31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 20 The Stepfather Remake

 

TITLE-The Stepfather

SOURCE-Screen Gems DVD

Having seen the original back  in the  day when  this remake was announced I wondered why? I  get remaking  films that were good but had flaws. The Stepfather had no flaws. Decided to  wait till  I could get the DVD in  thru Netflix by  mail,remember that? Got it in,watched  it and it was decent. Totally forgot about it until I  found the above pictured  copy at a junkstore cheap.

So this is  an ex-rental DVD. Which means a great  super tough case,these Blockbuster cases are great and much better than  the eco-cases we get  now with most releases. And yea I  gotta get  the "$9.99 sale" sticker residue on the bottom right  corner.

The film  starts off with  our lead  having just killed  another  family.  He targets widowed or freshly divorced women  with kids. Ends  up married to  them and as  the family disappoints him he  kills them and then moves to another state and starts  up again. 

After moving the Stepfather  meets Sela Ward in a grocery store. They start talking  and 6 months  later when Sela's oldest son is coming back  from reform school and learns he has a new step dad. 

The  new Stepfather starts cracking,like when  the younger son  is  told to turn the TV  down and doesn't. So Stepfather gets a bit  rough with the kid. More and  more cracks are showing, with  the  oldest son and his girlfriend noticing  them.

Decent remake. Still wasn't needed.  Good cast with Sela Ward standing out as the best in  the film.  Still  it's a film  I doubt I watch  again for a long time. Glad  I paid  a buck or less  for this.

The  Stepfather Remake gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 19 Primate

 

TITLE-Primate

SOURCE-Blu  Ray

I barely remember seeing ads for  this when  it was hitting theaters. Never heard many folks talking about it. Saw the Blu ray cheap,got a local pawn shop I have found  out that usually has new  releases  in a week after  they came out cheap. 

A family that lives  in Hawaii has a pet  chimp. One  of the daughters is coming home  to visit right when the father has to be  gone. So  she plans a party with her friends. Not knowing a mongoose with rabies in in  the chimps cage.Now our lead and her friends are trapped by a rabid chimp.

Simple plot and one I've seen before with other animals. What made Primate stand out is the level of gore. First few minutes got one  guy getting the skin ripped off his face. Got another scene where all the women are in the pool,the chimp fears water. They think they are safe,but the chimp shimmys out on some wires grabs one girl by the hair and rips her hair  out by the root.

Yea it's nothing  amazing. Just not use to see a studio film  with this levels of gore. More than  worth seeing. 

Primate gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 18 Pet Sematary II

 

TITLE-Pet Sematary II
SOURCE-DVD

I am  sure I saw this back in the day.  More than likely in a  2 year period where I got cheap/free rentals from a video store. But when I put  the movie on  I remembered nothing about it.

Ed Furlong is the  son  of a actress. He is on the  set of her newest film and  watches as she accidentally gets  electrocuted on set.  And wow is  it brutal. Which leads to his father taking  him and moving from California all the way to  Maine. His dad is Anthony Edwards and is a vet.

In this new  town  of course Ed stands  out. Making just one  friend,a local fat kid  with  a POS step dad. This  step dad is  a local cop and played by  the great Clancy Brown. The POS Step Dad shoots and kills  the fat  kid's dog Zowie. So of  course Fat Kid  and Ed go bury Zowie in the Pet Sematary and big  surprise  the dog comes back to life. 

Shit happens and the step dad dies and gets buried and  comes  back.  And that is when  the film  just goes off the rails. Clancy  is amazing in  this role and single handedly saves  this movie. 

I had heard for years how this was horrible,and it could be,if not for Clancy Brown. Him  as the piece of shit  cop saves this movie. He is so over the top and appears to be having  a blast. Like in  the scene where he kills a  kid using  a motorcycle tire.

Sure this ain't a classic like the  original. It is still one of the best sequels to a Stephen  King movie.

Pet Sematary II gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 17 Skeleton Man

 

TITLE-Skeleton Man

SOURCE-DVD

I had heard for  years how bad this "horror" film is. Had a friend that loved  shitty horror  claim it was one of the worst she had seen. So when I found the DVD for  a buck I had to grab it.

A man  removes a  skull from an  ancient  Indian  Burial ground. Causing  the Skeleton Man to rise from  the grave,hop on his horse and ride through the woods killing people. Skeleton  Man  is someone in a cheap leftover cloak  the production staff got from  an after Halloween sale at Walgreens.  And  Skeleton  Man has on a skull mask. The standard Skull mask  you find for 10 bucks  at any store around  Halloween. The horse Skeleton Man rides,it changes color from shot to shot.  Yep they didn't bother to  get horses that  look  similar  for this  film.

Fairly  quickly Skeleton Man kills off two "Delta Force" troops that are in  the woods. Never seen Delta Force dressed in cheap workout gear. Still their deaths brings in the only names this film  could get.

Michael Rooker,yea I know to many  he is Merle from Walking Dead,he is  always Henry from Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer to me. He is head of a another group of "Delta Force" Troops. Which also includes Casper Van Dien. I always wondered  how and why he went from big roles like  Starship Troopers and Sleep Hollow to made for SYFY tripe like this. 

The rest of the film  is  this group of "Delta  Force"members  trying to stop Skeleton Man. And if  this is legit Delta  Force wow recruiting standards have went way down  since I  was in the military.

The kills are decent,fairly gory and look good. Just you get dumb stuff like a scene where Skeleton Man uses a standard arrow to take down a helicopter. 

Normally  a film like this I can just sit back  and enjoy it  being  BIG DUMB  FUN. This  is just  dumb!

Skeleton  Man gets  a D+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 16 Office Killer

 

TITLE-Office Killer

SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

Oh Miramax,made a pile or aqquired a pile,then either  sat on  them for years or dumped them straight  to cable/home video. Office Killer is one  of  those films that got that treatment.

In 97/98 this came out,I  saw no press about it in the genre mags. Never even  heard  of it until 10 or so years ago when I bought a 20 pack of horror films  from Echo Bridge. 20 films spread across  4 discs. So 5  films a disc. And while the  film looked rough and  a bare step above vhs  I enjoyed it.

Skip ahead to early this year. Heard Vinegar Syndrome was releasing it on  a packed HD release. Dug out this old ass DVD to rewatch it and  see  if  it was worth a pricey upgrade. Thinking  I paid 5 bucks for this release. Then the DVD got knocked under the TV stand. I forgot about it. Found it a week  ago  and watched it today.

Carol Kane is a office worker,who also takes care of an elderly relative. Her workplace is downsizing so  everyone is worried about their jobs. Then  late one night working over  Carol accidently  electrocutes a co worker. Instead of  reporting it,she  takes the body home hides it in her basement. And now any co worker pisses her off she kills  them. And the co workers is a great cast. Got  Molly Ringwald in 1 of  the  2 horror films she  has starred in. As  the bitchy co worker that gets  downsized. Jeanne  Triplehorn a as another co worker.

More of a dark comedy/thriller than horror. But worth a watch. Not sure I will upgrade unless I can find it for  25 or less.

Office Killer  gets  a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 15 Return to Silent Hill

 

TITLE-Return to Silent  Hill

SOURCE-Blu Ray

While I heard  about the Silent Hill games I never played any of  them much. By the time they were coming out  I was not playing  many modern video games. So that first  Silent Hill movie came out. I skipped it. Then  one day years ago wanting something to watch bought it on  DVD. Enjoyed it  and when I saw the trailers for Return  to  Silent Hill  I wanted to go see it. Never could work out a day that I could make it to the good theater up in Pearl MS. My local  theater charges too much  for subpar projection and sound. Day the blu ray came out  I bought it and like what happens  often it got  put on the  to be watched  pile and sat.

A young  man returns to Silent  Hill,possibly to save someone named Mary. And  it seems he is stuck in  a time loop. This isn't a film with a deep plot. It relies on  the  creepy images and sound to tell it's story. Which works well for  me. Again I don't know the games so I have no clue how close to the games this film is.

Our lead is an actor I have never seen  before and he  is decent in his role. The lead actress is another I have  never seen. She does a great job with her part. The rest of the  cast ain't bad.

I gotta say the practical FX work in the  film looks great. Got a few scenes that feel  like they are outta Society. Now the  CGI work... some is decent and some looks like junk from a PS1 game.

Hearing  this bombed,which sucks,cause I would  love to  see a sequel.

Return to Silent  Hill gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 14 Hollywood Kills

 

TITLE-Hollywood Kills

SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

Sometimes you just  need a film  to kill  sometime. And this one  did that.

Hollywood Kills  is the perfect example of a great premise that gets  turned to  doo doo butter cause  of budget  and the cast.

A crazy  director likes to  invite young actors/actresses to his studio. Then  he  drugs them  and  hold "Auditions". Where he kills them while filming  the kills. This time a young female director in the bunch of  aspiring thesbians. So the crazy director takes her nails her to a director's chair. And  forces her to watch as one  by one  her friends are slaughtered.

See sounds decent. Coming out  in 2006 this was trying  to catch  some of the  wave of popularity that Saw/Hostel and other films like that had. Just Saw and Hostel had budgets higher than what  I paid for my first car and a cast that wasn't found by throwing  darts at  the Los Angeles phone book.

At least the kills  are  all practical. The  best is  a broken champagne bottle shoved into someone's  mouth. The  worst is when  the  crazy director cuts the  lady director's eye lids off,so she cant shut her  eyes. And it  looks like those fake "nasty eye" appliances you would find near Halloween at places like  K-mart and TG&Y.

Barely and  hour  and 20 minutes including the  opening and closing credits the film still fills  too long. Maybe cut  the film down  to 30 minutes  and  it  would work decently  as part of  a horror anthology film or  an episode of a TV show  like Tales from the Crypt,Tales from  the Darkside or Creepshow.

The cast... only one person in  the cast have I seen  in  anything before.  The actor that  was Scutt Farkus in  A Christmas Story. And his part is tiny with little  screen  time.

Overall  I say don't buy this.I got it on  a set that was 20 horror films for 5 bucks. And feel like even  at 25 cents a  movie  I  overpaid for Hollywood Kills. Maybe if  you have to see it  track  it down on TUBI  or one  of the other  FAST apps.

Hollywood  Kills gets  a D+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 13 Final Remains AKA Mortuary 2005

 

TITLE-Final Remains AKA  Mortuary (2005)

SOURCE-Echo Bridge  DVD

Remember like 10 years ago  when Echo Bridge had the license for a pile of Dimension and Miramax  films? You could get a 20 pack of movies,5 films per DVD,for 5 to 10 bucks depending on the store. And this wasn't your normal Mill Creek/Brentwood/Diamond Public  Domain or Grey market stuff. You got real "winners" like Dracula 2000 and  that Halloween  with Busta Rhymes (RIP TheFUCKERFROMHELL).

On  one of these packs  I discovered this forgotten 2005  slasher comedy. Looks like it was shot on video and  cause it is crammed onto one disc with 4 other  films it looks like a ex rental VHS.  The sound was also  a bit low.  Normally I watch movies  in  the living  room on  the large tv.  And  that  one I can normally keep the volume at 14 to 17 for a DVD  and hear it clearly. This one I kept  having  to bump it up  to 20 or even  25.

A bunch of college age teens  want  to party in their small town. A killer is on the loose and  a man suspects the killer is hiding out  at the local funeral home. And of course the teens goto the funeral home  late one night to party.

Thankfully this is only 76 or so minutes.  A bigger budget and  more professional cast would have this at the  level of forgotten horror that  Vinegar Syndrome would release with a limited to  2k  slipcase  edition. But this has  a budget around  what a family of 4 would spend on a 3 day trip to Disney World.

The kills are not bad. I like the look of the killer,surgical face  mask and shower cap. Being  a homage to 80s slashers we  do  get some nudity.  With one scene feeling very gratuitious. 

When we finally learn  who the killer is I wasn't surprised. My short list of who  it  could be was 2 people.

Betting  this is  streaming on say Tubi or one  of  the other FAST services. And  if  you like slashers  and comedy it is worth watching. I doubt  I will ever upgrade from  this DVD.

Final Remains gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 12 It's Alive

 

TITLE-It's Alive

SOURCE-DVD

Somehow as a kid  in the early  80s I ended up with a vhs tape with the first of this trilogy of films on it.  Watched it over and over as a kid. Then  kind of just forgot about it until last year when I found the trilogy on  DVD for cheap.

A expecting father enters the  delivery room to see everyone dead and a trail of blood. His new born  son is a mutant baby that kills. And the rest of the film is this father trying to find his son and protect him.

Great concept,playing off the various "these drugs if taken when pregnant will mess up your baby" scares of the 60s/70s,and Larry Cohen does a good job. Just wow this movie is slow as fuck. We don't see the mutant baby clearly until almost the end. Which makes the film feel a bit like  a 50s drive in  monster movie. When we do it looks a bit like a Cabbage Patch kid put into a microwave.

As a kid this was one of my favorite films. One I know I saw at least once a week. Rewatching it  now it isn't as good as I remembered. Which kind  off sucks. The film isn't bad. Just my brain had built it up as this gore  soaked forgotten 70s classic. Which it isn't.

It's Alive gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 11 Bambi the Reckoning

 

TITLE-Bambi the Reckoning

SOURCE-ITN/Scream  Factory DVD

Few years back when I watched the first entry in the Twisted Childhood Universe films I made a joke about "I want a killer Bambi  movie". Not knowing just 3 years later I  would get it.

Not  long after  the Bambi  movie  we all know Bambi meets a doe.Then  have an offspring that dies and Bambi gets exposed to toxic waste and  mutates into a giant killer deer.

And we also got a family gathering at their mothers home,a mother  who is suffering from dementia,and  guess what that home is in the woods Bambi lives  in.

Now  years back  I bought a few films from ITN,who I dubbed International Turd Network. Mostly cause almost all their films were made overseas and they all sucked. This was the exception.

Instead of folks in  obvious rubber masks this film has decent CGI FX for Bambi. The actors/actresses feel more like the crew  tracked down people  that do acting  for a living and not  "Hey didn't your cousin  once star in  the little theater production  of Driving  Ms Daisy?" 

So  far the other 3 Twisted Childhood  films work  mostly cause it is seeing  a person from your younger years now out there  killing people. This one works because it has a decent script. You could take  away the connection to the Disney animated film  and  it would  still work.

Bambi The  Reckoning gets  a C+