The Toxic Avenger Remake Unrated DVD

 

TITLE-The Toxic Avenger Remake

SOURCE-Unrated DVD

Feels like 20 years ago I heard a rumor that the cult classic 80s gore/comedy/horror film The Toxic Avenger was getting remade. I was worried. I love the Toxic Avenger franchise and felt a remake wouldn't work. Film gets completed then sat on the shelves for a few years. Mostly cause the owners of the film wanted to get a Unrated version in  wide release. 

This time instead of a nerdy dude that cleans up at a health club our lead is a midget that is a janitor at the big chemical plant that is polluting the entire area. Peter Dinklage is our lead and he is struggling to pay bills and take care of his stepson. Plus Peter is dying from some brain issue.

Kevin Bacon is the owner of this big poluting Chemical Plant and we get Elijah Woods as a very   Danny Devito Batman Returns Penquin looking character. The rest of the cast is mostly folks I dont know from other films or tv shows.

Leaning heavy on the current problem of healthcare costing so much. And how a simple operation  could bankrupt a family,this remake takes the gore and dark comedy of the original updates it for a modern audience and makes it a film that I could see being a bigger hit than any of the previous 4 Toxic Avenger films.

Gory as hell. I do love how this feels like a big budget 80s/90s era Troma film. Yea there is more CGI than you would see in a Troma film. Thankfully most of the CGI works and looks decent.

No clue how this would play to your standard horror fan. One that thinks the Terrifier series is the gorest films ever,not even close if you know Euro Horror or Asian horror. For me it was a great way to kill almost 2 hours.

For me the best scene is when Toxie goes to a concert and does a great cover of Motorhead's Overkill while killing the band on stage.

The Toxic Avenger Remake Unrated gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 12 The Blackening

 

TITLE-The Blackening

SOURCE-Lionsgate DVD

Horror/Comedy is a odd thing. Done right they are amazing like say Dead/Alive or Evil Dead 2. But done wrong and you get Scary Movie 1 and up. 

Been seeing this DVD at a local store for a bit. Wasn't gonna drop 20 bucks on it. When it hit 5 bucks grabbed it.

8 old friends gather at a house on in a rural area to celebrate Juneteenth. Once they find a racist board game the horror starts. They are forced to play the game or die. And who is the masked person armed with a cross bow that is all over the property and house? 

Unlike Scary Movie that just throws out 100 jokes and references every 5 minutes knowing enough will hit that the general audience will laugh,THe Blackening goes more subtitle. Like just small things that made me laugh but I am wondering how many people got.

For example the many card games of Spades. Which becomes a major plot point near the end. 

Or how in this film the cast isn't constantly nodding at the audience. I hate that shit. And this film thankfully doesn't do it.

Sure the killer and the twist isn't hard to figure out. I had a feeling who the mastermind was once they appeared early in the film. FX work was decent. And the acting was way better than I expected.

Seems this was a big enough hit a sequel is being made. And I will watch it if that happens.

The Blackening gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 13 Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost

 

TITLE-Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost

SOURCE-Warner Brothers DVD

Back in the fall of 1985 one of the odder and most fun Scooby Doo series started. 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo ran from early September until early December the same year. With only 13 episodes it is also AFAIK  the shortest of the many Scooby Doo tv series.

In this series you had Scooby,Shaggy,Daphne and Scrappy teaming up with Flim-Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul. If you think Scrappy Doo is hated by Scooby fans go ask any of them about Flim-Flam. Flim-Flam was a kid conman that got added to the gang. Vincent on the other hand was great. Voiced by the great Vincent Price. 

The basic plot was Scooby and Shaggy had opened up the Chest of Demons. Which releases  the 13 most terrifying and powerful ghosts and demons ever to walk the face of the Earth.  This of course happens in the first episode. And you would think well there are 13 ghosts and 13 episodes,they catch one per episode. Nope! One ghost was never caught. The series got cancelled,being replaced by re-runs of Scooby Doo's Laff Alympics.

Pretty much now if people talk about this series they are gonna mention how it was the first Scooby series where the ghosts and demons were real and not just people in costumes. And this was the last tv show to use Scrappy.

As a kid back when this aired I missed a few episodes. Then in the mid to late 90s caught it one weekend on Cartoon Network saw all 13 episodes and thought "Well this series is forgotten they will never wrap it up."

Then in late 2018 I hear that early the next year a DTV Scooby movie is coming out. Titled Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost. Which after over 3 decades would resolve this dangling plotline. At the time I figured I would catch the film on Cartoon Network.

Skip ahead to back in the spring of 2021.I was looking at the dvds at a local store. Saw the above pictured set. Which contains all 13 episodes of the tv cartoon plus the follow up DTV movie. And with it being 7 bucks I grabbed it. One lazy weekend I re-watched the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and had a blast. Then this DVD set got put in a box and I kind of forgot about it until a week ago.

After a prologue where we see Vincent and his assistant Mortifer capturing all 13 ghosts and sealing them in the Chest of Demons it skips ahead to present day. The Scooby Gang is solving a mystery in a local mall. And get told by one of the local cops that with them turning 18 soon they run the risk of being arrested for criminal negligence.

The gang decide to break up. They hold a garage sale. Selling off everything including the Mystery Machine. Then in a box someone finds the crystal ball Vincent used to communicate with Scooby,Shaggy and Daphne. There is no Scrappy in this film and the one time he gets mentioned Fred and Velma act as if they have no clue who Scrappy is. Which is a nice inside joke for the long time Scooby  fans.Vincent contacts the gang and now Daphne,Shaggy and Scoob must explain to Fred and Velma what happened one summer while Fred and Velma were gone. And how there are real ghosts.

The gang meets up with Vincent and we find out Shaggy sent the Chest of Demons to the Himalayas. So the Scoobs head that way. We find out the last Ghost/Demon they must catch is Asmodeus. Who is one of the creepier looking and acting villains I have seen in Scooby.

I love how Fred feels left out cause Daphne takes charge in this adventure. And how Velma keeps trying to prove that there is no ghosts,demons and magic. Flim-Flam shows back up. Grown up and running a Chest of Demons inspired gift shop.

Asmodeus attacks Vincent in a castle. And thanks to Velma's ever spying eye she figures out that Asmodeus is another human in a costume. So yea really the 13th ghost isn't caught. But we get a nice wrap up. And it is left up to the viewer to decide if the ghosts are real or not.

Most of these DTV Scooby animated films are ok at best. This one I fucking loved. Being a sequel to one of my favorite Scooby tv series. And all the little inside jokes and references they have in this film had me laughing and shaking my head through the entire film.

Now of course Vincent Price is dead. So Maurice LaMarche does the voice. He sounds enough like Price to work. All the voices worked in this. The animation is pretty good. With a few scenes with Daphne's Misstery Machine being CGI and not looking that great.

For the cheap price and including the entire 13 Ghosts series I'm happy with this purchase.

Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 11 Tammy & the T-rex (GORE CUT)

 

TITLE-Tammy And the T-Rex(GORE CUT)

SOURCE-Shudder Streaming Service

While this movie came out at the tail end of 1994,I had never heard of it until sometime in 2010. Someone mentioned the film to me. They had seen it on USA years ago. I thought ok this sounds pretty dumb but I will give it a shot. Found a rip of the hard to find VHS on Youtube. Downloaded it and then it sat on a external HD. And I never watched it before that drive died.

Skip ahead to 2019 and I saw that Vinegar Syndrome had found the lost "GORE CUT" and was releasing it on Blu Ray. In most countries outside the USA this film got an R rating. But in the US it was cut down to PG 13 to attract a family audience. But the film bombed. And really would have been forgotten about. Except that it is early roles for both Denise Richards and Paul Walker.

Tammy's(Denise Richards) new boyfriend Michael (Paul Walker) ends up getting mauled by a lion and is in a coma. A local mad scientist wants to take Michael's brain and put it in this T-rex robot he has.

This T-rex robot,after Michael's brain is put in it,escapes and finds Tammy. She figures out it is Michael. And her and her best buddy try to find Michael a new body. The mad scientist comes after the T-Rex. The police get involved. T-Rex gets destroyed. 

Tammy saves Michael's brain. Hooks it up to speakers a video camera and a computer. And the film ends with Tammy doing a striptease for Michael's brain. Which causes the brain to shoot out sparks.

Sounds insane right? Well it is. But wow this was a flat out fun movie to watch. Add in that I watched it as part of Joe Bob's Valentine's Day special. 

Tammy and the T-Rex(GORE CUT) gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2020 Day 31 Hubie Halloween

 

TITLE-Hubie Halloween

SOURCE-Netflix

Yea the newest Adam Sandler flick. Made for Netflix. I've seen a handful of his made for Netflix films,and until this one they were all pure shit. Like you had a dozen Krystals and an order of chili cheese fries the day before.

So I kept seeing reviews for this. Lots of them calling it "good" or "worth seeing". Ok yea lets give this a shot.

Sandler is Hubie. He lives with his mom and he loves Halloween. Living in Salem Massachusetts well yea Halloween is a huge deal. Hubie is just trying to be sure everyone has a safe and fun Halloween. But Hubie also gets scared easily.The rest of the cast is made up of Sandler film regulars. 

Early on we learn an escaped lunatic from the nearby mental hospital has escaped. Hubie's new neighbor,played by the BEST ACTOR EVER STEVE BUSCEMI,is acting odd. And everyone in town besides Julie Bowen picks on Hubie all the damn time. But no matter what Hubie keeps helping out and being nice to everyone.

Then about halfway through the film the main people that fuck with Hubie start disappearing. Of course I'm thinking the escaped lunatic is doing this. "Hey maybe this will morph into a slasher?" NOPE!

The lunatic escaped to come get Steve Buscemi to come back to the hospital. LOL yea and the lunatic is Rob Schnider. Who is actually funny in this role. Yea I was shocked.

So who is grabbing the people that fuck with Hubie? Well his mother of course. She is gonna burn them at the stake on Halloween night. The cops show up,Kevin James is great as a fat mullet having bearded cop with Keenan Thompson as the other cop. Hubie's mother manages to get away. Hubie ends up with Julie Bowen. And it skips ahead a year.

Now Hubie is married to Julie. He is also mayor of the town. But still rides his bike around. Yea forgot to mention that. Like The Water Boy,Hubie don't drive. He rides a bike everywhere. And always has a thermos on him. Which is loaded with gadgets like he is Inspector Fucking Gadget. 

But back to the flash forward. Hubie is riding his bike to his office and now the gang of kids on bikes that were terrorizing him earlier in the film,they wave and are nice to Hubie. And we learn the lead kid's name is O'Doyle!

This feels like Sandler kinda wanting to not only connect most of his previous films but also shut the door on that universe. It's not bad. Better than any of the other Netflix made ones so far.

Hubie Halloween gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 25 Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

TITLE-Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
SOURCE-DVD

Saw the trailers for this when it was hitting theaters and thought "If there was still $3 matinees at the theater I would go see this." Then earlier this month got a good deal on some used dvds/blu rays and found a copy of Scouts Guide.

We get a fairly well done horror/comedy/Gore movie. 3 long time friends are in high school and in the scouts. A zombie outbreak causes wacky stuff to happen. And the three late teen scouts and a stripper team up to survive.

The four leads are pretty damn good. Never seen any of them in anything before this. Really don't think I have seen any of them in anything after this either.

Now the comedy is fairly rude stuff. So if that isn't your thing might want to avoid the film. I found a few of the parts really funny. With only a few of the jokes bombing.

It would be kinda neat to see a sequel to this film. The ending of this one leaves everything open for a sequel. But it has been a few years since this came out so if that was gonna happen it should have happened by now.

Anyways this is worth renting/streaming/buying for cheap. It isn't often we get a zombie horror/comedy film that works. And Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse works.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 16 Spaced Invaders

TITLE-Spaced Invaders
SOURCE-DVD rip on Youtube

Yep I can hear yall saying "But Spaced Invaders isn't a horror movie!" and you are right. But it is set on Halloween day. So it qualifies.

Back in late April 1990 I went to the local movie theater to see a film that until maybe a month ago I had forgotten about. Then I heard  the film reviewed on a cult movie podcast. Which made me want to see the film again.

A group of fairly dumb Martians intercept a rebroadcast of Welle's infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast. They assume this means the Martians are finally invading Earth and this group of space morons heads to Earth to help out.They land in Big Bean Illinois. It is Halloween night and of course all kinds of wacky stuff happens.

I love how this film manages to blend comedy and sci fi into a almost perfect mixture. By the time this came out I was in my teens. And I can't remember what about the movie caught my attention so much that I had to see it in a theater.

The moron Martians are of course the best part of the film. Each of them has a very distinct personality. And they got great voice actors to play the parts. I love the one Martian that sounds just like Jack Nicholson. And the Martian named Pez is another favorite of mine. With how well thought out each of the Martians personalities are I am shocked this film never became a cartoon. With crap like Dumb and Dumber and other unfunny movies getting cartoons why couldn't we have gotten a Spaced Invaders cartoon?

The cast is all pretty much great. With only 2 real well known people in the cast. First up you have Royal Dano. He plays the elderly farmer who's land the Martians land on. To me it feels like Royal is playing the same part he played in the 80s Sci Fi/Comedy cult classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space. The other known member of the cast is a really young Ariana Richards. She is best known for being one of the kids in the first Jurassic Park film. In this movie she has just moved to Big Bean. And  her and her group of friends end up helping out the moronic Martians.

But even though the two I just talked about are the only known actors in the film the rest of the cast is damn good. With the kid who is in a duck outfit stealing the entire film. His comedic timing is off the charts and I wonder why this kid hasn't done more and bigger roles.

After listening to the podcast that was discussing Spaced Invaders I went to see how much a DVD of it would run me. Seems I got lucky. Spaced Invaders just recently got a re-release on DVD. Before this re-release used copies of Spaced Invaders on DVD were selling for upwords of 50 bucks. Now that the new release is out the prices have settled back down. There is also a blu ray release. Which I have ordered. But it didn't come in yet. So I did what I always do when I want to see a film and do not have a copy in my possession..I searched Yotube. And someone was nice enough to have uploaded a rip of the first dvd release.

Every year in my 31 Days of Horror I try to have at least 1 or 2 things that people can watch with their kids. I started doing this back in 2009. Because back then every year I would go spend part of October with my cousin.  At the time she had a 8 year old son and another that was 4. During the day while the oldest kid was at school I would watch movies with her 4 year old. He knew I was into what he called "scary movies" and would want to watch some with me. But he was scared very easily. So I would bring stuff like Ernest Scared Stupid or The Willies. That way him and I could watch and enjoy a "scary  movie" and he wouldn't end up with nightmares. That formerly 4 year old cousin is now a teenager. And I haven't spent October with him and his family in 5 years now. But odds are good if I was down there right now he would be sitting on the couch next to me,eating some popcorn and laughing his ass off at Spaced Invaders.

Spaced Invaders isn't a great film. But it is a fun movie. One that should have at least a decent sized cult following. Maybe one day one of the many cable channels will start airing it multiple times in October and turn it into a family cult favorite like Hocus Pocus.

Spaced Invaders gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 02 The Burbs

TITLE-The Burbs
SOURCE-Shudder streaming service

In 1989 Joe Dante unleashed this horror comedy film. And while the film didn't bomb at the box office it wasn't a huge hit. Thankfully through home video and airing fairly often on cable The Burbs has grown into a loved cult film.

Earlier this year I finally subscribed to AMC'S horror streaming service Shudder. And spent some time going through all the films and tv shows they offer. Once I saw they had The Burbs I stopped what I wa doing and watched the film for the first time in close to 10 years.

Tom Banks is the lead. He lives in the suburbs and is taking a week long vacation. During this vacation he notices something is odd about the new neighbors,the Klopeks. And you have to be very odd to stand out in a neighborhood that includes Bruce Dern and Corey Feldman.

Over the course of the vacation Hanks,Dern, Feldman and another neighbor spy on and suspect the Kolpeks of killing another neighbor who is missing.

There is so much great things about this film. You got a really good cast. The late Carrie Fisher is Tom Hanks' wife. The very under rated Wendy Schaal is sooo good as the wife of Bruce Dern. Speaking of Dern he almost stills the film as military vet Lt. Rumsfield. But my favorite is Corey Feldman as a teenager that lives in the neighborhood . Normally I find Feldman to be average at best. But in the Burbs he is as good if not better than the various veteran actors in the film.

Normally unless it is made up of songs I know and like I rarely pay attention to a film's score.  Jerry Goldsmith did a really good score for The Burbs.  And I am trying to track down a copy of it.

A few years ago a Blu Ray of the Burbs came out.  And it is loaded with lots of extras. Including lots of cut scenes. Plus some behind the scenes footage that shows us the cast having so much fun during the production of the film.

The Burbs gets a A.

31 Days of Horror Day 12 Bad Taste

Title-Bad Taste
Source-Count Gore Devol's airing on Vimeo

Ahhhh Bad Taste,the first film and first movie I saw from a guy who is one of my favorite director,Mr Peter Jackson. I had heard about the movie thanks to Fangoria and a few horror zines I read. I was on my way home from school on a Friday. Had just spent most of Chemisty II class reading an article in Fangoria about Peter Jackson's newest film Dead/Alive AKA Braindead. A buddy had told me that this one video store had just gotten in a bunch of horror films. So I stopped by to see if there was anything worth renting. This store ,that I later found out got shut down cause it was renting bootlegs,never had more than one copy of any film. But they had a huge horror,sci fi and porn selection. Seriously I could find pretty much any horror film that was on VHS at this store. I went in and headed straight for the horror section. Saw the above image and grabbed it cause I knew it was a film I had been reading about for years now.

I got home. Put the tape into my VCR and right at 90s minutes I sat there with my jaw on the floor. I had seen gore movies before this. But none of them had as much comedy. Or were made on such a low budget. Then right at the very end the tape stopped and started rewinding. This is when I started to suspect the video store was renting out bootlegs. Almost none of the tapes you rented from them had the FBI warning or a bunch of trailers before the film started. A friend swears he rented some Euro softcore film from the same store and saw the Cinemax After Dark logo pop up a few times. So I was a bit mad that I didn't see the entire film. But really going back now I see that all I missed was the credits.

The plot is fairly simple. Aliens have come to Earth.They want humans to serve as the food in their intergalactic fast food places. And Peter Jackson and some friends are the Earth's only defense.

Mr Jackson shot this film over a long period of time. With himself and various friends playing all the roles. And sometimes not being able to shoot footage cause they were out of money. It was mostly made on the weekends.

What sucks is AFAIK it hasn't gotten a Blu Ray release in the USA. The legit DVD release doesn't look that great and is OOP. I figured once Jackson hit it big with the Lord of the Rings films,fuck I hate those movies,that all his previous stuff would get re-released on DVD. But that doesn't seemed to have happened.

Notice how I said legit DVD release. Somehow a few companies seem to think Bad Taste,which was released in 1987,is in the public domain. So it has shown up on a handful of those multiple horror movie sets. You know like 50 Chilling Classics on 10 DVDs for only 20 bucks. The versions of Bad Taste found on those sets looks worst than the bootleg VHS I rented back in 90 or 91.

What is even odder is early this year Count Gore DeVol aired Bad Taste on his Vimeo show. Count Gore is a horror host that used to be on TV in the DC area. And in the early 2000s switched over to being online. Every week or so you get a new film from him. And it is free to watch. I am guessing whoever picks the movies for his show saw Bad Taste on those PD horror sets and just assumed the film is PD. The print Count Gore used looks decent. It looks as good if not better than the officially released DVD. And hell it is free. Added bonus if you have the Vimeo app you can download videos off Vimeo to watch offline. Whenever I am making a road trip I always load up a few Count Gore episodes on  my Tablet to watch while in the van going to what ever tiny town we are heading to.

I love this movie. But then I love all of Jackson's pre-LOTR stuff. Sadly it looks like the days of him making amazing horror/comedies is over. I thought after the huge success of LOTR Jackson would use that to get a big budget and make the best horror/comedy ever. But nope we got a decent but un-needed remake of King Kong. Then the horrible Hobbit trilogy.

Since the DVD is OOP and selling for too much if you want to see this goto Vimeo and watch Count Gore's airing of it.

Bad Taste gets a B+.

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-.