31 days of horror year 3 day 31 first film

Ok gonna try to get 12 films watched today. So there should be a new review every 2 hours or so. No idea if I will manage to do it. But I have 4 two liters of Mountain Dew to help make sure I don't fall asleep.

Dolly Dearest
1992
Epix3 airing

This aired this month on the fucking great channel EPIX3. This channel seems to always  be showing stuff that isn' t out on DVD. I really have no idea how many people get it but fuck it rules. Dolly Dearest ,Well I remember seeing the box cover in various video stores for years. But never rented it. But saw that it was airing,so set the DVR and then transferred it to a DVD-r.

This is about a family of four moving down to Mexico. The dad is taking over a old very well respected doll factory. And right off the bat the dad and the two kids go to visit it. Well while there the daughter finds an old doll that she falls in love with. So the dad lets her take it home. The son wanders off and discovers that there is a archeology dig happening right behind the factory. This gets his attention cause he wants to be an archaeologist when he gets older.

Well over the next few days strange things start happening. The daughter starts freaking out anytime the maid is praying. And then one night when the parents go out the doll kills the maid. Well the son the next day sneaks into the dig site and discovers it is an ancient Sanzia tomb. The Sanzia's are Mexican Satanists. Well it is easy to figure out that some kind of evil spirits have possessed the doll/dolls. And fairly quickly the dolls left at the factory start attacking various people. And what really surprised me is how well done the doll effects are done. I am assuming they used midgets in suits for some scenes. But the doll's faces are very expressive and this helps add to the atmosphere of the film.

Going in I was expecting a low budget Chucky ripoff. And what I got was  a nice medium budget spin on the Chucky films. The acting and FX work are pretty decent and there is a few decent jump scares. Dolly Dearest gets a C+.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 30 comics 05

Curse of the Weird #3

First off I love this cover. The homage to Basil Wolverton caps off what is already an eye catching cover. This issue we get a total of 4 stories. First off is "The Return of the Brain" with pencils and inks by Russ Heath Jr. The brain of  a dead Nazi scientist goes around causing mayhem. Wacky idea that works pretty well. "The Hog" is next,with pencils and inks by the legendary Joe Kubert.Good story about a guy who is a road hog. Really if it wasn't for the Kubert artwork I doubt this story would have been reprinted. But the art is up to Joe usual standards. "Till Death do us part" with pencils and inks by Vic Carrabotta is the next one. Typical husband wants to kill wife story. Sadly nothing really made this stand out,and the artwork is the normal blah stuff from this era. "Where Monsters Dwell" which is written and drawn by the great ,and sadly kinda forgotten,Basil Wolverton. Scientist make a beam that allows them access to another dimension. And it is full of monsters. Lots of great Wolverton artwork that takes what is really a below average story and raises it up a few levels. We get another few pages telling us about the history of these stories and it is a nice piece giving some much needed context. Curse of the Weird #3 gets a A.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 30

Now I have always somewhat enjoyed the various Children of the Corn films. But after part 5 I didn't bother seeing any of them. Well  good friend of mine told me to check out part 666,mainly cause it was a direct sequel to the original. But I never saw it for rental,and never saw the DVD for sale anywhere. Then earlier this month,I found a DVD set that had Children of the Corn 2,3,4,5,666 and 7. And it was priced at $5. So even though I already owned 2-5 I picked it up.

We start off with a young adult girl in her car heading for the town of Gatlin. It seems she was adopted and found out her blood parents were from Gatlin. Well she stops to pick up this old man that is hitchhiking. And he starts acting very strange. Then all of the sudden he disappears and she crashes into a cornfield. The local sheriff shows up and takes her to the local hospital.

While she is there she finds out that Isaac,who was the leader of the corn cult,is still alive. He has been in a coma since the end of the first film. But when she shows up Isaac comes out of his coma. The girl decides to stay the night and goes to the only hotel in the town.

She keeps seeing all kinds of strange hallucinations. And slowly we find out about a  prophecy that she will hook up with Isaac's son and produce the next generation of the Children of the corn. But of course there is a twist

This is ,behind part 4,the best of the Children of the Corn sequels. The acting and story are pretty good. And the kills are fun. I like how they brought back the original Isaac to the series. Children of the Corn 666:Isaac's Return gets a C+.

31 days of horror year 3 day 29 comics 04

Curse of the Weird #4

The final issue of this forgotten mini series. We start off pretty good with a great cover by Tenneyson Smith. This moody cover really stands out. The first story is the never reprinted in color and uncensored classic "Zombie". Written by Stan Lee and with Bill Everett on the art chores this a great slice of pre-code horror. It even was spun off into it's own b/w magazine by Marvel in the 70's. The dark moody artwork must have been a shock to the comic reading public back when this was first published. "The End of the World" is a nice slice of Sci fi. But it not for the great Basil Wolverton artwork it would be just your average story. "Worlds at War" has art by Jack Davis. This funny sci fi story has fun artwork from a guy mainly known for his time working on Mad magazine and his stuff at EC."There'll be some changes made" is the finaly story. And it helps end this issue and the series on a high note. We get stunning artwork from Steve Ditko,and a story that isn't completely predictable. I get the feeling that this mini didn't sell too well. Which is sad cause I would have loved more pre-code reprints of stories. But at the time people seemed more interested in buying gimick covered crap. Curse of the Weird #4 gets a A.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 29

Released in 2001,this film directed by Ernest Dickerson is a tribute to not only Blaxploitation films but Euro horror. I avoided the film,mainly cause I doubted a film with Snoop Dogg as the lead would be worth seeing. But after a bunch of friends told me how much they thought I would like it,I ended up renting it. And really enjoyed it.

Snoop stars as Jimmy Bones. Who was ,back in the 70s,a numbers runner and pot dealer. But he also made sure that his neighborhood was safe. But then his people that worked with him wanted him to start dealing coke,Snoop refused. And so they killed him. Well his ghost started to haunt his home.

We go forward about 20 years. And a group of kids from the nice part of town have just bought Bone's old house. They want to change it into a night club. But Bones comes back and starts killing off people. Bones is after the people who killed him. And we end up getting some great kills. Lots of very interesting camera angles and use of colors. Plus we get Pam Grier as Bone's now middle aged old girlfriend.

When watching the film you can see that Dickerson was inspired by lots of the 60s and 70s euro horror stuff. Mainly the various Mario Bava films. Visually the film is one of the better horror films of the decade of the 2000s. The storyline is OK,sure it has been done before. But at least it is better than lots of other films that get more praise. Bones gets a C+.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 28

Student bodies is a 1981 slasher spoof film. I had not heard about this film till sometime in high school. A guy I knew ,who knew how much I was into horror,loaned me his VHS of it. And I really enjoyed the film. Well I didn't see the film again till at least 10 years later. I saw a divx rip of the film on a torrent site. So I downloaded it and enjoyed it even more this time. So when a few weeks ago I saw that The Movie Channel was airing it,I had to record it. Turns out they aired a nice looking wide screen print.

We start off with a teenage girl who is babysitting some kids. The kids go to bed and the babysitter is waiting on her boyfriend to show up. Well the phone rings and it is someone who keeps breathing super heavy. She hangs up,but the phone rings again. She picks it up and cum starts coming outta the phone. Well she freaks out,but her boyfriend shows up. She sends him off to shower and heads to one of the bedrooms to get ready to have sex with him. Well the killer turns up and we get a great scene of him trying to figure out what weapon he wants to use. He has many many choices but ends up selecting a paperclip.

Well all through out the film we get all kinds of sight gags. Like every time someone is killed we get an onscreen counter to tell us how many people are dead. We also get some onscreen clues as to the various suspects. This film is in some ways like the Naked gun series,in that there is some many gags happening that it takes multiple viewings to see them all.

There is two things about this film that most people remember now. The first one is a short scene about half way in the film. The movie stops and we see an older man sitting behind a desk. He informs us that to get a R rating a film must have graphic violence,graphic nudity or graphic reference to the act of sex. And since it is proven that R rated movies make more money he tells us to "Fuck Off". The other thing that most people remember is Malvert. Who is the strange looking janitor of the school. He seems to be double jointed. In the credits he is said to be played by someone called The Stick. And not much is known about the Stick.

It seems that in the past 15 years we have gotten a shit pile of films spoofing horror films. But none of them are half as good as Student bodies. And just think Student Bodies was made very early on during the slasher cycle of films. Student Bodies gets a C+.

31 days of horror Year 3 TV 04

The Walking Dead Season 02 Episode 02

The show starts with Rick running through a field with Carl in his arms. He is closely followed by Shane and a fat hunter. They are heading to the house the hunter is staying in ,where someone named Hershel is suppose to  be able to get the bullet outta Carl.

Cut to a flashback,it is the day that Rick was shot. And we see Lori waiting for Carl to get out of school. Shane shows up and tells Lori what has happened. Shane says it is his fault. Then Carl comes out of the school and Lori goes and tells him that his father has been shot.

Rick and the rest make it to this house. They tell Hershel that Otis,the fat hunter guy,has sent him. Hershel takes them to a back room and has the women there get all his medical supplies. He ask what blood type Carl is. Rick tells him that him and Carl are the same blood type.So one of the ladies starts to draw some blood from Rick.

Back in the woods Lori,Glen,Daryl,Andrea and the other lady are still looking for Sophie. It will be getting dark soon,so they all agree to head back to the RV.Then the next day they will come back looking for Sophie. Lori is worried cause they heard a gunshot,and they haven't seen Rick,Carl or Shane in sometime.

Back at the RV,Dale and T-dawg are busy getting spare parts and stuff outta all the abandoned cars. Dale ask T-dawg how he is doing. T seems to ignore him,so Dale comes over and confronts him about this. Dale ask to look at T's injured arm. He sees that T has a massive infection and tells him they need to find some antibotics soon. So they start lookin through every car for any kind of antibotic they can find. T is searching in one car's glove box when he discovers a bottle of pills and what I have to assume is a joint. He lights up the joint,then happens to glance into the backseat. He sees a babyseat covered with blood,guts and what looks like brains. This freaks him out and he quickly leaves the car.

Back at the farm house Hershel is busy checking out Carl's wound. It seems the bullet has broke into 6 fragments. He manages to get one out. But he tells Rick that the rest are way deeper plus Carl has some internal bleeding. Plus he doesn't have all the equipment he needs to do what needs to be done to save Carl.Otis says that the FEMA shelter set up at a nearby high school should have everything they need. So Otis and Shane head off to get it. Rick wants to leave to go get Lori,but Hershel tells him he is gonna need to get more blood from Rick for Carl. So one of Hershel's daughters heads off to go find Lori.

Dale walks up to see T-dawg sitting in the shade by the RV. He ask if T found anything,to which T replies that he found a bottle of ibuprofren and the joint. T starts talking about how with him being the only black guy he is sure the group will abandon him soon. Dale goes to feel T's forehead and sees he is burning up with fever.  He gives T some of the pills and tells him to settle down and try to relax.

The group out in the woods is almost back to the RV,when a zombie comes outta nowhere and tackles Andrea to the ground. It looks like she is a goner,but we see someone quickly heading their way on a horse. It is Hershel's daughter who hits the zombie in the head with a baseball bat. She ask which one is Lori and explains to her what has happened. Lori jumps on the horse and is getting ready to head to the farm with her. The daughter tells the rest of them how to get to the farm using the roads. And Lori and her head off.

The rest of the group arrive back at the RV and tell T and Dale what has happened. They all decide to stay the night. They are gonna put up a big sign telling Sophie,if she shows back up there,where they are heading. The group ask Dale how T is doing. Dale tells them that without some antibotics T will die soon. Daryl surprises everyone when he goes to his motorcycle sidebag and pulls out a huge bag of various prescription bottles. It seems this is Merle's stash. He gets out some pain killers and some antibiotics. It seems Merle got the clap a bunch so he always kept some antibiotics around.

Lori gets to the farm house. Goes to see Carl. She starts asking Hershel if he has done a surgery like this before. And he tells her has kind of. Turns out Hershel is  veterinarian. He tells them that Shane and Otis need to come back as quick as they can.

Otis and Shane get to the high school. Only to see that the Fema medical trailer is surrounded by a shitpile of zombies. So Shane thinks of a quick plan. He gets some road flares out of the trunk of a cop car. So the two of them light up the flares and throw them way away from the medical trailer. This causes the zombies to head away from the trailer. So the two guys sneak into it. They find all the stuff they need and are sneaking back out. When the zombie notice them and start chasing them. Shane and Otis get cornered,and Shane uses his shotgun to blow the glass outta two locked doors. They dash inside ,and Shane pulls a secruity gate shut. And we leave the scene with the two of them trapped with only a flimsy looking gate between them and a bunch of angry zombies.

This was a great building up episode. It sets into motion the stuff so that next weeks episode will be jammed packed with action. I liked the flashback,which wasn't in the comic. Plus the ending is a perfect cliffhanger. Making it so you can't wait on next weeks episode. The Walking Dead season 02 episode 02 gets a B+.

31 days of horror year 3 TV 03

American Horror Story Season 01 Episode 03

We start off in 1983. With the hot ass redheaded maid fixing up a bed. A man comes in and starts flirting with her,but she tries to ignore his advances. He gets mad and throws her onto the bed and starts to rape her. When all of the sudden Jessica Lange walks in and catches the two of them. It seems she is in love with the man,and she pulls out a pistol and shots the maid in her right eye. Of course this kills her,then Jessica shots the man 3 times killing him. 

We cut to the mom finding out that thanks to some bad investments,the family is almost broke. And after what happened in the last episode,she wants to sell the house and move into an apartment. But the Dad informs her that they can't afford to do this.

Well the next day or so the mom is out in the front yard cutting some roses and a tour group comes by. It seems the house is one of the stops on the "Eternal Darkness tour". Which takes people around Los Angles showing them different places that people have died. Their home is nicknamed "Murder House". Well the mom decides to go on the tour to see what all the tour guide has to say about the house.

While she is gone ,the woman the father had an affair with shows up. Informing him that she is not going to abort the child. Plus she expects him to pay for her to move out to LA. Finally he agrees to meet with her the next day. Well his next patient comes in and she is so boring his mind starts to wander. He blacks out and wakes up in  the backyard. Laying on the ground and with blood on his hands. He freaks out and runs back inside ,only to see the maid on her hands and knees scrubbing up blood off the floor. She tells him she has already cleaned up his office. He goes into his office to look for the digital recorder he uses during every patients session. But it is missing ,he confronts the maid about it. She denies taking it. And like in previous episodes the maid keeps trying to get the father to fuck her. This upsets him so much he grabs a hold of her and starts to shake the shit outta her. Well this is right when the mother decides to come home and she sees this.

We then cut to the kitchen and the parents are talking about if they should fire the maid. The dad wants her gone. But the maid calmly informs them that if she is fired she will sue them.So they reluctantly keep her. Well the mother has a meeting with the realtor that sold them the house. The realtor is told that she has to sell the house and get what the family has paid for it,and she needs to all she can to sell it quickly.

Well it seems to be the next day,the mom goes off on the Eternal Darkness tour. And while she is gone the father is arguing with the maid. When someone knocks at the front door. It is a detective,who informs them that the boring patient the father saw a few days ago is missing. So now the dad really thinks he has killed the boring woman. Well the ED tour gets to the house. And we learn that the house was built by a doctor who was pretty damn insane. Him and his wife back in the 20's were preforming abortions to pay their bills. Well all of the sudden the mom looks down and the crotch of her pants have this huge blood stain. So her and the father go off to see her doctor. They are informed that nothing is wrong. But that moving is a huge source of stress and they can't chance adding that much more stress to the mom. Or she might have another miscarriage.Later on that day there is a knock at the front door,and the mom goes to answer it. It is someone claiming they are there to see the house. So Connie invites the lady in. And it is the wife of the abortion doctor that first built the house. The wife walks around pointing out various stuff to the mom. They enter the kitchen,and the mom offers the wife a cup of tea. She turns her back to put the tea in the microwave. But when she turns back the wife is gone.

The father goes off jogging and again is confronted by one of the previous owners of the house. This time the burned up man ask for 1000 bucks so he can get some headshots for his next audition. The father of course turns him down. When the dad gets back to the house,the lady he had the affair with shows up and is super pissed. She now wants to tell the mother about the kid she is pregnant with. The dad is escorting her outta the house,when the burned up man pops up and beats the lady to death with a shovel. The dad wants to go call the cops,but the burned up man informs him that this isn't a good idea. So they decide to bury her in the backyard. Well the burned up man starts digging ,and we see that the maid and Jessica Lange are watching from one of the upper windows. Once the man finishes digging he finds a body already buried there. We cut back to the window and the maid is crying. Then Jessica tells her "Well I guess now you will be stuck here forever". So I must assume that this is where Jessica buried the maid's body after she killed her. We get a montage of the dad laying cement over the area and building a gazebo. Then we cut to later on that night they are both in bed. And you see a hand touching the mom's stomach. The camera pulls back and it is the abortion doctor's wife.

This show just keeps getting better and better with each episodes. I like how we find out why in episode two Jessica told the maid "Don't make me kill you again!". Plus we get a bunch more history of the house. American Horror story episode 03 gets a A-.

31 days of horror Year 3 day 27

This was the first film from the WWE films division. And I figured it would be a total pile of shit so I avoided it for years. Then in 2008,I was on my way to work and wanted a cheap dvd to watch. Well this was in the $5 bin so I picked it up. Looked at the credits and realized that Greg Dark,who used to direct lots of porn films in the 80s,directed it.

The film stars WWE superstar Kane as Jacob Goodnight. He is a psycho who has a love for plucking out people's eyeballs. Well after a short prologue the film proper starts. A group of deliquent kids who are in juvie hall are going to help clean up a old hotel.They are being offered time off their sentances be going to help clean and fix up this old hotel. And quickly they find out that there is someone besides themselves there.

Well there is 8 kids and we get a good amount of kills. Kane makes a great slasher villain.Cause the guy is tall and very imposing. The gore effects are a ok combo of practical effects and CGI. And most of them work. The one kill that stands out the most to me is when this one annoying blonde chick is killed by Kane shoving a cellphone down her throat.

The DVD has a ok amount of extras. We get 2 commentaries. One has Kane and one of the executive producers. This isn't a bad commentary and Kane has plenty of fun stories to tell. The other one has Greg Dark and the writer Dan Madigan. This one isn't as good as the other one,but is still a fun listen. We get a making of featurette. And a shitpile of various WWE superstars talking about the film. On one of the commentaries someone mentions about wanting to do a sequel.Which I think it is a decent idea. But it has been 5 years and no sequel so far,so I doubt we will get one. See No Evil gets a B-.

31 days of horror Year 3 comics 03

Back in the 70's the comic code authority rules were relaxed and we got a new breed of horror comics. This time I will focus on the Marvel stuff.

Daimon Hellstorm,He is the son of Satan and a human woman. And from his father he has what is refered to as the darksoul. This gives him a variaty of powers. I always loved how even though he was the Son of Satan he was for a short while an exorcist and even almost became a monk at one time.The Son of Satan  first appeared in the first issue of the 70's Ghost Rider comic. Then was quickly given a short run in the Marvel Spotlight series.This run lasted 13 issues. This was popular enough that he got his own series. Titled Son of Satan it lasted for about 2 years. Once that was canceled He started appearing in the Defender's title. And was with the team for a long time. Towards the end of the Defender's he lost all his powers and retired to get married to Patsy "hellcat" Walker. For years nothing was done with Daimen. Then in the 90s Daimon was given a second solo series. This series,titled Hellstorm,while short lived was one of the most underrated titles of its era. We got 21 issues,and what is really surprising about the title is what it got away with even though it was approved by the CCA. But sadly it didn't sell well so it was canceled right in the middle of a storyline. Then  a few years later Marvel through it's MAX adult line put out a Son of Satan mini series.

First appearing in August of 1972,Johnny Blaze would be the second person to use the title of Ghost Rider in the Marvel Universe. He was a motorcycle stunt rider who sold his soul to a demon to save the life of his adopted father. And cause of this at first every night Johnny would change into the Ghost Rider and go out and fight crime. Slowly over the series this was changed and by the end Johnny could not only control when he would turn into Ghost Rider,but had was in control when he was in the Ghost Rider form. Over all the series was pretty well written. One storyline that was started but never full finished involved Ghost Rider meeting up with this stranger that kept helping him out. The original plan was for this stranger to turn out to be Jesus,but the storyline was shot down. By 1983 the sales of the Ghost Rider series were slumping,so the title was canceled. And it ended with Johnny losing the ability to become Ghost Rider. But of course Marvel revived him years later.

First appearing in Savage Tales #1 in 1971,Man-thing is Marvel's version of a swamp monster. Ted Sallis was down in Florida working on recreating the Super Solider Serum. He is attacked by a group of rogue scientiets and barely manages to escape into the Florida Everglades with the only sample he had managed to create of the SSS. He gets shot and killed and the Super Soldier serum mixes with him and something in the swamp. And Ted is reborn as Man-Thing,a creature who's touch burns anyone who is full of fear. Now for years people have called Man-Thing a Swamp Thing ripoff. But after doing some research it seems they were both created almost at the same time. Man-Thing was a great series that was full of strange trippy stories. Shit Howard the Duck first appeared in an issue of Man-thing. Sadly most of the great Man-Thing stories were all written by the late Steve Gerber. And now that Mr Gerber is dead,I doubt we will get any good Man-Thing stories.

Thanks to the comics code authority relaxing its rules on horror comics in the 70's Marvel attempted to take 3 horror archtypes. They took the Frankenstein Monster and gave him his own short lived comic. But sadly besides the great artwork by Mike Ploog the series isn't that good. Then Marvel took the werewolf and created Werewolf by Night. Which was actually a decent comic. The main star was a man cursed to become a werewolf. This series actually lasted for almost 50 issues. And is mainly remembered now cause it is where Moon Knight first appeared. Then Marvel took the vampire archtype. And created what is now remembered as one of their best series of the 70s. This was Tomb of Dracula. From 1972 till 1979 this series ran for 70 issues. Most of the run was written by Marv Wolfman and the late Gene Colon doing the artwork. What stood out to me about this series is that Dracula while evil was in someways the hero of the comic.