31 Days of Horror Day 11 Petey Wheatstraw the devil's son in law

Petey Wheatstraw the Devil's Son in Law
1977
Xenon Pictures DVD

I thought I had seen all the Rudy Ray Moore films. Then back in the fall of 2007 local rapper Squid-Key told me about Petey Wheatstraw. "Since you love horror and comedy you will love this film." About a year after that I found it at Walmart in a pack with "The Black Godfather" for $7.50.  Well Petey was worth that money.

Petey was born in the middle of a hurricane. And he looks to be 12 when he is born. As he grows up he becomes super famous and a duo of comedians get jealous. So they put a hit out on Petey. Petey dies and goes to hell. But Satan allows him to come back to Earth.But he has to marry the devil's ugly daughter.

Petey is sent back to Earth.Armed with a magic pimp cane. And we get all kinds of wacky hyjinx.With the rest of the film has Petey trying to figure out how to out smart the devil.

My major complaint about the dvd is the back of the case lists all kinds of extras.And none of them are on the dvd. All we get is the film and the barely over an hour documentary "The Legend of Dolemite".

Petey Wheatstraw the Devil's Son in Law gets a A.

31 Days of Horror Day 10 Amityville Horror II:The Possession

Amityville Horror II:The Possession
1982
MGM DVD

Now I might have seen this years ago.Pretty sure at one time I made it a point to watch the first 5 Amityville films. But I remembered nothing about it. But after I finished reading the novel and watching the original film I was interested in seeing this "prequel". Which is supposedly inspired by the real events that happened before the Lutzs moved into the home.

An Italian family moves into the house. With Paulie from Rocky playing the Dad and Diane Franklin as the daughter. The house takes control of the eldest brother and then it gets gory and sleazy.

We get walls dripping blood.Strange noises and happenings.Then just when I think the film has hit it's peak we get this icky scene where the oldest brother starts macking on his sister,played by Diane Franklin.

Honestly I find this to be a much better film that any of the other Amityville films I have seen.

Amityville Horror II:The Possession gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 09 The Return of Skeleton Farm's Halloween Horrorshow

Doing something different today, Back in September the famed video mixtape team Skeleton Farm released the second volume in their Halloween Horrorshow series.

It is an almost hour long collection of movie trailers,cartoons,short clips from tv shows and movies. All of which have a Horror or Halloween theme to them,

The best way to describe it is like this. Imagine going to Youtube. You watch say the trailer to horror cheese classic Pieces. When it is over there is 9 videos they recommend to you. Add some nice editing and music and that is what this fun video mixdvd is all about.

Also on the DVD is a couple of classic spooky cartoons. And  a trailer. One last piece of advice stay all the way through the credits. The Return of Skeleton Farm's Halloween Horrorshow gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 08 Tales from the Crypt Demon Knight

Tales from the Crypt:Demon Knight
1995
Universal Double Feature DVD

I got introduced to Tales from the Crypt in the late 80s/early 90s. When the Russ Cochran reprints starting coming out. I loved them so opening night I had to see this film.

First time I saw this movie really no one in the cast stood out to me. But now I realized it has a great cast of genre vets. You get William Sadler as the titular Demon Knight. Billy Zane as the villain.Jada Pinkett as the co lead hero. CCH Pounder as the owner of the boarding house. Then the great Dick Miller as the loveable Uncle Willy. Also who can forget the amazing John Laroquette in a tiny cameo

Sadler has a key that is full of blood. And Zane is trying to get it from him. Sadler ends up taking refuge in Pounder's boarding house. And we get a fun siege film. Where Sadler and most of the rest of the cast try to keep Zane and his demons out of the house.

As with the comics,and tv show,we get a great blend of horror and comedy. And while it is a bit dated now,the film does have a fun soundtrack.

I really love how this ends and was hoping we would get more films about the Demon Knight.

It sucks the DVD has no extras. I would love to hear a cast and/or crew commentary. Plus I seem to remember hearing how at least 5 minutes had to be cut from the film to get an R rating.

Tales from the Crypt:Demon Knight gets an A-.

31 Days of Horror Day 07 Flying Monkeys

Flying Monkeys
2013
Sony DVD

Sometime last year I saw that this film was going to air on Syfy Channel. It looked super cheesy,but sometimes these Syfy Channel films can be fun.

Filled with allusions to The Wizard of OZ,like how the town is named Gale,this is the tale of a young lady who gets a pet monkey. Each night when the sun sets the monkey morphs into a killer flying monkey. Who looks like a first gen PS1 graphic.

Through long ass boring scenes we find out that there is only a few flying monkeys left in the world. And two vaguely Asian looking people are in charge of hunting them. We find out that if you kill a flying monkey with any weapon that isn't one of the "holy" ones,they come back to life and create a duplicate.


Now the acting isn't bad. The story is pretty good. But the horrible flying monkey effects hurt this movie so much. I expect cheesy cgi when I watch a Syfy film. But the CGI in this film are almost as bad as Birddemic.

Flying Monkeys gets a D.

31 Days of Horror Day 06 Hollow Man

Hollow Man
2000
Lionsgate 4 film DVD

This is a film I hadn't thought about in over 10 years. I saw it back when it first hit VHS. Enjoyed it and then promptly forgot about it.So it was last summer,my Aunt Midget had asked me to put together a wishlist on Amazon. I saw for $7.50 a pack with 4 films. Hollow Man,Hollow man 2,I had no idea there was a sequel,Fortress 2,which I really need to rewatch and review soon and The Harvest,which I still need to watch.

I was visiting a friend. Who doesn't have cable,so I always bring them over stacks of stuff to watch. I brought this pack over because they had mentioned how much they loved Fortress and had never seen Fortress 2.

I always thought of this film as a continuation of a trend that started in the 90s with Bram Stroker's Dracula. Where the classic Universal monsters were taken and updated for a modern audience. With Hollow Man,Paul Verhoeven took the Claude Rains classic "The Invisible Man" and made it sleazier.

Kevin Bacon is good as the titular Hollow man. And the always beautiful Elizabeth Shue makes a great heroine/final girl.The invisible FX work is great,and the rest of the cast are all good.

Bacon plays a scientist that discovers a formula that  turns whoever takes it invisible. But this also seems to cause him to go insane.

My only real complaint is the last 10 minutes. Where it seems Bacon is not only invisible but also can not die. If this had come out in the 70s it would have been the perfect second feature of a double feature at the drive in.

Hollow Man gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 05 Children of the Corn II:The Final Sacrifice

Children of the Corn II:The Final Sacrifice
1993
Echo Bridge DVD

Coming out almost 10 years after the original,this film was kind of a surprise to me. I had heard nothing about it. And was surprised when I walked into the Forts Lake Homeport video store and saw it for rent.

The surviving kids from the original are being moved into a nearby town. Terence Knox,of Tour of Duty fame,is a reporter who comes into the area to do an article on what happened. He also has his alienated teenage son with him.

I do like the quickly dropped sub-plot which tries to say that fungus on the corn is causing all the craziness. And most of the FX work is fairly well done. When the kid that replaces Issac as the corn cult leader gets possessed by He who walks behind the rows,we get treated to some now very dated looking computer FX work.

Another thing that stands out about this film is Christie Clark,who played Carrie Brady for years on Days of our Lives,has a big role.She becomes Terence's son's love interest.

The kills are all fun. With the one where the Corn Cult kids cause a house to fall on an elderly woman being the best of the bunch.

Children of the Corn II:The Final Sacrifice gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 04 Children of the Corn V:Fields of Terror

Children of the Corn V:Fields of Terror
1998
Echo Bridge DVD

I am sure I have seen this film before. But I don't remember any of it.

I do wish more of the Children of the Corn films had a tight continuity. After a really fun part 4 I was expecting another decent DTV horror. Well I didn't get what I expected. Instead I got a paint by numbers late 90s DTV Dimension film.

About the only things that stand out about this film are.A fairly young Eva Mendes in what is her first movie role. She is the best thing about the film,and made me wish she did more film work. Then you have Ahmet and Diva Zappa. Neither of whom are good actors.And finally we get David Carradine as the leader of this group of Corn Cult Kids.

The FX work is decent. But not good enough to save the bad script.

Children of the Corn V:Fields of Terror gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror Youtube movie 02

Earlier this year I was clued in on how many horror films are up on youtube. The above film is one of the classics from the silent era. And is my favorite horror film of that era. In the 60s,or maybe it was the 70s,a shorter version of Haxan was released. This version had Williams Burroughs doing commentary.

31 Days of Horror Day 03 The Amityville Horror 1979

The Amityville Horror
1979
Epix Drive in Channel Airing

I first saw this film years ago. Not sure how long ago,but I know I rented it on Betamax. Then 2 years ago I was looking at DVDs and found a pack that had this film plus the remake from the mid 2000s.

I have read the novel this is based on. And believe it is all bullshit. But figured I should see if the film is as entertaining as the novel.

The Lutzs and a new blended family. And they move into a great home in a tiny New York town.A home where the son of the previous owner had killed his family. And the home is supposedly built onto of Native American burial grounds.

I can totally see why this was a huge hit back in the late 70s. James Brolin isn't a great actor,but he is damn entertaining in this film.Margot Kidder is an actress I had always thought had very little talent. But in Amityville Horror she is really good.

Sure bits and pieces are changed from the novel. But for how cheaply I got this it is worth the cost.

The Amityville Terror gets a C+.