31 Days of Horror 2016 Day 05 Something Weird Video Extra Weird Sampler

Title-Something Weird Video Extra Weird Sampler
Source-Something Weird Video/Image DVD

I have always enjoy collections of movie trailers. Lots of the time the trailer is better than the film. And growing up seeing stuff like Mad Ron's previews from hell,or whatever that tape was titled,and other collections like them I feel in love with the idea of a tape or DVD jam packed with piles of horror/cult movie trailers.

The above pictured disc has over 100 trailers on it. Which works out to 4 hours IIRC of stuff to watch. I first heard of this collection when IIRC Borders got in a bit of trouble because of it. Image/Something Weird Video made a special edition for Borders,the only difference I know of is that version has the Borders' logo on the front cover in the bottom right corner. The deal was if you bought one Something Weird Video dvd from Borders you would get a copy of this trailer collection for free. Well in some Borders stores if you bought any DVD they gave you a copy of this collection. Well some kid ended up with a copy. And since lots of the trailers on this collection are for R rated or Unrated films the kid's parents raised a stink and Borders just pulled all the copies.

Since I had no Borders near me I ended up buying a copy off Amazon. Brand new it was 4 bucks. Which it was totally worth. Many a nights I have thrown this into my player and fell asleep listening to the various trailers.

Sure not all the trailers are in the best shape. But that doesn't matter to me. Just getting to see trailers for films like Asylum of Satan or Please Don't eat my Mother,which is a softcore porn version of Little Shop of Horrors,is worth having a  few trailers look a little beat up.

Something Weird Video Extra Weird Sampler gets a A+

31 Days of Horror 2016 Film 04 Cabin Fever Remake

Title-Cabin Fever
Source-VOD rip

Yep I have now watched this shitstain of a film 2 times.Still wondering why the fuck anyone thought we needed a fairly close shot for shot,word for word remake of a film that came out right at 14 years ago.

I figure if you are reading this you know the plot of the original Cabin Fever. All I noticed that was changed was a few scenes happened in different places. And small things like the pancakes kid is wearing a mask in this version. Or Paul has sex with what was Cerina Vincent in the original,this time in the kitchen instead of one of the bedrooms. Also Deputy Winston is now a woman. Yeah that is pretty much the only differences I noticed.

The gore is halfway well done. The acting is not good. And the film is just un-needed.

Cabin Fever remake gets a F+.

2016 Comic Challenge 252 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special

TITLE-Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special
PUBLISHER-Avatar

The short time that Avatar had TCM and a few other modern horror franchises there was so many good horror comics that came out.It seems like no one read most of this stuff.

This special is pretty much TCM meet Last House on the left. We get a bootleg Krug and company vs the Remakes Chainsaw family. Good levels of gore and fun homages a plenty.

Brian Pulido wrote the issue and Jacen Burrows did the pencils and  inks. The art was nice. Burrows has a good mix of pretty standard stuff that explodes in displays of gore.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Special gets a buy.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Film 03 Savage Weekend

Title-Savage Weekend
Source-Blu Ray

This is kind of a forgotten proto-slasher from the early 70s. I had never heard of it. Then on one of Mill Creeks 50 horror films in one huge boxsets I discovered it. This battered cropped and what I found out later on severely cut film caught my attention. And now thanks to the above pictured Blu ray you can see this oddity in it's original theatrical version.

Set in what I am guessing is upstate New York,a group of 5 young adults from the city go on vacation. Were after the gay member of this group gets the best of a bar full of rednecks,we find out that mentally challenged handyman Otis,William Sanderson in a very early role,has a history of violence. And not long after this we get a series of strangely shot and scored kills.And these kills are fairly bloody and for the early 70s halfway graphic.

This is a somewhat slowly paced film. But for me it was never slow enough it got boring.Every 7 minutes or so something was happening to keep me interested. I am betting Sanderson took some of this Otis role and used it when he was on the 80s sitcom Newhart.Also of interest is that Yancy Butler has a small role in this as one of the 5's daughter.

Since this blu has come out I am starting to see an increase in interest in this fairly fun,but a bit slow proto-slasher.

Savage Weekend gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Film 02 The Curse

Title-The Curse
Source-VHS rip

I remember hearing bits and pieces about this film when it came out. But I never saw it for rent at any video store I belonged to. After a few years of hoping one of the local rental places would get it in I just gave up.  It wasn't until last fall that I tracked down a copy. Sure it was  a VHS rip,but it looked decent and I wasn't about to shell out the price of a DVD when I had no clue if I would enjoy the film.

The plot is pretty much a modernization of the HP Lovecraft story The Colour out of Space.At a farm owned by Sheriff Lobo from BJ & the Bear a meteor lands. And it quickly disappears and ends up draining down into the water supply.

At first this seems to be a good thing. All the fruit and vegetables on the farm are huge. But Lobo's stepkids keep talking about how the water taste funny. And then the mother starts acting strange. Like when she is darning a sock and ends up sewing the sock to her hand.

The FX work in the film is pretty good. The acting is damn good. And earlier this year Curse  and Curse II came out on a nice looking Blu Ray from Scream Factory.

The Curse gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2016 Film 01 Transylvania Twist

TITLE-Transylvania Twist
SOURCE-VHS

I use to always get this horror/comedy mixed up with the horror/comedy Transylvania 6500.With the passing of Angus Scrimm I have been trying to watch every film he was in. And managed to track down a copy of this movie.

What we get is a parody film in the style of Airplane or Naked Gun. Not in the style of the Scary Movie series. So the humor doesn't rely way too much on the audience going "Oh yea I remember that film."

The cast is what saves this film from being just another small release late 80s horror movie. You got Teri Copley as the lead. Angus Scrimm playing the Tall Man again. And in a nice touch Boris Karloff shows up. Using footage from what I assume is the Terror.

I have no idea how hard finding a copy of this film would be. But I wouldn't pay more than $5 for it. While it is funny. It is nothing that you should make a huge effort to get a copy of.

Transylvania Twist gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2016 Intro

Hi everyone. As long time readers of this blog know,pretty much every year I watch 31 horror movies/tv shows in October and post a review each day. Most years I start planning out what films/tv shows I am going to watch as early as spring.

But this year ...well around that time a friend of mine passed. Brandon "Fucker from Hell" Lee was his name. No this isn't Bruce Lee's son. Brandon AKA Fucker was a person I met 6 years ago on a horror forum. At first all of us there figured he as mid 20s. Mostly based on the films he watched liked. It wasn't until he posted a link to a video on Youtube that we learned that Fucker,his name on the forum was The Fucker from Hell,was at the oldest 16.

Unlike most people his age he had a passion for horror. And he wasn't satisfied by the stuff coming out at the time to the theaters. He was going back and watching older stuff. Which is rare for someone his age.

Over the next 6 years I got to know Brandon fairly well. Like myself ,he was also up all night. So many times at 3am him and I would be chatting about whatever we had saw recently.

A few years ago he started doing his own version of 31 days of horror. But instead of written reviews he did them as videos. Fucker wasn't afraid to go against what most horror fans thought. Plus his passion for cinema of any genre kept growing.

The last time I talked to him,we were suggesting films for the other to do during the 31 Days of Horror. He seemed to be really excited to do more video reviews and was in the middle of trying to watch 900 movies in the year 2016.

About a week later I had just gotten home. Was out on my porch eating dinner and checking my email. When I saw a message from a mutual friend of Brandon and I. It seems that the day after I talked to Brandon he died. He was 21 or 22. I still do not know the cause of death. All I have been told was it was sudden and unexpected.

When Brandon died the online horror fan community lost a great person.Sure he was a bit odd. But I gotta admire him for many reasons.Like how he refused to illegally download or stream a movie. In his mind doing that was being disrespectful to everyone that worked on that film. Think about it how many people in their early 20s have never watched an illegally obtained film? I am betting it is a tiny number. As I mentioned before Brandon sometimes had views on horror that went against the horror hivemind. Like how he didn't get why people hated the remake of Psycho. "It is a shot for shot remake of the original. So why would anyone love the original and not also at least like the remake?" Then there was his love of Dimension films. One of Brandon's favorite horror films was Dracula 2000. He loved all three films in that series. But the first one was his favorite of the three. Or how he was one of the few people I know that enjoyed Halloween Resurrection.Not to long after Brandon had passed I was talking to his mother. And she mentioned how he loved that movie so much he kept a poster of it hanging over his bed. So it was the first thing he saw each morning.

This years 31 Days of Horror is my tribute to Brandon. Every year since I have known him he would read each review as it appeared online. Then would talk to me about it. Debating on various things in each film. And I looked forward to seeing what he had to say about the films I watched.I am gonna miss not hearing his thoughts on whatever films/tv shows I review this year.

RIP Brandon "The Fucker from Hell" Lee,I hope that where ever you are you got a steady supply of new films to watch. You were truly one of a kind sir. And anyone that got to know you feels the loss of you not being around anymore.

2016 Comic Challenge 251 Alien Encounters #04

TITLE-Alien Encounters #04
PUBLISHER-Eclipse comics

I love anthology comics. And this is one of the best 80s Sci Fi anthology titles. Originally it was published by Pacific Comics. Until the name Alien Worlds.When Pacific went under Eclipse brought it back under a new name.

This issue has 3 stories. And they are a nice blend of various sub genres of Science Fiction. You get a serious story,followed by a comedy story,followed by a story that would have fit perfectly in Weird Science from EC.

Of course this being an anthology title you never knew from issue to issue how it would be. This issue turned out to be damn good. With the great Gardener Fox writing one of the stories.

Alien Encounters #04 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 250 Hellstorm Prince of Lies #01

TITLE-Hellstorm Prince of Lies #01
PUBLISHER-Marvel Comics

During the early to mid 90s comic boom lots of odd titles came out. Hellstorm was the one that stood out the most to me. I figured when I heard it was coming out it would be similar to the 70s Son of Satan series. Turns out I was wrong.Instead of the standard superhero stuff Hellstorm felt more like Marvel's attempt to  take a forgotten character and do a Vertigo like series with it.

Hellstorm has his powers back. His wife Patsy Walker is catatonic. And instead of being the hero/anti-hero he was decades ago,he is pretty much pure evil. He has embraced his inner demon.

Rafael Nieves wrote this issue,and the great Michael Bair handles the art chores. Never read much from Nieves,and this is a decent issue. Bair I have loved his art for a long time. But I have always heard he is too slow to do a monthly series.

Since this came from Marvel during the speculator boom of course it has to have a cover gimmick. The gimmick is the cover is made of this odd paper. The solicits referred to it as a parchment cover.I do question the idea of using a gimmick cover on this issue. Mostly cause Damien Hellstorm is a very niche character. Plus there is a segment of the comic fandom that will not read this series because of Damien being the son of Satan.

Another thing that caught my attention was how this issue has the approval of the Comic Code. I seriously doubt they even read the issue. Really this entire series would at least get a PG-13 rating and sometimes going into R rated territory.

Hellstorm Prince of Lies #01 gets a buy.

2016 Comic Challenge 249 New Kids on the Block Chillin' #06

TITLE-New Kids on the Block Chillin' #06
PUBLISHER-Harvey Comics

Back in the early 90s NKOTB were hot. So hot that they got at least 2 comic series from Harvey Comics. About a year ago I found the above issue at a junkstore. Paid the buck the guy wanted for it and tossed it into a box.

The first story starts off with all the New Kids out by the pool Chillin'. And they start talking about what it would have been like to live in the Stone age. So we get a story that is a mixture of New Kids plus Flintstones.

The second story has the New Kids over in Russia.Shit happens and they end up performing in the Russian ballet.

The third story has Danny in a comic shop. And he starts imagining what if he was a super hero. Dyno Danny is his hero name and I haven't seen a super hero this lame since the 60s Mighty Crusaders line.

The final story is a two page about Joey going to the library. And of course all the females freak out.But they can't say anything since you are suppose to be quiet in the library.

I know I am not the target audience for this comic. But even then it is super lame. The art is generic. The stories read like stuff Sid&Marty Krofft turned down.

New Kids on the Block Chillin' #06 gets a PASS!