31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 02 Visitors of the Night(1995)

 

TITLE-Visitors of the Night

SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

Back at the start of the year I was in the downtown area and needed to pass 30 minutes waiting on someone. There is a nearby pawn shop I hit up sometimes for DVDs/Blu Rays. The owner knows I buy in bulk so usually cuts me a good deal. I was looking through the shelves,saw the above cover and threw the dvd into the buy pile. How could I pass up a film with not only Candace Cameron but also Markie Post?

The plot,well it is your normal made for TV alien abduction plot. Candace throws a party one night while grounded. She is taking the trash out and blacks out. When she gets back to her house it is early the next morning and she has lost track of time. Before this happens though we see Markie Post having odd dreams with a young girl and lots of lights. 

The cast of either 80s/early 90s tv stars or Canadian talent is what makes this stand out. First up is Markie Post.

Markie is a single mom trying to raise her bratty as fuck teenage daughter. This film was made a few years after Markie's big role on Night Court had happened. I think maybe this was around the time she was doing Hearts on Fire with John Ritter. Ms Post is pretty good as the lead in this. But she also isn't given a hard role to do.

Candace Cameron,now Candace Cameron Bure, appears to have done this film not long after Full House had it's final season. She shows way more range than she did on Full House. But could be replaced by any actress from the era and the film wouldn't suffer much.

Canadian actor Stephen McHattie doesn't have a huge role,he is Candace's father. But he is good in what little he is given.I'm guessing most people will know McHattie from his role as the original Night Owl in Watchmen.

Melyssa Ade does great as Candace's best friend. I kept thinking I knew Ade from something. Then looked her up once the film was over. She was in Jason X. Another film with a big amount of Canadian actors/actresses.

When I grabbed this dvd I figured it would be some cheesy film that I watch once and then forget about. The night I put it on my plan was see maybe 30 minutes then doze off. But ended up watching the entire film that night. And before today have watched it 2 more times.

The DVD is OOP and I doubt this is hitting Blu Ray anytime soon,if it ever does. But the DVD isn't hard to find cheap. And the entire film is up on Youtube. So if you are in to alien abduction films give this a watch.

Visitors of the Night gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 01 Fantasy Island (2020)

 

TITLE-Fantasy Island

SOURCE-Starz Channel Airing off the DVR

Back on Valentine's Day 2020 Blumhouse released their Fantasy Island film. Taking the old tv show and making it into a horror film was an idea I liked. We planned on going. We are both huge horror fans and have spent a few Valentines Days at the theater enjoying a new horror film. But something happened and we just never went to see it.

Skip ahead to 2021. I had been building up a nice selection of horror films I had never seen on the DVR. Remembering how much we wanted to see Fantasy Island when it was in theaters I popped some popcorn. Turned off the cell phones and sat down to watch it.

The cast ain't bad. Michael Pena I knew from stuff like The Shield and Eastbound and Down. He is good as Mr Roarke. Maggie Q,took me a few minutes to realize it was her,does well in her part as the older businesswoman. Then the only other member of the cast I knew was Lucy Hale. And that was just because she was the lead on CW's short lived Katy Keene series.

Like the old show,which I tried to watch each week as a kid,a handful of people arrive at the island by plane and are told their wildest fantasies will come true. For most of the main cast this is simple nice stuff. But Lucy Hale wants to torture the woman that bullied her back in school. And the film starts to take a very dark twist.

The FX work ain't bad. I wish more of it was practical work. But the CGI that is used looks decent. While none of the cast are big names they all did great. With Jimmy O. Yang being a stand out. Before this I had just seen him in bit parts in film and tv and he was decent. In this film he is the stand out.

I see that the film got bad reviews but made almost 7 times it's budget at the box office. Now I wouldn't saw Fantasy Island was an amazing film. But for mainstream horror it was pretty decent. Worth catching on say Netflix or Hulu.

Fantasy Island gets a C+

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