31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 31 Orphan First Kill

 

TITLE-Orphan First Kill

SOURCE-Paramount Plus

Normally I don't review a film for 31 days of Horror the year of their release. Wanting to give me time to at least watch the movie a few times. Orphan First Kill is an exception. Cause since it hit Paramount Plus earlier this year I have watched it 4 times.

Back when it hit DVD I blind bought The Orphan and really enjoyed it. So when  I heard a prequel was being made many years later I wasn't sure if it would be good.Boy was I wrong.

Set years before the first film,this film shows us how Esther got started pretending to be a kid and killing people. And what a start. Less than 10 minutes into the film we are getting some very graphic over the top kills.

Esther gets taken in by a family that think she is the husband's missing sister. And over the course of the film we get so many twists.

Sure you know going into the film that Esther can't die. With this being a prequel. But even with that restriction the film manages to be as much fun as the first film.

What surprised me the most is how they managed to make the actress playing Esther to look 11. When she made the first film she was really close to the age she was playing. But now years later she is in her mid 20s. But by doing all kinds of tricks they make it appear that she is still a pre-teen.Like how most of the cast wore platform shoes so they were taller than Esther. And how thru lighting and  make up they made Isabell Fuhrman look younger than she is.

From what I have seen and read this film  was a hit. So hoping we get another entry in this franchise.

Orphan First Kill gets a B+

Fangs Review

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 30 Alone in the Dark(1982)

 

TITLE-Alone in the Dark(1982)

SOURCE-DVD-r made off the old Image DVD release

Now this is a 80s slasher I had never seen until earlier this year. CodyLL of Cody's blog,check the link list on the right,had gotten the Scream Factory Blu Ray of the film and offered to mail me the old DVD-r of the film.

Sure I had heard of this film,and even seen a small clip that was shown in Terror in  the Aisles,which like this film has Donald Pleaseance. But never saw Alone in the Dark on VHS,never saw it airing on  Cable. Hell I didn't even know of the movie until about 20 years ago. Feels like this is a forgotten slasher which is odd.

It is odd cause it has a big cast of stars. Sure Donald Pleaseance is in piles of horror films,but this also has Jack Palance and Martin Landeau. Plus while he isn't a huge star not long after this film he became a big tv star thanks to A-team,Dwight Schultz.

Donald helps run an insane asylum. Jack,Martin and 2 others are in the dangerous ward. Where they are kept locked up by electronically controlled doors. A Dwight is the new head of the place. Which angers our 4 mentally ill people cause they no longer have Donald there to help them.

So one night when the power goes out these 4 escape and steal a van and head towards Dwight's new home. Where his young daughter is. 

In Terror in the Aisles there is a scene with Martin in a van following a deliveryman on a bike. Martin talks about how he wants the man's hat. And ever since I first saw Terror in the Aisles I loved this scene. Landau comes off as not only crazy but pure evil.Using this hat Martin goes to Dwight's home,pretending to be delivering a telegram. Dwight ain't home. 

There is a great scene where lots of the town is looting a local shopping center,what else do you do when the power goes out. See one of the escapees is known as the Bleeder. Because he has nose bleeds often. He also always keeps his face hidden. Which leads to a twist near the end of the film. And one of the 4 escapees has on a hockey mask. And rips a dude's throat out with a garden trowel. Not sure but I think this came out a year before Friday the 13th part 3,so this might be the first slasher to have a killer in a hockey mask.

Now this isn't an amazing film. But it is way better than I expected. It has this weird sleazy feel to it. Which is really evident in scenes like when the one member of the crazies,who is know for attacking kids,is alone in Dwight's home with the young daughter. 

The picture and sound on this DVD-r ain't bad. It looks like a decent DVD. Colors and light levels always look decent. Huge thanks to Cody for supplying me with this copy of the film.

Overall Alone in the Dark is a early 80s slasher I would figure would be a much bigger deal. You got a great cast. It has a neat premise I hadn't seen in  other films of the sub genre. And it has that weird feel to the movie. 

Alone in the Dark gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 29 Mass Hysteria

 

TITLE-Mass Hysteria

SOURCE-Shudder Streaming

Been close to 4 years now I have had Shudder. Sometimes I got months without watching anything on it. Then I will watch nothing but stuff off it for weeks. 

I was looking for something short,knowing I was busy today. Saw this was 66 minutes and that is perfect. Sure that is not really even feature length,I've always been told a film has to hit 70 minutes to be feature length. So yea I get it if some claim this isn't a feature film. But I have covered shit of similar length like episodes of Masters of Horror.

And that is what this feels like. What if Masters of Horror stayed on the air and this is season 9. I loved Masters of Horror and damn it Mass Hysteria is a fucking fun and well made film. That cause of it's odd length I bet is forgotten soon.

Paige is a actress who just booked her first role in a major production in NYC. Currently she is doing the Halloween season in Salem Mass as part of the witch trial re-enactments.

It's her last night. She does what she has done for years now each night and accuses someone in the crowd of being a witch. Then curses them. But this time the frat jock douchebag she picks fucking dies. 

Causing all these drunk college kids to believe Paige is a real witch and the rrest of the film is her and the rest of the acting group on the run from these morons.

Sure you see a few things through out the film that hint that there might be more to the people trying to kill Paige,a rash on a few hands. But a major twist at the end causes that to be handwaved away.

This being 66 minutes I doubt you see it much on cable. Not much woould have to be cut to make it playable on cable. I see this just kind of being forgotten,if it is even known now. 

Mass Hysteria gets  A-

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 28 BrightBurn

 

TITLE-Brightburn

SOURCE-Tubi Streaming 

Wanted something that was horror and another genre mixed to watch today. So went to Tubi,the best of the free services for horror and just oddball shit. Saw they had added Brightburn and what the hell it is horror/capeshit. 

For those that have no clue what Tubi is and are old enough to remember the video store days. Netflix,Hulu and Disney+ are like Blockbuster/Hollywood Video and Family Video. But Tubi and Amazon Prime? They are that grubby mom and pop local video store. It opened in 1980 and has just one copy of any tape. But has stuff you don't find other places like The Cars that Eat People or both Evil Dead movies. Tubi has ad breaks but they are short and you get like 5 or so per movie. So free and not plagued with ads.

Started up the movie and looked it up to see which poster art I wanted to put up top. Most of them looked like that or were a tiny variant of it. Wait this came out in 2019???  Was thinking it was 2015 or so. But it makes sense it was 2019 I had posted a video about Rick Veitch's Maximortal vol 1 tpb and someone asked me if I knew about the movie ripping off the comic.

Elizabeth Banks and her husband can't have kids,and live in Brightburn Kansas on an old farm. A rocket crashes and in it is a baby. They adopt the baby and hide the rocket  in the barn. 

Yea this sounds like the Superman story,which it is. But when this kid hits 12 and puberty hits he starts gaining his powers. He gets mad the pushmower isn't working right and slings it across the yard. Then has this wanting to shove his hand into the still rotating blade. 

When on a camping trip withh his dad,after getting the Sex  talk,this creepy kid floats to the house of some classmate he is crushing on. Is floating outside her second story window and the girl sees him.

The only thing that appears to harm this kid is the ship. Which gets destroyed near the end of the film,in a great scene. And it ends with us seeing news reports of Brightburn rampaging all over the world. Leaving me to think we might get more films. 

The film cost close to 12 million and made a bit over 32 million at the box office. So I am sure after home video and all that it made 3 times what it costs. But no sequel in sight sadly.

Does Brightburn rip off Maximortal vol 1? No not really. They both use the age old "What if Superman was evil and a moody teen" idea.  This idea was done before Maximortal and part of the story when Veitch told it was parodying the already well mined trope of evil Superman.

I enjoy Brightburn. Sure I rather have a Maximortal movie. But that ain't happening. Sure I wish we got another film in this series. But yea looks like that ain't happening  either.

Brightburn is worth watching and appears to making  the rounds  on the various streaming sites. Brightburn gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 27 The Wasp Woman (1995)

 

TITLE-The Wasp Woman AKA Forbidden Beauty

SOURCE-DVD-R made from premiere airing on Showtime in 1995

Somehow out of all these mid 90s Roger Corman Theater remakes of older mostly PD films I have seen the 95 Wasp Woman remake,known as Forbidden Beauty in some areas,the most. Saw it when it first aired,cause I had seen and felt disappointed in the original. Then a few years later the remake was rerun on Showtime and a bachelor crash  pad house a buddy owned had myyself and 5 others drinking and watching it and laughing. Then back close to a decade ago when I got this DVD-r rip of a VHS recording ,in SP on a good HIFI VCR,of the original TV airing I watched it again. Then today. 

Why out of the 5 or so of these remakes I own is this one I go back to often? Mostly cause the others are remakes of films I already enjoy. But that original Wasp Woman,that is in the top 5 movies I own the most copies of on DVD thanks to it being PD in an in every multipak of horror,is a boring as hell crap fest of a film. We get right at 4 minutes tops of Wasp Woman in the film. This remake while having soome dodgy FX at least gives us plenty of the title creature.

The remake also has Jennifer Rubin,who uses a very very obvious body double for the nudity in her sex scene,and Maria Ford. And this is Maria after she had some visits to the plastic surgeon. That original I can't tell you who anyone in the cast is. Hell the remake has Fred Olen Ray as the higher up that tells Rubin she is an old hag. 

Directed by Jim Wynorski,this remake is the perfect example of how to reamake and improve an old horror flick. Now is it a undiscovered modern classic of horror? Hell NO! But it is a fun mid 90s Creature Feature that should be seen by more people. It is perfect for streaming on say Tubi or Amazon Prime. And for all I know it could be on one of those.

The Wasp Woman gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 26 Dinosaur Hotel

 

TITLE-Dinosaur Hotel

SOURCE-ITN DVD

ITN aka the International Turd Network,no not really.But they appear to mostly release UK or Spanish made films. And their releases are usually shit.

Over the last year I learned about how there is a pile of studios putting out low budget DTV horror. And every week various stores have these films for 5 to 10 bucks.

Well it was back in the start of summer ,CodyLL of Cody's blog was doing a pile of dinosaur films to get ready for the newest Jurassic World film,I saw Dinosaur Hotel and figured what the hell. Saw it was from ITN and knew then the film would look cheap. And it was cheap,3 bucks. Well you get what you pay for.

A lady,who brings her kids,is at a hotel where dinosaurs roam. And is part of a game. Theree are twists and stuff. But the dinos look like stuff from the PS1 game Dino Crisis. And the kills look like cut scenes from that game.

The acting is from ok to HOLY HELL HOW BAD CAN YOU GET. With the lead lady's daughter being horrible.

The bad CGI is the  only FX work in the film. And wow they do all they can to make sure the CGI isnt in the frame with most anything else. Like the scene near the end where the daughter is trapped in the kitchen. Fighting off raptors. She is swinging a club and the club and her are never in the same shot as the CGI raptor.

Every year for 31 Days of Horror I try out some low budget newer horror to see if there is a gem hidden  in all the chaff. Well Dinosaur Hotel is  not  a gem. It is pure chaff.

Dinosaur Hotel gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 25 Popcorn

 

TITLE-Popcorn

SOURCE-Shudder Streaming Service

Oh man the early 90s horror scene was so odd. The slasher subgenre was dying. And if you listen to some fans horror was shit in the 90s until Scream. Which of course is wrong. There was good horror all through out the 90s.

When cable finally reached the rural ass hell southern town I grew up in,tail end of 1990,I paid out of my pocket for Showtime and TMC. Which where the only MOVIE channels our cable offered. Sure I wasn't making much at my part time after school job. But 20 bucks a month went to making sure I had Showtime and TMC. And at least another 30 a month went to buying blank VHS. Cause I was recording any horror movie that aired on Showtime or TMC. It was late 1991 when I saw that Showtime was airing Popcorn a bunch of times the next month. I had wanted to see Popcorn. But something else came out the same weekend as it. And we all went to see  that. The next weekend Popcorn was gone. I had hoped to rent it. But no video store in the area carried it. But Showtime was showing it 5 times in one month. First time airing it at the oddest hour of 2am on a Wednesday.

Sure I had a VCR in my bedroom by this time. And I could have just set my VCR recorded it and watched it Wednesday evening after school and work. But nope I stayed up all night to see it. And I fucking loved it.

A group of college kids are hosting an all night movie marathon at a soon to be demolished theater. This is a fund raiser for their drama club IIRC.  Thanks to Ray Walston,who runs a film merch shop,they get some great gimmicks to go with the three films they show.

Those 3 films are Mosquito,a throw back to the 50s giant insect flicks. And this movie is in 3d. Loved the one scene we see from this film where a giant mosquito lands on a car roof. And shoves it's sucker through the roof and into a yokel's head. Then sucks his brain and everything else out. They have a great FX of the head collasping on itself that I still think looks amazing.

Another of the films  is Attack of the Amazing Electrafied Man,which like the Tingler has seats in the theater wired up to a board and whoever is at that board can give the people in the seats a nice shock. This reminds me of all the 40s era films where dudes get powers through accidents.

Last up is The Stench,filmed on SMELL O VISION. Like Polyester from John Waters.  

While going through the lot of stuff Walston brought they find a 4th film. Titled Possesser. So the students screen it and it shows stuff similar to what our lead Maggie has been dreaming. Odd stuff with fire and death. Seems the director of this thought lost film killed his family before he could shoot the final scene. And set a theater on fire where he was showing what he had shot of his film.

So while these films are airing to a packed house. Someone is not only killing off the students. But is a master of disquise.Which we learn when people we saw die show up in later scenes. 

We find out who the killer is. Our lead Maggie ,played by the great Jill Scholen who yall might remember from the original Stepfather film,gets captured by the killer and we learn who they are and why they are doing what they are doing. I know this isn't a film lots of have seen so I am not gonna full spoil the film.

Overall the film is just fun. But is is one I forgot about. Sure from 91 until 2010 or so I had that VHS I had recorded it on,same tape also had Subspecies 2 on it. And I would watch it maybe once every 5 years. 

I had really just forgotten about the film until I saw Code Red announce they were releasing it to DVD. FOund out there was a previous DVD release that was out of print,and IIRC it was 4:3 instead of OAR. I figured it was time to replace my well worn VHS tape. And since Code Red hinted it would be out soon I gave that tape away to a friend. 

Then I keep hearing that some fan has the DVD rights to the film and is putting out a ULTIMATE FAN EDITION. Also claiming that Code Red doesn't have the rights. And it started this online war of words that lasted what felt like 40 years.

Finally in the past 5 years,IIRC,Synapse finally released the ULTIMATE FAN EDITION. I think there is a blu ray release. But the cost of it was stupid high. So I passed.Figuring there would be a cheaper DVD release and I would get that. Plus not long after the blu ray got out someone sent my a rip of the film off the blu. I ain't seen a cheaper dvd release of the film so far. But Shudder has Popcorn and holy hell I think I might just drop that 35 or 40 bucks and get the blu ray. Cause this print on Shudder looks great. Way better than I remember it ever looking.

Popcorn is a nice meta slasher horror film. I like how it has ties to Deathdreams,in that they wanted Bob Clark to direct this but he turned it down so the guy that worked with him on Deathdreams directed this. Well he stared directing it and was firedd a few weeks into filming. Where he got replaced by one of the lead actors from PORKYS! Yep no joke. Just like Jill Scholen,she wasn't the original actress cast to play the lead. But when the director got replaced she did too. 

Popcorn gets a B+.

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-.