31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 24 Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood

 

TITLE_Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood

SOURCE-Paramount Blu Ray

Coming out back in 1988 this film was actually filmed in fall/winter 1987 near Mobile Alabama. I wish I had known they were filming  in that area,cause back then I lived about 15 minutes outside Mobile right across the state line in Forts Lake MS.

Starting off as a planned Jason vs Freddy movie,which couldn't happen cause the two studios that owned Jason and Freddy couldn't agree on many issues. Instead we got Jason vs Carrie. Yea it ain't actually Carrie but Lar Park Lincoln plays a lady in this movie that is pretty much Carrie.

As a young child Tina tries to get away from her drunk abusive father. She takes a boat out on Crystal Lake and her being so upset triggers her Telekentic powers. And Tina uses these powers to collapse the pier her father is on.

Skip ahead a bit and  now Tina is a teen. She has all kinds of mental issues caused by her accidentally killing her father. Her mother brings her back to Crystal Lake,cause Tina's shrink thinks this will help her. But we learn that the doctor wants to use Tina's powers for his own gain.

After a very upsetting session with her doctor Tina is pissed. She runs out to the lake and using her powers she managed to awaken and free Jason. Who in part 6 was trapped chained to a large rock at the bottom of Crystal Lake.

Right next to the house Tina and her mom and doctor are staying in is a house full of teens. Who are there to celebrate a friend's birthday. And it being  an 80s slasher film you got your normal teen tropes. Like the rich blonde bitchy girl. And your mousey brunette in glasses who gets a make over and is suddenly pretty. Am I the only one that thought the mousey brunette looked like the taller Chipette from Alvin and the Chipmonks?

So we got Jason free from the lake. A bunch of teens partying,having sex and smoking pot. And a mentally damaged TK powered teen girl. Sounds like we are gonna get a damn good film. Sadly we didn't.

First off gonna mention the things this film gets right. The cast is pretty damn good. Lar Park Lincoln is damn good as Tina, and for the early parts of the film where Tina  is a young child they got the same actress who played Leatherface's daugher in TCM III. Elizabeth Kaitan is Robin. I had seen her in so many horror/sci fi/cult movies and she is great in this movie.Diana Barrows plays the Chipette looking nerdy chick and you really believe she is the character she is playing.

Then there is the biggest addtion to this cast. Jason is played for the first time by Kane Hodder. Kane was at the time  a stunt man. And to most Friday fans their favorite actor to play Jason  is Kane. And I will agree he brought so much to the character. Parrt of that I think is cause the other people who played Jason were stuntmen and not actors. Kane is an actor who is also a stuntman. Also many fans love how Jason  looks in this film and I will agree he does have a great look.

So as you can see it isn't the cast as why this is one of my lesser loved Jason films. The biggest issue to me is how cut this movie is. By the time of this movie the MPAA had a boner for the Jason films. And this film was sent back to the MPAA many many times to try to get that R rating. For example the famous sleeping bag kill. In the uncut workprint of this movie Jason slams the sleeping bag many many times into the tree. In the R rated cut he slams it into the tree one time. Which to me makes the scene more brutal. And all the kills in this movie got majorly cut down. 

Worst part is it appears that either Paramont has lost the stuff that got cut. Or they just don't give a fuck and haven't bothered to look for it. Cause even with Friday 7 getting many many home video  releases,hell I have owned it 3 times on DVD and two times now on Blu Ray,the only copy of the original cut of the film  tha exists is a rough rough 2nd generation VHS looking Workprint.

Thinking about it this has to be my least favorite of the franchise. I know it is the one I have seen the least amount  of times. Usually watch it if I am marathoning the entire run. 

I chose to watch it today cause I hadn't seen it in years.PLus the last week or so at night when I lay down to goto sleep I would put on the Blu Ray of Crystal Lake Memories. And hearing the cast and crew talking  about  how much fun  they had making this film got me into the mood to watch it again.

Friday the 13th Part 7 The New Blood gets a C-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 23 Deadly Friend

 

TITLE-Deadly Friend

SOURCE-Warner Brothers DVD

Oh man the kind of forgotten 80s Wes Craven film. The story about the making of this film is almost more entertaining than  the actual film.

Originally conceived as a Sci Fi film. And filmed with that in mind. Then a horrible response from a test audience,who wanted more gore and violence since the film was from Wes Craven not long after Nightmare on Elm Street was a huge hit. So reshoots happened and we got the muddled mess of a film we got.

But back in October of 86 when this came out I knew none of the above. Just new it was  a new horror film from Craven and I had to see it. After seeing it I was a bit disappointed. And just kind of forgot about the film until the early 2000s. When I was trying to watch every film Craven directed. On more viewings I started to enjoy the film more. 

Paul and his mom just moved to a new town. He is a teen genius and quickly becomes friends with the neighborhhood paperboy and the cute teen girl next door. Samantha is played by Kristy Swanson,back when she was  mostly known for Flowers in the Attic,and Samantha's father is a horrible abusive  drunk.

Paul has built a robot named BB. Who sometimes shows signs of having AI. The robot gets destroyed and while drunk Samantha's father accidently kills her. So Paul puts his robot's mainframe into Sam's body. And she comes back  but now has super human strength and kills.

Even people that haven't seen this film know the infamous gif from it. In this gif Samantha uses a basketball to kill Anne Ramsey.  The head explosion when the basketball hits is great. Back in 2000 Swanson told Maxim in an interview that the fake head of Anne Ramsey that was destroyed by the basketball was filled with legit cow brains. That might be why that one scene looks so real. It really stands out in this film. A movie that really with some tiny cuts could be a PG 13 horror film marketed to kids and teens.

Sure Deadly Friend isn't top tier Wes Craven. But it isn't bottom tier,that is saved for tripe like Cursed and My Soul to Take. It is a perfect middle of the pack Wes Craven horror film. And one of the few Craven films you can show to kids and teens that isn't packed with gore and violence.

Deadly Friend gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 22 Fear Street Part One 1994

 

TITLE-Fear Street Part One 1994

SOURCE-Netflix Streaming

Last year I watched this movie and the second one in the series. Planned on reviewing them for 31 Days of Horror 2021 but I had more than 31 films on  my list and I figured I could wait till I saw all three films in the series before reviewing them. Well here it is a year later and I still have only seen the first two films.

Set in 1994 this is about a town where one side of the town is nice and peaceful and the other side has been plagued with bad shit happening for as long as anyone can remember.We start off at the Shadyside Mall.A teenage girl working at the book  store gets stabbed and brutally killed by one of her friends. This killer male kills a few more people in the mall before the cops stop and kill him. Seems Shadyside is the murder captital of the USA. Next to Shadyside is Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale is the polar opposite of Shadyside. 

The teens of Shadyside believe the town was cursed in 1666 by a witch. And this is why all the bad shit happens in Shadyside.Thanks to an accident where some of the Shadyside teens  toss a cooler out the back of a bus blood ends up on the grave of this supposed witch and now someone/something is trying to kill Sam. Sam is the secret girlfriend of the films lead lady. 

Figuring out that if Sam dies the killer will give up the teens band together to at first stop the killer. Who at first they think is one of the jocks from Sunnyvale. Then once they figure out it is the spirit of the witch they realize the only way to stop this is for Sam to die. And after most of the rest of our main cast die,in some fairly graphic ways,Sam and her secret girlfriend are all that is left. Sam is drown and the  brought back to life. Thus defeating the witch.

Fear Street was a series of horror novels wrote by RL Stine. Who was at the time well known cause of how popular his Goosebumps series of young kids horror fiction  were super popular. Fear Street was STine's horror novels aimed at teens. I had never read any of them. 

Then back in 2008 I got a part time job were I mostly sat and waited to see if the old man I was doing home health care for needed help. I worked 8pm till 7am 4 nights a week. With not much to do at this job I would bring books with me to read. The county I live in only had one book store. A used book store that was 90% romance novels and 10% other stuff. While there one day killing time before work I saw the owner had just gotten in a huge stack of Fear Street novels. She saw me looking at them,and this lady has known me since I was a fairly young kid. Told me if I would buy all of them,I think there was 20 books,she could cut me a deal.20 books for 25 bucks. So I bought all of them and over the next 20 nights at work would read one of the books each shift. Discovered that while they were not amazing horror fiction the Fear Street books were much better than I expected. 

So going into this movie I was expecting what I got out of the novels. PG or PG 13 levels of horror. Since this was made for Netflix it has no rating. But if it had played theaters this would have gotten an R rating. Cause of language and gore. Soo soooo much gore. There  is one kill with deli meat slicer that shocked me at how bloody it is.

Fear Street Part One 1994 gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 21 Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors

 

TITLE-Nightmare on Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors

SOURCE-New Line Cinema DVD

With 8 or 9 entries in the franchise,depending  on if you considered Freddy vs Jason as an entry,the Elm Street series of horror films is one I have enjoyed since I saw the first movie close almost 40 years ago. And while I do love that first film,it has always been the 3rd film that is my favorite of the run.

Set in a mental hospital we get Nancy coming  back,now grown. And teaming up with what is left of the Elm Street teens to fight off Freddy.

This was the film in the series that established that in the dream world some people will have super powers. Like the Dream Warriors mentioned in the subtitle of this film. Like Kincaid in  this film is super strong in the dream world or the one guy who in the real world is stuck in a wheelchair but in the dream world is a powerful wizard. This aspect of the series is something that was kept around from this film forward.

Look at the cast of this film. So many people in it that at the time were not big stars yet. Like Patricia Arquette. Honestly this is the first thing I saw her in. She is our lead and shows in  this film why she has had a long long career in the film/tv field. Then you have Laurence Fishburne as one of the orderlies. Sure he had done stuff before this like Death Wish II. But this was for me the first big break out role for this really good actor.

For a long time this was also the Elm Street film I had seen the most. All because while I grew up in an area with out cable I had an Aunt that would record films off HBO for me. We would go see this Aunt,who was my dad's oldest sister,usually every few weeks. And I would go through her HBO guide and circle all the movies I wanted to see. Next trip to Aunt Dot's place she would have 4 or 5 tapes full of movies for  me. So  late 1987 or might have been early 1988 I got a tape from her that had Munchies,Morons from Outer Space and Elm Street 3. And I know the first week I had that tape I watched Elm Street 3 at least 4 times. Not that many years ago I was going through a box full of old "blank" VHS and found the tape I had Elm  Street 3 on it. For shits and giggles I tossed that tape into my trusty VCR and was shocked that the tape was still in ok shape. Sure it looked a bit grainy and fuzzy but it was over 30 years old. Sadly right before the film was over my VCR ate the tape. I managed to get the tape out of the player and back into it's case. But it was badly damaged.

For me this film is the  perfect blending of the horror and the  comedy of Freddy Kruger. Unlike the later films Freddy isn't totally a stand up comedian yet. But he still managed to crack a few good jokes.

And the kills.... So many good ones in this film. The puppet kill is one I have always loved. One of the teens at the hospital makes puppets. So Freddy uses this kids veins as strings and puppet masters this kid to his death. Another stand out death is when one of the teens can't sleep. So she is staying up late  watching a late night talk show. Freddy appears on the TV and this girl walks over to the TV. This TV has Freddy's head coming out the top and arms on the side. And Freddy grabs the girl and slams her head first into the TV.

Also I love how you can watch this movie without seeing any of the previous ones and not be lost. Fairly quickly early on in the film we are told who Freddy is and what he has done. 

Now I might have my timeline wrong,not sure on this and too lazy to look it up,but it feels like this film was the start of Freddy being marketed some to kids. IIRC it was after this film that the Freddy action figure was released along with Freddy themed kids PJs. Not sure how many people born after 2000 know this but before then most movie theaters rarely checked or asked for ID when buying a movie ticket. So way before I was 16 I was buying tickets to R rated films like Elm Street 3. There was piles of  80s era films that were R rated and still marketed to kids. Like how Robocop was this film so violent they had to cut stuff out to avoid getting the dreadded X rating. But you had Robocop action figures and comic books. Speaking of comics I thhink it was around the time Elm Street 3 came out that Marvel Comics published 2 issues of the magazine sized B/W Nightmare on Elm Street comic. 

So if you haven't seen Nightmare on  Elm Street 3 Dream Warriors go see it. It  is the best of the Elm Street films to be released in the 80s. 

Nightmare on Elm Street 3 gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 20 Wrong Turn 5 Bloodlines

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn 5 Bloodlines

SOURCE-2oth Century Fox DVD

Got a set  over a year ago with the first 6 Wrong Turn films. Sure I already owned part 1,but figured for 10 bucks I was getting a deal.

Before this I had seen 1,2 and 3 of the series. It was late one night and I wanted a movie to watch. Settled on Bloodlines,which is part 5,and was shocked how much I enjoyed it.

This film is set before the first 4. Giving us a bit of a origin/backstory for the crazy inbred hillbillies.

Seems a long time ago Dougla Bradley was a serial killer. And he became a father figure for our 3 killer West Virginia inbreds.Also notice how this film get the subtitle Bloodlines and Bradley was in Hellraiser 4 which was subtitled Bloodline.

Now after 4 films in the series you know going in what you are getting. Plenty of gore and manic hillbillies. Plenty of women in skimy clothing. And gorgeous scenery. Filmed in Bulgaria this passed for rural backwoods West Virginia. Which makes sense IIRC the Jesco White movie White Lightning also used Bulgaria to stand in for Boone County WV.

Our three killers are smart. They take out the phone lines and cell tower. Then kill the power for the entire town. Love it cause this gets around the modern horror trope of some checkign their cell and saying "I aint getting any signal"

Also with Wrong Turn you go in wanting gory kills and part 5 does disappoint. Piles and piles of gore. With the final kill being really well done.

I was expecting a by the numbers long in the tooth sequel and instead got a well made pretty fun prequel.

Wrong Turn 5 gets a solid C.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 19 Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings

SOURCE-20th Century Fox DVD

Well I try my best to watch at least once every horror film I get a copy of. Which has lead to me watching some total crap. I also have every year since 2000 reviewed 31 horror films in the month of October. Never repeating a film and for years avoiding the big slasher franchises.

These two things tend to work against each other. For example 2012ish I bought a Echo Bridge 10 pack of horror movies. Was 5 bucks and  I wanted Howling 4 on DVD.I had seen it back when it first hit cable decades ago and remember enjoying it. This multipack was a cheap way for me to get a copy of it. And well if any of the other 9 films turn out to be decent that is a bonus. My rule of trying to at least once watch every horror film I end up with a copy of and this pack is how I discovered Vampeggedon. A film I both love and hate. 

All of this is trying to explain why I decided to watch and review Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings. I know I saw this a long ass time ago when it aired on Syfy. Back 10 or so years ago most Halloweens I would goto my cousins. And she would end up DVRing any horror films airing on  AMC or SYFY to show her kids. We watched Wrong Turn 4 and I remember it having like 2 good kills and the rest just sucking.

The DVD,which is part of that pack of the first 6 films on dvd,is loaded with extras. Got a commentary with the director. A Music video for some song from the movie. Deleted scenes and other extras. The film looks and sounds decent. And by part 4 of this oddly long lived modern horror franchise the films were going DTV. But this looks and feels like a smaller budget theater released film.

Set in a asylum this movie gives us a kind of origin for the Hillickers. The 3 crazy inbred hillbillies from West Virginia.  I enjoyed the first 3 films. 

At the start we meet the three brothers,Three Finger,One Eye and Sawtooth. Malformed thanks to inbreeding they are locked up in a pretty brutal looking mental hospital. Guessing this is the 70s.

Thanks to a bobbie pin the three brothers get loose from their cell. They first attack an orderly and the slaughter continues for pretty much about an hour and a half.

After this flashback to the 70s the film skips ahead to 2003. And a bunch of college age kids are lost on  their snowmobiles. It is night and a blizzard is hitting.So they go seek refuge in the old abandoned nut house. But the Hillickers are there so we get plenty of hillbilly hellish hijinx.

Film in  Bulgaria. This was the start of a planned trilogy of prequels to the original Wrong Turn. Early on during the commentary with the director it is revealed why this 4th film in the series was the start of a 3 film set of prequels. I had forgotten this but Three Finger got killed off in Part 3. So the only way to have the three brothers in a film is a prequel. And learning their history could be a great premise for a film. This film isn't that film.

I did like that this was a slasher set in winter where there is snow. Surprised more films don't go for the winter/snow setting.Sure it is a pain in the ass to deal with. But it adds something to what is otherwise a run of the mill prequel/sequel in a franchise most fans forgot about 2 entries ago.

Worth seeing if you can find the pack of the first 6 films for 10 bucks or less. Appears each of the discs in this set is the old dvd releases. So you get all the extras on the original stand alone film releases.

Wrong Turn 4 Bloody Beginnings gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 18 Damien The Omen II

 

TITLE-Damien Omen II

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

While the original Omen doesn't get the  praise that fellow possession films like Rosemary's baby and The Exorcist get,for me it is the best of those films. 

And while the sequels to Exorcist and Rosemary's baby are hated and shit on Omen 2 isn't. Why is that? Cause it is actually pretty good.

Based somewhat on the second novel in the Omen series. This film skips ahead a bit. Damien is now a pre teen and attending a military school. Where Lance Hendrickson helps young Damien realize what his legacy is.

Now sure this pales when compared to the amazing first film in the series. But it is still much better than mosst people make it out to be. The gore fx are all well done. With some really good kills. Acting is decent. And I like the plot.

The only real drawback to this film is the ending. Since a third film was gonna happen there is no way this film could solve the issue of Damien being the Anti-Christ. 

Scream Factory's Blu Ray has a decent amount of extras. Got a few interviews,two commentaries and a shortish BTS feature. It looks better than it ever has and sounds great.

Damien The Omen II gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 17 Teenage Caveman

 

TITLE-Teenage Caveman (2002 Remake)

SOURCE-Sony DVD

I had pretty much forgotten about this remake. Even though I bought it on VHS back in 2003. But that VHS,an ex-rental copy from Hollywood Video,got ate by a vcr close to 12 years ago. I was looking for something to watch on Youtube. Saw a video titled "The forgotten Larry Clark Horror/Sci Fi movie" and was like "Oh yea I need to find a copy of that film." Went to Amazon and bought one of the last new copies of the DVD they had.

Back in 2002 Cinemax had a pile of old AIP movies remade to premiere on their Saturday night feature. This is like what Showtime did with their Rebel Highway series in 1994,but instead of JD films Cinemax got Sci Fi or Horror films. This series of remakes was dubbed the Creature Features series. Over the 20 years since they originally aired I have managed to see all of them. Pretty sure a few years ago I covered the remake of How to Make a Monster. 

Teenage Caveman,like most of the films in the Creature Features run,is a remake in title and basic premise only. IIRC in the original Teenage Caveman you don't learn that the film is set in a apocolyptic future until near the end of the film. In this remake fairly early on you learn this.

What really surprises me is how this film is forgotten. As I already mentioned it is directed by Larry Clark. Yea the infamous director of Kids,Bully and Ken Park. And well if you know Larry Clark you know that means this film will be packed with nudity and sleaze. 

Andrew Keegan  is the son of the cave tribe's leader. His father rapes Keegan's girlfriend. Keegan kills his father and he is banished from the tribe. So Andrew and a few of his friends stumble on a large city.

They all pass out and when they wake up they are in a solar powered apartment. Where Judith,Tiffany Limos, and Vincent,Stephen Jasso,live. 

Judith and Vincent introduce out teenage cavepeople to excesses of sex and drug and rock n roll. Which leads us to a scene that surprised me, Vincent uses this apartments amazing stereo to play Misfits-Where Eagles Dare. I didn't expect to hear a classic Misfits song when I put this film into my VCR 19 years ago.

Quickly we find out that Judith and Vincent infect  anyone they have sex with . This virus kills whoever has it in a fast and explosive way. Also Vincent and Judith heal from any wound super fast.

By the end it is Andrew Keegan vs Judith and Vincent. And SPOILERS Keegan wins but at what cost?

Yea the film is loaded with nudity,sleaze and has that greasy feel that every Larry Clark has. What surprises me is not only that this Creature Features series of films are forgotten,which is odd cause most of them are in many horror multipack dvd sets,but this is the Larry Clark film that no one seems to remember. Even people that haven't seen his better known films know who Larry Clark is. But this film,nope forgotten.

Teenage Caveman gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 16 Easter Bunny Massacre

 

TITLE-Easter Bunny Massacre

SOURCE-ITN DVD

As I mentioned earlier this month I have become a bit of a fan of the modern DTV horror. So looking for a Easter based horror film earlier this year I saw that cover and yea I had to see this.

Made in the UK this is a slasher. That to me at least rips most of it's plot straight from Slaughter High. A group of friends are hanging out and that night while they are sleeping one of them is killed. So they hide the body,say she ran off. 

Skip ahead a year and they get invited back to where the friend died. And they get killed off by someone wearing a Easter Bunny outfit.

Sure the acting ain't that great. And the plot is something we have seen in piles of slasher films. But there is a few inventive kills. Like one where our killer pours melted chocolate all over someone. A scene when I first saw this I thought the Easter Bunny was having diarhhea attack.

Unlike the other DTV horror I reviewed this month,this one isn't worth buying. But last time I checked Easter Bunny Massacre is streaming free on TUBI. Go give it a watch.

Easter Bunny Massacre gets a D+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 15 Color Out of Space

 

TITLE-HP Lovecraft's Color Out of Space

SOURCE-RLJE Blu Ray

After owning this Blu Ray for a good bit I finally watched it. Based on the classic Lovecraft story this is a great modern retelling of it.

Directed by Richard Stanley,and starring Nic Cage and Joely Richardson,the film takes that classic story,inserts in in modern times and managed to finally make a Stanley film I enjoyed.

Nic and his wife Joely live out in a rural area. They have 3 kids and are trying to live off the land. Then one night a meteor lands on their property. And the space rock gets hit by lightning. Something from the meteor ends up going into the land and local water supply. Which starts odd changes to the family.

Like the wife is chopping up some carrots and ends up cutting off two of her fingers. The youngest son keeps hearing voices coming out of the well. And no matter how many times the eldest son puts the alpacas in the barn they are never in the barn.

Sure this story has been made into a film a few times,with The Curse being the best known and most modern version.

I love how over the past 4 years we have been getting a pile of well done horror film with Nic Cage as the lead. Stuff like Mandy and Willy's Wonderland.

So if you enjoy Lovecraft and want to see one of the better adaptations of his work this is one to track down. Good acting,decent script and some well done FX work. Plus if you love body horror this is one to watch.

Color out of Space gets a B+.