31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 24 Beyond Darkness

 

TITLE-Beyond Darkness aka La Casa 5

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu ray

Ahh Claudio Fragasso,while  Troll 2 is his best known movie it is my least favorite of the 3 of his I have seen now. Favorite is Night Killer,which I am sure I covered a few years ago during 31 Days of Horror,but Beyond Darkness is a close 2nd.

Take Poltergeist mix in The Exorcist a dash of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond and you get this early 90s cheese fest. 

We got a house that has something  in the wall that is calling to the young daughter Carol. Her slightly older brother is the kid from Troll 2. Their father is  Reverend,but wears a Catholic Priest style collar. The Troll 2 son gets taken to the other dimension. The dad and another Priest save him and you think it is over. Then you check the time left and there is still 40 more minutes. 

It's 80s,well came out in 1990,Euro Horror. Don't go in expecting much of the plot to make sense. You watch for the insanity and gore. Which this delivers on plenty.

So La Casa 5 is one of this films many alternative titles. Ghosthouse is La Casa 4,and from what I can find La Casa 1,2,3 are Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. I was sure I had read that Night Killer was part of the La Casa series,which is somehow also connected to the TCM franchise.

Turn your brain off and just enjoy the film. This is exactly the stuff a pile of us was looking for in the mid 90s. Something to watch and laugh at and with.

Beyond Darkness gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 10 The Exorcists

 

TITLE-The Exorcists

SOURCE-The Asylum DVD

Yep the Asylum saw an Exorcist prequel was coming out in 2023 and got this mockbuster shot in 6 days. And like most Asylum mockbusters they got a few names in the cast.

Up first is Doug Bradley as the lead priest. From Pinhead the Hell  Priest to a Catholic Priest doing an Exorcisim what a career LOL.

Then you got Denise Duff as the head nun. She was a big B Horror star what 20 years ago?

The plot is your standard young girl is possessed by a demon and the Catholic Church is brought in to fight this.

Unlike most Exorcist films this mockbuster has more than one person being possessed. Which leads to some decent FX work. Sure it isn't the quality of stuff you see on a big budget film but it also isn't the horrid cheap CGI stuff you see in most films made this quick.

Overall besides a issue near the ending the film isn't bad. I enjoyed it more than the Exorcist Prequel from last year. But that one issue,which I didn't catch on first viewing,now makes me not want to bother watching this again. Doesn't totally ruin the  film but hurts it somewhat.

The Exorcists gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 04 American Guinea Pig Song of Solomon

 

TITLE-American Guinea Pig Song of Solomon

SOURCE-Unearthed Films Blu Ray

Back in 2015 or so I heard rumors about some company getting the rights to make a new series of films in the infamous Guinea Pig franchise. Turns out the company was Unearthed Films. And so far the American Guinea Pig Films,like the Japanese ones,have divided the horror fan base. Some people see them are well made gore films. Others think they are cheap cash grabs.

Back in 2020 around the middle of October I had some Amazon giftcards left over from my birthday the previous summer. Was trying to think of stuff I wanted that I had never gotten so far. Was looking at Jim Van Bebber films. Saw that he was in Song of Solomon and ordered the Blu Ray.

A young female witnesses her father's suicide,it is a pretty violent and gory suicide. Mary,the young female, starts to act strange. Which causes her mother to get some help. Nothing seems to help Mary. And then her eye's turn black. Cut to Father Blake,Jim Van Bebber,who is called in to exorcise Mary. 

Sure this sounds a bit like the Exorcist. And yea in some ways Song of Solomon is a Exorcist clone. But the Exorcist never got this extreme. And from what I have read the Exorcist didn't use De Exorcismus Et Supplicationibus Quirbusdam,the Roman Catholic book on how to perform an exorcisium,but the director of Song of Solomon used that book along with a bunch of other fairly unknown and/or forgotten Christian texts to make this film as close to reality as they could get.

Now Song of Solomon isn't a film for everyone. The gore is fairly well done and stomach turning. As of a few weeks ago Song of Solomon was streaming on Tubi. Tubi is free to anyone in the US  or Canada. They show various films and movies uncut for free. But you do get ad breaks. But that is a good way for someone to try out this film without buying it.

American Guinea Pig Song of Solomon gets a B.