat down and wrote a long,it was 5 pages,letter to Peter Bagge. Thanking him for providing me with so much entertainment for so long.

Then the long wait started. I knew issue 30 was the end of Hate but had no idea when it was coming out. Finally in May of 98 it was published. And WOW what a way to end the series. Buddy finds out Lisa is pregnant with his child. And now Buddy has total ownership of the collectibles store. Plus in the last panel of the story Lisa and Buddy find a magic whistle. That is another thing I love about Peter Bagge. He is known for taking ideas from the fans and putting them in the comic. Way back in issue 12,I think it was 12,a fan wrote in and asked for a story where Buddy and Lisa find a magic whistle.

In October of 98 Hate Jamboree came out. This oversized comic was packed with interviews with people that worked on Hate. Plus all kinds of hard to find Peter Bagge strips and sketches. I love this special but have one major gripe about it. For some reason the cover is made of newsprint. Which means it gets damaged super easy.

Skip ahead to 1999. I'm suffering from Bagge withdrawls. Goto the comic shop and get great news. First off Bagge is one of the many artists working on Spicecapades. This was a magazine sized one shot all about the Spice Girls. No I'm not joking. It was a huge indie comix about the Spice Girls! Bagge's kid is a huge Spice Girls fan. So Bagge's strip was about him going to a Spice Girls concert with his kid. This is another kinda hard to find Bagge comic. The comic  shop I went to when it came out only ordered 3 copies. 1 for me,1 for the comic shop owner,then one to be put on the wall. Add in that it was magazine sized means since 99 I have seen 2 copies of it in the wild.

YEAH! was a short lived series. Published by DC through the Homage imprint. I remember hearing about this series months before it started. "What Peter Bagge's new series is published by DC. AND IT'S ALL AGES. AND THE ART IS BY GILBERT HERNANDEZ!!!" Yeah! was about an all girl rock band. On Earth they can't get any gigs. But through out the universe they are the most popular band of all time.Managed by a crusty old white dude named Crusty this was one of the best comics coming out at the time. But sadly no one was/has read it. Look at those cover up above. That is just great art. Another thing that made YEAH! stand out was the letters page was ran by Crusty, Yep the manager of the band would answer the letters. 

After YEAH! ended Bagge kept busy. He would do Hate Annual each year. Which normally had a long Buddy and Lisa story. Then piles of extra stuff. He wrote and drew an amazing Hulk story. Bagge even took over the Bat Boy comic strip that was published in Weekly World News. And sure I already had every issue of YEAH! but I wanted a nice trade paperback collection. And in 2011 Fantagraphics did just that. I was happy that this great and kinda unknown comic was getting collected. But there was a few small things wrong. First off YEAH! was a full color comic. The Trade was in black and white. The other thing was for some reason the letter pages weren't reprinted. 

Hope yall enjoyed my rambling about Peter Bagge.There has been many times where I buy a comic just cause it has a page of Bagge art. Many hours have been spent digging through a comic shop's back issue bins hoping to find a new to me Bagge creation.

Bare Bones Winter 2020 issue Showcase

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 31 Hubie Halloween

 

TITLE-Hubie Halloween

SOURCE-Netflix

Yea the newest Adam Sandler flick. Made for Netflix. I've seen a handful of his made for Netflix films,and until this one they were all pure shit. Like you had a dozen Krystals and an order of chili cheese fries the day before.

So I kept seeing reviews for this. Lots of them calling it "good" or "worth seeing". Ok yea lets give this a shot.

Sandler is Hubie. He lives with his mom and he loves Halloween. Living in Salem Massachusetts well yea Halloween is a huge deal. Hubie is just trying to be sure everyone has a safe and fun Halloween. But Hubie also gets scared easily.The rest of the cast is made up of Sandler film regulars. 

Early on we learn an escaped lunatic from the nearby mental hospital has escaped. Hubie's new neighbor,played by the BEST ACTOR EVER STEVE BUSCEMI,is acting odd. And everyone in town besides Julie Bowen picks on Hubie all the damn time. But no matter what Hubie keeps helping out and being nice to everyone.

Then about halfway through the film the main people that fuck with Hubie start disappearing. Of course I'm thinking the escaped lunatic is doing this. "Hey maybe this will morph into a slasher?" NOPE!

The lunatic escaped to come get Steve Buscemi to come back to the hospital. LOL yea and the lunatic is Rob Schnider. Who is actually funny in this role. Yea I was shocked.

So who is grabbing the people that fuck with Hubie? Well his mother of course. She is gonna burn them at the stake on Halloween night. The cops show up,Kevin James is great as a fat mullet having bearded cop with Keenan Thompson as the other cop. Hubie's mother manages to get away. Hubie ends up with Julie Bowen. And it skips ahead a year.

Now Hubie is married to Julie. He is also mayor of the town. But still rides his bike around. Yea forgot to mention that. Like The Water Boy,Hubie don't drive. He rides a bike everywhere. And always has a thermos on him. Which is loaded with gadgets like he is Inspector Fucking Gadget. 

But back to the flash forward. Hubie is riding his bike to his office and now the gang of kids on bikes that were terrorizing him earlier in the film,they wave and are nice to Hubie. And we learn the lead kid's name is O'Doyle!

This feels like Sandler kinda wanting to not only connect most of his previous films but also shut the door on that universe. It's not bad. Better than any of the other Netflix made ones so far.

Hubie Halloween gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 31 Tarantula

TITLE-Tarantula!

SOURCE-Svengoolie Airing on MeTV

Well this October has sucked. Between the horrid weather,had a few days when it hit the low 90s. And then the recent Hurricane Zeta coming real close to where I live,just ain't been a good month.

I had planned on doing a bunch of stuff for Halloween day here at the blog. But something out of my control ate up all my free time for most of this month. Been many days were I barely managed to get a film watched and written up. 

So I needed something to watch today. Flipped thru the DVR and saw I had Sven's airing of Tarantula. I hadn't seen this film in over 30 years at least. Plus hey it's Sven. I try to watch him most weeks cause he is one of the few horror hosts left.

Directed by Jack Arnold,Tarantula came out in the mid 50s from Universal. Which is why Sven is airing it. Sven has a deal with Universal to show their films. THis is another of those 50s b/w giant creature cause of that evil science films.

Leo G Carroll,who's not over a barrel,is testing out a serum on various animals and insects. It cause them to grow big. But early on we see some kind of mutanted human/monster attack Leo. Seems Leo tested this serum out on a person and it caused them to mutate horribly. Leo ends up with the serum in his body. So the rest of the film I'm just waiting on him to transform. When Leo gets attacked a Tarnatula! escapes from the hidden lab. Now this spider is like the size of a 10 lb dog. But once it takes to the hills it GROWS!!

The Tarantula! wanders around and does stuff. Looking horrible most of the time cause they used what appears to be rear projection to make the spider look big. And Leo starts to mutate!

Our lead John Agar is out with his woman riding up and down the highways in the desert. There is at least close to 10 minutes of the film that is just those two driving up and down what I think is the same road just shot from various angles.

Leo fully mutates and goes after Mara Corday,the afore mentioned lady. But the Tarantula! attacks the house they are in. Leo is killing by the collasping roof. And John and Mara run off. They run into the cops. But the bullets ain't doing shit to Tarantula! So the Sheriff calls in the Air Force. Who use NAPALM on Tarantula! and kill it.

That is the air force pilot that kills Tarantula! Look closely at him. Looks a bit familiar... It's Clint Eastwood!

The Sven airing was great. I ended up watching this with my mother,been having to help take care of her this month since she just had knee replacement surgery end of September. She liked how Sven would give some history on most of the cast of the film. Cause for people like John Agar and Leo G Carroll she knew their faces but couldn't remember what she knew them from. Well before and after the ad breaks Sven was there to fill in that info.Not bad for a mid 50s creature feature.I enjoyed it and am happy I saw this again after years.

Tarnatula! gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 30 A Good Marriage

 

TITLE-Stephen King's A Good Marriage

SOURCE-Some file I found on a flash drive I lost 5 years ago

Yea I'm guessing the file I watched was a DVD rip. But wow first off Full Dark,No Stars is my favorite Stephen King Novellea/Short Story collection. And over the past 10 years 3 of the four Novelleas have been made into films. I covered Big Driver and 1922 in the past. So time to complete this trilogy. What is it with Stephen King novellea collections only have 3 of their 4 stories made into films? Same thing happened with Different Seasons.

Joan Allen is our lead and she discovers a hidden compartment in her husbands garage/workshop. In this compartment is a pile of IDs. IDs of women who had died in the past years by a uncaught serial killer. Anthony Lapaglia is her husband and part of his job is him being gone for days at a time. Joan starts checking the dates of when her husband was gone and the various unsolved deaths. They match up! She now is sure that her husband of 25 years is a monster.

Based on the BTK Killer,Dennis Rader,this is a pretty well done serial killer film. The cast isn't big names but Joan and Anthony are great as the leads. This will be the third time I have watched the movie. And really need to track down a DVD or Blu Ray of it.

Out of the so far three films based on stuff from Full Dark,No Stars A Good Marriage is in second place. 1922 is amazing and easily gets 1st. Good Driver was hindered by being made for Lifetime. So is the worst,but still worth seeing.

If you haven't read Full Dark,No Stars and/or seen any of the three films I mentioned...GO GET THE BOOK AND SEE THE THREE FILMS!! I see people griping often about how there has been no good horror in years. And here are 3 damn good horror films that no one mentions.

A Good Marriage gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 29 Idle Hands

 

TITLE-Idle Hands

SOURCE-Columbia Pictures DVD

Back in the spring of 99 a kinda now forgotten horror/comedy came out. The studio was thinking,well we got Devon Sawa(remember back when he was a name actor?),Seth Green and Jessica Alba.This movie is gonna be huge.Then the movie flopped at the box office,not even making 5 million in ticket sales. But became a kinda cult hit on home video and it's many airings on Cable tv.

I skipped this in the theater. Mostly cause I have never thought Jessica Alba could act. She is a nice looking lady. But has so little acting talent. It was 2000 when a friend rented Idle Hands. I watched it laughed a few times. And really until last year when I heard that Scream Factory was putting it out on Blu Ray that I thought about the film again. Skip ahead to early this summer. Was at the only remaining thrift store in town. And there was a pile of never opened DVDs. Figured "Hey I kinda remember Idle Hands being ok. It's worth dropping 50 cents for."

Devon Sawa is our lead. He is a slacker and with his two friends spends most of his time getting high. Devon's hand get possessed and it is up to him,his friends and Jessica Alba to stop it.

The FX work isn't bad. The acting is decent,well beside Alba. The film looks and sounds decent. But it never rises about being just average as fuck. This feels like a film that with either a better script and/or some better actors it would have been huge. But since it didnt have those it is a minor cult hit.

Idle Hands is worth seeing on say Netflix/Amazon Prime video or Hulu. Or if you find it cheap. But I wouldn't pay more than 5 bucks for this on Blu or a buck for the DVD.

Idle Hands gets a C-.

31 Day of Horror 2020 Day 28 The New Mutants

 

TITLE-The New Mutants

SOURCE-Theatrical screening

I wondered if I should include this in this years 31 Days of Horror. But looking around seems the studio marketed it as a horror film. And it has major horror elements. So I'm including it.

The back history of this film is long. Filmed back in summer/fall of 2017,with a planned April 2018 release. Then reshoots were suppose to happen,they didn't. And Fox got bought up by Disney. New Mutants missed that April 2018 release date. Got rescheduled and missed that date. Finally back at the end of August this year it got a release.I kept thinking "Ok this will get dropped on say Disney+ or Hulu. The film has too much bad press for them to release it in a theater." Seems it was in the original contract that the film had to get a theatrical release. So it was released at a time when most theaters were shut down. But as of this week it is still playing a few near by theaters.Now I didn't expect the theater to be packed when we went. But we were the only people in the theater. Only other time that has happened to me is when I went to see Wired during it's short theatrical run.

Ok so the film.. it appears to be set after all the X-men films but 10 to 20 years before Logan. The film starts off with something attacked when Danni Moonstar lives. Her father rushes her out to the woods and she hides in an old tree. When she wakes up she is at a hospital. One where 4 other teen mutants are living. Each of them of course has powers. And they can't leave the hospital grounds.

At first you think the doctor treating them is on their side. But you quickly learn that she is using them for some evil corp,which I think is ran by the never seen in the films Mr Sinister. 

Seems the demon bear that attacked Danni's homeplace in the start of the film is created by her mind. Her mutant powers are at Omega levels. And after the five team up to defeat the evil doctor they gotta defeat the demon bear.

Yea I know some of yall are asking "So who are the other mutants?"Well you got Roberto aka Sunspot. He can store up solar energy and use that to increase his strength.  Sam aka Cannonball,who can fly but hasn't figured out how to land yet. Rahne AKA Wolfsbane,she can turn into a wolf and a werewolf like creature. And finally Illyana aka Magik,who can open portals to limbo. And can summon a magical sword and armor.

The people they cast as the teen mutants aren't bad. 

Maisie Williams is really good as Rahne. 

And Anya Taylor Joy does a good job as Illyana,even if her Russian accent seems to come and go. I have never seen the other three in anything else. While the actors playing Roberto and Sam are decent ,Blu Hunt is great as Danni Moonstar.

Now there is a major drawback to this film. The reshoots never happened. I am betting what they wanted to shoot was more stuff explaining little things. Little things that unless you read say the first 4 years of the New Mutants vol 1 comic ...well this film will be a bit confusing. Like how Illyana's powers are never really that well explained. In the comic you learn that she was captured at a young age and grew up in Limbo. And the sword and armor she can summon are the Soulsword and use to belong to the demon Belasco. And wow did they not explain Danni's powers that well. She can take someone's greatest fear and make it come to life. Which is where most of the scares come from in this film. 

So yea if you aren't someone that read a bunch of the New Mutants comic I'm betting this film will be very confusing. For those that have it is a nice film version of the classic Demon Bear storyline.

The New Mutants gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 27 Shivers

 

TITLE-Shivers

SOURCE-Vestron Video Blu Ray

Finally after teh DVD of Shivers being out of print for 20 years we got another and better home video release. The print looks and sounds great. It is loaded with extras,only had a chance to check out the director's commentary. And this was fairly cheap. I found my copy at Walmart for 13 bucks.

Shivers is David Cronenberg's first feature length film. Made with some funding from the Canadian governement the film was one of the first government funded films to make a profit.

Set in an apartment complex. A slug like virus gets out and anyone infected with it becomes a sex starved maniac. And being a Cronenberg film you know the body horror elements are in the forefront.

The FX work is good for the time and budget of the film. Sure some of the blood has that "hey is that red paint" look. But hell that is a common thing in 70s horror. 

The acting is what makes this film stand out. Besides the lead male,played by Paul Hampton,the rest of the leads are all soooo good. You got the horror legend Barbara Steele in a great role. The scene with her in the bath tub being attacked by the virus stands out as thrilling to watch while at the same time horrifying.

 Lynn Lowry is her normal odd but entertaining self. She has this odd look and way of acting. She isn't an ugly woman. But she isn't classically pretty either.

Before watching this blu ray I hadn't seen Shivers in at least 20 years. While I do like Cronenberg's films this is one of his I just never got into. 

Shivers gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 26 Savage Vengeance

 

TITLE-Savage Vengeance

SOURCE-Eden Entertainment DVD

Back in 2002 I was staying during Xmas at a good friend's home. Like me he is a life long horror fan. Since I was spending all of Xmas Eve and Xmas day out seeing friends and family members,my buddy and I exchanged wrestling gifts on December 23rd. I had got him this huge coffee table book about the Tales from the Crypt comic and tv show. He handed me a box full of horror DVDs. Stuff like "Please Don't eat my Mother" was in that box. At the very bottom was a dvd in a slimline case. The picture at the top is the cover of this DVD.  

So what is Savage Vengeance? It's a rape/revenge movie. Made by the infamous Donald Farmer. No one seems to know when the film was actually made. But it got released in 1993. That release was straight to video, And the vhs from that release isn't easy to find. But then most Donald Farmer films didn't get big releases. Until fairly recently the above pictured DVD was the only other release this film got. Eden Entertainment was the company that put out the DVD. I did some research and seems Eden was a sub division of a porn company. All of Eden's releases came in slimline cases. And lots of the horror films they put out are part of their I will Dance on your Grave line. None of the films in this line are connected. And out of all of them Savage Vengeance is the best known film in that line. Recently Massacre Video put the film out on DVD. Which is a good thing. Until the Massacre Video DVD the Eden Entertainment DVD was out of print and selling for highly inflated prices.  Which I find funny cause for years you could find dealers at flea markets who had piles of all the Eden Entertainment DVDs. And usually they were asking between a buck and 3 bucks per DVD.

Now I'm sure you are wondering why a shitty DTV Rape/Revenge film would be in high demand. Well there is a major reason for this. That is because Savage Vengeance is an unofficial sequel to the infamous I Spit on Your Grave. Somehow Donald Farmer managed to get Camille Keaton to star in this low budget piece of crap film. For some reason Camille used the alias Vickie Kehl. Maybe she was so embarassed by how bad the film is she refused to have her name on the film. 

Camille plays Jennifer again. And in another great thing about this film everytime Jennifer's last name is said it is muted. I am guessing Meir Zarchi was gonna sue. So Donald Farmer tried all he could to prevent being sued. After the events of I Spit on your Grave Jennifer is tired and  not convicted of killing the men that raped her in the first film.Jennifer goes on a vacation with her friend Sam. 

They get to a cottage they are renting for the vacation. Sam is digusted by the condition of the cottage and goes for a walk. Sam gets raped and killed while on this walk. The next day Jennifer goes looking for Sam. She meets up with the two guys that raped and killed Sam. They tell her they know where Sam is and will take her there. 

They arrive to the place and Jennifer finds out Sam is dead.Jennifer runs out of the house into the woods. The guys come after her. They catch her. One of them rapes her. And the other stabs her in the chest. And leave her in the woods thinking she is dead.

Jennifer gets out of the woods,hitchhikes and starts to plan her revenge. The two rapists find out that a woman looking like Jennifer has recently bought a bunch of weapons.One of the two is dumb as fuck and takes a walk in the woods. He runs into Jennifer. Who uses a chainsaw to cut off his head. Then Jennifer goes and confronts the other guy. Chases him out of the house. And shoots him in the balls with a shotgun. Leaving him laying there to bleed to death.

Yea I know this film sounds horrible. ANd it is way way worse than it sounds. I just did some more research. Seems the film was made in 1988. And that rare VHS release I mentioned,it appears all that was made was screener tapes. For those that don't know screener tapes are what are made and sent out for free to video stores and places that sell movies. That way these places can watch the film and see if they want to buy copies to sell. I am guessing no place ordered copies of Savage Vengeance. So until the Eden Entertainment DVD came out this film was pretty much impossible to see.

Savage Vengeance gets a F.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 25 My Babysitter is a Vampire

 

TITLE-My Babysitter is a Vampire

SOURCE-Netflix

Most years for 31 days of horror I try to find and watch a film that is kid friendly. Like last year I watched the Zombie/Summer Camp film Bunks. So this year I was looking for something similar. I was looking up the cast of Riverdale on IMDB and saw that Vanessa Morgan(Topaz on Riverdale) was in a Disney Channel/Teletoon film called My Babysitter is a Vampire.

Ethan is a geeky high school student. One who's parents don't trust him. So the parents hire out Erica(Vanessa Morgan)

 to come babysit Ethan and his little sister while they are gone. Erica is a huge fan of Dusk,this universes version of Twilight. Erica ends up going to a party instead of babysitting. But another girl shows up to babysit.A girl that once Ethan touches her he has a vision. He also notices this girl,Sarah,doesn't have a reflection in the mirror!Yep Sarah is a VAMPIRE!!! 

Seems the party that Erica went to is full of vampires. She gets bit and becomes one. She ends up biting a bunch of people,including Ethan. And we learn that until you drink human blood you aren't a full vampire. Which means you can be cured.

For a tween/teen horror film this wasn't horrible. Matter of fact Vanessa Morgan and the actor that plays Ethan's best friend,who I think was in Bunks

,are really good. The FX work isn't bad. And I am guessing this movie was a pretty big hit. Cause while this film hit TV in October 2010 by Feb 2011 a tv show was airing. 

So if you got some kids around and want to watch a horror film that won't cause them to have nightmares...well this isn't a bad choice. I saw that the tv show is also on Netflix. Might check it out.

My Babysitter is a Vampire gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 24 Silent Rage

 

TITLE-Silent Rage

SOURCE-Mill Creek Blu Ray

I thought I had seen all of Chuck Norris's classic 80s films. So when I found the above pictured Blu Ray for cheap I grabbed it. Turns out I was mixing Silent Rage and The Hero and Terror up. A bit about this Blu Ray. First off I love the VHS looking cover. And how the VHS tape part of the cover even has that old be kind rewind sticker on it. The Blu looks and sounds great. Sure there is no extras but I never expect extras when it is a Mill Creek release. 

Chuck looking like a prototype for Walker Texas Ranger

Back in 1982,right at the peak of the slasher craze,director Michael Miller thought hey Chuck Norris is popular and so are slashers. Let's combined the two and we will have a big hit.And from what I can dig up this movie was a pretty big hit. Making a bit over 10 million at the box office.

Set in a tiny Texas town,Chuck Norris is the local Sheriff,Dan Stevens,with his chubby and kinda dumb deputy Charlie,played by character actor Stephen Furst. They get called to a home where a Vietnam vet has killed two people. After Charlie almost shoots the Sheriff they managed to handcuff the vet,John Kirby played by Brian Libby. But he managed to snap the handcuffs and kicks the back door off of the cop car he is put into.Kirby grabs a shotgun which causes the cops on the scene to gun him down. 

Here's Johnny Kirby

Half dead Kirby is taken to a near by hospital,where secret experiments are going on. Kirby gets injected with a serum that basically makes him into Wolverine. IE he heals extremely fast and it also increases his strength.Kirby escapes from the hospital and goes around killing people who he thinks have wronged him.

Stephen Furst doing his best Deniro in Taxi Driver impersonation

While this is going on we get to see Chuck take on a biker gang that is trying to move into the sleepy quiet small town. There is a great scene where after Chuck has told the gang to leave he spots their bikes at a local bar. Chuck and his deputy go into the bar to see that the gang has taken it over and are holding the bar tender hostage. One of the biker ladies shows her breasts to the deputy. Which causes the deputy to start drooling. Chuck sends the deputy out to the cop truck to call for back up. But being the fuck up he is the deputy gets out there and calls the dispatch and spends 10 minutes describing the lady's breasts instead of calling for back up. While that is going on Chuck is inside fighting off the bikers. Since this was made years before Walker Texas Ranger that means Chuck does more than just throw spinning back kicks. It isn't until Chuck throws a biker through the bars front window that the deputy remembers is calling for back up.

Chuck getting ready to fuck!

Seems Chuck is dating the sister of one of the doctors that did the experiment on Kirby. So now Kirby is after her. But before Kirby can find her we get a extremely long love scene between Chuck and this lady. Now I doubt anyone has ever claimed Chuck Norris was a great actor. His acting in the love scene is really bad. Like so bad you would think it was Ed Wood directing the scene. Plus did we really need an almost 10 minute long Chuck Norris love scene?

By the  final act we have all the cast back at the hospital. Chuck,the deputy and Chuck's lady are there and don't know Kirby is there. The deputy gets attack by Kirby. He tries to kill Kirby by injecting him with acid. But it doesn't work. Kirby puts the deputy into a bearhug and bearhugs him to death. Sadly this is the only scene in the film that just doesn't work. It is suppose to be suspensful and all that but it is so badly shot and acted I was laughing out loud.

Norris sees this and shoots Kirby and knocks him out a window.But this isn't enough to kill Kirby. Norris and his lady try to escape in a vehicle. But Kirby hangs onto the car and breaks thru the back window. Causing the car to crash and explodes. But Chuck and the lady jump out in the nick of time. Kirby is set on fire by the explosion but jumps into a nearby lake to put the fire out. 

The final showdown between John Kirby and Chuck Norris

And now we get what we have been waiting for.. Chuck vs Kirby in hand to hand combat. Kirby is tough but not tough enough to withstand multiple roundhouse kicks. They stun Kirby long enough for Chuck to throw him down a well. Chuck and his lady are sure no one could survive the fall down the deep deep well. Thinking it is all over they head off. But as yall know this is a slasher.  And right at the end we see that Kirby has survived. Setting up a sequel that sadly never happened.

Looking online this is one of the best rated Chuck Norris films from the 80s. And I can see why. Sure it is a bit cheesy. But it managed to take the best parts of action movies and slasher films and combo them into a really fun film. One other tidbit I found was that lots of fans have given Chuck negative feedback over the love scene,which is why Norris avoided doing love scenes after this film. And that is a good thing. Silent Rage was remade in 2009 and called Indestructible.

While I was the perfect age in the early 80s to be a Chuck Norris fan I wasn't back then. Part of it was I had already seen all the Bruce Lee films that I could find. And had been introduced to Jackie Chan. So to me Chuck;s movie couldn't compare to those two. It wasn't until about 15 years ago that I got into the 80s Chuck Norris films. For me this is one of his best. Hell with a bit of editing it could be his best film to me,mostly I would cut down the length of the love scene and trim a few other scenes a tiny bit.

So if you are a slasher fan and have never seen Silent Rage go get this Blu Ray. It is usually found for around 8 bucks and it more than worth that. Silent Rage feels like a horror themed episode of Walker Texas Ranger. But with a  bigger budget and much better acting. Plus you don't have Chuck spamming the spinning back kick like he did on Walker. Also you don't have the overtly preachy tone that Walker had.

Silent Rage gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 23 Child's Play 2019

 

TITLE-Child's Play 2019

SOURCE-DVD/Hulu

So last year the Child's Play remake came out. I heard it was decent but hadn't seen it. Then earlier this year I saw the DVD was fairly cheap so grabbed a copy. And like happens often with me happened. I will buy a film and then it just sits on the shelf for months/years. This time it was a little different. The day I got the dvd I put it in and watched the first 30 minutes. Got a phone call and had to leave.Skip ahead and I see the film is now on Hulu. Realizing I didn't remember anything I saw the first time I started the film at the beginning. 

Set in the modern day this remake takes the bare bones of the original film and updates it to modern times. This time Chucky is a Buddi doll. That interacts with all the electronics Kalson produces. I'm guessing Kalson is just a renamed Apple,mostly cause their products appear to be over priced junk.

Aubry Plaza plays the mother. She has just moved and is trying all she can to help her son,Andy has a hearing loss. Which really never plays much into the film oddly. One day at her job Aubry has a customer return a Buddi doll cause it has the wrong hair color. When she learns the doll will be shipped back to the warehouse and destroyed she blackmails her boss into letting her have it.

At first Andy isn't that into his new toy. But fairly quick Chucky becomes Andy's best friend. But what Andy and his mom don't know is that Chucky had all his safety protocals removed at the factory by a worker. So once Andy meets some new friends ,who show him Texas Chainsaw Massacre II,Chucky starts to recreate what he saw in TCM II. 

Chucky kills the family cat,cause it has scratched Andy. Then once Chucky realizes that Aubry's boyfriend is a douchebag,well Chucky follows the boyfriend home and kills him. Then delivers the boyfriend's head to Andy. Andy and his new friends try to dispose of the head but through a bunch of odd twists the head ends up wrapped up like a birthday present. And ends up in the apartment of an elderly lady who's son is a police detective.

So as you can see this film isn't just a straight up copy of the original. Besides being updated to reflect modern tech,it also ups the gore levels. And really ups them. I don't remember any of the Child's Play films having as much gore as this film.

Plaza is really good as the mom. The kid playing Andy isn't bad at all. But the star of the film is Mark Hamil as Chucky's voice. 

What sucks is the ending of the film sets up a sequel. But this film didn't do that great at the box office. So I doubt we get a sequel.

Child's Play 2019 gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 22 Blinded by the Blood

 

TITLE-Blinded by the Blood

SOURCE-Sub Rosa Studios double feature DVD

Near the beginning of this year I found out that a local pawn shop was trying to clear out a huge overstock of DVDs and Blu rays. Normally they were wanting 2 bucks a DVD or 13 for 20 bucks. Blu Rays were 4 bucks each or 5 for 20. But now that they had/have way way too many it is 1 for dvd,or 25 for 20 bucks. Blus are 3 bucks or 8 for 20. Armed with this knowledge I started browsing the 3 shelfs and two tables full of home media formats.

The above pictured DVD was almost skipped over.I saw the back cover first.

And as you can see,sorry for the reflections in the pic,the back cover makes this look like one of the hundreds of double feature horror dvds out there. You know the ones that have two battered VHS rips of Public Domain Horror movies. Movies that pretty much every hardcore horror fan already owns 4 or 6 times on DVD. So I just put the DVD back on the shelf. Then something in my head said "Wait Alone in a Haunted House isn't a PD title I have heard of" I grabbed the dvd read the back and after seeing that Blinded by the Blood was a documentary on the making of a low budget horror film I placed this double feature DVD into the ever growing "buy" pile.

Since I was young and got my first issue of Starlog and Fangoria on the same day,THANK YOU UNCLE MILTON!. I have loved learning about how movies are made. From the filming process to how the FX work is done. Which means I will watch/buy pretty much any documentary on the production of a horror film.

It wasn't until I got home and was dividing my media haul into piles,one pile is for me another is to be resold another is for friends etc,I saw the name Tim Ritter and figured out what I had found was a Sub Rosa Studios release.Sub Rosa Studios has been around for a long time now. They release lots of DTV horror and cult movies.And Killing Spree is by one of the best known directors Sub Rosa Studios has worked with,Tim Ritter.Blinded by the Blood is a making of Killing Spree that Sub Rosa Studios started selling after Killing Spree had become a cult classic of the Shot on Video sub genre. The above picture is the VHS release cover of Blinded by the Blood.

Sure the VHS cover says Hosted by Tim Ritter but we all see who has the biggest pic on the cover. The lovely and uber talented Debbie Rochon. By the time Blinded by the Blood was made Debbie was one of the best known B Movie stars and one of the few Scream Queens of the era who was a true Scream Queen. And not some lady who did one horror movie and then used the Scream Queen tag to bilk lonely geeks at cons out of money.

So the film opens with Debbie walking around in a rural area telling us how we are about to see footage shot during the filming of Killing Spree. And explaining that even with almost no money Tim Ritter managed to make a horror film that became a cult hit world wide.

Blinded by the Blood is a lot like the various making of "insert film title" documentaries Troma has made. Cause Blinded by the Blood doesn't cut out stuff that makes Tim look bad. They don't try to cover up that mistakes happened. Who ever was in charge of editing the final cut of Blinded by the Blood did a good job of just showing us what happened during the filming of Killing Spree. Really in the entire film the only part that is a bit biased is the introduction by Debbie Rochon. And hell she was getting paid by Tim to come talk about his film,and I have heard that Debbie and Tim are close friends. So of course her intro will be a bit biased.

Tim Ritter went on to make quite a few movies. Most of them low budget horror/gore movies. Some of the better known ones are from the Truth or Dare series. I have seen Truth or Dare 1 and 3. 

I was pretty impressed by how good the gore FX looked in Killing Spree. Seeing what little they had to work with,money and equipment wise,it is amazing how good the effects look.

Blinded by Blood gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 21 Manos Returns

 

TITLE-Manos Returns

SOURCE-Amazon Prime Video

Yep this is a sequel to the cult classic Manos Hand of fate.  I had been hearing for what feels like 20 years about a sequel being made. Well I don't think this is the sequel I was hearing about. Cause the one I kept hearing about had Gene Snitsky,Former WWE wrestler,and Maria Caneles,another former WWE wrestler. Manos Returns has neither person.

We start off with a car with 4 people driving thru a rural area. I am guessing every one in the car is from Europe. Because everyone of them has a very odd sounding accent. They get stopped by the local sheriff,cause they have a taillight out. 

After that the car ends up at a old abandoned house. Which I'm assuming is the house from the first Manos film. Torgo shows up and the 4 people are now stranded at this house. The house appears to be full of women in white nightgowns.

Now this film was like 1 hour and 7 minutes and sucked so much it felt like it was 8 hours long. The acting was horrible. Many times your could see the actor's eyes going back and forth as they read the cue cards that were just off camera.

The tiny bit of gore was bad. It looked like something you would see in one of those Super 8 films the Polonia Brothers made when they were young teens. 

Whoever was in charge of the camera either wasn't bothering to look thru the viewfinder or just didn't care. Most of the shots in the film are framed badly. And not just "hey this could look better" badly. I'm talking about "OK who gave the blind guy the camera" bad.

Back to the acting. The four leads all are competing to see who can be the worst actor in the film. And it ends up a 4 way tie. Really the only person in the cast that appears to have any acting talent is Torgo. And he is ok at best.

Pretty much avoid this turd. Saw ,after the film was over,that a prequel to Manos is on Amazon Prime Video. I might give that a watch another day. I doubt it can be any worse than this steaming pile of donkey shit.

Manos Returns gets a F.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 20 Spider Baby

 

TITLE-Spider Baby

SOURCE-Spoopy Movie Time on Amazon Prime

One nice bonus of all the streaming services on the market is there is more and more horror host shows appearing on services. Hell I found a free Roku App that is just various horror host shows. The other night was flipping through Amazon Prime's video selection,and if you love horror/cult/exploitation movies Amazon Prime Video is packed with films that aren't on other services,and saw that not only do they have Creepy Koffee Movie Time,a great horror host program,but they also have a newer one called Spoopy Movie Time. No I didn't spell Spooky wrong. Seems a few years ago someone found a bunch of Halloween decorations at a dollar store. Where instead of Spooky whoever had made these decorations had put Spoopy. And now some dumb gen z kids are trying to make Spoopy a thing.

But anyways Spoopy Movie Time appears to have 2 seasons. Both of which are on Amazon Prime. And like most modern horror host shows they show only Public Domain films. I figured by now I had covered pretty much every public domain horror film. Then saw that in season 2 Spoopy Movie Time showed Spider Baby. Fuck Yea not only is it a film I haven't covered. It is also a fucking great film.

In 1968,yep the same year that the horror classic Night of the Living Dead hit the screens,Jack Hill wrote and directed Spider Baby. Armed with about 65,000 and a horror legend,Lon Chaney Jr,Jack made a film that while it kinda died at the box office has over the decades become a cult classic.

Lon Chaney Jr is the protecter and chauffer of the Merrye family. Who suffer from a rare illness,Merrye Syndrome. Which causes anyone with it in late childhood to start regressing down the evolutionary chain. All that is left is the 3 kids and Lon tries his best to protect them from themselves and others.

Shit I can't believe I haven't mentioned the theme song....Lon sings the theme song which is great. It's goofy and funny and I'm shocked it hasn't become a Halloween hit. 

Back to the film. We start off with long time Hollywood actor Mantan Moreland,who I talked about years ago in my King of the Zombies review. Mantan is delivering a message and gets attacked by one of the young female Merryes. She loves to play spider and the web. Were she throws a net on someone. Then stabs them multiple times with knives. Lon gets back to the home in time to dispose of the dead body.

Then 2 distant relatives arrive. They plan on taking control of the home and property. The kids dont like this and we get all kinds of ultra violence cause of this. 

Besides this film being one of the last film for some greats like Chaney and Moreland it is also the first time the late great Sid Haig appeared on screen.  Sid plays Ralph. Who has regressed so far back that he only grunts and lears at people. 

Lon makes the mistake of leaving the distant relatives at the home with the three feral kids. And by the time he comes back all hell has broken loose. One of the visitors has been thrown into the basement. Where some other members of the family live. These other members of the family end up eating the person thrown into the basement. Lon seeing that there is nothing he can do,blows up the house with some dynamite. Killing everyone,but one of the distant relatives manages to escape.

This relative thinks he is far enough down the bloodline from the Merryes to not have to worry about the family sickness. Then the camera pans to this man's daughter who looks a lot like the Merrye who liked the play spider. Making us think that soon she will regress and this madness will continue.

The print Spoopy Movie Time uses looks rough.  But it is watchable. The two hosts,who are CGI creations,do speak thru out the movie. Cracking jokes and pointing out stuff. Not sure if this version of the film is the best way for someone to see this movie for the first time. But since Spider Baby is public domain it shouldn't be hard to find a copy on Youtube or the Internet Archive.

The director,Jack Hill,is one of the greats of cult cinema.He worked with Francis Ford Coppola one many of Coppola's early films. Including being the producer on the Roger Corman cult Classic The Terror. But to me Hill is best known for the handful of Blaxploitation films he made in the 70s. Stuff like Foxy Brown and Coffy.

Spider Baby gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 19 Firestarter

 

TITLE-Firestarter

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

This was the first Stephen King film I saw before I read the novel. And sure there is some major differences between the two,the one that stands out the most to me is how the novel ends compared to the book. They are both well done pieces of fiction.

Charley and her dad are on the run. Years ago Charley's parents had taken part in a drug trial. And both of them ended up developing powers out of this. The mom has TK and the dad can "push" people to do things. Now that Charley is showing that she has powers The Shop. The Shop is a secretive group in the CIA that does the wetworks missions.

After running for a long time they think they are safe. They find a cabin by a lake. Then the Shop shows up. They capture both of them and take them to a secret place the Shop runs.

While they are there the Shop seperates them. And slowly is driving a wedge between Charley and her father. But then the Dad manages to get a message to Charley. Once she learns that a janitor,who was an undercover shop agent,has been lying to her...Well all hell breaks loose.

Now I have seen this movie so many times. Even got a chance to see a 35mm print at a revival screening over a decade ago. And this blu from Scream Factory looks very close to the 35mm print I saw.

The Blu is loaded with extras. All of which are worth watching. Really my only complaint about this Blu is I hate the new artwork used for the cover. That is what I posted at the top. But Scream Factory is smart,the front cover is reversable and the other side is the cover that I remember from the VHS and DVD releases.

Firestarter gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 18 Candyman

 

TITLE-Candyman

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

I'm surprised I haven't cover this film before. Been a fan of it since it came out and also love the short story it is based on. So when I saw the Blu Ray cheap at the local Walmart I grabbed it.

Virgina Madson and a friend are investigating a urban  legend at the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago,Cabrini Green is also when the 70s show Good Times was set. Seems if you look in a mirror and say Candyman 3 times he will appear and kill you.

There is so much to love about this film. The acting is great. Madson is really good as the lead. Then you got the Tony Todd. He just IS Candyman. Every appearance of Candyman make my skin crawl.

Yep this is one of the few horror films made after the 70s that actually scares me some. It think it is cause of how well the film is made. The score plus the acting and the way the film is shot just gets under my skin.

This blu is loaded with extras. You get two cuts of the film. The theatrical cut we have all seen for decades. Then a slightly longer uncut version. Add in a few commentaries and a pile of extras and you get a hell of a deal on this Blu Ray.

Candyman gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 17 Bram Stoker's Dracula

 

TITLE-Bram Stoker's Dracula

SOURCE-Bootleg DVD made from the Laserdisc

Man this is one I haven't even thought about in years. I saw it in a theater not long after it came out. Then for a few years in the mid 90s saw it at least in part once a week. Mostly cause a friend had a copy and watched it all the time.

Then other night was talking to a friend and this film,and the subject of how it doesn't follow the book it is based on,came up. So I dug around in the media vault to see if I had a copy. Yep got a DVD-r that is a rip of the Laserdisc.

There is so much about this film that is good. It looks amazing. The sets and costumes look damn good. The score is really good. But all that goodness can't offset the bad shit.

Like how no one in the cast can deliver the lines without looking like they hate being there. Sure everyone remembers how bad Keanu was in this,and yes he is horrible. But Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder get praised when they aren't much better than Keanu.

Then you got the major flaw. Francis Ford Coppala and the fan press,like Fangoria,kept saying how this would be the first Dracula film to follow the novel. I had read the novel back in JR High and was waiting for a good adapatation of it. It isn't a good adaptation. Really it feels like Coppala had read the novel 60 years ago and just used the few parts he remembered. But all over the place was critics and fans raving about how it was "JUST LIKE THE BOOK"! 

I walked out of the theater after the film was over thinking "Wow that was a total piece of shit." And the many viewings of it since then haven't changed my mind. Really if this was called say Francis Ford Coppala's Dracula this would be a much better film. But calling it Bram Stoker's Dracula means to me I want to see a adaptation of the novel. Not Coppala changing most stuff from the novel.

Bram Stoker's Dracula gets a F+