31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 20 Amityville The Evil Escapes RIFFTRAX

 

TITLE-Amityville The Evil Escapes

SOURCE-Rifftrax Live Blu Ray

Oh Amityville. Over the many years of 31 Days of Horror I have covered some of the Amityville movies. And I did see this one,part 4,back in the day at a friend's home. Really didn't remember much about it.

Was recently at a junkstore. Saw they had a pile of Rifftrax Blu rays so grabbed a few.  I was thinking this was the Amityville about the doll house,I get all the ones after part 3 mixed up. Nah this is the start of the haunted items leave the Amityville House and go fuck with other people.

A lamp from the infamous home is sold to an old lady. Who cuts herself on it and dies from this. So the lamp gets shipped to her sister. A sister that has her daughter and the daughter's three kids living with her. The daughter is Patty Duke,yep by 1989 Patty was down to doing made for TV horror sequels.

The Made for TV budget and restrictions show. Besides the one kill from a garbage disposal there is almost no gore,and I have read that kill was cut on the tv version having been restored on home video. So you get stuff like a parrot appearing in a toaster oven. Or the old lady cutting her finger on the lap and then the finger looking like it has gangreen.

This is not a good film. It is the kind that decades ago we would have rented,sat there chugging beer and cracking jokes. Which is ,minus the chugging  beer,what the Rifftrax guys do.

Appears the only other blu ray release of this is in a out of print Vingar Syndrome boxed set. It's not worth what that set is going for now. Betting you can find this Rifftrax version fairly cheap. And it takes a D+ movie and majorly improves it.

Amityville The Evil Escapes gets a B-. Only the Rifftrax version without that it is a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 04 MaXXXine

TITLE-MaXXXine

SOURCE-Blu Ray

Few years ago pretty sure I covered Ti West first 2 films in this trilogy,X and Pearl. I loved X and enjoyed Pearl. So once I saw MaXXXine had hit home video I ordered a copy.

Maxine aka Mia Goth is in 80s era LA. Working in porn still. The Night Strangler is loose. Maxine is trying to get a part in aa horror film. Puritan II,a sequel to a infamous video nasty.

After getting cast in Puritan II Maxine starts being followed by a asshole played by Kevin Bacon. And starts getting odd messages and even a VHS.

Take 80s LA Porn Scene. Mix in the Hollywood of that time. Add in the Satanic Panic and you get a love letter to 80s Hollywood and its culture.

Best part is unlike so many films I see set in the 80s this looks like how the 80s were. Not how people that were not born back then think it looks. 

Great soundtrack,good FX work. And the cast is good. Bobby Carnivalle is great in his part. 

This feels in a way like an 80s version of Once Upon a time in  Hollywood. Just minus the way over long length,and Tarentino's need to put feet on the screen too much.

MaXXXine gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 27 The Gate

 

TITLE-The Gate

SOURCE-Vestron Video Blu Ray Steelbook

When I put this in to watch it after gettiing this release I was surprised cause I had seen this movie often back in the late 80s but remembered so little of it.

Back in the days before streaming and having 300 channels whenever I got a movie on VHS I kept it and watched it over and over. Had to be 88 and an Aunt had recorded a pile of movies off HBO for me. The Gate was one of them.

Our lead and his sister are preparing for their parents to be gone for a bit. The sister being in her mid teens is left in charge. 

A storm hits ripping down a tree in their backyard. The boy and his best friend ,a nerdy as hell metal head kid,end up bleeding into the hole and opening up this gate to Hell.

Crazy stuff starts happening. The family dog dies and the metal kid realizes his favorite metal album is some how coonnected to this hole/gate.

Ok this is one where if I hadn't seen it back when I was 13 or so I doubt I would givve a fuck about it now. It really is a 80s horror film that is aimed at the pre-teen/young teen audience. 

The FX work is the highlight. With the stop motion mini demons looking amazing. Then the big demon at the end is another stunning piece of practical FX work.

Being a Vestron Video release this is loaded with piles of extras. 2 commentaries an isolated score andd then interviews with so many people that worked on this film.

Glad I didn't drop the 30 or so this cost with it's first Blu release. And really 20 bucks for this steelbook feels a bit high to me.

The Gate gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 27 Critters

 

TITLE-Critters

SOURCE-WB DVD

Every so often I watch a movie and think I wish I hadn't already covered this for 31 days of Horror. Then go check my master list and realize I haven't. That is what happened with Critters. I was sure I  covered it years ago. Nope.

Set in a tiny town. A bunch of aliens,known as Krites,who are like deadly porcupine/hedgehog combos land. With two bounty hunters hot on their trail.

This simple premise that has been done before ended up birthing a franchise that has produced 5 films so far and a fairly large fanbase.

So what made this movie so memorable? What made it stand out from the onslaught of Gremlins clones in the mid 80s? One thing is the Chiodo brothers and their studio handled making the puppets/Krites. But it was how the film balanced that line between horror made for adults and horror kids can watch. Yea it has a PG13 rating. But there isn't much gore or extreme violence in the movie.

The cast ain't bad with Dee Wallace and Don Keith Opper being the stand outs. Now sure most reading this know who Dee is,But Don Keith Opper seems to be unknown unless you are a big Critters fan. His character of Charlie is the lynchpin that keeps this franchise going. 

Charlie starts off as the town drunk. Not far from rock bottom and only still surviving cause most of the small town feels for him. But by the end of the film he has a purpose. He will go off and hunt krites.

If you never seen it track down the first film and give it a watch. No clue where it is streaming currently. If you enjoy it find this 4 pack. Seen it selling as cheap as 7 bucks.

Critters gets a B.

31 Days Of Horror Day 25 Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Freddy's Revenge

Title-Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Freddy's Revenge
Source-Svengoolie airing

Yep back before he got onto MeTV,Svengoolie would sometimes air fairly modern films. Thankfully various fans recorded some of these episodes. And I managed to get a DVD-R copy of Sven's airing of Nightmare on Elm Street 2.

After the original Elm Street film was a huge hit a sequel was quickly put into production. Hitting theaters a bit less than a year after the original came out,Elm Street 2 was a big hit. Sure most of the people that saw it didn't care for it. But it took a few weeks for word of mouth to get around.

Mark Patton plays Jesse. The new kid in town. His family has just moved to Springfield and they are living in Nancy's old home. Fairly quickly Jesse starts having nightmares about Freddy. But besides these nightmares Jesse isn't doing to bad. Sure he is the new kid but he has already made a new friend.

Lisa,played by Kim Myers,is Jesse's new friend. He has a crush on her but is too shy to say anything. To me Kim has always looked like a young red headed version of Meryl Streep.

Jesse ends up getting into a fight during gym class. To punish both guys the coach makes them stay after school and Jesse and Grady become friends.

Lisa comes over after school to hang out with Jesse. And they find Nancy's old diary. In which they see she had been having similar nightmares to Jesse.Then odd stuff starts happening around the house. Like when the family bird just burst into flames.

The Dad,played Clu Gulager,blames all this on Jesse. Jesse's nightmares get worse.And he starts to wander around town late at night. One night he wanders into a bar. Discovers it is a gay leather bar and sees the school coach there. To punish Jesse for being in the bar the coach takes Jesse back to the school and makes him run laps. Jesse ends up disappearing in the steam in the shower room. And is replaced by Freddy. Who kills the coach. Jesse appears again and is shocked to see he is wearing Freddy's fright glove.

The next night Jesse goes to Lisa's pool party. They end up off in one of the pool houses and start making out.

Then out of nowhere Jesse's tongue is replaced by Freddy's. So Jesse runs off to Grady's home. Sneaks into his bedroom and wakes Grady up. Grady offers Jesse some great advice.

Jesse talks Grady into watching over him as he sleeps. But Grady falls asleep and Freddy takes over Jesse's body.Freddy kills Grady.Freddy morphs back into Jesse. Jesse freaks out and runs off to Lisa's home. Freddy takes over Jesse's body again and we get a massacre at the pool party.

Lisa realizes it is Jesse's terror that is giving Freddy his power. After Lisa tells Jesse she loves him and then kisses him Freddy burst into flames and seems to die. But of course this being an Elm Street film we have to get a shitty ending that lets us know Freddy isn't dead. That is one of the my main complaints about the Elm Street series. They usually have really shitty endings.

I clearly remember that when this came out most people hated it. With the major complaint being how in this film Freddy can come into the real world fairly easy. Which is very different than it was in the first film.

In the 30+years since this movie came out there has been much talk about the not so subtle homosexual theme to the film. You got the gay leather bar. The very odd dance Jesse does in his room. And hell Jesse's friend Grady points out that Lisa wants Jesse to bang  her and Jesse runs off to go sleep in Grady's bedroom. The director of the film swears that all of this is just people reading way too much into the movie.  But there is too much in the movie to leads to this conclusion to say it wasn't done on purpose.

Sven's segments are decent. They don't have the polish of his segments now that he is on a national channel. But they are fairly entertaining. And help make up for the film being edited for TV. I was a bit surprised at how little got edited out. I know there was either no or very little nudity in the movie. And the violence and gore were not at extreme levels. Really most of what got edited out for the Svengoolie airing is the foul language.

Nightmare on Elm Street 2 Freddy's Revenge gets a C.

2016 Comic Challenge 281 Ghostly Tales #147

TITLE-Ghostly Tales #147
PUBLISHER-Charlton

Pretty sure I grabbed this at an auction almost 10 years ago. Grabbed it back then cause I was pretty sure from a quick glance that the cover was by Steve Ditko. And I was right. By this time,cover date March 1981,Ghostly Tales was pretty much all reprints. The cover is from issue 118. And the interior stories seem to be reprinted from issue 116.

We get three stories. Up first  is one written by Joe Gil and Sanho Kim handles the pencils and inks. It is serviceable and that is about it.The middle story has no credited writer,but the pencils and inks are by Steve Ditko. For that alone it is worth buying this comic.The final story has Joe Gil back writing.Then Bill Fraccio doing pencils and inks.

Outside of the Ditko cover and story this isn't anything special. But for those two things alone it is worth grabbing if you find it cheap. Sadly over the past 5 years I have seen the prices on all Charlton comics go up a bit.

Ghostly Tales #147 gets a Buy!

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 06 Teen Wolf

Title-Teen Wolf
Source-Goodtimes VHS

Yeah I know the film is more comedy than horror,but I watched this movie a few months back for the first time since I am guessing about 1989 and felt like including it as part of the 31 Days of Horror.

Michael J Fox is on his high school basketball team. They  suck and all he wants is to be special. To have something about himself that makes him stand out.

So once he discovers he is a werewolf he becomes the most popular teen in the area. But do the people really like Mr Fox or is it just the novelty of the wolf that keeps people around?

First off I was kind of surprised at what all they got away with since the  film has a PG rating.Pretty sure by the time this movie came out the PG-13 rating existed. Teen Wolf is filled with lots of sexual humor,with Styles' shirts being full of sexual inuendo. There is a few scenes dealing with drug use. Then finally there is the reason why I got this on VHS instead of DVD. In the very last scene as Teen Wolf celebrates his team winning the big game to the left of Mr Fox's head you will see a guy standing there. He has his pants unzipped and his penis is hanging out of his pants. No joke. From what I can find this went unnoticed until sometime in the early 2000s. And every release since then has that scene digitally edited.

Teen Wolf gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Film 02 The Curse

Title-The Curse
Source-VHS rip

I remember hearing bits and pieces about this film when it came out. But I never saw it for rent at any video store I belonged to. After a few years of hoping one of the local rental places would get it in I just gave up.  It wasn't until last fall that I tracked down a copy. Sure it was  a VHS rip,but it looked decent and I wasn't about to shell out the price of a DVD when I had no clue if I would enjoy the film.

The plot is pretty much a modernization of the HP Lovecraft story The Colour out of Space.At a farm owned by Sheriff Lobo from BJ & the Bear a meteor lands. And it quickly disappears and ends up draining down into the water supply.

At first this seems to be a good thing. All the fruit and vegetables on the farm are huge. But Lobo's stepkids keep talking about how the water taste funny. And then the mother starts acting strange. Like when she is darning a sock and ends up sewing the sock to her hand.

The FX work in the film is pretty good. The acting is damn good. And earlier this year Curse  and Curse II came out on a nice looking Blu Ray from Scream Factory.

The Curse gets a B.