10 Super Spooky random Horror DVDs part 3

31 Days Of Horror Day 24 Dead Men Walk

Title-Dead Men Walk
Source-Count Gore Devol's airing on Vimeo

Back right before Valentine's Day 1943 PRC,Producers Releasing Corporation,released Dead Men Walk. George Zucco plays a set of twins,Dr Lloyd Clayton and Elwyn. The Dr kills off his twin cause of the twin involvement in occult ceremonies.

But the Dr waited to long to do this. Cause his twin comes back from the dead. Elwyn comes back as some kind  of supernatural creature that murders the villagers by draining their blood. Yea I know it sounds like Elwyn is a vampire. But in the movie he is never referred to as a vampire. And seems to show none of the normal vampire weaknesses.

Dr Lloyd and his niece,Gayle,find out that Elwyn is back. And Lloyd realizes the only way for them to be safe is to kill his brother. Lloyd traps Elwyn in the library and sets it on fire. But the Dr is trapped in there. So they both die.

The cast is pretty decent.

George Zucco plays the two brothers.I now want to see more movies with him. He has this odd charisma on screen. That while he isn't a great actor,you still can't take your eyes off him.

Dwight Frye plays Zolarr. Who is Elwyn's servent. As is normal with Frye he chews up the scenery and pretty much steals every scene he is in.

Since Dead Men Walk is in the public domain it shows up on lots of DVD horror movie packs. But I watched it this time on Count Gore Devol's Vimeo channel. The Count's segments are really entertaining. I was surprised he didn't get into more of the history of this movie.

Dead Men Walk gets a C+.

10 Super Spooky random Horror DVDs part 3

31 Days of Horror Day 23 Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter

Title-Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Source-Paramount DVD

Some of y'all might have noticed I rarely mention Hammer films. Mostly cause there is so few of the classic Hammer films I enjoy. As a kid I would read about the Hammer horror films in various books and magazines,but I never saw them on TV or for rent at the video store. It wasn't until early 90s that I started seeing most of the Hammer horror films. And it didn't take long for me to figure out I am just not a big fan of Hammer's horror movies.

I had been hearing for years how Captain Kronos was the best of the Non-Lee/Cushing vampire films. So in 2004 when I found this DVD for $5 I grabbed it. Figuring I would watch it at least twice.Two times cause it has a commentary. After the first viewing I enjoyed it enough to keep it. Then after listening to the commentary I knew I was going to keep the DVD.

A village has been hit by a rash of strange deaths. People keep aging faster than normal. So Dr Marcus calls in his Army friend Captain Kronos. Kronos and his assistant Grost show up. They are professional vampire hunters. After reviewing the evidence Captain Kronos figures out it is a vampire causing the deaths. But not your normal type of vampire,this one drains youth instead of blood.

After another attack,the Captain and his hunchback sidekick head off to investigate. On their way they run into Carla,a young Gypsy woman. Carla is played by Caroline Munro. And she joins our duo in their fight against this youth draining vampire.

Our heroes learn that since this isn't your normal type of vampire the normal methods of killing a vampire will not work. So they have to figure out a way to kill this powerful creature.

From my research this movie was suppose to be the start of a new vampire franchise from  Hammer. And it is  one I wish had happened. Sadly the film didn't do that well and not long after it Hammer was having money problems.

Thankfully in 2017 Titan comics published a 4 issue Captain Kronos comic. I read the first issue and it is pretty good. Now I just gotta find a trade collecting the series.

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter gets a C+.

10 Super Spooky random Horror DVDs part 2

31 Days of Horror Day 22 Die-ner(Get It?)

Title-Die ner (Get It?)
Source-Echo Bridge 10 movie DVD set

Remember just 3 years ago? Back when the $5 DVD bin at Walmart was packed with Echo Bridge and Mill Creek Horror multipacks. Lots of these packs I would buy to see one movie. Or I would buy one when I knew I was going on a long trip and would need a few things to watch.

The pack Die Ner is on I bought cause of one film. That film is Zipperface. A fairly obscure slasher from 1991. After watching and loving Zipperface the pack got put back on my shelf. Today I needed something to watch. So I grabbed a bunch of those multipacks and picked a film at random.

Die Ner starts off with Ken entering a roadside diner out in the middle of nowhere. Ken makes small talk with the waitress,in this small talk he reveals he is a serial killer. He then kills the waitress and the cook. He is about to leave when a arguing couple comes in. So Ken poses as the cook. Thinking he can cook their food. And either kill them or wait till they leave and leave himself.

But there is a twist,anyone that dies comes back as a zombie. So we got a serial killer along with an arguing couple who have to face off against zombies in a tiny rural diner.

The film tries it's best to blend horror and comedy. And manages to work about half the time. The acting is decent. It being a DTV horror I don't expect much from the actors and I got more than I expected. The FX work is pretty decent. Looks like it is mostly practical FX work.

What I find odd is outside North America this movie goes under a different title.

Yep at least in the UK Die Ner(Get It?) is known as KFZ Kentucky Fried Zombies. No idea why. Hell I don't even think the movie is set in Kentucky. The area the diner is in looks like desert country and I don't think there is any deserts in Kentucky.

Die Ner(Get It?) gets a D+.

Super spooky 10 random horror DVDs Day 01

31 Days of Horror Day 21 Amityville Horror New Generation

Title-Amityville Horror A New Generation
Source-DVD-R

About 5 years ago I decided I wanted to see every Amityville Horror film. At the time I had seen the first 2,6,8 and the remake. I looked around online and some of the middle films in the franchise were going for way more than I wanted to pay for a DVD of a film I haven't seen. Thankfully I found a torrent that had the first 8 of the films. I burnt all the ones I didn't already own to DVD.

Amityville Horror A New Generation is the 7th film in the official Amityville Horror franchise. Going direct to video in the early fall of 1993. A pro photographer is given a creepy looking mirror from a homeless man. He brings it back to the apartment complex he lives in and weird stuff starts to happen. After a bunch of stuff our lead learns the  mirror is possessed. By the spirit of a man who killed his family on Thanksgiving Day in the Amityville house.

The FX work isn't bad. For a early 90s DTV film it is pretty decent. There is a few decent scares. With one that actually made me jump. What really saves this movie is the cast. None of the cast are household names,but 4 of them are people that most of the general public knows.

We have Julia Nickson as  Suki the love interest of our lead. She is an artist. While watching the movie I knew she looked very familiar. Then I looked her up. She is best known for playing Co-Bao in Rambo First Blood Part II. I have always thought she was a good actress. But it seems like she rarely gets a good role.

Terry O'Quinn is Detective Clark. A cop who is investigating the weird happenings at the apartment complex. O'Quinn is best known as Locke from Lost. But horror fans will remember him from the Stepfather film. He is an actor that is always good. Even in the shittest films he is worth seeing.

Pauli is played by Richard Roundtree. Sadly he isn't given much to work with in this. It would have been great to see Shaft get a bigger and better role. But he does the best with what he is given to work with.

Finally we got David Naughton as Dick Cutler. Naughton is an actor that sadly either gives it his all or sadly seems to just be there for the check. Amityville Horror A New Generation is one of the latter. The  film would have been better with Naughton in the lead. But we get some no name as the lead.

Now that I have seen all the official Amityville Horror films I can say that New Generation AKA part 7 is in the top 5 of the Amityville series. It isn't as good as parts 1 and 2. But better than most of the others.

It looks like the DVD of this is out of print. So good luck tracking down a copy. I have seen that on Daily Motion and Vimeo someone has uploaded the unrated version. Yep this is one of those 90s horror films that has a R rated and Unrated version. My copy is the Unrated version. And I don't seem much in it that would go past a R rating. But from my research lots of 90s horror films ,especially DTV movies,will keep a few scenes out of the R rated cut. Thinking that when people see a film is released unrated they will be more inclined to rent it.

Amityville Horror A New Generation gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 20 I Know What You Did Last Summer

Title-I Know What You Did Last Summer
Source-Sony Pictures Triple Feature DVD

Roughly 21 years ago the first film in the I Know What You Did Last Summer was released. Not sure why but I never saw it. At the time I was seeing most horror films that got a major theatrical release.  But somehow I didn't see it until today.Sometime in late 2017 I found a triple feature DVD set at Dollar General. It was all 3 IKWYDLS movies and only cost 7 bucks. My plan at the time was to cover all 3 films in 2017's 31 Days of Horror. Then I just never got around to watching them,

After having breakfast today I wanted a horror movie I had never seen to watch. I like slashers and saw this triple feature pack sitting on my shelf. When I started the movie I only knew a few things about it. One was that it is based on a novel from the 70s.Secondly it was based on a script by Kevin Williamson. Back when he was still hot off Scream. Thirdly was the cast was a decent mixture of young stars that were just starting to get known. And finally that the killer used a giant hook to kill people.

Let's take a look at the cast. We got Jennifer Love Hewitt as the lead.

This was back when she was mega popular cause of Party of Five.Before this I had only seen her in comedies and she is good at comedy. But this movie showed me she can do drama also. And seems to have all the skills she needed to become a modern Scream Queen. Sadly as of this writing she has only done the two IKWYDLS films and no other horror films.

 Freddie Prinze Jr is the male lead. I have never found him to be a great actor. But he is much better in this film than he has been in the other films I have seen him in.

 Sarah Michelle Geller,and this was months before Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show started,is decent as the prom queen archtype.Now I have said many times that on the show Buffy I loved pretty much everybody but Sarah Michelle Gellar. I was shocked that she was damn good in I Know What You Did Last Summer. She is great playing the self absorbed rich girl.

Ryan Phillippe is great as the rich asshole kid. You know the type. The kid that got a sports car the day he turned 15. The kid that was a dick but cause he had money people were friends with him.

That is our main four, but there are two others that stand out to me.

Up first is Johnny Galecki.Before this I just knew Johnny as the guy that always plays nerds and wimps. He was David on Roseanne,the nerd of Big Bang Theory and the son in Xmas Vacation. I was a bit shocked at how well he is at playing against type in this movie. You believe that he is a tough guy. And don't think of the wimps he normally plays.

Bridgette Wilson plays the older sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar. I do wonder why a actress with the talent Ms Wilson has why she doesn't do more movies. Hell I bet if you asked 10 people maybe 2 of them tops would even know who Bridgette Wilson is.

The  plot is fairly simple. Our 4 leads are out partying on 4th of July 1996. Freddie ends up driving Ryan's car. Because Ryan is shitfaced. They are going down a twisting road right by the ocean. Ryan is standing up halfway out the sunroof. And they end up hitting someone who appears out of nowhere. They decide to toss the body into the ocean.But right before they do this they find out the person is still alive.


Skip ahead a year. Jennifer Love Hewitt is home from college for the summer. And she receives a note that says I Know What You Did Last Summer. So she gathers the other 3 and they try to figure out who sent the note and why.

So while the movie is a slasher it is also a mystery. After going  thru a few red herrings we finally get the reveal on who the killer is.  Now I have seen piles of horror movies and read bunches of horror novels. And I didn't manage to guess who the killer is. And of course the final scene sets up the sequel.

I am shocked at how much I enjoyed the movie. I figured going into it I was gonna get a Scream ripoff. And the best part of the film would be seeing JLH in tight tops,and seeing her in tight tops is a nice added bonus of the movie. So I was majorly surprised at how well written and acted the movie is. It is almost as good as the original Scream.

The DVD has a few extras. The best of which is a commentary. Which is packed with info. This triple feature set has each film on  it's own DVD. I am guessing this is just a repacking of unsold copies of original releases.  I might before the month is over watch at least the second film. From what I have read the third film is barely related to the first 2 and was made years after them and went DTV.

I Know What You Did Last Summer gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 19 Decoys

Title-Decoys
Source-Sony Double Feature DVD

Back in 2008 or 2009 I was trying to find something to watch. Saw that SciFi Channel was airing something called Decoys. It looked like a Invasion of the Body Snatchers style sci fi horror hybrid so I turned it on.

After a few minutes I realized that the movie was gonna be heavily cut on Sci Fi. Cause I kept seeing lots of jarring cuts happening. Then the gorgeous Kim Poirier came on the screen.

I knew I had seen her in something before this but had no clue. Once the movie was over I went and looked up Ms Poirier up on IMDB. Turns out she played the semi slutty blonde in the Dawn of the Dead remake. And Decoys was her second movie,with American Psycho II being her first and Dawn of the Dead remake being her third.

After finishing the movie I saw that the sequel was airing next.But I now wanted to see both of them uncut. Checked Netflix and they didn't have either film for disc rental. The one video store we had left in town didn't have them for rent. And when I would search for them on Dish Network they only seemed to air on channels that would edit them. So I gave up on seeing the movie uncut.

Skip ahead to this past summer. A friend had realized she never watched any of the hundred or so DVDs she owned. She told me to come over and see if she had anything I wanted. I started digging and saw the DVD that had both Decoys films. And after almost a decade I finally got to see Decoys uncut.

The film's plot is pretty simple. A bunch of dopey guys learn that there is an alien invasion. These aliens look human but got piles of tentacles on the inside. Plus they seem to get sexually aroused by cold. And besides the language the only part cut out of the Sci Fi Channel airings was a short scene,that gets repeated a few times through out the film,were Kim Poirier and the other lady get naked. While it was nice to see Ms Poirier naked it didn't make the movie any better. We get a plot that has been done 100s of times before this. The acting is OK at best. Looking at the cast looks like most of them are Canadian TV actors. The FX work,which is mostly CGI,is ok. It is at the level you expect from a DTV early 2000s film.

Decoys gets a D+.