31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 14 Horror Hotel

 

TITLE-Horror Hotel AKA The City of the Dead

SOURCE-Cinema Insomnia on OSI 74 Streaming App

Pretty much every year for the past 10 years I've tried to watch a horror hosted film for 31 Days of Horror. Over the years I have covered the bigger known ones like Elvira and Svengoolie. And the lesser known ones like Kreepy Koffee Movie Time or Count Gore De Vol. One of the better known ones I haven't covered is Mr. Lobo of Cinema Insomnia. Cinema Insomnia started back in late July 2001. And as far as I know is still going on. I hear that Cinema Insomnia airs on various tv stations all over the US. But I have only ever watched it on either Vimeo or the OSI 74 app.

Mr. Lobo starts each episode off promising us a fairly well known horror film.But something always happens were that film can't be shown so we get a lesser known film. For this episode Mr Lobo says he is going to show us Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. But nope we end up with Horror Hotel Aka City of the Dead.

Horror Hotel is in the public domain here in the States. So shouldn't be hard to find online or on many of the various streaming apps that are loaded up with PD films,tv shows and cartoons. Made back in 1960 this film was made by British filmmakers but is set in the US. With Christopher Lee being the best known member of the cast.

The film starts back in the 1690s. Set in Massachusetts we see a witch being burned at the stake.Before she died this witch and her helper have sold their souls to Lucifer. This way they get eternal life and revenge on the town that killed them. All they have to do is sacrifice two virgins a year. On Candlemas Eve & Witches' Sabbath.

Skip ahead to present day,well present day as of when the film was released. A college prof tells one of his students to goto the town from the prologue. This student goes and ends up being the sacrifice on Candlemas Eve.

A couple of weeks later the student's fiancee and her brother head to the same town. They get there seperately. With Bill the fiancee almost dying in a car wreck. This was caused by him seeing the ghostly image of the witch from the start of the film.

Bill and the brother make it to the town. Find out that a coven lead by the witch have taken control of the town. We find out the prof ,played by Christopher Lee

,is part of this coven. And appears to have been providing the town with the needed virginal scarifices two times a year. Our two heroes manage to stop the coven and break the pact with Lucifer.

The above cover is one I remember seeing many times in video stores back in the 80s. Not sure why I never rented it. Might have been because it was b/w. Back when I was a kid and early teen I wasn't much into b/w horror films.

I had forgotten about this movie.Then earlier this week I was driving to town. Listening to one of the many Misfits CDs I keep in my car. Their song Horror Hotel came on and while singing along with it I thought "Man I really need to see that movie". Looked around online and it was easy to find. With copies being on Youtube,Internet Archive and pretty much every streaming app that has "Free Horror movies". Seeing that it is public domain I figured it would be easy to find a version with a horror host. And I've been wanting to watch more Cinema Insomnia with MR Lobo. Looked on the OSI 74 streaming app and they had the episode with Horror Hotel.

You can tell after watching this movie that Rob Zombie was inspired by this when he made Lords Of Salem. But then Lords of Salem was pretty much Rob taking his favorite parts of various Euro Horror films and making that into a damn good movie.

Horror Hotel is a pretty entertaining film. It might feel a bit slow to people use to modern horror. But it has great atomosphere. And Christopher Lee is great in this.So if you want to watch an older horror flick. And don't want to spend any money go track down a copy of Horror Hotel.

Horror Hotel gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 15 Witchcraft 16 Hollywood Coven

TITLE-Witchcraft XVI Hollywood Coven
SOURCE-TubiTV streaming service

A few years ago I learned that a company had gotten the rights to the Witchcraft franchise and was making a new film. So I waited and waited to hear more news on Witchcraft 14. Then a bombshell piece of news dropped...the new company was going to film 3 Witchcraft films back to back! FUCK YEA we are going to get 3 more subpar horror/softcore porn combo films.

So I kept checking Netflix and all the other places I rented/bought dvds from. And never saw Witchcraft 14 for sale or rent. By early 2019 I had given up on seeing these 3 new Witchcraft films. Not sure why I love this franchise so much. All the films are shit. But still for some unknown reason I feel the need to see and own every film from the series.

Earlier this year I was looking for a new horror film to watch. Looked through the selection on Netflix and Hulu and it was mostly crap. So I started looking at the free streaming services. Hoping maybe one of them might have a hidden gem. Then on TubiTV I saw Witchcraft 16 Hollywood Coven. I figured since the previous films were rarely connected I could watch 16 before seeing 14 and 15 and not be lost...I was wrong.

Witchcraft XVI Hollywood Coven is set on a low budget horror film set. A crew is making Crystal Force 12.Crystal Force was a attempt by Vista Street to make another franchise like Witchcraft. But we only got 2 Crystal Force films. But in the reality of this film Crystal Force is a long running series.

The film starts off like most of the Witchcraft films since part 10,with a pre-credits sex scene. Yep get to see some boobies and ass before we even know who is in the film. After what feels like 20 minutes of the most boring softcore sex scene I have seen the credits start. They go on FOREVER and feel like who ever created them was a huge fan of the tv shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed.

After the credits the story proper starts. A crew of people is making a low budget horror flick. And somehow by making the film they bring back the spirits of some long dead witches...WHAT THE FUCK! Witchcraft XVI is ripping off the plot of Witchcraft 11. But instead of a communtiy college production of Macbeth we get a low budget film crew making a shitty horror sequel.

Then when I thought the film couldn't be anymore shit they figure out a way to be shittier. Two of the crew members are having a date. So they go to watch Crystal Force 9. And we get footage from Witchcraft 11. And it isn't just say 30 seconds to a minute of  reused footage. Nope we get most of Witchcraft 11's pre credits sex scene. Then it skips ahead to the polterguiest attack scene from near the end of 11. To make this part of the film even more horrid it cuts back to the two crew members watching the film. And the male actor well...he is the worst actor I have seen in low budget horror. No emotion. Very little facial expressions. Plus it appears he is reading his lines off cue cards being held just off camera.

The rest of the film is 5 minutes of plot followed by 10 minute long badly shot and acted softcore sex scenes. The FX work in the non-sex scene parts is bad. I swear we did better FX work back in 92 when I got my first camcorder. Hell we had better actors.

Witchcraft XVI Hollywood Coven gets a F.

2016 Comic Challenge 176 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #05

TITLE-Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #05
PUBLISHER-Archie Comics

After a way too long wait,I love most of the new stuff coming from Archie but am getting a bit sick of the constant late shipping on over half the titles,issue 5 of the not for kids Sabrina title is out. So was it worth the wait............. Yeah it was.

Sabrina has to face the Witch's Council cause of Harvey seeing her induction into the witch group. While on trial she has to face a few tests. Which she passes so she gets declaired innocent.

But it seems Sabrina had help passing the test. Ms Porter AKA Madam Satan made sure Sabrina passed. And now has recurited Betty and Veronica from Riverdale. Yep Betty and Veronica are part of a coven with Ms Grundy in Riverdale.

And with the help of the two ladies from out of town and Ms Porter,Sabrina casts a spell that will bring Harvey Kinkle back from the grave. She gets told it will take 3 days for him to come back.

3 days later we are in the Kinkle house. Ms Kinkle is still setting a place at the dinner table for Harvey,believing since his body hasn't been found he is still alive.Mr Kinkle is sure Harvey is dead. Harvey rises from the grave and makes his way home.

Once he gets there we see that his mother might have lost touch with reality in a major way. Then in the last few pages learn that while it is Harvey's body the mind controling it is someone from Sabrina's past.

The art is fucking stunning. I love the look of the coloring,looks a bit like chalk to me.And the story is not only well written,but also well researched.  I hope there is no more huge ass delays on future issues.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina #05 gets  BUY!

31 days of Horror Year 2 Day 7

Witchcraft 13 Blood of the Chosen

York Entertainment DVD

Most horror fans have at least heard of the long running “Witchcraft” series of films. They started off as low budget B horror movies but around part 4 morphed into low budget T&A horror movies. Earlier this year when Movie Gallery was closing I found part 13 for $1. Having already seen about 7 or so of the earlier ones I figured I would pick it up. Going in I was expecting lots of nudity and lots of cheap looking gore,but I was majorly wrong. There is almost no nudity at all in this shitpile of a film. And the gore is super low rent. Will Spanner is back for the 10th or so time in this series. He has to solve the mystery of who is killing people and ripping their hearts out. I am pretty sure it is a different actor playing Will this time,but then it has been about 3 years since I saw Witchcraft 12. The acting is worse than porn film acting. The film looks to have been recorded on a old ass vhs camcorder,and is full of grain and video dropouts. Avoid this film at all cost. It isn’t even worth buying to get drunk and laugh at. Witchcraft 13 gets a F-.

House of the devil

House of the Devil is a recent film from director Ti West. A young college student has just moved into her first apartment and is trying to get enough money to cover her first months rent. She sees an advert for a babysitting job and calls the listed phone number. Turns out it is a couple that needs her to babysit on the night of a Lunar eclipse. She gets her best friend to drive her out to the house,and while she feels uneasy about taking the job. Her uneasiness is tempered by the father of the couple offering her $400,It seems they have no kid and just want her there to keep an eye on his wife's elderly mother. After the couple leaves she goes walking around the house and finds what seems to be a kid's room that has many current toys laying around. This causes her to get weirded out. Meanwhile while on her friend is driving home and stops in a local cemetery to rest and have a cig. While trying to light her cigarette she is startled by a scruffy looking man. He ask her if she is the one coming out to babysit,and when she says no. He shoots her point blank,and we get to see a nice blood and brain splatter scene. Back at the house,the young girl orders a pizza,while waiting she goes an plays a game of billiards. Finally there is a knock at the front door and it's the guy who killed her friend in the graveyard. She gives him a $20 and slams the door. Finally she sits down to eat and calm down. But after one slice she hears a strange sound upstairs and goes to investigate. But after she gets up to the third floor ,every thing gets all cloudy and she passes out. When she comes to she is in an all white dress and tied to the floor in the middle of a huge pentagram. It seems the parents and what I assume has to be their "child" are gonna sacrifice her. She manages to get one arm free and quickly gets herself free. She runs off but is confronted by the "pizza delivery" man. He shoots her in her right shoulder,but thinking quickly she slashes his throat with a knife she had managed to pick up in the kitchen. The two parents chase after her,but she manages to escape out of the house and runs down the long road. She makes it all the way to the graveyard and is confronted by the father,she uses the gun she got off pizza man and shoots herself in the head.Then we cut to a hospital room,where our heroine is laying in a bed almost completely covered with bandages. A nurse is attending to her and says "No worries you and your little one are gonna be OK." And then the credits roll. This film is one I have been hearing about for about the past 9 months all over the Internet. It is a throwback to the 80's horror films,but I also noticed a heavy 70's made for TV horror film vibe to it. It is a very very slow build,with nothing much happening until the 1 hour mark. But while in other films I would find this a major problem in this film it just works at building the tension. One thing that stood out to me is how grainy the picture was. I watched this on my decent sized LCD TV and the DVD is 16x9 anamorphic,so I assume it was supposed to look this grainy. The grain didn't really detract from the film,it actually made it feel more like something I would have rented and watched back in 1984 on the Beta max. The acting was all around pretty good. House of the Devil gets a B+.