31 days of horror 2012 day 12

Screaming in High Heels the rise and fall of the Scream Queens era
Unreleased
2012


Managed to see this short but fun documentary today. It is all about how 3 b-movie actresses created a phenomena that spread all over. Brinke Stevens,Michelle Bauer and Linnea Quigley all started out doing low budget b-movies. And managed to build a great career out of this. Now the director does go into the past of all three women. And that part was interesting. But there is stuff they left out. Like Michelle did a few porn films under the name Pia Snow. This is not mentioned. Which is strange cause she talks about posing for Penthouse.

What I enjoyed the most is finding out about the early lives of all three women. Now before watching this I knew that Brinke was a marine biologist and was at one time married to Dave Stevens of Rockateer fame. But I knew next to nothing about Linnea and Michelle.

Overall this was a decent documentary. I just wish it had been longer. Screaming in High Heels gets a B-

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The Walking Dead Season 2
2011
Anchor Bay Blu Ray

I watched Walking Dead season 2 last year as it was airing and found the pacing to be really bad. Too much time was spent on the farm and the couple of months break after the first 6 episodes didn't help. But the final 2 episodes of the season were really good. So I knew I would be buying the season set when it came out.

We start off not too long after the end of season 1. The group runs into a major traffic jam on a highway. And before they can figure out what to do a herd of zombies attacks. Everyone manages to stay safe. But Sophia and Rick end up in the woods. They get separated. So the group starts looking for her. While out looking for her Carl is accidentally shot and this leads our group to a farm owned by Hershall.

Now I have read up to around issue 74 in the comic,so I thought I knew what was gonna happen this season. But so much was changed from the comic. In the comic the "Farm" storyline doesn't last very long. Which is good cause so far it is the weakest storyline in the comic.

Well the first half of the season is mainly the group on the farm. Trying to find Sophia and dealing with Carl getting shot. Shane and the guy who accidentally shot Carl head off to a FEMA station to get the needed medical gear and supplies. And they get ambushed by zombies. They are on their way out of the station and Shane has hurt his leg. And between the two of them they have maybe 10 bullets left. So Shane ends up shooting the other guy in the leg. So that the zombies will be busy eating him while Shane gets away. I can totally understand Shane's logic in this situation. He understands the world has changed. If he hadn't shot the guy in the left,him the guy and Carl would have all died. But by basically killing the guy,Shane and Carl will live. But this causes a noticeable change in Shane.

Back at the farm Glenn ends up hooking up with Hershall's daughter and through this learns that instead of killing the "walkers" Hershall and his group round them up and are keeping them in his barn. Once this knowledge gets out it causes all kinds of problems. Finally Shane goes to the barn and opens up the door. And the first "walker" to come out is Sophia. Rick shots and kills her and that is how the first half of the season ends.

The second half picks up the pace and we get a nice tense scene set in a bar in the nearby town. The tension between Rick and Shane keeps getting stronger and stronger. And finally in the next to last episode Shane tries to kill Rick. But Rick gets the jump on him. In the final episode the herd from the highway makes it's way to the farm and the group manages to escape. Later that night Rick reveals that the scientist at the CDC told him that everyone is already infected with the virus. So no matter how you die you will come back as a "walker". And the episode ends with the camera pulling back from the group huddled around a campfire and off in the distance we see a high security prison.

Watching this for a second time,and watching all the episodes in 2 days really helps the pace of the show. I still say they didn't need to spend so much time on the farm. But at least we got two great episodes at the end of the season.

The discs all look and sound great. Plus the final disc is loaded down with all kinds of extras. There is a few commentaries and all of them are worth a listen. There is also all the webisodes. Sadly the webisodes aren't worth a shit. The Walking Dead Season 2 set gets a C+.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 11

April Fool's Day
1986
Triple Feature Paramount DVD

Even though I am a huge fan of slasher films,and really love the ones made in the 80s,I never saw April Fool's Day until a few years ago. After seeing a fun interview with the director in "Falling to Pieces" I knew I had to see this film. Well then I was in town and found a dvd set that had "Tales from the Darkside the movie","Stephen King's Graveyard Shift" and "April Fool's Day". It was only 10 bucks so I grabbed it.

Muffy,played by the mega cute Deborah Foreman,invites a bunch of her friends from college to visit her on an island her family owns. So the film starts off with the friends waiting on the ferry to take them to the island. And we get to meet and learn a little about each of them. The only people I knew from  the group was Amy "Friday the 13th part II" Steel and Thomas "Freaks and Geeks" Wilson. It is April 1st so we see plenty of pranks. Once they get to the island it seems that Muffy has set up all kinds of pranks all over the house they will be staying in. But something more sinister is happening. Someone is killing the friends. And at the end we get a twist that I bet ,unless someone has clued you in,no one would have guessed.

It seems this is a film that among slasher fans is either loved or hated. Most of the people that hate it,seem to hate it cause of the ending. I love the movie. The acting is better than most slasher films. With Steel,Foreman and Wilson being the standouts. And the FX work is well done. April Fool's Day gets a B.

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The Mammoth Book of Zombies Comics
Edited by David Kendall

Reprinting 18 different zombie comics in black and white,this book is a nice collection of a wide variety of zombie fiction. There is stories written by Steve Niles,Jon Arye,Buddy Scalera,M.Swank,Darko Macan,Oleg Kozyrev,Mark Bloodworth,Stuart Kerr and many other writers. Overall the artwork is pretty good with some stories having amazing artwork.

The real stand outs are "Necrotic:Dead Flesh on a Living Body","Dead Eyes Open","Might of the Living Dead" and a great adaptation of the Robert E. Howard horror classic "Pigeons from Hell". Necrotic is a fun story about an archaeologist that has his friend mummify him when he dies. He comes back to life about 60 years later and tries to live a normal life,but quickly realizes that isn't gonna happen. Dead Eyes Open is a fairly long story about zombies that don't crave human flesh and behave like living humans. Lots of twists and turns in the story that keep it interesting. Might of the living dead is a short comedy piece that helps offset all the grimness and darkness in the other stories. Then there is Pigeons from Hell.I had read the Robert E Howard story many years ago in a collection of short horror fiction. But had forgotten most of it. This adaptation is amazing. The artwork helps capture the mood of the story. If you are into comics and horror this a nice collection to get. The cover price is right at 18 bucks but it is easy to find a used copy for less than half of that. The Mammoth Book of Zombie Comics gets an B+.

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31 days of Horror 2012 day 10

The Funhouse
1981
4 Movie Marathon Cult Horror Collection Universal DVD

For many years this was the one Tobe Hooper film I had not seen. Not really sure why. I can remember seeing the VHS in various video stores. I just never rented it. Then I found this 4 movie set for $5. Since I didn't have The Funhouse or Serpent and the Rainbow on DVD I picked it up. I know plenty of online horror fans that claim Tobe has only done one good film. But really beside the original TCM,TCM 2,The Funhouse,Lifeforce and Toolbox Murders are all good to great films from a guy who is one of my favorite directors.

Amy and her best friend Liz go to the local carnival with their boyfriends. After wandering around the midway for a few hours. Liz's boyfriend comes up with the great idea of them all spending the night inside the carnival's dark ride. While this is all happening We see that the guy wearing a Frankenstein's monster mask,who runs the dark ride,has gotten the fortune teller to come to his home. Which is inside the dark ride,it seems this guy has something wrong with him and he pays the fortune teller to let him fuck her. But as soon as she touches his penis he ejaculates. She tells he it is over and he freaks out and kills her. Amy and her friends see all this threw some cracks in the floor. They also see when this freak's father shows up and tells him he knows he isn't allowed to kill anyone from the carnival. While Amy's friends are watching this happen ,one of their cigarette lighters drops through the cracks in the ceiling,thus alerting the freak and his father that someone is watching them. So we get a nice long chase through the funhouse. We get to see what the freak looks like without his mask on and whoever did the FX work did a great job.

After seeing the film the first time I did some research online and found out that Dean Koontz did a novelization of the film under a different name. Well my local library happens to have the novelization on the shelves. So I checked it out to read. Wow the novelization adds a bunch to the film. In the novel we find out that Amy's mom at one time was married to the freak's dad. And the freak is Amy's half brother. We also learn that Amy is pregnant. And get more back story on the freak and the carnival. So if you enjoy The Funhouse track down the novelization and give it a read it will really add to your enjoyment of the film. The Funhouse gets a B-.

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American Horror Story
2011
20th century Fox Blu ray

Now last year during my 31 days of Horror I talked about the first 2 or 3 episodes of this new series. For some reason I watched the first 6 and never watched the last half of season 1. But the day it hit Blu Ray I bought it and over the past 3 days been marathoning it.

The Harmon's are a some what normal family. The father is a shrink,the mom has just suffered from a miscarriage and their daughter Violet is a moody brooding teen. After Ms Harmon catches her husband cheating on her,they end up moving to California to get a fresh start.

Turns out the house they buy has a long an gruesome history. Pretty much everybody who has lived in it is now dead. And if you die in the house your ghost will haunt the house forever.

Well right off the bat we get clues that this isn't gonna be your normal FX drama. The first episode is packed with strange images and camera work that isn't the norm.

Each episode of the season starts off with a flashback. And it is through these flashbacks we get a bunch of the back story filled in. Like in the first episode the neighbor,played by Jessica Lange,tells the maid "Don't make me kill you again!" Now we already know something is strange about the maid. Cause to the husband she looks like the young woman in the picture at the top. But everyone else sees her as an old lady with a wonky eye. A few episodes later we get a flashback where Jessica Lange kills the Moira the maid. Cause Jessica thinks the maid is screwing her husband.

Each episode is filled with stuff designed to unnerve you. Like the Rubber man. In the first episode the Harmon family finds a latex bondage suit in the attic. It belonged to the previous owners. A gay couple who died in the house. And someone keeps showing up wearing the Rubber Man outfit all through out the season.

What I really liked about the show is seeing some of these episodes for the second time I can see all the little clues and foreshadowing that was in them. Stuff that if you know what to look for lets you know what will happen later on in the season.

The Blu Ray set looks amazing. The sound is well done and helps set the mood. I haven't watched any of the extras. But did listen to the commentary on the first episode. One drawback to that is there is some major spoilers in that commentary. But oh well. American Horror Story season 1 Blu Ray gets a A-.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 09

Tender Flesh
1997
Lust for Frankenstein/Tender Flesh double feature Shock-O-rama Cinema DVD

I first heard about this Jess Franco film thanks to the late Alternative Cinema magazine. They did a long review of it and talked about how the limited edition VHS release was gonna be the only release of the fully uncut version. At the time I had just discovered Jess Franco and really wanted to see Tender Flesh,but the price for the VHS was more than I was willing to pay. Fast forward to 2009 and I find on eBay a DVD that not only has the fully uncut Tender Flesh but the Jess Franco film Lust for Frankenstein. I ordered it. And ended up having to wait about 2 weeks before I finally got it.

Amber Newman plays a stripper,and her and her mega sleazy boyfriend are invited to a private party on an island owned by a very rich woman. What they don't know is this woman wants them to come so she can hunt them down. This is Jess Franco's version of the classic story "The Most Dangerous Game". The cast has a few people that if you are into cult cinema you will know. People like Amber Newman,Monique Parent and the late Lina Romay. Now while this is a sleazier version of the most dangerous game,what makes it stand out in most people who have seen it's minds is a scene where a woman marinades a steak by pissing on it. And you can tell this scene isn't faked. Yeah I know it is pretty gross. And I bet that scene is the one that was supposed to be removed from the non-limited edition VHS releases. No idea if there ever was a non-limited edition release. Overall the film isn't bad. Amber and Monique are both nice looking ladies. The acting is all over the place,with some of the actors doing good jobs. And some of them being worse than a kindergarden production of Peter Pan. Tender Flesh gets a C-.

31 days of Horror 2012 Extra 04

From WING in 2001 here is Leatherface vs Jason.

31 days of Horror 2012 day 08

La lengua asesina AKA Killer Tongue
1996
4 pack Source One Entertainment DVD


Back in 1995 or 1996 I read an article in Fangoria about an upcoming horror film. It was being filmed in Spain and had Robert "Freddy" Englund,Doug "Pinhead" Bradley and Melinda "Return of the Living Dead III" Clarke. This movie was La lengua asesina AKA Killer Tongue. From the article and the various pictures it looked like it was gonna be a fun little horror comedy. Well I never saw it for rent in any video store in my area. And it wasn't until sometime in 1999 that I found it for rent in Hollywood Video. After one viewing it quickly became a favorite of mine. I never did see it on DVD,then in 2008 I found a DVD four pack that had it,the Fear,The Fear Halloween Night and Grim on it. And the DVD was only $5. So I had to get it.

Melinda Clarke is hiding out in the desert with her four poodles. Her boyfriend and her have done a bank heist job. He got caught,but not before he could hide the money. So she is waiting on him to get released so they can get the money and live a life of freedom. One night she sees a meteor crash not to far from her home. Part of it ends up in her food. Which Melinda and her four dogs eat. This causes Melinda's tongue to gain super powers and a mind of it's own. And her four dogs turn into are transformed into drag queens. But the tongue is a killer tongue and makes Melinda go out and kill people. Her boyfriend escapes from jail,and is pursued by the warden and one of the guards. These two are played by Robert Englund and Doug Bradley.

Killer Tongue is a film I am surprised doesn't have a big cult following. It has all that is needed to attract a devoted cult following,but it seems even among hardcore film fans the film is pretty much unknown. I think it is one of the better horror movies of the 90s and majorly under-rated. Killer Tongue gets a B.