31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 14 Mail Order Murder the Story of WAVE Productions

 

TITLE-Mail Order Murder The Story of WAVE Productions

SOURCE-Saturns Core Blu Ray

Back in the late 90s I discovered all the great genre mags. Stuff like Cult Movies,Video Watchdog,Videoscope and Alternative Cinema. In AC I started seeing 1 and 2 page ads for WAVE Studios. This was a small low budget production company. Most of their films were custom order stuff. Like you would mail in your idea for a film. And WAVE would tell you how much it would cost to make. And once the film was made you got a copy and WAVE had the rights to sell the film.

Which this lead to lots of oddball fetish films being made. Lots of movies of women being strangled. Or women drowning in quicksand.

I would look at these ads and see 1 or 2 films that sounded worth seeing,I clearly remember there being 2 or 3 films WAVE made that starred 2 super heroines vs cannibals. But it was 25 bucks plus shipping for what was at most a 70 minute movie. Nah ain't gonna drop that kind of cash on a low budget SOV horror/fetish film.

After most of the genre mags I mentioned died off in the early 2000s I forgot about WAVE. Then one day I saw a press release for Mail Order Murder and rushed to order a copy.

The Blu Ray includes the documentary,that goes indepth on WAVE,their cast of regulars and all kinds of great back stories. Plus you get a WAVE anthology film.  And my favorite feature on the Blu ray is the commentary. So much info is in this commentary.

Ever since I was about 10 and learned about a group of pre-teen a few towns over filming their own recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark I have had a interest in low budget cinema. And this documentary helped me understand just what all goes into making a film,even if that film has a budget of 1k.

Mail Order Murder The Story of WAVE Productions gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 13 Duck! The Carbine High Massacre

 
TITLE-Duck! The Carbine High Massacre

SOURCE-Saturns Core Blu Ray

Yep gonna go into a bit of 90s SOV filmage this time,for those that don't know SOV=Shot on Video.

Back not long after the Columbine shootings,William Hellfire and Joey Smack made this movie. They figured if they didn't do it Lifetime would make "A crappy made for TV movie"

Not long after the film came out it was getting lots of press.Mostly people shocked that someone would make a film out of this tragedy,forgetting that films based on real life events was a common thing for decades. Then someone alerted the police that a few of the scenes,that were actually filmed on school property,had William and Joey walking around with legit guns. This got the two directors/writers/stars arrested. But the press caused sales of this film to shoot through the roof. And that money was used to bail them out.

So the film? It is a very over the top parody of the real events. Outside of our two leads everybody else in the film is boiled down to their core essence. Like Erin Brown,aka Misty Mundae,who plays Bible Girl. Or the various actors that play generic jocks.

Back when this came out I heard about it,mostly cause I was reading Alternative Cinema. Was tempted to order a copy. But it was a VHS only release and with shipping would have been 30 bucks. By this time I was use to VHS being sold cheap,mostly cause this was the early days of DVD in the States. 

Skip ahead 4 or so years and thanks to Brian Torrens,AKA Bit Torrent,I got a rip of that VHS. Put it on a drive and never watched it.

Then last years thanks to a review on the RockShockPop site I saw this was hitting blu ray. Wondering how a shot on VHS film would look on Blu ray I ordered a copy. 

I was very surprised at how good the movie looks. Sure it is low budget. But the lighting and sound are pretty good. Plus the Blu Ray is loaded with extras. All kinds of news reports from when the film came out. All kinds of BTS and bonus footage. Plus a really informative commentary with William Hellfire,Joey Smack had passed before this commentary was recorded.

Now back in the late 80s/early 90s I hated SOV horror. More than a few times I would rent a movie,get home and realize it was SOV and usually wouldn't bother watching it. But in the past 20 years I have developed a taste for SOV horror. And this is one of the best SOV Horror I have seen.

Of course if you are easily offended,and if you are boy are you at the wrong blog,avoid this movie. But if you can agree that anything can be mined for comedy,this movie is worth seeing.

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 12 The Town that Dreaded Sundown

 

TITLE-The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976)

SOURCE-Shudder

This is a film I had heard about for years. Never saw it for rent  back when I was in a video store every week renting movies. Never saw it airing on TV. Then during my decade in Southeast Texas I finally saw it. A buddy's mother was an extra in the film. And she happened to have a VHS copy of the movie. I watched it and found the film to be a bit slow.

Skip ahead 22 years and I was flipping through all the streaming services I have. Trying to find something to watch. Saw Shudder had this movie and put it on. This viewing I was glued to the screen.

Based on true events,this is set in the Texarkana area in the mid 40s. A person  wearing what looks  like a flour sack over his head is going to the various places teens would go park and make out. 

This killer ,who still hasn't been caught,killed 8 people over the span of a few months. I'm betting whoever the killer was is dead by now. And I doubt we will ever  learn who the killer was.

Now the cast of the  film is mostly unknowns,with lots of local people making up the non-major parts. The only person in the film I knew was Dawn Wells,best known for being Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. 

The film has a very documentary style feel. There is a narrator,Vern  Steirman,and the scenes of the attacks feel like the re-enactmonts from all the true crime shows that flood the cable tv channels currently.

I've always wondered if Jason's look in Friday the 13th part 2 is inspired by this film. From what I can find The Town that Dreaded Sundown was a cult hit. One of those films that most horror fans had heard of,but one that very few had scene.

Overall the film isn't bad. Sure it is a bit slow paced. And it doesn't contain the over the top violence you expect now from a slasher film.  But if you go into the movie with all that in mind and aren't some ADHD kid you should enjoy it.

The Town that Dreaded Sundown gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 11 Demons 2

 

TITLE-Demons 2

SOURCE-Anchor Bay DVD

First off thank you to CodyLL for sending me this DVD. Pretty sure when this release came out a long ass time ago I bought it. But it appears to be one of my DVDs that came up missing when I moved in 2007.

Spring of 1986 in Italy work began on this sequel to the surprise hit film Demons. Demons had done ok at the US box office and became a cult hit on home video and cable. Both films are produced by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava. Lamberto is the son of famous Italian director Mario Bava, and in the 80s Lamberto got a reputation for making wildly gory films usually with pretty good soundtracks if you are into 80 hard rock and metal.

Speaking of the soundtrack just look at the line up for Demons 2. The Smiths,the Cult,Art of Noise,Dead can Dance and Love&Rockets. That is a good line up of goth rock/alternative rock and just oddball stuff of the era.

Like the first film we get a group of people stuck in a building while they slowly one by one get turned into Demons,usually in bloody gory ways. I love how the pimp from the first film,he was a favorite of mine and my friends back in the day watching that old rental vhs of the first film,is back in this film playing pretty much the same character.  Also you get a young,has to be 10 or so,Asia Argento in what I think is her first acting role.This time instead of being stuck in a theater while a demonic film plays,the cast is stuck in a huge apartment building while this demonic film plays on TV. Causing the demons to come out of the TV screens,I wonder if Ringu was inspired by this.

Yea I know there is blu ray releases of this. But honestly while I do enjoy the first Demons film enough that I will one day get one of the Blus of it,part 2....it isn't bad. But nothing about it screams "HEY GO DROP 30 BUCKS TO HAVE THIS ON BLU RAY!" I will be happy with this DVD.

The DVD looks nice and the dubbed dialogue ain't bad. Pretty sure this is the same dub I saw a long time ago on VHS. Anchor Bay has a commentary on the film. It is OK. One draw back is Lamberto Bava either isn't fluent in English or isn't comfortable talking in English for long periods. So there is parts where Bava says something in Italian and somene else translates for him. Besides that tiny thing the commentary is worth checking out. It has so few blank spaces and gives a decent amount of info.

So if you want to see a above average mid 80s Italian gore flick track down a copy of Demons 2. I bet it is streamiing on  some service. 

Demons 2 gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 10 Night of the Animated Dead

 

TITLE-Night of the Animated Dead

SOURCE-WB DVD

I remember ,hell has to be a decade ago,when a bunch of animators went and remade the classic Night of the Living Dead. Having never seen this interesting experiment when I saw the above DVD cover at a local store I just assumed the DVD was that animated remake of NOTLD.

NOPE! This is one animation team doing the entire film. Adding a few extended scenes that aren't in the original. Plus getting a fairly decent cast to do the voices.

The one drawback is the animation in some scenes looks a bit odd,not cheap but just odd. The biggest offender is early on when we see the car heading down the road to the graveyard. The car looks like a low level CGI effect and the rest of the scene looks like fairly decent animation. 

The voice cast is packed with names and people that should be names. First off doing various voices you got the late Kirk Baily. Best known to people over 30 as Ug Lee on Salute your shorts. He had a decent career doing voice work. Dule Hill,currently the father on  the Wonder Years reboot,is Ben and manages to sound a bit like the original actor but not a total clone. Josh Duhamel,best known to me for being on the show Las Vegas,is Harry Cooper. As Barbara the film has horror scream queen Katharine Isabelle. She was Ginger in Ginger Snaps and also been in a pile of horror films.Nancy Travis is perfectly cast as Harry's wife Helen.

Two voices that surprised me,cause I had no clue they did voice work,was Katee Sackhoff as Judy. Now that I know she is voicing Judy I can tell it is her. The other is Will  Sasso,yep the MadTV dude,as Sheriff McClelland. 

I know of some indie filmmakers that gripe about people remaking stuff like NOTLD,me I don't care if someone remakes it. For me each remake is a new way to view one of my favorite horror movies. Yea at full list price this DVD ain't worth it. But I keep seeing this marked down to 8 bucks or so. Which isn't a bad deal.

As far as extras on the disc all you have is  making of. It is shortish. And really feels like one of those EPK you would see on mid 80s HBO between films.

Night of the Animated Dead gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 09 Willy's Wonderland

 

TITLE-Willy's Wonderland

SOURCE-Hulu

Few years back I watched and reviewed the Banana Splits movie for 31 days of horror. A film I enjoyed but people were really split on. Then last year I started hearing about a new film. One were Nic Cage is the lead,is silent through out the film. And this film has a premise similar to Banana Splits.

Cage is a drifter. His car gets a flat in a rural town.A crooked auto repair man tells him he can fix the car but since Cage has almost no cash to pay for the repairs he has to stay the night inside a closed children's eatery Willy's Wonderland is the name of the place. Cage will get locked in and spend the entire night cleaning the place up.

We find out that Willy's which is like Chuck E Cheese was a big thing back in the 80s thru mid 90s. Then closed. but the founder was an evil killer. And all the animatronics at Willy's are evil and alive. So the townsfolk set traps to get drifters to be "fed" to the evil Willy and his gang of animal killer robots.

I was really surprised at how good this was. Yea I know this film and Banana Splits film got made cause of how popular the horror video game Five Nights at Freddys is. I was a young child when places like Showbiz Pizza and Chuck E Cheese opened up. Sure the robot animals were part of the reason I wanted to goto these places,but the main draw to me was the huge selection of video games. Back about 10 years ago I took my cousins then young sons to a near by Chuck E Cheese. The pizza wasn't worth a crap and while we were given a pile of tokens to play the games ,all but 2 of the games were just ticket redemption machines.

The FX work in this is really good. Nice realistic looking gore. Plus the robots looks well made. Like something you would see at a kid's birthday party in 1990.

Nic Cage is great as Janitor,yea his name is never given,he never talks so the credits just list him as Janitor. The rest of the cast is decent. 

If this is on a streaming app you have access too it is worth watching.  Hell it is one of the better modern horror films with Cage.

Willy's Wonderland gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 08 Santo&Blue Demon vs Dr Frankenstein

TITLE-Santo&Blue Demon vs Dr Frankenstein

SOURCE-Ultimo Guapo fansubbed mp4 file

A  few years back during 31 days of horror I covered a Santo film. And it was cause of Santo movies that I got into the Lucha Libre style of pro wrestling.

Now for years most of the home video releases of Santo,and Blue Demon,movies were badly dubbed sometimes edited down. Plus looked like a 5th genertaion dub of a EP mode VHS.

There has been a few attempts to put out in the States good cleaned up dvds of some of the Santo films. Usually with the films subtitled and including a few extras. Plus the prints used for these DVDs appeared to have gotten a bit of clean up done to them.

But even with this happening there is still piles of this films that you can't get legit copies of,well legit copies that are either subbed or dubbed in English. And sure I took 2 years of Spanish in high school,over 30 years ago,but my Spanish skills aren't good enough to tranlate the films. So you gotta hope that some amazing fan out there has fansubbed these films. Thankfully over the past 20 years I have been finding fansubbed copies of most of the Santo and/or Blue Demon films. 

The one I am covering today is Santo y Blue Demon contra el doctor Frankenstein (Santo&Blue Demon vs Dr Frankenstein). It is from 1974 directed by Migel M.Delgado. Back in 91 when I first learned of the luchadore series of films made in Mexico one of the ones I saw clips of and really wanted to see if this one. You get two Lucha legends and they are fighting Dr Frankenstein. But I never saw a legit release of this on VHS/DVD that had either English dubs or subs. And while I have once or twice watched a Santo film in Spanish and figured out the plot,with this one I didn't feel like having to pause the movie every sentence to try to quickly translate what I had just heard. I doubt it exists now ,but for a few years there was this great blog that was full of links to direct downloads of various fansubbed Mexican films. I saw they had S&BD vs DR Frankenstein and grabbed it. But of course the direct download link was with dropbox and it took 7 hours to grab a 2 gig file. 

Before I get into the film I want to thank the "Ultimo Guapo" sub title group. No idea if they are still around but they are the ones that subbed this film and a few others I got off blog of links. The subs read fairly natural. And I remember seeing people that are way more fluent than I am in Spanish posting comments about how the subs were really close to being perfect translantions. No clue where you would find this version of the film currently. The blog I mentioned got deleted sometime in early 2021. Same day two blogs that had links to various comic book scans got deleted. Heard rumors of who ever ran the blogs getting Cease and desists letters from rights holders. But I bet if you google Ultimo Guapo you might find somewhere/someone that can lead you to the files.

Santo and Blue Demon are our heroic leads. I have always loved how in these films the general public acts like Santo running around in his mask and street clothes is perfectly normal. You know if you put on say a Nacho Libre mask and t shirt and jeans and tried to go buy some milk from Delchamps you would be told to take the mask off or leave. But not in the world these films happen in.Hell Santo and Blue Demon have more power and authority than the cops. Jorge Russek is the Dr Frankenstein. Never seen this actor in anything else. Looking him up doesn't like much else he did has gotten much attention in the States.

The Frankenstein in this film is supposedly the grandson of the famous Dr Frankenstein from the novel/movies. He is kidnapping women and doing all kinds of crazy experiments on them. Like trepaning the ladies so he can then swap out their brains.Rebun Aguirre(as Dr Genaro Molina) is Dr Franks assisstant. This trepanning doesn't work out like Dr Frank and Dr Molina intended. The ladies die. So Genaro talks Frankenstein into having the bodies return to their homes as "the living dead". Using this to create a panic. Which will distract the public,and of course the cops,from all the highly illegal antics our duo of demented doctors are up too.The doctors end up putting devices in these "zombies" so they can control them remote control style. 

So what is the two Drs big plan they are wanting to keep people distracted with these robot zombies? LOL they want to kidnap Santo and place Santo's brain in a monster the doctors have made. Then making an army of killer monsters that are as tough and fast as Santo.

Now going into any of these Santo films you gotta be ready for them to be a bit cheesy and cheap feeling. And even oness made in the 70s feel like something from the 40s or 50s. They are films for when you want some action and rather not think too much. With this one adding some elements of horror and science fiction. You also gotta be ready for at least 1 wrestling match each film. This one has Santo tagging up with Blue Demon. And isn't to bad. 

Overall this is one of the best Santo "horror" films I have seen. The plot is pretty decent. It looks better than most of them. Plus the two Doctors are so good. With Genaro stealing every scene he is in.

Santo&Blue Demon Vs Dr Frankenstein gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 07 My Bloody Birthday

                                   

TITLE-My Bloody Birthday AKA Clownery

SOURCE-ITN DVD

So over the last year I noticed that the local Walmart always has 4 to 8 DTV new release horror films for sale. Usually being around 8 bucks each. Having a slipcase,that is the same as the DVD cover. The covers have a similar look to them. Almost always the films are from the UK or Europe. Have no extras besides a trailer. And these have become the new "Wizard big box vhs on the shelf at Video Showboat". You never know if you are gonna get a good movie,like you did with Demons back in the mid 80s,or if you are gonna get a piece of shit,like piles of Bruno Matei films also in the mid 80s.

With My Bloody Birthday you get a mixture of both. For every just strange as fuck dream/nightmare like scene of what I think is the director's clown fetish on screen there is something that is so just bad it takes balances out the good of the nightmare clown fetish stuff. The sound and music is pretty good. Which might be cause this is an Italian film. Most of those Euro Horrors I grabbed off the video store shelf,from Argento,Soavi and Fulci,had great scores and sound design. 

The makeup and gore FX is pretty good. Appearing to be mostly practical. Hell from what I can see the film was shot in English,which depending on the person the bad dubbing either helped or hindered those Euro Horrors in the 70s/80s. On this one being shot in English depends on the actor/actress. The lead actress Kateryna KorChynska is pretty damn good. I mean it is obvious English isn't her first language.

 But once you get use to the sometimes odd ways she phrases things or says certain words you notice how she is doing great as a young lady. One who had something so tragic happen at a childhood birthday party that she refuses to celebrate her birthday anymore. Now she is 21 and keeps seeing creepy clowns all over the places. Clowns that only she sees.

The rest of the cast are decent. Just keep in mind that this is the modern version of say renting Stage Fright from Phar More Video in 1990. Know going in that there will be things that make no sense. Just let the nightmarish visuals and sometimes really well done music stings and score wash over you.

My Blood Birthday gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 06 Just Before Dawn

 

TITLE-Just Before Dawn

SOURCE-Shudder Streaming Service

Over the past 30+ years I would hear about this film. How it is a forgotten slasher and this great film that so few had seen. Somehow I have missed the multiple DVD releases of it.

A group of 5 young adults head up to the top of a mountain. One of these 5 has inherited some land at the top of the mountain. They get warned by George Kennedy to not got up there. Then we get the camp owner from Sleepaway Camp,in a Crazy Ralph role,telling these 5 to turn around and go home.

So why are they being told to leave....well that is cause there is a pair of killer twin inbred hillbillies on the mountain. And our gang of 5 is slowly killed off until all we have left is one couple.  After the final girl kills the last of the killers by shoving her fist down his throat the film ends.

There isn't much gore,the kills are ok at best and none of the characters are that fleshed out. But the film looks good. The setting of the deep woods is well used. 

If you just have to see every 80s slasher track this down. Hell sign up for a free trial of Shudder and watch it. Cause I doubt many people would like this enough to buy a copy.

Just Before Dawn gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 05 Leatherface(2017)

 

TITLE-Leatherface

SOURCE-Digital Copy on Vudu

First off thanks to Bat32 of Exploited Cinema and Weird World Publishing for hooking me up with the digital copy code for this film many years ago. I redeemed the code and then didn't bother watching the film for at least 2 years.

Now I love the original TCM film from 1974. And usually I end up enjoying the sequels to that film. Leatherface,and I hate how this has an almost indentical name to the third film in the franchise,is an odd piece of film from this franchise. It serves as a prequel to the original film. And it is in continuity with that film and Texas Chainsaw 3d.

After Texas Chainsaw 3d did fairly well in theaters Lionsgate quickly wanted to make another film. This prequel was supposed to be filmed in Louisiana,lots of films are made there cause the state provides film tv shows lots of tax breaks,and was gonna be an origin story for Leatherface. Instead for various reasons the film was made in Bulgaria. And cause of how long it took to be made the studio lost the rights to make future films in the series.

So how is the movie? Imagine if Natural Born Killers and the original TCM had a kid. But this kid got mostly the bad shit from each parent. After a start where we see Leatherface's family fighting  off some people we skip to a mental hospital. Where we know that the teen that will become Leatherface is. All the patients at this hospital are renamed. A young nurse is falling in love with a patient. Leatherface's mother shows up and is denied the right to see her son. She starts a riot and in this a few of the patients escape.

You go the young nurse,who is held hostage. A tall silent hulking guy. Who you look at and think that has to be Leatherface. And Jackson the guy the nurse was falling for. A fairly nice looking dude. Along with others from the hospital they all go on the run.

The cops are after them. And the cops quickly learn that Leatherface is one of the patients that escaped. Of course we are all thinking that Bud,the tall silent guy,is Leatherface. NOPE. There's a twist. Bud dies and Jackson gets a nasty face injury. Which isn't taken proper care of. And boom this is who becomes Leatherface.

Now until this movie I had always been able to see each TCM movie in a theater. Saw the original at a drive in when I was young in the mid 70s. Saw the unrated 2nd film at a theater thanks to one of my favorite uncles. I even saw the horrid part 4 ,sure I had to drive from near Houston TX to Austin to do this.  Sadly Leatherface got such a limited theatrical release there was no way I could see it in a theater.

While the gore in this is pretty good,the story is shit. I feels more like a cops chasing the evil killers movie than a TCM film.  And if Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation didn't exist this would be the worst film in the franchise. 

From what I can find this film was a huge bomb. And so disliked that it cause the next film in the series,which came out years later,to be another reboot of the series continutity.

Leatherface gets a D-