31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 26 Creepy Koffee Movie Time Last Call

 

TITLE-Creepy Koffee Movie Time Last Call
SOURCE-NovemberFire DVD

Months back I had heard NoName and Balrok were doing one last appearance,at a screening of a new documentary done about the Creepy Koffee Movie Time show. Short version CKMT was a weekly horror host show on KOFI TV in San Francisco. They aired old horror films and had on guests.

Once a DVD release of the Documentary was available I ordered one and have now watched it two times. First time was the night I got it. Went sat out on  the pier,it was dark and quiet and I had a blast. This second time was earlier today. 

CKMT Last Call covers in fairly decent amount of detail every episode of the show. Broken down  by seasons. With Balrok interviewing guest and the various ladies that were Cave Girls on the show. What are Cave Girls? They would have 3 to 5 each episode on the stage usually dancing along to whatever music the house band was playing.

One of the Cave Girls in the later seasons was former WWE Superstar Shotzi Blackhart. Who describes the show perfectly. And I can't say how she does or this post would get the mature content warning and as of writing the state I live in has decided I can't see mature content online without giving a copy of my photo ID.

Back to the show. I loved seeing how No Name evolved over the sseasons. All I have ever see is the first 5 seasons. Cause that is all that is out there streaming. There was 10 or 11 seasons total. With the later seasons seems like they got more films they had to license.

Sure this documentary would not mean much if you arent familar with the show. Me I'm a big fan. Seen most of the episodes from the first 5 seasons. Earlier this year read the fan book about the show. 

Creepy Koffee Movie Time Last Call gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 11 Demons 2

 

TITLE-Demons 2

SOURCE-Anchor Bay DVD

First off thank you to CodyLL for sending me this DVD. Pretty sure when this release came out a long ass time ago I bought it. But it appears to be one of my DVDs that came up missing when I moved in 2007.

Spring of 1986 in Italy work began on this sequel to the surprise hit film Demons. Demons had done ok at the US box office and became a cult hit on home video and cable. Both films are produced by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava. Lamberto is the son of famous Italian director Mario Bava, and in the 80s Lamberto got a reputation for making wildly gory films usually with pretty good soundtracks if you are into 80 hard rock and metal.

Speaking of the soundtrack just look at the line up for Demons 2. The Smiths,the Cult,Art of Noise,Dead can Dance and Love&Rockets. That is a good line up of goth rock/alternative rock and just oddball stuff of the era.

Like the first film we get a group of people stuck in a building while they slowly one by one get turned into Demons,usually in bloody gory ways. I love how the pimp from the first film,he was a favorite of mine and my friends back in the day watching that old rental vhs of the first film,is back in this film playing pretty much the same character.  Also you get a young,has to be 10 or so,Asia Argento in what I think is her first acting role.This time instead of being stuck in a theater while a demonic film plays,the cast is stuck in a huge apartment building while this demonic film plays on TV. Causing the demons to come out of the TV screens,I wonder if Ringu was inspired by this.

Yea I know there is blu ray releases of this. But honestly while I do enjoy the first Demons film enough that I will one day get one of the Blus of it,part 2....it isn't bad. But nothing about it screams "HEY GO DROP 30 BUCKS TO HAVE THIS ON BLU RAY!" I will be happy with this DVD.

The DVD looks nice and the dubbed dialogue ain't bad. Pretty sure this is the same dub I saw a long time ago on VHS. Anchor Bay has a commentary on the film. It is OK. One draw back is Lamberto Bava either isn't fluent in English or isn't comfortable talking in English for long periods. So there is parts where Bava says something in Italian and somene else translates for him. Besides that tiny thing the commentary is worth checking out. It has so few blank spaces and gives a decent amount of info.

So if you want to see a above average mid 80s Italian gore flick track down a copy of Demons 2. I bet it is streamiing on  some service. 

Demons 2 gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 10 Night of the Animated Dead

 

TITLE-Night of the Animated Dead

SOURCE-WB DVD

I remember ,hell has to be a decade ago,when a bunch of animators went and remade the classic Night of the Living Dead. Having never seen this interesting experiment when I saw the above DVD cover at a local store I just assumed the DVD was that animated remake of NOTLD.

NOPE! This is one animation team doing the entire film. Adding a few extended scenes that aren't in the original. Plus getting a fairly decent cast to do the voices.

The one drawback is the animation in some scenes looks a bit odd,not cheap but just odd. The biggest offender is early on when we see the car heading down the road to the graveyard. The car looks like a low level CGI effect and the rest of the scene looks like fairly decent animation. 

The voice cast is packed with names and people that should be names. First off doing various voices you got the late Kirk Baily. Best known to people over 30 as Ug Lee on Salute your shorts. He had a decent career doing voice work. Dule Hill,currently the father on  the Wonder Years reboot,is Ben and manages to sound a bit like the original actor but not a total clone. Josh Duhamel,best known to me for being on the show Las Vegas,is Harry Cooper. As Barbara the film has horror scream queen Katharine Isabelle. She was Ginger in Ginger Snaps and also been in a pile of horror films.Nancy Travis is perfectly cast as Harry's wife Helen.

Two voices that surprised me,cause I had no clue they did voice work,was Katee Sackhoff as Judy. Now that I know she is voicing Judy I can tell it is her. The other is Will  Sasso,yep the MadTV dude,as Sheriff McClelland. 

I know of some indie filmmakers that gripe about people remaking stuff like NOTLD,me I don't care if someone remakes it. For me each remake is a new way to view one of my favorite horror movies. Yea at full list price this DVD ain't worth it. But I keep seeing this marked down to 8 bucks or so. Which isn't a bad deal.

As far as extras on the disc all you have is  making of. It is shortish. And really feels like one of those EPK you would see on mid 80s HBO between films.

Night of the Animated Dead gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 20 another Goosebumps 3 pack Thriller DVD set

TITLE-RL Stine's Goosebumps 3-Pack Thriller
SOURCE-Schoolastic DVDs

Yep I have another 3 pack of Goosebump DVDs. When I picked up the set I reviewed yesterday I also got this set. Unlike the previous set this one I forgot I had. Right after I bought it I loaned it out to some friends. And just got it back a few weeks ago. Like the previous set this is just a repackaging of Goosebump DVDs. Unlike the previous set each DVD in this set has 3 episodes on each DVD.

The first DVD is titled Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns. The first episode is of course titled Attack of the Jack O Lanterns. Lee and Tabby love scaring their friends each Halloween. But this Halloween four of their friends plan on scaring the hell out of Lee and Tabby. Being a episode of Goosebumps of course this backfires. Everyone is going to be scared this Halloween. The idea for this episode is a neat one. Everyone can remember trying to scare your friends and family on Halloween night. Sadly the acting and FX work in this episode are subpar. Maybe the budget was lower for the episode,which would explain why the FX work isn't up to the level of most episodes of Goosebumps. But wow the 6 main kids in this episode are just horrible actors and actresses. I doubt I ever watch this episode again.

The next episode is titled Vampire Breath.Cara and Freddy Renfield,I love their last name,find a hidden door in their home. This door leads them to a underground cave. The cave is full of bats...VAMPIRE BATS!!! Sure the premise is something that has been done to death. Cara is a damn good actress and manages to take a story that everyone with even a passing interest in horror fiction has seen before and makes it worth seeing again. The FX work is really good. So good it makes me think they went over budget with it so took some of the money budgeted for the FX work for the previous episode.

Final episode on this DVD is Let's Get Invisible.Noah and his best friend Max find a dark and mysterious mirror.This mirror has supernatural powers. It can make Max and Noah invisible. Of course being an episode of Goosebumps the evil mirror makes it where they can't control being invisible. This episode of one of the ones I know I saw years ago when Fox Family was reruning Goosebumps. I love the invisbile effect.

Up next is the disc titled The Headless Ghost.And yep you guessed it the first episode is The Headless Ghost.In Hill House,a dark haunted house,Steph and Duanne meet a headless ghost. The ghost is 13 years old and if our two leads can't help him find his head he will just have to take one of their heads. Normally I find most episodes of Goosebumps to be creepy. This episode is actually pretty scary. I am a bit surprised how dark and scary it is when the show was aimed at kids ages 6 to 12. It is the only episode I have seen of Goosebumps that I would recommend not showing to younger kids. It might cause them to have nightmares.

Second episode is titled Awesome Ants.Dave has a ant farm he loves. These two boys start feeding the ants real food. This has an unexpected side effect which causes the ants to start growing. And now Dave has to figure out how to deal with his growing,see what I did there,problem of giant ants. Really there is nothing scary or spooky about Awesome Ants. Sometimes there was an episode of Goosebumps that just totally misses the mark and this is one of them. Dave and Ben are fairly decent actors.  The FX of the ants is well done. But the whole thing just falls flat. Awesome Ants is another episode of Goosebumps that I do not see myself watching again.

The final episode of this DVD is Teacher's Pet.Becca is so happy that she is getting to go on an overnight nature retreat for science class. Expecting to have a fun time checking out all the wildlife and learning more about nature. Then she starts to question if she will survive this trip or end up being food for a bunch of snakes. Man this is another episode that isn't spooky. I get the feeling if I had seen this as a kid I would have enjoyed it. But as a adult it just has nothing to keep my interest. While watching it I was constantly checking to see how much time was left. That is never a good sign. Oh well not every episode can be a winner.

The third and final DVD in the set is The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. Which of course has up first the episode titled The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.Jodie and Mark are at their grandparent's farm,what is it about Goosebumps and grandparents having spooky homes? The kids realize their is something odd going on at the farm. Then it gets odder when a dozen new scarecrows show up. And these 12 scarecrows have more in mind than just scaring crows. I have always found scarecrows to be creepy. The scarecrows in this episode are uber creepy and add a lot to the episode.

Don't Go to Sleep is up next.Matt is not happy with his family. He wishes they were different. But after a nap in the attic he awakens to find to be careful what you wish for. Cause now his family is very very different. This is another Goosebumps episode that takes a old trope,this time they managed to take that trope and make it interesting again.

The final episode of this DVD and the last one on the set is Calling All Creeps.Ricky thinks he is super smart when he puts a mean annoying girl's phone number into a personal ad. Of course this backfires on him. Ricky starts to get scary midnight calls. While this isn't the worst episode of Goosebumps I have seen it is very very far from the best. Pretty much it is a very middle of the road episode. With nothing about it standing out.

This set wasn't as good as the one I covered yesterday. Too many of the episodes are pretty forgettable. And the best episode isn't as good as the best one on the previous set. Add in that the previous set had 10 total episodes and this one only has 9. Sure that is only a one episode difference.  Still maybe if they had added another episode it might have been a really good one.

Goosebumps 3 Pack Thriller DVD set gets a B-.

31 Days Of Horror Day 26 Frontier(S)

Title-Frontier(S)
Source-Lionsgate Unrated DVD

Back in 2006 the After Dark Horrorfest started. Which was 8 new horror films. They would each play one night at a theater.And it looked like every year around Halloween we would get 8 new horror films in a theater. But the After Dark Horrorfest was badly done. Very few theaters bothered showing the movies. AFAIK you could say pay 50 bucks and get a ticket that let you into every film in the fest. Nope you had to buy a ticket each night. So most people seemed to have seen these "8 Films to Die For" on home video.  Frontier(S) was part of the second batch off After Dark Horrorfest films. And cause of it getting a NC-17 from the MPAA it didn't play many theaters.

After an really right wing candidate is elected as the president of France a group of Arab young adults decide to use the riots in Paris as cover while they try to escape. But they need money. So during the riots they pull off a robbery. During the robbery one of the guys is shot. 2 members of the group take him to a hospital,while the other two members take the money and head out of town. At the hospital the guy who got shot tells the other two to run. They contact their friends that have already left and are told to come to an inn way out in the countryside.

Not long after the call the two that are at the inn get brutalized by the owners of the inn. Seems the inn is ran by some secret Nazis. And they use the inn and it's isolated location as a way to kill people they find inferior. The two make it from the hospital to the inn and then all hell breaks loose.

Frontier(S) feels a bit like the French version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Isolated location. A group of young adults being stuck out in the middle of nowhere.Hell we even get a dinner scene that is very similar to the one in  TCM. And way way way more on screen blood and gore than the original TCM had.

The FX work is fucking great. There is a few scenes that turned my stomach,which doesn't happen often. Out of all the "new wave" of French extreme horror coming out in the mid 2000s this is the best I have seen. I am betting close to 10 minutes would have to be cut out to get this an R rating. The acting is pretty good. The entire film is in French and the DVD I have only has French audio. So you gotta read the English subtitles.

Frontier(S) gets a B+.

Full Moon's Skull Heads DVD review