31 Days of Horror Day 20 Sleepaway Camp 2

Sleepaway Camp 2 Unhappy Campers
1988
Anchor Bay DVD

Released 5 years after the cult classic original. And filmed at the same time as part 3,the sequel to one of the lesser known 80s slashers goes from being a dark horror film into a comedy horror.

Angela is back. After the first film she was sent to the nuthouse and got surgery. So now she is a full female. The summer camp from the original is reopened and Angela wrangles her way in as a counselor.

Felissa Rose didn't return to play Angela,but we get Pamela Springsteen. Who is Bruce Springsteen's sister.There is also Renee Estevez,the daughter of Martin Sheen and sister of Charlie Sheen and Emilo Estevez. Pamela does a good job balancing the comedy and the serious nature of Angela.

The gore is well done. And fairly gross in a few scenes. And since this is the late 80s all the FX work is practical stuff.

The picture above is from I think the German DVD. As to why Jason and Freddy are on the cover,well one of the campers dresses up as a bootleg Freddy and another as a bootleg Jason.

Now the Anchor Bay DVD is out of print,and I keep hearing rumors that rights issues are preventing any company from releasing this to DVD or Blu Ray it is worth tracking down a used copy.

Sleepaway Camp II Unhappy Campers gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 19 Sideshow

Sideshow
2000
Echo Bridge 20 pack DVD

This is a Full Moon film I had never heard of. But the premise sounded interesting. I am just old enough to barely remember when the county fair would have a sideshow.

A group of 5 teens.2 ladies and 3 guys,goto the local carnival.One of the guys is in a wheelchair and huge fan of sideshows. But of course everything is not as it seems.

Phil Fondacarlo plays the pitch man and is great as always.I was kind of surprised at how good this was. By 2000 Full Moon wasn't doing well. So the budget had to be pretty low. But the sets,costumes and FX work are really good.

Another neat thing about the film is that this is the only Full Moon film I know of that Fred Olen Ray directed. I was kind of surprised when I saw his name in the closing credits. The pack this came in is easy to find for $5 and it is worth that for this film by it self.

Sideshow gets a B+.

31 Days of Horror Day 18 Evil Bong 3 Wrath of Bong

Evil Bong 3 The Wrath of Bong!
2011
Echo Bridge 20 Pack DVD

Full Moon is at it again with the third in this never ending series. Of course this cheap dvd is 2d. But I doubt the 3d makes much of a difference.

The 4 stoners from the first Evil Bong are back. A crusty looking bum discovers a weird looking bong hidden in a meteor. He brings it to the head shop that 3 of the 4 guys now run.

And of course just like in the first one,if you smoke from this Alien bong you get sucked into the bong world. Which is packed with dayglo painted naked women. Who drain the men of their sperm.

The uncle from the first film shows back up. This time as Dr Weed and he helps the guy figure out how to defeat the Alien Bong. Which they manage to do with help from the Evil Bong. Also the lovely and talented Robyn Sydney returns. And she is one of the best parts of the film.

Evil Bong 3 The Wrath of Bong gets a D.

31 Days of Horror Day 17 Castle Freak

Castle Freak-R rated cut
Echo Bridge Entertainment DVD
1995

I saw this not that long after it hit VHS back in the mid 90s. Just another film that proves the morons that repeat over and over how "NO GOOD HORROR CAME OUT IN THE 90s" are full of shit Boz. I had been wanting to re-watch this film.The above pictured pack was $5. So I got 4 films I didn't own already,The Reflecting Skin,The Faculty,Immortality and Castle Freak.

Somewhat based on the classic HP Lovecraft short story The Outsider. We get a good mid 90s Full Moon film from Stuart Gordon. Having seen a few "adaptations" of Lovecraft from Gordon,I went in expecting something entertaining.

Now sure I saw this back in 95,but I remembered almost nothing about it. I remembered Jeffrey Combs having a wreck that blinded his daughter. The Castle Freak looking decent. And a weird scene between Combs and a hooker.

Pretty sure I saw the uncut VHS years ago. And really no clue if that version is out on DVD. But this R rated cut was pretty bloody. The Freak still looks great and I was surprised that Barbara Crampton plays the mother.

So really if you see this pack for $5 grab it. You got 3 good films, and watchable films. Castle Freak R Rated cuts gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror Day 16 Masters of Horror Dreams in the Witch House

Masters of Horror:Dreams in the Witch House
2005
Anchor Bay DVD

In early 2005 I heard rumblings about the upcoming Showtime series "Masters of Horror". Each director was given pretty much free reign to make a film.I knew Stuart Gordon is a huge HP Lovecraft fan,so when I heard he was adapting the short story "The Dreams in the Witch House" I got very excited. At the time I didn't have Showtime. But thanks to everyone's good friend Brian Torrens I got ahold of this episode.

In October 2008 I found a bunch of these episodes in the Walmart $5. I bought every one I found and loved how most of them were loaded down with extras. Plus at least the first season came with trading cards.

A young college student,Ezra Godden of Dagon fame,moves into a house.Where he works on his school work and starts to have feelings for the lovely single mom who also lives in the house. Weird things start happening and he finds out that a witch needs a young child to be reborn. So he does all he can to prevent that from happening.

Outside of "King of the Ants" Stuart Gordon's best work IMHO has been his Lovecraft inspired works.Now I doubt the budget for this episode was very high. But Gordon did the best with what he had. We get decent acting and good FX work.

Dreams in the Witch House gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 15 From Hell

From Hell
2001
20th Century Fox DVD

To anyone that reads this blog often will know I am a huge comic book fan.After horror films,comic books are the second big passion of my life. I started reading Alan Moores serialized story "From Hell" back when it was being published in Taboo. Then the publisher went under and I didn't read the rest of the comic.

Around 2000 I heard that the Hughes Brothers,of Menace to Society fame,were adapting then now finished comic into a film.I have no idea why I didn't go see it back then. And for some reason I never bothered to rent it. Or even finish the comic.

Around 2006 I found the DVD for $5 in the infamous 5 buck bin in Walmart.But like lots of DVDs I bought it and it sat on my shelf unwatched for close to 4 years.

The film,which differs from the comic,tells the tale of a detective trying to solve the Jack the Ripper murders. This detective,played by Johnny Depp,uses very unique ways to solve crimes and is also a drug addict. Heather Graham is the female lead. She is a hooker and has seen her hooker friends be murdered.

I do like the theories behind Jack the Ripper's identity and motives in the film. And out of the handful of Jack the Ripper films I have seen this is the best one.So much better than the Jess Franco 70s Jack the Ripper.

I love how the DVD is packed with extras. We get a commentary with the directors.An alternate ending and at least 20 deleted scenes.

Since seeing this I have went and read the entire comic. Which is a great comic but would be fairly hard to adapt to film.

From Hell gets a B.

31 Days of Horror Day 14 Witchfinder General

Witchfinder General AKA The Conqueror Worm
1968
MGM Midnite Movies DVD


I really miss the MGM Midnite Movie line. They put out some great films,usually with good extras. Plus they were almost always super cheap. I had wanted to see this film for years. But could never find a copy. It went out of print and I figured I would end up having to find a used copy. I was in the nearest mall,which sucks ass,looking around though the bookstore. Saw they had a shelf of DVDs they were clearing out.And I found Witchfinder General for $8.

Price plays witchfinder back in the middle ages.And he is so understated in this role. Out of all the Vincent Price horror films I have seen this one is the most brutal. One neat thing is for years this film was known as The conqueror worm in the USA.This was done to make people think it was connected to the popular AIP Price/Poe films.But instead we get a fictionalized version of the witch hunts that went on.

Now the DVD only has two extra features. One is a short featurette on the director Micheal Reeves. Who died not that long after this film was finished. The other is a very entertaining commentary by producer Philip Waddilove and actor Ian Ogilvy.

One thing that makes this film stand out amongst all the other horror films Mr Price did,is that this one is dead serious. Most Vincent Price horror films have at least a touch of comedy to them.

Witchfinder General gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 13 Madhouse

Madhouse
1974
MGM/TGG Direct double feature DVD

Ever since I saw House on Haunted Hill back in the early 80s I have been a fairly big Vincent Price fan. Last year in October,my local Walmart had a bunch of these double feature Vincent Price DVDS. With them being $5 each I grabbed 2 of the packs.

Now this pack I had seen Masque of Red Death before. IIRC I had the old MGM dvd. But some flaky asshole stole it. But I had not seen or heard of Madhouse.

Price plays a washed up horror star that has a mental breakdown. After he recovers he agrees to take his most famous role and play that part on a tv show.Quickly the cast and crew of the tv show start dying in ways that are similar to the deaths in his films.

Mr Price is great in the lead role of Paul Toombe/Dr Death. I might be wrong but I think this is the first time Price and Peter Cushing were in the same film.Also Count Yorga aka Robert Quarry has a part in the film.

This was the last film Mr Price did for AIP. And sadly it didn't do that well at the box office. I am not sure why. I really enjoy this and would love to see it on the big screen

The dvd is barebones.No extras at all. But hell for $5 it is worth it.

Madhouse gets an A.

31 Days of Horror Day 12 Lust for Frankenstein

Lust for Frankenstein
1998
Shock o Rama Cinema Double Feature DVD

Back in the late 90s I read Alternative Cinema all the time. And it was because of that magazine that I got into Jess Franco films. Sure I had seen Jack the Ripper and Oasis of the Zombies before this time period. But reading the great reviews in the mag of Tender Flesh and Lust for Frankenstein I just had to see more of Franco's films.

By this time in Mr Franco's career he was making films on video with funding coming from a group of fans. It was sometime in 2008 I was looking around on Ebay and found this dvd super cheap. I mostly got it for Tender Flesh.

Lina Romay plays the daughter of the mad scientist Frankenstein. She is haunted by dreams of her now dead father. These dreams lead her to her father's creation. A male/female creature played by scream queen legend Michelle Bauer. Very quickly Bauer AKA Goddess becomes enraged at anyone that flirts with Lina.

Now this isn't one of Franco's best films. But it still has some good points. Michelle is great as Goddess. And there are some very very trippy visuals. And the jazz like soundtrack is well done.

The DVD has no extras. But last time I checked you can get it for under 10 bucks. Which if you are a fan of strange cinema and/or a Jess Franco fan it is worth getting.

Lust for Frankenstein gets a C.

31 Days of Horror Day 11 Petey Wheatstraw the devil's son in law

Petey Wheatstraw the Devil's Son in Law
1977
Xenon Pictures DVD

I thought I had seen all the Rudy Ray Moore films. Then back in the fall of 2007 local rapper Squid-Key told me about Petey Wheatstraw. "Since you love horror and comedy you will love this film." About a year after that I found it at Walmart in a pack with "The Black Godfather" for $7.50.  Well Petey was worth that money.

Petey was born in the middle of a hurricane. And he looks to be 12 when he is born. As he grows up he becomes super famous and a duo of comedians get jealous. So they put a hit out on Petey. Petey dies and goes to hell. But Satan allows him to come back to Earth.But he has to marry the devil's ugly daughter.

Petey is sent back to Earth.Armed with a magic pimp cane. And we get all kinds of wacky hyjinx.With the rest of the film has Petey trying to figure out how to out smart the devil.

My major complaint about the dvd is the back of the case lists all kinds of extras.And none of them are on the dvd. All we get is the film and the barely over an hour documentary "The Legend of Dolemite".

Petey Wheatstraw the Devil's Son in Law gets a A.