31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 18 Damien The Omen II

 

TITLE-Damien Omen II

SOURCE-Scream Factory Blu Ray

While the original Omen doesn't get the  praise that fellow possession films like Rosemary's baby and The Exorcist get,for me it is the best of those films. 

And while the sequels to Exorcist and Rosemary's baby are hated and shit on Omen 2 isn't. Why is that? Cause it is actually pretty good.

Based somewhat on the second novel in the Omen series. This film skips ahead a bit. Damien is now a pre teen and attending a military school. Where Lance Hendrickson helps young Damien realize what his legacy is.

Now sure this pales when compared to the amazing first film in the series. But it is still much better than mosst people make it out to be. The gore fx are all well done. With some really good kills. Acting is decent. And I like the plot.

The only real drawback to this film is the ending. Since a third film was gonna happen there is no way this film could solve the issue of Damien being the Anti-Christ. 

Scream Factory's Blu Ray has a decent amount of extras. Got a few interviews,two commentaries and a shortish BTS feature. It looks better than it ever has and sounds great.

Damien The Omen II gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 17 Teenage Caveman

 

TITLE-Teenage Caveman (2002 Remake)

SOURCE-Sony DVD

I had pretty much forgotten about this remake. Even though I bought it on VHS back in 2003. But that VHS,an ex-rental copy from Hollywood Video,got ate by a vcr close to 12 years ago. I was looking for something to watch on Youtube. Saw a video titled "The forgotten Larry Clark Horror/Sci Fi movie" and was like "Oh yea I need to find a copy of that film." Went to Amazon and bought one of the last new copies of the DVD they had.

Back in 2002 Cinemax had a pile of old AIP movies remade to premiere on their Saturday night feature. This is like what Showtime did with their Rebel Highway series in 1994,but instead of JD films Cinemax got Sci Fi or Horror films. This series of remakes was dubbed the Creature Features series. Over the 20 years since they originally aired I have managed to see all of them. Pretty sure a few years ago I covered the remake of How to Make a Monster. 

Teenage Caveman,like most of the films in the Creature Features run,is a remake in title and basic premise only. IIRC in the original Teenage Caveman you don't learn that the film is set in a apocolyptic future until near the end of the film. In this remake fairly early on you learn this.

What really surprises me is how this film is forgotten. As I already mentioned it is directed by Larry Clark. Yea the infamous director of Kids,Bully and Ken Park. And well if you know Larry Clark you know that means this film will be packed with nudity and sleaze. 

Andrew Keegan  is the son of the cave tribe's leader. His father rapes Keegan's girlfriend. Keegan kills his father and he is banished from the tribe. So Andrew and a few of his friends stumble on a large city.

They all pass out and when they wake up they are in a solar powered apartment. Where Judith,Tiffany Limos, and Vincent,Stephen Jasso,live. 

Judith and Vincent introduce out teenage cavepeople to excesses of sex and drug and rock n roll. Which leads us to a scene that surprised me, Vincent uses this apartments amazing stereo to play Misfits-Where Eagles Dare. I didn't expect to hear a classic Misfits song when I put this film into my VCR 19 years ago.

Quickly we find out that Judith and Vincent infect  anyone they have sex with . This virus kills whoever has it in a fast and explosive way. Also Vincent and Judith heal from any wound super fast.

By the end it is Andrew Keegan vs Judith and Vincent. And SPOILERS Keegan wins but at what cost?

Yea the film is loaded with nudity,sleaze and has that greasy feel that every Larry Clark has. What surprises me is not only that this Creature Features series of films are forgotten,which is odd cause most of them are in many horror multipack dvd sets,but this is the Larry Clark film that no one seems to remember. Even people that haven't seen his better known films know who Larry Clark is. But this film,nope forgotten.

Teenage Caveman gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 16 Easter Bunny Massacre

 

TITLE-Easter Bunny Massacre

SOURCE-ITN DVD

As I mentioned earlier this month I have become a bit of a fan of the modern DTV horror. So looking for a Easter based horror film earlier this year I saw that cover and yea I had to see this.

Made in the UK this is a slasher. That to me at least rips most of it's plot straight from Slaughter High. A group of friends are hanging out and that night while they are sleeping one of them is killed. So they hide the body,say she ran off. 

Skip ahead a year and they get invited back to where the friend died. And they get killed off by someone wearing a Easter Bunny outfit.

Sure the acting ain't that great. And the plot is something we have seen in piles of slasher films. But there is a few inventive kills. Like one where our killer pours melted chocolate all over someone. A scene when I first saw this I thought the Easter Bunny was having diarhhea attack.

Unlike the other DTV horror I reviewed this month,this one isn't worth buying. But last time I checked Easter Bunny Massacre is streaming free on TUBI. Go give it a watch.

Easter Bunny Massacre gets a D+

31 Days of Horror 2022 Day 15 Color Out of Space

 

TITLE-HP Lovecraft's Color Out of Space

SOURCE-RLJE Blu Ray

After owning this Blu Ray for a good bit I finally watched it. Based on the classic Lovecraft story this is a great modern retelling of it.

Directed by Richard Stanley,and starring Nic Cage and Joely Richardson,the film takes that classic story,inserts in in modern times and managed to finally make a Stanley film I enjoyed.

Nic and his wife Joely live out in a rural area. They have 3 kids and are trying to live off the land. Then one night a meteor lands on their property. And the space rock gets hit by lightning. Something from the meteor ends up going into the land and local water supply. Which starts odd changes to the family.

Like the wife is chopping up some carrots and ends up cutting off two of her fingers. The youngest son keeps hearing voices coming out of the well. And no matter how many times the eldest son puts the alpacas in the barn they are never in the barn.

Sure this story has been made into a film a few times,with The Curse being the best known and most modern version.

I love how over the past 4 years we have been getting a pile of well done horror film with Nic Cage as the lead. Stuff like Mandy and Willy's Wonderland.

So if you enjoy Lovecraft and want to see one of the better adaptations of his work this is one to track down. Good acting,decent script and some well done FX work. Plus if you love body horror this is one to watch.

Color out of Space gets a B+.

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-