31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 16 Splatter Farm(DVD edition)

Title-Splatter Farm
Source-Camp Motion Picutres DVD

After having heard about this movie for years I finally saw it a few years back. An Aunt got me the dvd for x-mas. Didn't realize until I watched it with the director's commentary that the DVD version is missing scenes that were in the hard to find VHS release. The Polinia Brothers claim the VHS release was a rough cut. Plus they didn't have permission of some of the people in the cut scenes.

Shot on VHS back in the late 80s,Splatter Farm was a film that I heard so much talk about when I doubt most of my friends had even seen it. Released by Donna Michelle video the vhs was hard to find back then and now if you do find a copy it cost close to 100 bucks for the vhs.

As far as the DVD it is easy to get cheap. And loaded down with more than enough extras to make up for getting a slightly different edit of the film. Not only is there the previously mentioned directors commentary. But also right at an hour of their short films,which have an optional director's commentary. And a featurette where the two brothers travel back to where they filmed Splatter Farm.

The movie...well it is OK for what it is. Which is a low budget shoot on video movie that was made by two brothers in their teens with an off the shelf VHS camcorder. Some of the gore effects are pretty good. And it is barely over an hour long.

Splatter Farm(DVD edition) gets an C+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 15 Thir13en Ghosts

Title-Thir13en Ghosts
Source-Warner Brothers DVD

While the original William Castle 13 Ghosts isn't a great film,it is one that is well remembered cause of it's interesting Ghost viewer gimmick. So when I heard it was being remade I got curious. Sadly there was no Ghost Viewers handed out when you saw this remake in a theater.

Tony Shalhoub is a widowed father. Who is having money troubles,but somehow is still able to afford a live in nanny. He is told his uncle has passed and left him a house. So Tony and his family head to this house.

When they get there they find out the house was made to house 13 ghosts. There is 12 in there already. And by the end of the night one more will be added.

This film looks great. The FX work by the KNB studios is well done. The acting is hit or miss. Shaloub does a decent job with what appears to be a kind of crappy script. But Shannon Elizabeth as his daughter is horrible.

Another thing is I wish they had given us more details about the 12 ghosts. Sadly this isn't in the film. But there is an extra feature on the DVD that gives you plenty of history on each ghost.

Thir13en Ghosts gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 14 Audition

Title-Audition
Source-Ventura DVD

A few years back when I was doing a weekly podcast one of the main co-hosts and I planned on doing a month of Takashi Miike films.We covered Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q. But it stalled out after that. So while I had a copy of Audition I didn't watch it.And now after watching it I can say that Miike rarely makes a film I like.

An older gentleman is lonely. So to help him find a new lady his friends get him to host a fake audition for a movie. He meets this one lady that he hits it off with. But something about her seems to be a bit off. And by the end of the film he learns what is off about her.

Where as Ichi was packed full of 5 minute outbursts of amazing violence followed by 20 minutes or so of boring crap,Audition is mostly boring build up to the last 20 minutes or so of the film.

I get why this film has a big following. But for me it is a case of to little way too late.

Audition gets a D-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 13 Lords of Salem

Title-Lords of Salem
Source-Anchor Bay DVD

Sherri Moon Zombie is a recovering drug addict and a radio DJ. She gets a mysterious package in. In it is an album. After playing the album shit starts to get weird.

This was Rob Zombie's 5th live action film. Which never played anywhere near me so I had to wait on it to hit DVD to see it.It was worth the wait.

The story,which is hard as fuck to figure out,means very little in this film. Inspired by lots of 70s Euro-horror this is a film all about the visuals. Sure there is a story,but it is the visuals that you should be paying attention too.

It shows that Zombie is a big Euro-horror fan. While watching it I was constantly thinking "OK here is his Argento shot,look now it is a Fulci shot. Wait was that a Matei shot?" And I have notice the people that didn't like this film usually are not fans of Euro-horror.

Lords of Salem gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 12 Shock'em Dead

Title-Shock'Em Dead
Source-Academy Entertainment VHS

I grabbed this VHS cause I knew the film wasn't out on DVD and I doubted it would hit Blu Ray.Then about a week at the most after I bought the VHS I see that a Blu Ray was getting released. Oh well the tape cost me 50 cents.

Angel is the nerdy guitar player for the band Spastic Kolon. He can't ever get a girl. Then he meets up with the Devil and gets offered a deal. All he has to do is give the Devil his soul and he will become a rock God.

So of course he takes the deal. Then finds out that once he is back on Earth he has to kill someone fairly often to stay alive. Between this and his issues with his old bandmates Angel has his hands full.

Before grabbing this VHS I hadn't seen this movie since it hit VHS in the early 90s. Back then I rented it cause of Traci Lords. This was not long after she left the adult film industry. And as part of her trying to change her image she refused to do any nudity. Doesn't matter there is piles of other women in the film willing to do nudity.

Shock'Em Dead gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 11 Silent Night Deadly Night 3 Better Watch Out!

Title-Silent Night Deadly Night 3 Better Watch Out !
Source-IVE VHS

This is the last of the Silent Night Deadly Night franchise to have any connection to the previous films.Ricky survived being shot in the last film. Now he is played by Bill Mosley and has what appears to be a clear plastic salad bowl on his head. But Ricky is in a coma. So is doctor brings in a blind psychic woman. And somehow her presence causes Ricky to come out of his coma.

After a great first film,and a dumb but fun second film,part 3 is a major letdown. It isn't so stupid it is entertaining like part 2. It isn't near as sleazy as the original. The only thing that makes this movie stand out at all is the cast. Besides Bill Mosley as Ricky,you got Robert Culp as a cop. Plus a young Laura Harring in what I think is her first major acting role.

Silent Night Deadly Night 3 Better Watch Out! gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 10 Prom Night 3 The Last Kiss

Title-Prom Night III The Last Kiss
Source-IVE VHS

Sure I own this on DVD,got the pack with parts 3 and 4. But the version of 3 on that pack is the edited for TV version. As far as I know the only way to get Prom Night III unedited is either the above pictured VHS or you will have to track down the hard as hell to find Australian released DVD.

I was surprised to see that this film is actually connected to the second film. Which is a bit odd since part 2 had almost nothing to do with the original.

The film starts off with Mary Lou escaping hell. She goes back to her old high school. And uses her good looks to get a dumb teen to help he hide all the bodies. And there is plenty of bodies cause Mary Lou keeps killing people.

It is obvious that whoever wrote this movie was a fan of the Elm Street series. Like Freddy after part 3,Mary Lou makes horrible jokes after each kill. And the entire film has this dream like feel to it.

So is it worth tracking down the VHS to see this movie the way it was meant to be seen?I saw yes. This is the second best of the Prom Night franchise,with only part 2 being better. Just go in expecting a horror/comedy and you are good.

Prom Night III the Last Kiss gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 09 Bone Chillers Art Intimidates Life

Title-Bone Chillers Art Intimidates Life
Source-Buena Vista Home Video  VHS

This is the other Bone Chillers VHS I mentioned a few days ago. Like the previous VHS  it has 2 full episodes of this short lived and forgotten show.

Art Intimidates Life is the first episode of the series.After quickly setting up the premise of the series it gets right to the plot of this episode.Something has happened and whatever anyone draws comes to life. Which isn't a good thing when you have a student that loves to draw horrible monsters.

Up next is Mummy Dearest. Which is the fifth episode of the series. During the school play our 4 leads have to fight off a mummy. There is some decent makeup FX done on the mummy.

Overall this tape is decent. It isn't as good as the other I reviewed days ago. But still if you find it cheap it is worth grabbing.

Bone Chillers Art Intimidates Life gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 08 Misery

Title-Misery
Source-New Line Home Video VHS

When I hear people talking about how there was no good horror coming out in the 90s until Scream,Misery is one of the first films I mention. Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her role as Annie Wilkes.

Months back I found a semi local store that still has a huge amount of VHS. Most of it seems to come from a few of the now closed local video stores.Plus it seems like I am the only person that comes in looking for VHS. I was trying to kill some time while waiting on someone,so went into the store just figuring I would look around for 20 minutes find nothing and leave. But fairly quick I saw that they must have restocked their VHS shelves. So that 20 minutes of looking around turned into about an hour of digging thru boxes and looking all over shelves for VHS.I had thankfully brought my laptop with me that day. So I went and grabbed it.Pulled up my list of all the movies/tv shows/etc I own and discovered I didn't own Misery. With the cheap prices the store wants for VHS I grabbed it.

Based on one of Stephen Kings best novels,Misery is the story of a writer and his number 1 fan.James Caan plays Paul. A writer who feels trapped. He has a series of best selling romance novels. But he is tired of that genre and wants to branch out. As is his tradition he goes way up in the mountains when he is writing the first draft of a new novel. He finishes the novel and is on his way back to his home when his car goes flying off the road.

When he wakes up he is in a bed. Seems Anne Wilkes,his NUMBER 1 FAN,found him. And  has him at her home until the snow clears enough for her to take him to a doctor.Thankfully she is a nurse so can help him heal.

She ends up reading his newest novel and reacts badly when the lead,Misery,dies. And this is when her evil side comes out. The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse game between our two leads. How far will Anne go to make sure Misery isn't dead? And will Paul ever be able to escape this lunatic's home?

This is one of the movies based on King's novels were I saw the movie first. Really there is only two major changes between the novel and the film. In the novel there is full chapters of the Misery romance novel. Having never read much of that genre I have no idea how well King goes about capturing the feel. To me it read like I expected a romance novel to read. THen the other change. In the film to make sure Paul can't escape,Anne takes a sledgehammer and smashes Paul's ankle in. Were as in the book I am pretty sure she cuts one of his feet off, Then uses a hot iron to cauterize the wound.

Misery is a damn good film. Caan should have been nominated for a best actor Oscar. And in my eyes the film should have gotten nominated also.The look of the film is bleak. It so perfectly captures the feel of being snowed in that even when I watch this during the summer I feel a bit cold.This is also one of the few King films that non-horror fans seem to enjoy.

Misery gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 07 Bone Chillers Back to School

Title-Bone Chillers Back to School
Source-      VHS

This was a short lived TV series. Airing on ABC Saturday mornings for only one season. At the time I didn't watch it,thinking it was gonna be a bad rip off of the Goosebumps TV show. Years later once I learned that Linda Cardellini was one of the main stars,plus that the show was based on a series of novels,I decided to try to find some episodes.

I searched for years and never saw any rips floating around. After having given up on seeing this show,I was in a junkstore a few towns over from where I live. It was spring and this place had no A/C. The bottom floor was hot,but I took the chance and went up into the upper story. Where it felt like standing in front of a roaring fire. But up there I found the above pictured VHS,another VHS of Bone Chillers,plus 2 WWE VHS. IIRC I paid a buck for each tape.

So enough blabbering on to the review. The series is set at Edgar Allen Poe High. And Linda is one of the four leads. All of whom are freshmen.This tape has episodes 2 and 3 on it.

Episode 2 is titled Teacher Creature. It is based on book 6 of the series. A new teacher at school gets turned into a frog monster after accidentally eating some toxic frog eggs.

Episode 3,Back to School,is the better of the two episodes.This one is based on book 3. Fitz is tired of the horrible cafeteria food. So stops eating it.Then once all his friends start to love the food he knows something is wrong.

From watching these 2 episodes I saw that the show isn't that much like Goosebumps. Sure they are both horror tv shows aimed at pre-teens.But unlike Goosebumps,which was an anthology show,Bone Chillers has the same cast and every episodes is set around Edgar Allen Poe High.

After getting this and another Bone Chillers tape I went looking to see if there was anymore. There is one more that I don't have. Sadly it seems to be a bit more hard to find than these two. Used copies of the two I found sell for 3 or 4 bucks. The one I am missing starts at 15 bucks and sometimes hits as high as 30 bucks.

If anyone knows where to get the rest of the episodes please let me know. If whoever owns this series is reading this,PLEASE RELEASE THIS ON DVD!

Bone Chillers Back to School gets a B+