31 Days of Horror Day 30 Curse of Chucky

Curse of Chucky
2013
Universal Blu Ray

A return to the feel of the original Child's Play,part 6 turned out to be way better than I expected. When I heard it was going straight to VOD and disc I was worried.. I got this and sat on it for almost a year.

The film starts with a very pretty young lady,who is in a wheelchair,getting a package in the mail. It is of course Chucky.She lives in this old mansion with her mother. But the Mom dies.

So her sister shows up. Along with her husband,daughter and Nanny.They want to sell the house and have the handicapped sister move into a assisted care home. When asked why they want to sell the house so quick the rich sister answers with "We are almost broke. Our daughter might end up having to goto public school!" Which of course made me laugh and strongly dislike the rich sister.

For the first 30 minutes of the film we keep gettign hints that the father and the attractive nanny have something going on. Then we learn that it is the mother and nanny that got something going on.

Of course Chucky starts killing people. And I keep wondering why Chucky was mailed to this young lady. I see no connection to Andy from the first 3 or really any connection to parts 4 and 5. But before the end all is revealed.

One last thing,like what happens with lots of modern film we get a scene during the credits. And it is totally worth saying around to see.

Curse of Chucky gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror Day 29 A Lure Teen fight club

A Lure Teen Fight Club
2010
Echo Bridge 20 pack DVD

With these Echo Bridge 20 packs most of the time I pick out what film to watch by 2 things. One is the title of the film. The other is who is in the cast. Well this film a interesting title. But there is no one in the cast I had heard of.

A reporter goes undercover at a high school. Where lots of members of the girls lacrosse team keep disappearing.She quickly gets in with the popular crowd. And then learns why the girls are vanishing.

This is barely a horror film. What is happening is the rich people in the town gather at this old barn. Where the kidnapped girls are forced to fight each other. The reporter is put into the ring with what appears to be a 8 foot tall Asian lady. Reporter lady manages to defeat her. But once the Asian woman is laying down on the mat you can tell she is barely over 5 foot.

What surprised me is I went in expecting some cheesy kills and a bunch of nudity. I got neither of them.

A Lure Teen Fight Club gets a F.

31 Days of Horror Day 28 Friday the 13th comic books

Over the years 3 companies have published comics based on the popular Friday the 13th series of slasher films.

This is the first Friday the 13th comic book. Published by Topps comics in July,August and September of 1993, it is based on an early draft of the script. There is a few  scenes that are different from the theatrical and uncut versions. I got these when they first came out. With the glow in the dark cover on issue 1 being one that I hung on my bedroom wall years. The artwork isn't that great. But I have seen much worse.  For years I found this and the next series I will talk about in the cheap bins. Then sometime in the early 2000s the prices started going up. I must assume that this and the other Jason comic Topps put out didn't have huge print runs. Unless you are a Jason completest I would say to skip this series. Jason Goes to Hell mini series gets a C+.

Coming out two years later,Jason Vs Leatherface from what I can remember was a total bomb. My comic shop was ordering 2 copies of each issue. One copy for me,and one to put on the rack. Splatterpunk author Nancy A Collins writes the story and Jeff Butler handles the interior artwork. The covers are by Simon Bisley,I wish he had also did the interiors. Not that Butler's artwork is bad.

The story seems to start sometime after either Friday the 13th part 6 or 7. With Jason stranded in the bottom of Crystal Lake. Some big corp drains the lake and through some fluke accidents Jason ends up on a train bound to Mexico. He gets out in Texas and meets up with the Sawyer family. Where him and Leatherface quickly bond. By the last issue we get what we have been waiting on, a huge fight between Jason and Leatherface.

Out of the two Jason series from Topps this is the hardest to find. Since getting my copies as they were coming out in the fall of 1995 and early 1996,I have only seen  6 copies in person. Both times it was at a con. And both times the dealers were selling them as a set. IIRC the sets were going for $40. Jason VS Leatherface gets a B.

About a decade after  Topps published there two Jason mini series Avatar took over the license. For those that don't know Avatar is a company known for publishing very gory and violent comics.So  a Jason comic from them seems like a natural fit.

Friday the 13th Jason VS Jason X is a direct sequel to the Jason X movie. Written and drawn by Mike Wolfer this 2 issue series has the nanobots rebuilding Jason's body.And he ends up on Earth 2 fighting Jason X. The story is good for what it is. And the art is not bad. The best part about this series is since it is a comic and it is coming from a company that likes to push the boundries,we get a gorefest.

I have no idea how hard it would be to find these 2 issues. But I doubt you would have to pay more than cover price. One thing Avatar does is puts out lots of covers for each comic. I put the wraparound covers above. Friday the 13th Jason VS Jason X gets a B-.

While Avatar published more Jason comics none of them stand out to me. So on to the next company that got the Jason/Friday the 13th license.

In 2007 Wildstorm,which by then was a sub imprint of DC comics,got the Jason license. And they put out a bunch of Jason comics. The first one I want to talk about is also the best from them I have read so far.

This 2 issue series is written by Marc Andreyko with Shawn Moll handling the art chores.Remember the scene in the original Friday the 13th where a hitchhiker is picked up by Ms Voorhies. We find out in this series that while the hitchhiker is in the Jeep,Ms Voorhies is telling her ,her life story. We get to find out lots of Ms Voorhies and Jason's backstory. I am kind of surprised there hasn't been a film in the franchise that filled in all this backstory.

Since this came out from Wildstorm it is really easy to find. I think it and another of the Jason series from Wildstorm have been combined into a trade. But I see back issues of this all the time at cons or in comic shops. And they are always at cover price or under.This is my favorite Jason comic so far. And I really love the cover artwork. Which reminds me of the art on all the issues of Fables. Friday the 13th Pamela's Tale gets an A.

This 2 issue mini is penned by Jason Aaron. With Adam Archer doing the pencils. Once again the summer camp at Crystal Lake is reopened. One the first page we are introduced to a young pre-teen. He suffers from a disfiguring disease,that will cause him to die before he hits 18. Since he doesn't look normal all the other kids,and some of the asshole counselors pick on him and bully him. But then Jason shows up. Kills the bullies and assholes and takes our poor disfigured outcast with him.

I love the idea of Jason,like he did in Jason VS Leatherface,bonding with another outcast. Jason Aaron is a writer that I just started reading his stuff this year, And everything has been great. The art by Archer is serviceable. Friday the 13th How I spent my Summer Vacation gets a B.

Currently no comic company has the rights to make Jason comics. I wish someone had them. There is so much they can do in the comics that are cost prohibitive in films.If any of these series sounded interesting I would suggest checking www.comicbookdb.com for more information. The Wildstorm stuff was put out in trade paperbacks. Which your local library should be able to get in for you using Inter Library Loan. One last thing before I end this. Since these are comics and not under the eye of the MPAA the violence level and gore level are fairly high. With all these series if they had been made into films they would have had to been cut to get an R rating. So if you have kids that are into horror and comics you might want to thumb through these first to see if they are too violent and gory for your children,

31 Days of Horror Day 27 Horror Hosts

Last year for 31 days of Horror I reviewed a documentary about American horror hosts.

American Scary a documentary about Horror Hosts

The first horror host I saw was Sgt Graves.He was a zombie of a Confederate Army soldier. He was on the air for at least 5 years. Airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. He would show two films. Most of the time I could manage to stay awake for the first film. But would have to record the second one. I can find no info on him on the internet. Even talking to people from the area that are my age,only one of them remembers Sgt Graves. If you are reading this and remember him please leave a comment at the bottom.

The next Horror host I saw,has to be the most famous of the modern era. Elvira,it was Halloween night. I got home around 9pm from trick or treating. While I was sitting on the floor going through all my candy,my father saw that on WPMI Channel 15 Night of the living dead was showing. I had never seen it. So he said I could stay up past my bedtime to watch it. I think I was 7 or maybe 8 at the time. We flipped the channel and I got to see Elvira for the first time. During this time she had her syndicated show Elvira's Movie Macabre. I do not think what I saw that night was part of movie macabre. But she was showing the colorized version of the original NotlD. And I sat on the floor,not moving,not talking,totally engrossed in the film. After the end of the film,Elvira came back on and said she was going to show the Vincent Price classic House on Haunted Hill next. My dad was nice enough to let me stay up to watch it also. So I got to stay up to 1am and watch another great horror film. After this I didn't see Elvira again until the "Elvira Mistress of the dark" movie came out.

Thankfully when she revived Movie Macabre my local CW network picked it up. At first it was airing at 10:30pm Saturday nights. But after a month or so she got moved to midnight. Then to 1am. Using my set top DVD recorder I recorded all but 2 of the episodes. The only thing that sucked about the new Movie Macabre was she only showed Public domain films. Since the original show,the tv rights to lots of the types of films she would show had gone sky high. Sadly after one season Movie Macabre was cancelled. Elvira is back on HULU now. She is showing mostly Full Moon Studio films. But they are free. Plus I hear she is showing NotLD again. I might have to watch that one again.

Right after Thanksgiving 1990 cable tv finally made it's way to the super rural community I lived in. Instead of offering HBO or Cinemax like every other cable company,Rural Cablevision only offered Showtime and TMC. Being the movie nut I am I offered to pay the monthly fee for both. The first weekend we had cable I was flipping channels and saw Job Bob Briggs for the first time. Joe Bob got his start reviewing the films he saw at various Texas drive ins in a newspaper. Then sometime in the 80s TMC offered him a weekly show. Each Saturday he would show a film. I made it a point every weekend to either watch the show or record it. The only of these recordings I still have is when every weeknight at 10pm on Showtime Joe Bob would show a different Emanuelle movie.

I guess not many people saw this show,because when I mention Joe Bob to most people they talk about his TNT show Monstervision. Which I never cared for. Mostly because since it aired on TNT all the films were edited for content. Earlier this year I got a dvd that is a Joe Bob's Drive in theater episode where he shows the Night of the Living Dead remake. And before and after the film he has most of the cast of the original on the show for a Q&A segment.

Once I got online in the mid 90s I started looking up stuff on horror hosts. By the early 2000s I had found a horror host website. But it had no info on Sgt Graves. And no one I talked to remembered there every being a horror host in MS. And until March of 2010 I thought MS had never had a horror host. I went to Coastcon. Saw in the programming guide that Saturday at 3pm they were screening Night of the Living Dead. I figured what the hell I will go watch it before going out to eat with some friends. I get there and find out it is an episode of what I think is the only horror host in MS history.

Margali hosted a show on a station out of Jackosn MS for a good number of years. The episode with NotlD never aired. She was already at Coastcon that year to help judge the costume contest. And for the first time ever her NotLD episode was shown. After the screening I got to meet and talk to Margali. She was really nice. And she told me she still had all her episodes. "Newt if you are willing to pay for postage I will make you copies of all my episodes." I gave her my email address and asked her to email me once she got the copies made. With my plan being to pay her postage and a bit more for them. I guess she forgot cause I never heard back from her. But at least now I know that Mississippi had it's own horror host. And it was fairly recent.

The horror host website Margali told me about had a huge section on Count Gore De Vol. He is based in the Washington DC area. And was the first horror host to go over to the internet. Almost every week he has up an new episode, Sometimes it is a movie,with most movies he divides them into 3 or 4 parts. Or it is a short film. But even when the films are total shit ,the Count's host segments are entertaining.

Count Gore De Vol's website

Back in March one of the torrent sites I visit got a new uploader. He was uploading episodes of Svengoulie off MeTV. Sven has been around for since 1979. And is the second actor to play Sven. He seems to have a deal to show lots of Universal horror films. Since March I have gotten ahold of over 20 episodes of his show from the MeTV airings. Each episode besides giving us some back history on the film,he reads the mail. Then in the final segment answers the door of his crypt. Tells some bad jokes and each show ends with him going to his casket as people off the screen throw rubber chickens at him. Just the other night I watched Sven's airing of Abbot and Costello meet Jekyl and Hyde. Then 2 days ago I watched Murders in the Rue Morgue episode.

I hope everyone enjoyed me blathering on about Horror hosts.

31 Days of Horror Day 26 Pandemonium

Pandemonium
1982
VHS Rip

Found a copy of this on Youtube and grabbed it. Hadn't seen it but once years ago on vhs. But all I could remember was Paul Reubens and Tom Smothers. We get a very early 80s parody of horror films.

Set at a cheerleader school,where two of the students are Judge Reinhold and Carol Kane,we find out that years prior there was a series of killings happening.Of course being a mystery we get piles of red herrings.

So we get a horror/comedy/murder mystery. Which is damn entertaining. I am really surprised this hasn't gotten a DVD release so far.

Pandemonium gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror Day 25 Venom

Venom
2005
Echo Bridge 20 Pack DVD

Another of those hey it's 20 films for $5 packs. Venom caught my eye cause of the setting.Set in the bayous of Louisiana,Venom is a fairly fun and well done voodoo movie.

A woman has a suitcase full of snakes. That are possessed. One of them attacks and possesses the driver of a tow truck. And he hunts down a group of young adults.

The FX work is really good. The story and acting are well done. I really have no idea why this film isn't better known.Maybe it is because the only "name" in the cast was Bijou Philips.

I have always been interested in films dealing with voodoo. And this film doesn't disappoint.Plus with it being in a 20 pack of films that cost me $5. I only paid a quarter for the film. I wouldn't mind a DTV sequel to this film. But it has been what 10 years since this came out and we haven't gotten one yet.

Venom gets an A-.

31 Days of Horror Day 24 Child's Play

Child's Play
1988
Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition MGM DVD

Finally after years I got a copy of the first of the long running Child's Play series. Years back I bought the one collection that had the 2nd,3rd,4th and 5th film. I looked for the first film,but the only copies I found were always full frame. Then I got Curse of Chucky. Well around the beginning of October I was grabbing my groceries and saw this 20th birthday edition for $5. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it was widescreen.

One I got home I looked and it is loaded with extras. Three commentaries,yeah I know I am a commentary addict.And a handful of entertaining featurettes.

The film is about a single mother. And her son who really wants a Good Guy doll for X-mas. But like the mid 80s Cabbage Patch Doll craze they are next to impossible to find. A serial killer's soul ends up in a Good Guy doll. And through a journey young Andy ends up with the doll.

Out of all the Chucky films this is the best. With Curse of Chucky being almost as good. What makes those two stand out is they are actually scary. Child's Play stands out of a packed field of 80s horror because of the good acting and well done doll effects.

Child's Play gets a B+

31 Days of Horror Day 23 Tales of the Dead Grim Stories of curses,horror and gore

Tales of the Dead
2010
Freakshow Cinema 12 movie pack from Mill Creek Entertainment

5 long time friends gather on Halloween to tell scary stories. I have always had a fondness for horror anthology films. Much like I love collections of horror novellas and short stories. From listening to the various accents I must assume the cast is mostly from the UK .

The first story is about a middle age woman that is unhappy with her body. She goes to see a plastic surgeon who tells her can not do the surgery she wants. At the end we find out she wants her limbs removed. And now has found someone to do it. We see someone armed with a saw cutting her legs off. Not bad really. Wasn't too short,wasn't too long.

The second story is about a teenager that daydreams a bunch. Once funny scene has him in the shower thinking he is getting attacked Psycho style. And it is just his mom handing him a bottle of shampoo.

The rest of the stories are very forgettable.Really I just finished watching it and can't remember shit about them. If my math is right,and since I went to Mississippi public schools I doubt it is,this film cost me around 44 cents.

Tales of the Dead gets a F+.

31 Days of Horror Day 22 Afterlife with Archie

Afterlife with Archie issues 1-5
Archie Comics

Yeah I am cheating. This isn't a review of a film. It is ,as it should be obvious,a review of a handful of comics.

I heard all the hype about Afterlife with Archie last year. And thought "meh Archie plus zombies doesn't sound that fun." So I skipped it.

Then about a week ago I was loaned the first 6 issues to read. After one issue I was hooked.

The first issue starts off with Jughead rushing to see Sabrina. Someone has hit Hotdog with a car and killed him. So Jughead begs Sabrina to use her magic to bring him back to life. She tells him she can't. But later that night she steals a powerful spell book from her Aunts. And uses it to bring Hotdog back.

But of course shit hits the fan. Hotdog comes back as a zombie dog. He bites Jughead. And Zombie Jughead attacks the Riverdale High School Halloween dance. Where we get a very emotional scene as Jughead bites Big Ethel.

Thanks to Archie and Betty most of the teens escape and end up in the Lodge Mansion. All seems to be ok. There is plenty of food and water. The mansion has amazing security. But Archie is worried about his parents. So he sneaks out. He is at his house when he runs into Hotdog. And in a scene that caused me to almost tear up,we get to see Archie's loyal dog Vegas save him from Hotdog. After having to fight off his now zombified father Archie and his mother make it back to the Lodge mansion.

Where we find out that Moose's longtime girlfriend Midge has been scratched by Jughead. So she turns. Also we see that Jughead is leading a herd of zombies to the mansion. Issue 5,which is the last issue of what is called book 1,ends with Archie and what is left of the teens escaping into the woods.

Now I love Archie comics. Been reading them for decades now. And I know that over the past 4 or 5 years Archie has been making strides into becoming more current. Like introducing to the main cast the first openly gay character in Riverdale. With Afterlife with Archie they do lots of stuff they haven't done before. Like how this is the first Archie series to be rated for teens. Mostly for the violence. But for a few other things. Like how we find out that two the females in the series are in a secret relationship. And there is one scene where Kevin Keller,the previous mentioned gay character,strongly hints that Reggie is in the closet.

One other thing I loved with these five issues is after the main story we get black and white reprints of pre-code horror comics that MJL published. MJL is what the company now known as Archie Comics was called.

My only nitpick with the series so far is that it looks like this isn't a monthly series. There was a few month gap between the first and second issue.One very minor complaint I have is that the variant covers,one of which is at the top of this post,are much better than the normal covers. But both of those are minor.

Afterlife with Archie has great art combined with amazing moody coloring. Add in the compelling storyline. Which after 2 issues had me more invested in the main cast than The Walking Dead has done in 100 issues. I have no idea how long this is suppose to run. I do plan on buying the trades of the series.

Afterlife with Archie gets a solid A.

31 days of Horror Day 21 Shaded Places

Shaded Places AKA The Giving Tree
2000
Echo Bridge 20 film dvd pack

Got this pack for $5 last year. Was looking for something to watch and saw this had Christina Applegate and Molly Ringwold.The cover and description make this out to be a horror film. But instead we got a bad rip off of the Big Chill.

A group of high school friends reunite one weekend at a house out in the middle of nowhere. The first night there Applegate kills herself. And the rest try to figure out why.

It took me 4 tries to watch this movie. It is so dull I keep falling asleep. Thankfully the 20 movie pack only cost me $5. So I paid what a quarter for this piece of shit.

Shaded Places AKA The Giving Tree gets a F+.