31 Days of Horror 2015 Day 19 The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum
Source-Echo Bridge Midnight Horror DVD

When I was still fairly young I saw the AIP made Vincent Price Pit and the Pendulum film. And I loved it. So when in 90 or 91 I started hearing thru Fangoria magazine that Stuart Gordon was remaking it I wanted to see it. I got lucky and the local video store got in the unrated VHS.I watched it and was very impressed.

Skip ahead now to 2004. I caught a edited for TV airing of the movie on Sci Fi Channel and wanted to get it on DVD. The DVD was out of print. And selling for a bit more than I wanted to pay. I figured one day Full Moon would re-release the DVD.

Skip ahead about 8 more years,I am in my local Walmart waiting for my meds to be filled.So to pass the 30 minutes I had to wait I started digging in the $5 bin. I almost skipped this set. Mostly cause the last few Echo Bridge Midnight Horror sets I had bought were nothing but 2000s era DTV tripe. Then on the bottom of the cover I saw a smaller version of the poster at the top of this post. Thinking there was no way this would be the Stuart Gordon film,I flipped the DVD over and saw that yes it is the Stuart Gordon directed film,but sadly it is the R rated cut. No matter I wanted to see the film bad enough that I was willing to drop $5 for the set.

The plot is fairly simple the town baker's wife is falsely accused of being a witch by Lance Henrikson who plays Torquemada.So she get tortured and her husband seeks revenge. From what I can remember it seems the more sexualized violence is what got the most cuts in this R rated version. Even though with the cuts the film still pushes what you could get away with in an R rated film in the early 90s.

The FX work all looks to be practical FX work. And it is really well done practical FX work. For a Full Moon produced film this has a damn good cast. You got Lance as the lead villain. Plus Jeffery Combs and the late Tom Towels as supporting cast.

Besides it being the R rated cut the only other drawback is this version is full frame. Pretty sure by 91 Full Moon had either ended it relationship with Paramont or it was about to end.I doubt this played more than 20 theaters. And I have no idea what it's OAR is suppose to be. But this full frame version doesn't look like it is framed wrong or missing any major picture info.

The Pit and the Pendulum gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 16 Masters of Horror Dreams in the Witch House

Masters of Horror:Dreams in the Witch House
2005
Anchor Bay DVD

In early 2005 I heard rumblings about the upcoming Showtime series "Masters of Horror". Each director was given pretty much free reign to make a film.I knew Stuart Gordon is a huge HP Lovecraft fan,so when I heard he was adapting the short story "The Dreams in the Witch House" I got very excited. At the time I didn't have Showtime. But thanks to everyone's good friend Brian Torrens I got ahold of this episode.

In October 2008 I found a bunch of these episodes in the Walmart $5. I bought every one I found and loved how most of them were loaded down with extras. Plus at least the first season came with trading cards.

A young college student,Ezra Godden of Dagon fame,moves into a house.Where he works on his school work and starts to have feelings for the lovely single mom who also lives in the house. Weird things start happening and he finds out that a witch needs a young child to be reborn. So he does all he can to prevent that from happening.

Outside of "King of the Ants" Stuart Gordon's best work IMHO has been his Lovecraft inspired works.Now I doubt the budget for this episode was very high. But Gordon did the best with what he had. We get decent acting and good FX work.

Dreams in the Witch House gets a B.

31 days of Horror year 3 day 01

Dolls
1987
MGM DVD


Made back in the 80's this film ,directed by Stuart Gordon,was produced by Charles Band's Empire pictures. I had first seen it years ago when the local ABC affiliate showed it late one Saturday night. And really enjoyed it. But forgot all about it till a few years ago when MGM released it on DVD.I kept putting off buying it. But a few weeks ago I found it for a price I couldn't pass up.

We start off with a man,his new wife,and his daughter from his first marriage. Their car gets stuck in some mud so they head out to a nearby house. After knocking on the door and getting no answer they enter through a cellar door. Once inside the owners of the house,an elderly couple,find them and invite them to come have some dinner and to stay the night. During dinner they find out that the husband loves making various dolls. And 3 more people show up,2 of them are some new wave/punk rock style girls. One of whom is the lady that was in the famous  AH HA-take on me music video. The other is the man that had picked up the two girls while they were hitchhiking. Well everyone settles down for the night. And we start to see that the two hitchhikers and the stepmother aren't very good people. Well the AH HA girl starts snooping around the house for valuables to steal,and gets attacked by some of the dolls. And the story escalates from there.

The FX are all well done. They are a combo of stop motion and puppetry. The old man is played by the same guy that went on to play Toulan in the Puppet Master series of films. Now this film came out a few years before the first Puppet Master film. And you can see where Charles Band got the idea for the Puppet Master series.

I was very surprised at how well this film has held up. The acting,story,and FX don't seem dated. And really besides the outfits the two hitchhikers are wearing  this film could be set in the modern time period. The DVD is great besides a nice looking anamorphic print,you get two commentaries. One with Stuart Gordon,and the other has most of the cast. Plus you get some behind the scenes photos and some trailers. Overall it is a great DVD. Dolls get a A.