31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 29 Clown in a Cornfield

 

TITLE-Clown in a Cornfield

SOURCE-Blu Ray

Back 10 or so years ago I saw Tucker & Dale vs Evil and loved it. Been waiting and hoping the director of that would do another horror film. He did.

Set in a flyover state,where the one main place folks work has burnt down we got that business mascot going around killing folks. A crazy clown known as Frendo.

New girl moves to town. Her mom is dead her dad is a doctor that had a breakdown. So no more ER doc in major city now he is a GP in a tiny dying town. She of course makes friends with the local outcasts. Who do a youtube channel with pranks. 

A major step down from Tucker & Dale vs Evil. Not a bad film. A decent modern slasher. The big difference is in  Tucker & Dale vs Evil the entire cast was stand out. This... Will Sasso,yep the fat guy from MadTV,is great. Totally playing against his normal type. But the rest of the cast goes from average to wait who are they related to to get this gig.

Clown in a Cornfield gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 21 Silent Night Deadly Night 5 the Toy Maker

 

TITLE-Silent Night Deadly Night 5 The Toy Maker

SOURCE-Vestron Video Blu Ray

Back when this hit home video the neighbor across the street told me a bit about it. Back then,had to be early 92,all I had seen was the first 2 films in this now 6 film strong franchise. This 5th film  sounded insane and I wanted to see it. No video store we rented from  had it and after a bit it faded from my memory.

Skip ahead and Lionsgate puts out 3,4,5 all on a dvd set. I grab it watched 3 and  4 and just never watched 5. Then Vestron puts out a 3 pack but this time on  Blu Ray and adds some extras.

After being  in a bad accident our lead's young son has stopped talking. She takes him to the locally ran toy store,Petto's Toys. Ran by Mickey Rooney,who was one of the folks that protested the original SNDN film. When in the store they meet Petto's creepy son Pino. And legit first few times I heard them say Petto I thought they said Pedro.

Seems Mickey and Pino make killer toys and are a bit nutty. By this entry in the series you just want good kills and maybe a small connection to the previous 4. We get both.

Clint Howard is back as Ricky,he played this part in the 4th film. This time he is a mall Santa. The kills are just fun. Got a electric larva toy that enters a guys mouth and burrows out his eye.The best is the kill near the end. Left with a babysitter our young boy is put to bed. The babysitter goes to another room to get laid. And Mickey releases a pile of toys. Got a robotic arm,that  crawls onto the bed and gropes the boyfriend. Got a pile of soldiers and tanks,that fire bullets. And a odd looking kitbased Batmobile armed with spikes and buzzsaw blades. 

By the end we learn Pino is a robot. Who then dry humps the lead lady. And after his death we get an ending that hints there is more than one Pino.

So Pino  is short for Pinchicco. Petto's first name is Joe...Joe Petto. This is a twisted Pinochio tale. 

Nothing amazing but the kills help elevate it above other DTV horror from the early 90s. 

And yes Jeff Monson,the neighbor that told me about this film decades ago,this was "Worth seeing just for the robot guy dry humping the mousey mom."

Silent Night Deadly Night 5 The Toy Maker gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 16 Heart Eyes

 

TITLE-Heart Eyes

SOURCE-DVD

There has been more than a few attempts at creating a Valentines Day horror franchise. My Bloody Valentine,which got a remake and both it and the OG are worth seeing,you got Valentine from what 20 years ago. It gets crapped on but I enjoyed it. Now we got Heart Eyes.

The past few years a killer has been targeting couples on Valentines Day. The last kill a ring with J.S. engraved on it is found. Our lead,Olivia Holt,is feeling down. And gets mistaken for being part of a couple. So Heart Eyes targets her. The cops show up and cause the man she is with has the mask and knife and his intials are JS he is taken in.

Rest of the film is Ms Holt trying to figure out who the killer is. Which ends up being a neat twist. And of course there is a mid credits scene.

Fairly bloody for a theatrical release with decent acting this was way better than I expected. My biggest issue is this is another film that would work better at 40 to 60 minutes. I wish there was a weekly horror anthology tv show where shorter works could air.

Heart Eyes gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 07 In a Violent Nature

 

TITLE-In a Violent Nature

SOURCE-DVD

Every year there is a few horror films that play the festivals and usually hit home video in October. This film along with Late Night with the Devil was the two this year that got my attention. And thankfully they appeared on SHUDDER fast. I watched both and loved them. So bought them on home video.

Shot as if a cameraman is almost always following our Killer In a Violent Nature is a neat spin on the well worn Slasher sub genre. 

A group of young adults are in the woods. One of them picks up a necklace and this causes our killer to come back and start trying to find this necklace. Plus killing anyone in his way IN A VIOLENT NATURE!

Amazing kills like really amazing kills. That didn't feel the need to go into extreme gore territories like some films did,Terrifier 3. Decent acting from the cast. Plus a gimmick that works and isn't something that has been done a pile.

If you have already seen all the classic and modern slashers In a Violent Nature is one to track down. 

In a Violent Nature gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 29 Scre4m

 

TITLE-Scre4m

SOURCE-Anchor Bay DVD

The first Scream hit at an odd point my life. Coming out right before Xmas in 1996 and it wasn't until late January 1997 that we went to a theater to see it.

Was the old Silver Screen theater over in Biloxi. Loved the movie and as soon as it hit VHS I rented it and made a copy.

Not long after seeing Scream major changes happened in my life. I packed up most of my stuff and moved two states to the west.

When less than a year later Scream 2 hit theaters I went Xmas day to see it and well it was just ok. By the release of Scream 3 I waited for home video to see it and hated the film.

Which is why when Scre4m ,the clever name they came up for this un needed sequel,hit theaters I knew I would just rent it in a year from Netflix. Then rented it watched it. Thought this is a pile of crap. 

Wasn't until last year or the year before when I watched Scream 6 that I realized I remembered nothing about part 4. Not even who the killer/killers are.

Found part 4 cheap,you can see the Dollar price written in  sharpie on the walmart sticker. And now have seen it twice off that dvd.

Set years after the last film,we met the next generation of high school teens in the main town of this series. Ghostface starts killing them and after many red herrings,and some actually nicely done kills,we get our reveal of who the killers are.

The good stuff,well the kills are damn good. The cast that comes back from the previous 3 films do fairly well in this 4th film. Really that is about it for good in this turd sandwich.

The bad stuff.....First off the killers' have the dumbest motive. The female killer wants to be famous. The male is just a simp. The cast that wasn't  in the previous films is either ok at best to WHY THE HELL WERE THEY HIRED Bad. The story is too complex for it's own good. 

My next two gripes might just be a bad transfer on the DVD release. There are scenes where the film grain can be seen. And it looks like it should. Then other scenes where it appears so much DNR has been applied that people like Alison Brie look less like herself and more like a cheap wax dummy. And there is this urine yellow hue to the entire film.

Sadly this was the final movie directed by Wes Craven. This might be his worse film. If not it is just barely better than The Hills have Eyes 2.

Maybe the blu ray isn't DNRed to hell and back and isn't piss yellow all the time. If so that would raise this film up a tiny bit but not enough to make it worth it for me.

Scre4m gets a D+

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 23 Black X-Mas Unrated (2006)

 

TITLE-Black X-mas(2006) UNRATED

SOURCE-Blockbuster Exclusive DVD

So I keep seeing more and more vids,articles,whatever about people starting to just now realize how cheap  used dvds have been  for years.

Look up at the top,the Classic Deathwatch 2000 trading card included as a odd nerdy watermark proving this is mine,cause who the fuck else keeps Deathwatch 2000 trading cards around?Well besides me. I use them as bookmarks. 

Back to used DVDs maybe 4 months after the nearest local Blockbuster closed I found this Blockbuster Exclusive DVD for a buck at some thrift.Then it got thrown on the shelf. Mostly cause I had heard it was not good and keep in  mind this was before the newest Black Christmas remake,from I think 2016.

Unrated screams that cover and i think that means there is 4 or so more minutes of gore. I had gotten some  Blockbuster Exclusive DVD's before and they were barebones. No extras. This has 3 alternative endings. And a 30ish minute Featurette. And bonus so far I have never found a Blockbuster ECO case. Don't think they exist. Nice heavy case on this.

The film? A remake/reboot of a proto-slasher that isn't as well known as it should be. This time with the help of the original's director,Bob Clark,we get a bit more added to the story of Billy.

Born with  bad jaundice and shuned by his family. Billy gets sent to a asylum,like what is kind of hinted at in the orignal. Escapes and starts killing the college girls that now live in the sorority house where billy grew up.

Andrea Martin from the original is back as the house mother of the sorority. The Sisters of the sorority are a mixture of actresses from that era that were either on weekly tv or just got through with a long run on a weekly tv show. 

The gore,oh man the gore and kills. Just way past the level I expected.This was a wide release film packed with like some girl from Party of Five and another girl from Buffy. And yea I got the unrated version. There is this odd Billy's Xmas decorations scene that feels like for that one scene Edward Lee was allowed to work with the FX crew.

This being a slasher you got red herrings ,this ones should stick to whatever mynetworktv show he was on. The final girl I kept thinking I knew from another horror remake. Yep Elm  Street remake. Looked her up she was on that CW Arrow show. What is it with this movie and teen dramas?

Anyways ignore the asshats that shit all over this. It is worth seeing. Yes I know there is no US Blu Ray. No idea what the normal dvd of this has as extras. This Blockbuster Exclusive has a pile.

Black X-Mass (2006) gets a C

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 15 Camp Blood 8 Revelations

 

TITLE-Camp Blood 8 Revelations

SOURCE-Tubi

I have known of the low budget slasher series Camp Blood for close to 20 years now. Never watched any of them. Mostly cause I never see the DVDs for sale in any store.

Was scrolling through TUBI,the modern day mom & Pop Video store,and had a friend messge me "Go to TUBI watch Camp Blood 8". Knowing her taste in horror is similar to mine I put on the movie.

2 hours later,stopped 2 times to get a snack and go piss,I had finally seen a Camp Blood movie. Did some research and found out that there is more than 8,some were not numbered. And almost all of them are on Tubi.

Camp Blood is rural area filled with woods. Once years ago a man in clown make up roamed the woods killing whoever was in them. But he is gone,replaced by his son who just wears a  clown mask and the son's insane mother.

A bus bringing a Girls Beach Volleyball team to Salt Lake City breaks down. And we got our ladies wandering the woods.

2 of them find what looks to be an abandoned warehouse. Another gets captured and tied to an ottoman in Clownmask's living room. Where she is forced to make up songs about the mother's tits and ass. And another two run into Coolduder,YT personality,who lives in a cabin and is a survivalist.

 Maybe 10 minutes into the movie we find out that Clownmask has a sister that was abandoned in the woods. At first I was thinking the asian lady that is in the warehouse was this sister all grown up. Nope turns out it is the volleyball girl in Coolduder's cabin. 

But right when it looks like the sister is gonna do a heel turn Clownmask shows up and kills her.

The kills are bloody but cheap. The acting is either ok or horrid. Even with all these flaws I had a blast watching this. 

Plus even without seeing the previous films I didn't have trouble keeping up with this one. Seems there is a bit of Camp Blood lore in this franchise. Thankfully the scenes with the mother and the girl tied to the ottoman answered the few questions I had.

Camp Blood 8 gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 09 Die Die Delta Pi

 

TITLE-Die Die Delta PI

SOURCE-TUBI Streaming App

Another day another modern low budget horror movie off TUBI.

No one in the cast you ever heard of. Set in whatever locations the producer could get free or cheap. And starring whoever can be convinced to be in the film.

Back in the 80s,or the way people that never lived through the 80s like to think the 80s was,the Delta Pi sorority is about to add some new members.  

Out by the bonfire where the Delta Pi are about to burn their house mother in effigy an accident happens and the nerdy girl gets badly burnt.

Skip ahead to modern era and the Delta Pi sorority is back and got a pile of pledges wantiing to join. Someone is killing  them and are they connected to what happened in the 80s? Of course.

Barely over an hour,padded as hell and full of some horrible acting,dialogue and even camera angles.

Fuck this was bad. Not even worth seeing for free on TUBI.

Die Die Delta Pi gets a F.

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 04 Sleepy Hollow High

 

TITLE-Sleepy Hollow High

SOURCE-Sterling DVD

Betting this is the most time and money I have spent on a shitty movie. 6 years ago I found Sleepy Hollow High on VHS at a local junkstore. Paid the 50 cents the guy wanted. Then it just got added to the unwatched stack.

Skip ahead to 2020. Stuck at home cause of all the shit going on I found the trailer to Sleepy Hollow High on Youtube. Fuck I gotta watch this. Couldn't find my vhs. Offer to Ebay dropped 10 buck,plus 3 for shipping to get the dvd. The one pictured above. The one that smelled like an ashtray.

5 students that are in trouble are sent to Sleepy Hollow Park Grounds to perfom community service. A killer is loose and they start to die.Standard slasher shit. 

Then add in bad acting,bad camera angles,bad fx work,bad script and you get this pile of shit. Only thing worth a fuck about it is the shooting location. But then finding a patch of woods that is empty to film in isn't that hard.

Of course now after spending close to 15 bucks on this pile of donkey feces I see it is now on Youtube,free. Don't go watch it. Avoid this rancid lump of tripe.

Sleepy Hollow High gets a F.

31 Days of Horror 2024 Day 02 Bring it On Cheer or Die

 

TITLE-Bring it On Cheer or Die

SOURCE-Universal DVD

Yea everyone kind of remembers the first Bring it On movie. Cheerleaders,comedy and not a bad film. Who remembers the 6 or 7 sequels? Yea not many. In 2021 a new sequel came out. This time switching genres. Nope not a comedy aimed at teens this one is a SLASHER!!!

The Diablos are a cheer squad that loses at meets cause they aren't allowed to do stunts. Something about a girl dying doing them decades ago. 

Abby talks the lady in charge of them into allowing them for one big meet to do stunts. But the Diablos need a huge place to practice these new moves in. Only place big enough of course is the old abandoned school on the other side of town.

So the cheer squad goes. Not long after they start practicing one of the  girls twists her ankle. The dude ass stoner dude on the team packed a cooler but no ice,and they see that the bag with all their cells in it is missing now. 

After finding a list,with each member of the cheer squad listed as Hot Guy,Total slut,etc they realize something is up. Then 2 people in Mascot outfits show up and start killing off the Diablos.

Fairly decent kills,mostly practical FX work. And the reveal of who the killers is ain't bad. Like it isn't a total surprise but it also fits the feel of the film.

The surviving members of the Diablos a year later are at a meet and we get a twist that changes the film. Then boom credits roll.

Went into this expecting total junk. Over the past decade I have seen all the Bring it On movies and yea after that first one it is a fast downhill slide. Was surprised at how well done this movie was. And it is a modern slasher that doesn't feel like a Scream ripoff.

Bring  It On Cheer or Die gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 13 Friday the 13th Part 6 Jason Lives

 

TITLE-Friday the 13th Part VI:Jason Lives

SOURCE-Paramount Blu ray

I was sure I covered this film years ago. Nope just a short 3 sentence thing when I covered all 12 Jason films.

Figuring most people reading this know this film well enough I don't have to do a through review of the plot. Not that I do that often anyways.

All the previous Friday the 13th films I saw in a theater with my favorite Uncle back then. Part 6 was different. The  Uncle that took me to many movies back then either had no kids. Or his kids were very very young and so he took me to see movies with him.

I remember seeing the tv ad for this movie. After part 5 I figured we would not get another Jason film. Everybody hated part 5. And the little bit I had read on it said Paramount was mad at how it was a flop,not sure how a film that made a good profit is a flop. But there was part 6. Subtitled Jason Lives. Does that mean that Tommy is gone I wondered?

Was sure one weekend after this hit the movie theater I would be there to see if with my fave uncle. Nope not sure how or why by a cousin who is like 5  months older than me talked his very strict very religious mother into taking us to the theater in the next town over to see this.

Bit of word about this cousin. From when I was born until I was 10 or so besides my parents I had no family living close to me. Besides a great Uncle,brother of my maternal grandmother. His wife and their 3 kids. Their 2 oldest kids were grown and gone from the house by the time I was 4 or 5. But their youngest son,named Jason,was basically my age. So often I would be dropped off at his house. Jason and I had almost nothing in common. Didn't really get along that well.And it didn't help that his mother babied the hell out of him. 

For example when he was a young kid,like under school age,if his mother was playing any game with him she would make sure that Jason won. Which lead to a few times at school where Jason didn't win something and either cried and/or got mad and acted up. 

It was right before school started in 86. Jason and I ,along with another friend,were about to start Jr High at a school we were not suppose to goto. Long story short we lived in the area where the JR high we should goto was known for having the worst teachers in the state. And it isn't like Mississippi is known for having good school. I had just turned 12 weeks before this. Not sure why but I was staying the night over at my cousin's place. We were up late ,no school the next day so his mom let him goto bed whenever he wanted to,saw the ad for part 6 and he tells me How he is going to talk his mom into taking him to see it opening night.

"yea right. Your mom won't let you see the previous films. Your mom grounded you for a month for saying butt. No way."

Then next morning while we are having breakfast Jason asked his mom and she said she would take him and me. OK cool I get to see the movie but sucks I have to go with Jason and his mom. I knew she wasn't gonna buy me a large soda and large popcorn like my fave uncle would.

We go. Aunt sat at the end of the row with Jason next to her. I left an empty seat between Jason and I. Everytime someone cussed she reached over and tried to cover his ears. During the sex scene in the motorhome she covered his eyes and told me to do the same ,I didn;t cover my eyes. After it was over ,still not sure why,she fussed at me for the movie. Guess either she thought going to see it was my idea. Or Maybe jason told her that. Who knows he had a bad habit of ratting me out for stuff I did or making up stuff to get me into trouble.

The entire ride home from the theater was just her telling me how the movie was horrible. And I should feel ashamed for wanting to see it. Never mind it was her son who asked to go see it and her that invited me. I would have been happy going with my uncle instead of an asshole cousin.

Thinking about it that was the last film I went and saw with Jason. And maybe the last time I spent the night at his place.

Ok so the film starts with our 3rd actor in 3 films to play Tommy Jarvis. Him and Horshack are heading to Jason's grave. To make sure Jason is dead.

Tommy digs up the coffin. Opens it up. Stabs jason with a piece of metal fence. Lightning strikes it and Jason LIVES.

Crystal Lake has been renamed. Tommy ends up on the run with the town sheriff's daughter helping him fight Jason. They end up drowning Jason at the bottom of Crystal Lake.

This while being the end of one trilogy in the Friday series,the Tommy Jarvis trilogy of films 4,5,6,it is also the start of the Jason is a zombie trilogy. 

Also after part 5 which was loaded with nudity and gore,Part 5 has a few characters that get introduced to just get naked and die not long afterwards,the MPAA was strict as fuck with this film. No nudity that I can remember.That sex scene I mentioned showed nothing. Not that much blood and/or gore. And by the 5th sequel in this long running franchise you want gore/blood and nudity. Matter of fact this films lack of nudity ended up causing myself and Jason to get in trouble.

Was not long after school started. So maybe a month after we saw the movie. Knowing almost no one at this school Jason was trying to impress some kids. He thought lying about seeing a naked woman would impress these kids,most of who lived in a part of the area that had cable tv so most of them had seen stuff like Porkys long before this. "Yea then they showed her breast and they were huge huh Double T?" Thinking I would back him up. "Jason they didn't show her tits. There was no nudity in the film!" He got mad,started yelling "I KNOW WE SAW TITTIES!" I told him we didnt and  "TO SHUT THE HELL UP DUMBASS" .  Betting him "Ok when it hits VHS I will rent it. And we will watch it again. If there is no titties you owe me 25 bucks. If there is I owe you 50 bucks. " he agreed.

Back then movies left theaters and it was sometimes over a year before it hit home video. Usually a film would hit HBO 6 months after it left theaters. Then few months after HBO it hit VHS. I was lucky one of my new friends had HBO and a VCR. So early the next year he recorded it for me. I got the tape. Told Jason "Look this Thursday tell your mom you need to come to my place to work on some homework. My parents will be at their bowling league. We can watch the movie."

We watch it,see I am right,and he gets mad tells me "I will give you your money but tomorrow at school don't mention I lost" See what I mentioned earlier about his parents making sure he won games. Having already made a decent group of friends by this time at the new school the next day once we got dropped off first thing I said to Brandon,Jesse and Donald was "Jason lost the bet. No Titties in the movie" Jason got mad called me "A lying bitch ass" took a swing at me and I stepped back. Pulled my fist back and was just about to punch him when the Principal ,Mr Weathersbee(yes that legit was his name) grabbed my fist. We got in trouble,cussing and fighting. But it was the start of the kids at school really starting to realize Jason was a douchebag.

Why is 6 so loved when it is missing two major factors in the previous films popularity? Cause this time we get not only a good story but also characters we care about. After 2 films we have come to know Tommy. We saw him as a kid lose his family and his mind. Then as a teen we saw him lose the closest thing he had to a new family and at the end of the film we thought he had went over the deep end and would become the killer in the next film. This time we get a grown Tommy. One who all he wants is to make sure Jason is dead. And one who after reviving Jason does all he can to stop Jason.

The new characters are also not bad. The Sheriff is a guy I remember seeing often on sitcoms of that era. The Actress playing his daughter I don't know from anything else.

I do find it odd that this is the one Jason film with no nudity. It is not gory. And it is still one of the best in the run.Just shows how getting a good script and good actors/actresses can really elevate a film.

Friday the 13th Part VI:Jason Lives gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 07 Babysitter Massacre

 

TITLE-Babysitter Massacrre

SOURCE-EI DVD

Back last year in early December the infamous 42nd Street Pete did a big sale. Piles of DVDS,Blu Rays and other media for cheap. Had always seen the above image and said what the hell ordered 4 movies and 2 books.

So what did I get? A low budget tribute/homage to stuff like Slumber Party Massacre,Sorority House Massacre and other b horror movies.

It is Halloween night 3 early 20s women are staying at home waiting on some friends to get back from a party. They keep getting sent pictures of these friends covered in Blood. But it being  Halloween they just assume it is costume blood or a prank. Not knowing a killer in an all white mask is out killing.

Like the director says on the pretty decent commentary,you know what type of film you are watching cause 1 minute 30 seconds we get our first set of boobs. And from there until the end it is boobs and blood. 

The acting  aint bad for what is such a lower level film. Gore aint bad either. Really my only major complaint about this,and it is the same with lots of classic slashers,I know who the killer is  long long before the reveal.

Sometimes you just want to watch an almost brainless slasher that you have never seen and Babysitter Massacre fills that need really well.

The extras are decent. Two short films. A commentary. A talk with the directors from some film screening. All of decent length and containing interesting  info.

If you have already seen all the classic slashers and want something in that vein give Babysitter Massacre a watch. Just remember I don't think any actual babysitters get massacred in this movie.

Babysitter Massacre gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 05 Pledge Night(1988)

                              

TITLE-Pledge Night

SOURCE-Shudder

It was late October last year and I was wanting a horror film to watch. Wanted something I had never seen and was looking through the various movies on Shudder. Saw Pledge Night and took a chance.

As soon as in the credits I saw tha Anthrax had provided all the music I knew I was in for a good movie.

A Frat is doing hell week. A group of guys are pledging. One of the FRat brothers is acting like he is crazy,even stabbing another brother during dinner with a steak knife.  What the other Frat brothers don't know is the crazy brother is actually possessed by the ghost of Acid Sid. A pledge who was accidentlly killed in the early 70s. This pledge is played by Joey Belladonna,former lead singer of Anthrax. 

First half of the movie is Frat guys hazing the pledges. Making them pick up cherries with their asses off blocks of ice. Making the pledges think they  are eating turds or worms and other gross stuff. Then one pledge is taking a shit and out of the toilet comes ACID SID. Who the creators of the film wanted to become a slasher icon like Freddy. Cause Acid Sid looks like a hippie version of Freddy.

The second half is the pledges trapped in the frat house fighting off Acid Sid. Good gross deaths. One where Sid pulls out his own spine and chokes a pledge with it is great.

Reading up on the film it was made extremely cheap in 88. Sat  on the shelf until a limited DTV release in 1990. And in the early 2000s started developing a reputation online as a "forgotten slasher". It is fun. And worth seeing if you have Shudder. But I am not gonna pay the 25 to 30 bucks the Blu ray costs.

Pledge Night gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 25 Popcorn

 

TITLE-Popcorn

SOURCE-Shudder Streaming Service

Oh man the early 90s horror scene was so odd. The slasher subgenre was dying. And if you listen to some fans horror was shit in the 90s until Scream. Which of course is wrong. There was good horror all through out the 90s.

When cable finally reached the rural ass hell southern town I grew up in,tail end of 1990,I paid out of my pocket for Showtime and TMC. Which where the only MOVIE channels our cable offered. Sure I wasn't making much at my part time after school job. But 20 bucks a month went to making sure I had Showtime and TMC. And at least another 30 a month went to buying blank VHS. Cause I was recording any horror movie that aired on Showtime or TMC. It was late 1991 when I saw that Showtime was airing Popcorn a bunch of times the next month. I had wanted to see Popcorn. But something else came out the same weekend as it. And we all went to see  that. The next weekend Popcorn was gone. I had hoped to rent it. But no video store in the area carried it. But Showtime was showing it 5 times in one month. First time airing it at the oddest hour of 2am on a Wednesday.

Sure I had a VCR in my bedroom by this time. And I could have just set my VCR recorded it and watched it Wednesday evening after school and work. But nope I stayed up all night to see it. And I fucking loved it.

A group of college kids are hosting an all night movie marathon at a soon to be demolished theater. This is a fund raiser for their drama club IIRC.  Thanks to Ray Walston,who runs a film merch shop,they get some great gimmicks to go with the three films they show.

Those 3 films are Mosquito,a throw back to the 50s giant insect flicks. And this movie is in 3d. Loved the one scene we see from this film where a giant mosquito lands on a car roof. And shoves it's sucker through the roof and into a yokel's head. Then sucks his brain and everything else out. They have a great FX of the head collasping on itself that I still think looks amazing.

Another of the films  is Attack of the Amazing Electrafied Man,which like the Tingler has seats in the theater wired up to a board and whoever is at that board can give the people in the seats a nice shock. This reminds me of all the 40s era films where dudes get powers through accidents.

Last up is The Stench,filmed on SMELL O VISION. Like Polyester from John Waters.  

While going through the lot of stuff Walston brought they find a 4th film. Titled Possesser. So the students screen it and it shows stuff similar to what our lead Maggie has been dreaming. Odd stuff with fire and death. Seems the director of this thought lost film killed his family before he could shoot the final scene. And set a theater on fire where he was showing what he had shot of his film.

So while these films are airing to a packed house. Someone is not only killing off the students. But is a master of disquise.Which we learn when people we saw die show up in later scenes. 

We find out who the killer is. Our lead Maggie ,played by the great Jill Scholen who yall might remember from the original Stepfather film,gets captured by the killer and we learn who they are and why they are doing what they are doing. I know this isn't a film lots of have seen so I am not gonna full spoil the film.

Overall the film is just fun. But is is one I forgot about. Sure from 91 until 2010 or so I had that VHS I had recorded it on,same tape also had Subspecies 2 on it. And I would watch it maybe once every 5 years. 

I had really just forgotten about the film until I saw Code Red announce they were releasing it to DVD. FOund out there was a previous DVD release that was out of print,and IIRC it was 4:3 instead of OAR. I figured it was time to replace my well worn VHS tape. And since Code Red hinted it would be out soon I gave that tape away to a friend. 

Then I keep hearing that some fan has the DVD rights to the film and is putting out a ULTIMATE FAN EDITION. Also claiming that Code Red doesn't have the rights. And it started this online war of words that lasted what felt like 40 years.

Finally in the past 5 years,IIRC,Synapse finally released the ULTIMATE FAN EDITION. I think there is a blu ray release. But the cost of it was stupid high. So I passed.Figuring there would be a cheaper DVD release and I would get that. Plus not long after the blu ray got out someone sent my a rip of the film off the blu. I ain't seen a cheaper dvd release of the film so far. But Shudder has Popcorn and holy hell I think I might just drop that 35 or 40 bucks and get the blu ray. Cause this print on Shudder looks great. Way better than I remember it ever looking.

Popcorn is a nice meta slasher horror film. I like how it has ties to Deathdreams,in that they wanted Bob Clark to direct this but he turned it down so the guy that worked with him on Deathdreams directed this. Well he stared directing it and was firedd a few weeks into filming. Where he got replaced by one of the lead actors from PORKYS! Yep no joke. Just like Jill Scholen,she wasn't the original actress cast to play the lead. But when the director got replaced she did too. 

Popcorn gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 24 Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood

 

TITLE_Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood

SOURCE-Paramount Blu Ray

Coming out back in 1988 this film was actually filmed in fall/winter 1987 near Mobile Alabama. I wish I had known they were filming  in that area,cause back then I lived about 15 minutes outside Mobile right across the state line in Forts Lake MS.

Starting off as a planned Jason vs Freddy movie,which couldn't happen cause the two studios that owned Jason and Freddy couldn't agree on many issues. Instead we got Jason vs Carrie. Yea it ain't actually Carrie but Lar Park Lincoln plays a lady in this movie that is pretty much Carrie.

As a young child Tina tries to get away from her drunk abusive father. She takes a boat out on Crystal Lake and her being so upset triggers her Telekentic powers. And Tina uses these powers to collapse the pier her father is on.

Skip ahead a bit and  now Tina is a teen. She has all kinds of mental issues caused by her accidentally killing her father. Her mother brings her back to Crystal Lake,cause Tina's shrink thinks this will help her. But we learn that the doctor wants to use Tina's powers for his own gain.

After a very upsetting session with her doctor Tina is pissed. She runs out to the lake and using her powers she managed to awaken and free Jason. Who in part 6 was trapped chained to a large rock at the bottom of Crystal Lake.

Right next to the house Tina and her mom and doctor are staying in is a house full of teens. Who are there to celebrate a friend's birthday. And it being  an 80s slasher film you got your normal teen tropes. Like the rich blonde bitchy girl. And your mousey brunette in glasses who gets a make over and is suddenly pretty. Am I the only one that thought the mousey brunette looked like the taller Chipette from Alvin and the Chipmonks?

So we got Jason free from the lake. A bunch of teens partying,having sex and smoking pot. And a mentally damaged TK powered teen girl. Sounds like we are gonna get a damn good film. Sadly we didn't.

First off gonna mention the things this film gets right. The cast is pretty damn good. Lar Park Lincoln is damn good as Tina, and for the early parts of the film where Tina  is a young child they got the same actress who played Leatherface's daugher in TCM III. Elizabeth Kaitan is Robin. I had seen her in so many horror/sci fi/cult movies and she is great in this movie.Diana Barrows plays the Chipette looking nerdy chick and you really believe she is the character she is playing.

Then there is the biggest addtion to this cast. Jason is played for the first time by Kane Hodder. Kane was at the time  a stunt man. And to most Friday fans their favorite actor to play Jason  is Kane. And I will agree he brought so much to the character. Parrt of that I think is cause the other people who played Jason were stuntmen and not actors. Kane is an actor who is also a stuntman. Also many fans love how Jason  looks in this film and I will agree he does have a great look.

So as you can see it isn't the cast as why this is one of my lesser loved Jason films. The biggest issue to me is how cut this movie is. By the time of this movie the MPAA had a boner for the Jason films. And this film was sent back to the MPAA many many times to try to get that R rating. For example the famous sleeping bag kill. In the uncut workprint of this movie Jason slams the sleeping bag many many times into the tree. In the R rated cut he slams it into the tree one time. Which to me makes the scene more brutal. And all the kills in this movie got majorly cut down. 

Worst part is it appears that either Paramont has lost the stuff that got cut. Or they just don't give a fuck and haven't bothered to look for it. Cause even with Friday 7 getting many many home video  releases,hell I have owned it 3 times on DVD and two times now on Blu Ray,the only copy of the original cut of the film  tha exists is a rough rough 2nd generation VHS looking Workprint.

Thinking about it this has to be my least favorite of the franchise. I know it is the one I have seen the least amount  of times. Usually watch it if I am marathoning the entire run. 

I chose to watch it today cause I hadn't seen it in years.PLus the last week or so at night when I lay down to goto sleep I would put on the Blu Ray of Crystal Lake Memories. And hearing the cast and crew talking  about  how much fun  they had making this film got me into the mood to watch it again.

Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 20 Wrong Turn 5 Bloodlines

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn 5 Bloodlines

SOURCE-2oth Century Fox DVD

Got a set  over a year ago with the first 6 Wrong Turn films. Sure I already owned part 1,but figured for 10 bucks I was getting a deal.

Before this I had seen 1,2 and 3 of the series. It was late one night and I wanted a movie to watch. Settled on Bloodlines,which is part 5,and was shocked how much I enjoyed it.

This film is set before the first 4. Giving us a bit of a origin/backstory for the crazy inbred hillbillies.

Seems a long time ago Dougla Bradley was a serial killer. And he became a father figure for our 3 killer West Virginia inbreds.Also notice how this film get the subtitle Bloodlines and Bradley was in Hellraiser 4 which was subtitled Bloodline.

Now after 4 films in the series you know going in what you are getting. Plenty of gore and manic hillbillies. Plenty of women in skimy clothing. And gorgeous scenery. Filmed in Bulgaria this passed for rural backwoods West Virginia. Which makes sense IIRC the Jesco White movie White Lightning also used Bulgaria to stand in for Boone County WV.

Our three killers are smart. They take out the phone lines and cell tower. Then kill the power for the entire town. Love it cause this gets around the modern horror trope of some checkign their cell and saying "I aint getting any signal"

Also with Wrong Turn you go in wanting gory kills and part 5 does disappoint. Piles and piles of gore. With the final kill being really well done.

I was expecting a by the numbers long in the tooth sequel and instead got a well made pretty fun prequel.

Wrong Turn 5 gets a solid C.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 19 Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings

SOURCE-20th Century Fox DVD

Well I try my best to watch at least once every horror film I get a copy of. Which has lead to me watching some total crap. I also have every year since 2000 reviewed 31 horror films in the month of October. Never repeating a film and for years avoiding the big slasher franchises.

These two things tend to work against each other. For example 2012ish I bought a Echo Bridge 10 pack of horror movies. Was 5 bucks and  I wanted Howling 4 on DVD.I had seen it back when it first hit cable decades ago and remember enjoying it. This multipack was a cheap way for me to get a copy of it. And well if any of the other 9 films turn out to be decent that is a bonus. My rule of trying to at least once watch every horror film I end up with a copy of and this pack is how I discovered Vampeggedon. A film I both love and hate. 

All of this is trying to explain why I decided to watch and review Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings. I know I saw this a long ass time ago when it aired on Syfy. Back 10 or so years ago most Halloweens I would goto my cousins. And she would end up DVRing any horror films airing on  AMC or SYFY to show her kids. We watched Wrong Turn 4 and I remember it having like 2 good kills and the rest just sucking.

The DVD,which is part of that pack of the first 6 films on dvd,is loaded with extras. Got a commentary with the director. A Music video for some song from the movie. Deleted scenes and other extras. The film looks and sounds decent. And by part 4 of this oddly long lived modern horror franchise the films were going DTV. But this looks and feels like a smaller budget theater released film.

Set in a asylum this movie gives us a kind of origin for the Hillickers. The 3 crazy inbred hillbillies from West Virginia.  I enjoyed the first 3 films. 

At the start we meet the three brothers,Three Finger,One Eye and Sawtooth. Malformed thanks to inbreeding they are locked up in a pretty brutal looking mental hospital. Guessing this is the 70s.

Thanks to a bobbie pin the three brothers get loose from their cell. They first attack an orderly and the slaughter continues for pretty much about an hour and a half.

After this flashback to the 70s the film skips ahead to 2003. And a bunch of college age kids are lost on  their snowmobiles. It is night and a blizzard is hitting.So they go seek refuge in the old abandoned nut house. But the Hillickers are there so we get plenty of hillbilly hellish hijinx.

Film in  Bulgaria. This was the start of a planned trilogy of prequels to the original Wrong Turn. Early on during the commentary with the director it is revealed why this 4th film in the series was the start of a 3 film set of prequels. I had forgotten this but Three Finger got killed off in Part 3. So the only way to have the three brothers in a film is a prequel. And learning their history could be a great premise for a film. This film isn't that film.

I did like that this was a slasher set in winter where there is snow. Surprised more films don't go for the winter/snow setting.Sure it is a pain in the ass to deal with. But it adds something to what is otherwise a run of the mill prequel/sequel in a franchise most fans forgot about 2 entries ago.

Worth seeing if you can find the pack of the first 6 films for 10 bucks or less. Appears each of the discs in this set is the old dvd releases. So you get all the extras on the original stand alone film releases.

Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 16 Easter Bunny Massacre

 

TITLE-Easter Bunny Massacre

SOURCE-ITN DVD

As I mentioned earlier this month I have become a bit of a fan of the modern DTV horror. So looking for a Easter based horror film earlier this year I saw that cover and yea I had to see this.

Made in the UK this is a slasher. That to me at least rips most of it's plot straight from Slaughter High. A group of friends are hanging out and that night while they are sleeping one of them is killed. So they hide the body,say she ran off. 

Skip ahead a year and they get invited back to where the friend died. And they get killed off by someone wearing a Easter Bunny outfit.

Sure the acting ain't that great. And the plot is something we have seen in piles of slasher films. But there is a few inventive kills. Like one where our killer pours melted chocolate all over someone. A scene when I first saw this I thought the Easter Bunny was having diarhhea attack.

Unlike the other DTV horror I reviewed this month,this one isn't worth buying. But last time I checked Easter Bunny Massacre is streaming free on TUBI. Go give it a watch.

Easter Bunny Massacre gets a D+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 05 Leatherface(2017)

 

TITLE-Leatherface

SOURCE-Digital Copy on Vudu

First off thanks to Bat32 of Exploited Cinema and Weird World Publishing for hooking me up with the digital copy code for this film many years ago. I redeemed the code and then didn't bother watching the film for at least 2 years.

Now I love the original TCM film from 1974. And usually I end up enjoying the sequels to that film. Leatherface,and I hate how this has an almost indentical name to the third film in the franchise,is an odd piece of film from this franchise. It serves as a prequel to the original film. And it is in continuity with that film and Texas Chainsaw 3d.

After Texas Chainsaw 3d did fairly well in theaters Lionsgate quickly wanted to make another film. This prequel was supposed to be filmed in Louisiana,lots of films are made there cause the state provides film tv shows lots of tax breaks,and was gonna be an origin story for Leatherface. Instead for various reasons the film was made in Bulgaria. And cause of how long it took to be made the studio lost the rights to make future films in the series.

So how is the movie? Imagine if Natural Born Killers and the original TCM had a kid. But this kid got mostly the bad shit from each parent. After a start where we see Leatherface's family fighting  off some people we skip to a mental hospital. Where we know that the teen that will become Leatherface is. All the patients at this hospital are renamed. A young nurse is falling in love with a patient. Leatherface's mother shows up and is denied the right to see her son. She starts a riot and in this a few of the patients escape.

You go the young nurse,who is held hostage. A tall silent hulking guy. Who you look at and think that has to be Leatherface. And Jackson the guy the nurse was falling for. A fairly nice looking dude. Along with others from the hospital they all go on the run.

The cops are after them. And the cops quickly learn that Leatherface is one of the patients that escaped. Of course we are all thinking that Bud,the tall silent guy,is Leatherface. NOPE. There's a twist. Bud dies and Jackson gets a nasty face injury. Which isn't taken proper care of. And boom this is who becomes Leatherface.

Now until this movie I had always been able to see each TCM movie in a theater. Saw the original at a drive in when I was young in the mid 70s. Saw the unrated 2nd film at a theater thanks to one of my favorite uncles. I even saw the horrid part 4 ,sure I had to drive from near Houston TX to Austin to do this.  Sadly Leatherface got such a limited theatrical release there was no way I could see it in a theater.

While the gore in this is pretty good,the story is shit. I feels more like a cops chasing the evil killers movie than a TCM film.  And if Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation didn't exist this would be the worst film in the franchise. 

From what I can find this film was a huge bomb. And so disliked that it cause the next film in the series,which came out years later,to be another reboot of the series continutity.

Leatherface gets a D-

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 04 Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

 

TITLE-Texas Chainsaw Massacre(2022)

SOURCE-Netflix 

Yea figured yall would have to know I would review this one this October. The Chainsaw franchise has been a part of my life close to 45 years now. I heard sometime in 2021 that the newest TCM,which was filmed in Bulgaria in late summer 2020,was going straight to Netflix I was a bit worried. Before this entry the other two entries that got limited theatrical releases,Next Gen and Leatherface,are the two worst films in this franchise. But it is a chainsaw film and I must see every film in the series.

And a quick nitpick about this movie. How many fucking movies will we end up having in this franchise that are titled Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Sure I know the other two with a similar title do have the word THE at the front,and this one doesn't. But really who the hell calls the 1974 film THE Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Or the 2003 remake. 

Somehow I lost track of what day of the week it was. I got up thinking it was a Thursday,headed out to the living room and boom there was the new TCM playing on the living room TV. I quickly exited the room. Ate a fast breakfast in the kitchen. Then went to my room armed with a drink and a bowl of popcorn to sit back and hopefully enjoy a new adventure with Leatherface.

I did somewhat enjoy it. But also until today I didn't bother watching it again. The only times this has happened before was once again with Next Gen and Leatherface. But with TCM 2022 I can say that it is better than both of those films. Just for all it gets right,there is enough flaws that take away from the good stuff.

The plot ...set in the modern day a group of Influencers buy a small Texas town. This town is where the Leatherface house is. And he ain't happy with all these annoying young people running around. Then Sally from the original film returns and her and 2 of the influencers fight off Leatherface.

See it doesn't sound that bad. Add in it has decent gore and it appears to be a good TCM film. 

The flaws. The Leatherface mask in this film is horrible. I like how in most of the other films his mask looks like a patchwork flesh mask. In this film the mask appears to be one single piece of flesh. And it doesn't look like flesh. It looks like a latex or rubber mask. 

Another flaw is this is suppose to be a direct sequel to the original film from 1974. Anyone that has seen the original knows the home of the Family is way way way far from any town. In this movie the family home is right there by the town???? Now sure maybe in the almost 50 years since the orignal  happened a town might have grown in that area. 

Then the biggest flaw. The two female leads,two of the influencers,plus the actress they got to play Sally are HORRIBLE. Yea I know Marylyn Burns has passed. But they could have gotten someone that can act to play Sally. The other two,I just didn't give a fuck about them. So about halfway through the film I was cheering on Leatherface to kill them.

The good stuff in the film is mostly the gore and FX. I'm betting lots of it was practical FX work mixed with some CGI. The actor they got to play Leatherface is pretty good. He is tall and massive. Which is two things an actor must have to be a good Leatherface. 

Now my feelings on it might change after I watch it a few more times. But as of right now,after seeing it two times,I will put it above TCM part 4(next gen) and TCM Part 8 aka Leatherface. But belong every other TCM film.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022) gets a C+