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+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 10 Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare

 

TITLE-Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare

SOURCE-Scream Factory DVD

Now I saw and enjoyed both Winnie the Pooh horror films. So when I saw the same universe Peter Pan horror movie I grabbed it. And like with most DVDs/Blu Rays I buy it sat on  the to be  watched stack for months.

Peter Pan  is a sick man. He kidnaps kids and "sends them to Neverland" by killing them. After forgetting to go pick up her brother after school,Wendy learns Peter Pan kidnapped her brother and is trying to get hi back,

I like how the writer took the basic Peter Pan  story and twisted it. Reminds me of how at one time the comic book Fables the big bad guy was planned to be Peter Pan,that got stoppedd cause at least during that time frame Peter Pan wasn't public domain in the UK.

And quickly I wanna speak on  all these "horror" fans I see complaining about "All these films taking childhood things and making them  edgy and evil" Ok yea I get that but just don't watch the films then. Nope they will go watch it knowing they will hate it. And I do not get that at all. I got more free time than most and I don't have the time to watch something I know I won't enjoy.

Overall this ain't a bad film. The acting isn't bad. The FX work is well done. I would say it is a step above Winne the Pooh Blood and Honey part 1 and almost as good as it's sequel.

Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 09 The Devil's Dolls aka Worry Dolls

 

TITLE-The Devil's Dolls aka Worry Dolls
SOURCE-IFC Midnight/Scream Factory DVD

Made a bit over a decade ago,and shot in Natchez,Canton and Jackson MS,this is the second  feature fro the director.

A serial killer's worry dolls end up in the hands of a crafty young girl. Who uses their parts to make charm bracelets. Which are sold at her mothers junk store. Seems these dolls are possessed by the evil spirit of the serial Killer

Each person that buys one of these charms gets possessed and starts killing. Like when one guy attacks a corner store owner with scissors. Once the leads figure out what is up they start trying to find everyone who bought one of the charms.

Decent acting some good gore and helps it is shot in  locations I know somewhat. Like one scene I knew they filmed in Jackson cause I saw a place I have been often.

The film is a mixture of serial killer+possession horror. It works. But also this is a movie that if I hadn't found it for a buck I wouldn't have bought it. The kind of film you are wanting something to watch so scroll through TUBI ffor an hour and decide on this.

The Devil's Dolls gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 08 Good Boy

TITLE-Good Boy

SOURCE-Shudder Blu ray

Heard about this movie last year and planned on watching it and just kind of forgot to. Earlier this year saw the blu ray was wanting something  to watch early in the morning with my dog,Maggot Ass the Wonder Mutt,and put it on. But kept being distracted and really only half watched the film.Now having seen it fully,I see why it got loads of praise.

A man with a chronic lung illness moves into his grandfather's house way out in the woods. It is just him and his dog Indy. The man's sister is sure the house is haunted and that is what killed the grandfather. And Indy keeps seeing stuff that is spooky. 

I was really surprised by this film. Went in not expecting that much,had heard early on the dog playing Indy was new to acting. And owning a stubborn dog I was figuring this would not work. Nope Indy is amazing. The sequence near the 3/4th mark with Indy figuring out how to escape being chained to his dog house was so well shot. 

The various spirits and supernatural entities in the film got a spooky look to them. Which helps makes the film have this creepy vibe. 

What can I say I'm a sucker for a film where the dog is the hero.  And watching Indy try his best to save his owner got me right in the heart.

For extras we get a Making of and a BTS featurette. Plus a decent commentary with the director and the producer.

Now for me this was worth buying,and I keep a sub going to Shudder. Give this a watch to see one of the more unique modern horror films.

Good Boy gets a B+

 

31 Days of Horror 2026 Day 07 Phantom Brother

 

TITLE-Phantom Brother

SOURCE-Terror Vision  Blu Ray

The 80s the decade that produced piles of slashers. And cause of the lowered cost of consumer grade video cameras started the Shot on Video Horror sub genre. Phantom Brother is a mash up of horror+comedy plus shot on video+slasher. And for a low budget shot on Betamax,yep on one of the commentaries we learn this wasn't shot on VHS but the superior tape format,this isn't bad. It is actually funny and the lack of a budget doesn't hurt it that much.

The only survivor of an accident that killed the rest of his family,a young man gets raised by the crazy Hickman family. Now grown this young man has to clean up the mess left when  the ghosts of his dead family kill anyone that enters their old abandoned home.

Phantom Brother is just various reasons for people to enter this home and then be killed by the Black/White mask wearing Phantom Brother. We start off with two couples going there to make out. After getting the required for the era topless nudity Phantom Brother shows up with a sharp weapon and kills. Or how when a group shows up to film a sleazy horror film in the home. What surprised me is the ending twist wasn't what I figured it would be.

Loaded with a pile of commentaries this release from  Terror Vision is loaded. Having listened to 2 of the commentaries so far I gotta say they are fun to hear. 

Phantom Brother got a now rare VHS release. That on the extras is mentioned to sell for over 200 bucks. For a long time a crappy upscale rip of the VHS was on Youtube. This blu ray looks decent,considering it was filmed on Betamax tape. The sound has a tiny bit of hiss,but I was expecting that.

If you want a horror/comedy that has way more ambition than budget this is worth tracking down.

Phantom Brother gets a C+