National Lampoon's Barely Legal

 

TITLE-National Lampoon's Barely Legal AKA After School Special

SOURCE-Sony DVD

National Lampoon,use to be the name that you trusted for funny movies and a great magazine. Then by the mid to late 90s anyone could license the National Lampoon name and put it above the title of their film. Which lead to piles of really shitty films with National Lampoon over the title.

It was 2004 or maybe 2005. I had recently been linked up to a torrent site that was packed with screener dvds. Nice rips of these screeners and usualy in the DIVX codec. Bonus I had 2 dvd players that could play DIVX files. While browsing that site one day after work I saw the title National Lampoon's Barely Legal and grabbed a rip. Burnt it to a cd-r and the plan was watch it my next day off. Somehow that rip on the CD-R got tossed onto a spindle and sat unwatched until 2007. 

Was a shitty time in  my life I needed a laugh and saw National Lampoon and yea I knew the odds were this movie would suck. Still put it in the player and hit play. A bit over 90s minutes later it was over and I had laughed more in that  hour and 1/2 than I had in weeks. Which is why years later when I found the above pictured DVD at a thrift I grabbed it. Having lost that CDR years ago. 

Our leads are 3 guys in high school. They run the AV club and use that to cover their side business. 

Bit of history. I'm almost 50. So when I was in high school it wasn't like now where everyone has access to porn. Nope just having a Playboy gave you status. And thanks to someone I knew that owned a video store,and me owning two VHS vcrs,I had access to porn tapes. And could make copies. Most of my 3 years at high school I was copying these movies and selling them. Cause I thought about it back then guys my age wanted 3 things,beer/pot/porn. And the first two if you got caught with them at school you got in big trouble. But get caught with porn they just took it from you and sent you home for a day. Many days I would show up to the high school with 4  or 5 vhs in the bback pack,labeled as Married with Children reruns,which it was actually stuff like One Night In  Bangkok or Sweat ont here. 

These high school guys,one of whom works at a video store,are making copies of the pornos and selling them. Then the video store guy loses the job. So now they gotta get a supply of porn to sell. 

And they come up with the idea of filming and selling porn. They call their production company and website After School Special and claim it is ran by the nerdy guys you knew in high school.

Of course to make porn they need women. So armed with bad fake IDs our trio go off to the nearest strip club. They find a lady interested iin making  the movies and our wacky hyjinx start.

The cast is odd,a mixture of people you will know then others that have solid careers in b movies. Tom Arnold is the father of the main guy. You got Horatio Sanz as the Ron Jeremy Stand in. Amy Smart as the pretty girl that is interested in our lead guy. 

Speaking of Horatio,he gets mad cause these After School Special guys are making too much money. And we get a crazed Horatio trying to track down and kill our leads.

Now yea this isn't nearly at the level of the comedis National Lampoon was putting out in the 70s and 80s. But it is way way better than shit like RoboDoc or that second Van Wilder movie.

As for the second title. Guessing since National Lampoon is a very US thing.So outside the US and maybe Canada,this movie is known as After School Special.

So if you want a halfway decent comedy,with a plot that by 2003 was becoming a thing of the past,give Barely Legal a watch.

National Lampoon's Barely Legal gets a C+

Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB

 

TITLE-Blue Beetle Graduation Day

FORMAT-Trade Paperback

Back earlier in 2023 I heard a Blue Beetle movie was coming out. Then heard it wasn't gonna be Ted Kord as Beetle and I figured ok I will just wait till the film hits streaming to watch it. Cause while I have been told the current Blue Beetle(Jaime Reyes) is a unique take on this generational hero I rather not pay 12 bucks for a ticket to a movie with a version of a hero I am not use to.

Then not long before the film came out I was in Walmart,one of the major drawbacks of living outside a small town is there isn't many places to shop. And in the book section I saw the TPB pictured up above. A TPB that reprints the 6 issue long Blue Beetle Graduation Day mini series. And included a HUGE pull out poster. With it only being 15 bucks for the TPB I took a chance. IE I bought it tossed it onto the "To Read one day" pile and forgot about it.

Not many months into 2023 my mother let me know she didn't feel like she should drive anymore. Which means when she has to go see her doctors I now drive her. No biggie. Back in September she had an appointment to see one of her many doctors,nothing major just a check up to make sure her meds were working. Knowing that usually waiting rooms have nothing worth reading and if there is a TV it is tuned into a News channel when I have to drive Mom to an appointment I will load a few podcasts up onto my tablet and bring a comic book hardcover/TPB/OGN with me to read.

This day I over slept. Got up and instead of having an hour or so to get ready I had 20 minutes. Instead of my normal going through my unread pile and narrowing it down to 2 or 3 books I just grabbed the first TPB that caught my eye.

Get her to her appointment 10 minutes early. Sit down put on the newest episode of The Movie Graveyard podcast and started reading my first Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle comic.

In what felt like 10 minutes,turned out to be closer to an hour,Mom was done and I still had 2 issues to read. And as soon as I got home I made lunch and sat down and finished this TPB.

Now sure I knew the basics of Jaime becoming the new BB. And I have always enjoyed how DC has different generations of a hero. Like how there has been what 4 or 5 official Robins so far. As a kid and teen I had read the second Blue Beetle,TeD Kord,in his own series then his time in the Justice League. This 6 issue collection does a good job  of not only explaining Jaime and his family but also showing what makes Jaime different from the two previous Blue Beetles.

Jaime is suppose to be at his high school graduation,nope he is off fighting a super villain. And in this battle which only lasts a few pages the writer,Josh Trujillo, gives a good glimpse into Jaime's personality. For me he reminds me of how Stan Lee wrote Peter Parker for those first 50 issues.

After defeating the villain Reyes heads off to his graduation. Here is a minor complaint I have about this mini series. Jaime Reyes and his family speak Spanish  in this comic. Cool. But we are not given a translation. Yea I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. Like with any skill if you don't use it often you lose your ability in it. And after halfway learning Spanish I didn't use that skill for so long the only Spanish I remember is all lucha libre terms. 

And this is why in an hour I only got 4 issues read. I was having to stop get my phone and use Google Translate to find out what was being said. Normally the average comic from DC or Marvel I can read an issue in 4 to 7 minutes tops. This one was taking me much longer cause of having to pause to translate.

Reyes family hates him being in danger cause of his powers. Which are supplied by a Scarab. And Jamie is sent off to live with family in another town for the summer. Plus Superman meets up with Jaime and after a talk we are given the impression that Jaime is more powerful than he knows.

These 6 issues do what they are suppose to do. Introduce us to this new Blue Beetle. Give us various future story ideas. And if what I have read about the Blue Beetle movie is true these 6 issues were changed a bit and that is what the film is based on.

Adrian Gutierrez hands the pencils and now he is a name I will look out for. The art is a neat mixture of manga style with modern Capeshit style. 

This collection also did what I am assuming they wanted it to do. Give the people that see the Blue Beetle a easy entry into the Blue Beetle comics.  Cause that is an issue with Comic Book Movies. Think about it this way,say you see a few of the X-men films and now want to read the comics. Where do you start with X-men? And having read the X-titles for over a decade straight I can't think of a great starting point. Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB is that great starting point. 

After finishing this TPB I went and added the next one to my wishlist. Planning on one day ordering it.

Blue Beetle Graduation Day TPB gets a C+. 

SGT Rock vs The Army of the Dead

 

TITLE-DC Horror SGT. Rock VS The Army of the Dead

FORMAT-Hardcover

Over the past 4 years I have re-discovered my love for the War genre of comic books. I have a circuit of thrifts/junkstores/pawn shops/antique malls I hit up a few times a month. At one at the booth where I normally find comics and dvds cheap I saw a huge stack of late 70s/early 80s Charlton War comics. Grabbed an issue with a Vietnam War cover. 

Then as sometimes happens that comic sat unread for over a year. Late one night when I couldn't sleep I did what I have always done if it is late and I can't sleep. I grabbed a stack of unread comics and sat at the bar in my kitchen listening to music and reading. 

After reading that Charton war comic,Battlefield Action, I went and set my clock. I wanted to get up and be back at that Antique Mall as soon as it opened. Knowing that odds are good most of those war comics are still there.

3 hours of sleep and I am off ot Vendors,yes the Antique Mall I wrote about close to 10 years ago. Go straight to the booth and not only is those Charlton War books there but so is a nice stack of DC War titles.  And seeing a cover of Sgt Rock I had a memory flash back on me.

When I was a kid on my mother's side I was the only grandchild for right at 6 years. Usually once a month my parents would drop me off at my Grandparents' home on Friday and I would stay there until Sunday or Monday. And every Sunday after Church Grandpa would drop Grannie off at the house then him and I would walk to a local newstand. Grandpa would grab the local Sunday paper and the New Orleans Sunday paper. Tell me "Grab you some comics." Which I quickly learned grab 3 bucks worth of  comics,and back then that was 4 to 6 comics. And Grandpa would grab either a SSgt Rock or GI Combat comic. If there was none of those he would grab whatever Charlton War comic was available and had a WWII story.

Sure as a kid I knew Grandpa had served in the  navy. But I really had no clue that this World War II I was reading about was the time when Grandpa served.

Once back to the house,while Grannie made us lunch Grandpa would read his comic and newspapers. Then he would have me read him at least a story or two out of whatever comic Grandpa got.

So I am standing in Vendors,head full of memories of my now dead Grandpa. I bought every war comic in the bin. And since I have learned how much fun these comics could be.

In early 2023 I heard about how Bruce "Ash from Evil Dead" Campbell was writing a Sgt Rock mini series for DC. Thought it was odd that an actor mostly known for horror&comedy was writing a war comic. Then saw this mini series would be part of the DC Horror line.

With the mini series being 6 issues and the average comic now priced at almost 5 bucks an issue I decided to wait till this mini came out as a TPB. I love horror and love SGT Rock. But wasn't ready to drop 30 bucks to read a story. Not when I knew the TPB would be 20 bucks.

Skip ahead to a few days after Xmas 2023.Flush with Amazon giftcards,and wanting comics to read I saw that not only was SGt Rock vs the army  of the dead was out in collected form but also Amazon had the hardcover for cheap. Thinking it was 12 bucks shipped. Ordered it along with a pile of other TPBs.

Been after dinner a few nights a week sitting at the bar listening to a podcast or music and reading a tpb/hardcover/OGN out of my huge unread stack. The day Sgt Rock came to the house I was reading it while having dinner.

Under that gorgeous Gary Frank cover to issue 1 this tale starts. Nearing the end of the war Germany is losing. Low on supplies and troops Adolph Hitler has one last hope. One of his scientist thinks he has come up with a way to reanimate the dead.

After some US soldiers encounter these Zombie Nazis the comic gets going. Sgt Rock and Easy Company are stuck with a boring duty. When Rock gets a message telling him they are needed for a top secret mission he is ready.

In this first issue Bruce Campbell shows he is a Sgt Rock fan. This series is made for the older audience. Which means we get an unrestricted war book. And Bruce uses this to give us the SGT Rock that was always hinted at in the old series.

Rock and Easy get outfitted with top of the line weapons and gear. Then are told what they have to do. They gotta go deep behind enemy lines And do whatever it takes to destroy the Nazi Zombies and how they are being created.

Issues 2,3,4&5 are just jam packed with action. Pages full of Easy Company doing what they do best. Killing Nazis! With issue 6 containing what we have all been waiting for. A fight that anyone that has ever read any SGT Rock before has wanted to see. Sgt Rock vs Hitler during the last days of World War II.

The twist is this Adolph Hitler has been injected with the serum that reanimates the dead. Yep Zombie Hitler vs SGT Rock!!

Of course SGT Rock wins. Hitler dies. Skip ahead and Rock is in the hospital recovering. Where we get a hint that we might get another SGT Rock mini series. 

Yea the story is damn good,the art is really good. And let me speak on the art a bit. The main covers,this series had a pile of variant covers,are by Gary Frank. An  artist I have enjoyed since the 90s. The interiors are by Eduardo Risso. Eduardo's art is nice. Has this dark feel to it that works well with the horror story.  My only real complaint about this hardcover is I do wish Gary Frank had did the interior art.

Being a hardcover I was expecting this to have some extras. Which it does. The art above is one of the variant covers. And a pile of variant covers are reprinted after the main story. Another extra and I have noticed DC does this often,is under the dust jacket on the front cover is an Army Sgt's rank patch. Little small things like this make this Hardcover stand out.

If you like horror comics grab this and read it. If you like war comics grab this and read it. 

DC Horror SGT Rock vs The Army of the Dead Hardcover gets a B+

TMNT The Last Ronin and Last Ronin The Lost Years

 

Back what was it 3 years ago  ,might be longer,rumors started that Eastman and Laird were working on a new TMNT comic. Supposedly the final story. Having heard rumors of them working on something for decades now I just figuered nothing would come out of it.

Then months back I saw the hardcover collection of this series was out. Did some reasearch and learned a pile. Eastman does some art in this series. But Laird is just credited cause they are using like 4 pages of notes Eastman and Laird came up with back in 87. Yea what 3 years into the Mirage run. 

In the near future NYC is now controlled by Shredder's Grandson. And one lone Turtle is trying to kill this grandson. Appearing to be equipped with all 4 of the Turtles signature weapons. Then near the end of issue one we learn that not only is April O'Neil still alive but this lone surviving turtle is

SPOILERS BELOW

Michaelangelo. And with his brothers and father dead,and he thought Casey and April too,he is on a mission to finish the war between Master Splinter's clan and Shredder's.

After hearing this comic compared to a pile I love I went in very hesitant. Expecting to hate it. By the end of the first issue I was hooked. 

Most nights after dinner I clean the kitchen then try ,if I have the time, to sit at my bar and read for at least an hour. The night I started Last Ronin my plan was read an issue or two. 

Almost 3 hours passed and when I finished the book I hadn't realized that much time had passed. 

So the rest of the hardcover is Mikey telling us the story. How each of the other Turtles are gone. How he was sure April and Casey were dead,just Casey passed. Plus we see how he is constantly haunted by the ghosts  of his brothers.

Then that last issue..... Mikey manages to complete his mission. Got a bit dusty in the room right then folks. 

And I am thinking  ok this is over. It is all wrapped up. Nope we go back to the Turtle lair,where April and her daughter Casey Marie Jones live. Seems Casey Marie has used mutagen and is working on raising the next 4 Turtles. And as his final gift Mikey has left her Master Splinter's teaching manual.

Of course this series being a huge seller we were getting more.

And then we get the prequel/sequel series Last Ronin the Lost Years. The above is the version I got with a Walmart Exclusive cover,that spoils who the Last ROnin is.

Laird had nothing to do with this series. Eastman handles some art.

This show us what Mikey did after he lost his family. For a bit he just went into the wildness trying to die. Finally he goes on his hero's journey. And the one goofy fun loving silly Mikey becomes a force of nature. Even going blind,and that was wild,doesn't slow him down. 

And in the sequel parts we get to see the next generation of Turtles training and learning how to work as a team. One neat feature is this time each of them has a name that means ONE.

Lost Years is almost as good as the first series. And it like the first one was one were one night after dinner I planned on reading an issue and read the entire thing.

Saw that a new Ronin series is coming out. My plan is wait till it hits hardcover and grab that.

Bad Manners

 

TITLE-Bad Manners

SOURCE-Scorpion Releasing Blu Ray

Back earlier in the year hit up the Kino Lober fall sale and really was just grabbing various items that caught my eye. And this 1984 comedy did that. I had never heard of it. Just saw Martin Mull and Karen black plus a orphanage full of bad kids and figured it was worth the 5 bucks.

Piper gets taken by the cops to a orphanage. Where he meets Girl Joey,a tomboyish referee shirt wearing tough girl.Mouse,small freckled faced terror. The one black kid at the orphanage,known as (this is how the subtitles spelled it) Blacky. And this blonde kid that I think they were trying to say was a skater kid. 

This orphanage is ran by nuns and the flamboyantly gay dude from Airplane,who in this one appears to have a crush on one of the younger nuns.

Or lead kids get put in medatation room,aka the freezer,and using Piper's switchblade cut their fingers.With Mouse cutting his middle finger,and become blood brothers.

Mouse gets adopted by Martin Mull and Karen Black. Who are some super rich 80s era Yuppies.Mouse goes to live with them and meets their oddball kids. Up first is their son. Who appears ot only ever watch Shogun Assassin ,the movie,wears his hair like a samurai and thinks he is Japanese. And their daughter played by Kimmy Robertson from Twin Peaks.

Back at the orphanage the remaining lead kids decide to break out. Make this wacky plan to shut off the electric fence that surrounds the property. The plan works in a way. They escape. 

Making it to a bus station they figure out they need about 11 bucks a kid to take the bus to where Mouse is. While trying to steal a purse in the bathroom Girl Joey gets caught. And speaking of girl Joey,I know this actress from something later on in her career. Can't be arsed to go look her up. Guessing there is another Joey at the orphanage that is a boy.

Back at Mouse's new home he is being a holy terror. Like hiding in the shower with a poloroid camera. And taking pictures of his new sister naked. Yep if you ever wanted to see Lucy from Twin Peaks naked get this film.....

Our lead kids get enough money and hop a cab. Their driver is drinking beer. Which leads to our kids drinking beer on the ride. And a conversation you wouldn't get in a comedy aimed at kids now. 

Mouse tries to escape by hitching a ride with a biker lady. He is almost to the Orphanage,yep he rather be there than be Mull's kid,but gets arrested along with a biker gang. So off Martin Mull and Karen Black go to bail their new son out of jail.

Piper and the rest arrive at the house. Kimmy talks them into tying her and her brother up to teach "My parents a lesson." Piper and his friends FUCK UP this house majorly.

Mull and Black get back home withh Mouse. More wackiness happens. And the film ends with Piper and the rest of the orphan kids,including Mouse,driving off in Karen Black's Triumph.

Credits roll over postcard like shots of the kids in various tourist areas. Including Hawaii.

Besides a some trailers and the subtitles there is no extras. The film looked good sounded good.

So yea this is very much a way too late ripoff of Bad News Bears. Got dialogue that feels like it was cut from Bad News Bears.

This was cheap in the sale. $5 IIRC. Scorpion is gone,the owner passed in 2023. So this is Out of Print and I really do not see another label putting it out on 4k or putting it out again on Blu ray. 

Bad Manners gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 31 Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey

 

TITLE-Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey

SOURCE-Peacock Streaming and Scream Factory Blu Ray

Back within 3 weeks of this coming out in 2023 I had gotten a bootleg. Watched it late one night and thought ok this is not nearly as bad as expected. And that means it is one of the few ITN distributed movie worth seeing..

With Winnie the Pooh being public domain it isn't surprising someone made a bloody horror film out of it.

ITN for those that don't know is a group that mostly releases Spanish made and UK made horror films straight to DVD. I have seen at least 10 movies now from them and 2 are worth seeing.

So the plot... Christopher Robin is a kid in the 100 acre woods runs into the gang we all know from the books and or Disney stuff. But once Christopher Robin is grown and off to college one harsh winter the gang is starving. So Pooh talks them into eating Eeyore. After this they vow to never talk and go after anyone in the 100 Acre Woods.

Christopher Robin and his wife come back. And get captured. Then a group of 5 college girls show up. And one by one they are killed by Winnie and or Piglet,the others have passed it seems.

Some bloody kills some dumb kills. I do love the scene where Pooh pimpslaps half a guys face off. That is one oddity it is never really explained why Pooh and Piglet are superhumanly strong and like the Tick Nigh Invunerable.

Expected to bomb this made a good profit and a sequel and shared universe are in the works.

One warning wait on buying the blu ray/dvd of this. Right now that fucker is 20 bucks or so and the only extras is a barely 15 minute EPK and a trailer.

Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 30 Beyond the Door III AKA Amok Train

 

TITLE-Beyond the Door III AKA AMok Train

SOURCE-Joe Bob's Last Drive In on Shudder

So this years season of the Last Drive In was the first one since I got Shudder that I watched NONE of the episodes as they aired. And each week when I would go look see what was aired it was either stuff I have seen 100 times or stuff I didn't give a crap about.

Months back had been slowly working my way through each episode,and man some of them were rough,and started up Beyond the Door III. Yea I had heard about this late 80s Italian film. Not connected at all to the previous 2 Beyond the Door films. Thinking I saw this years back when a pile of us were working our way through the local mom and pop video stores horror sections. Remember nothing about that viewing. And from my research some releases of this movie in the US cut out most of the gore. Which would make this movie fairly forgettable.

College kids in Eastern Europe run into trouble. Hop a near by train to get out of the country fast. But this train is possessed and can so shit like leave the tracks to run over someone in a boat in a lake!

This is just pure 80s Italian gore and insanity. With that gore cut out the film is lacking the punch it needs. Acting is  pretty lackluster. Bo Svenson is the biggest name and he is barely in the film,as a teacher to the college kids. The plot is all over the place and doesn't really make sense. The films fast pace and the crazy gore are what makes this film so appealing.

Oh and that gore. Yea most remembered is when the one lady's head starts to split open then all her skin slides off. Which is a great practical gore effect. For me the two that stand out the most are when the train decapitates the lady in the boat on the lake. And when the one dude is hanging outside the train and gets impaled on a board hanging off a watertower.

If this had had the gore in it in that viewing decades ago,thinking it was 96ish,it would have been a hit. the 5 to 10 of us that would gather often to drink and watch b-horror loved gore and just heckling the hell out of movies. This would work for that perfectly.

The DVD is still easy to find for not a bad price,but seeing reviews claiming the picture is not great. The Blu Ray is OOP and a bit pricey. What Shudder has is the Blu ray.

Give this a watch on Shudder if you like Euro Horror and Gore.

Beyond the Door III gets a B-

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 29 Wrong Turn (2021)

 

TITLE-Wrong Turn(2021)

SOURCE-Paramount Plus Streaming

Covered some of the previous Wrong Turns in 31 Days of Horror years before. Been wanting to see this reboot and when I added the Showtime addon to my P+ sub I saw it was streaming.

A bunch of college age young adults are hiking through rural West Virginia. They are warned many times to "Stick to the trail".

Of course they don't. And start running into multiple traps. Hell yea time to see some inbred cannibals attacking. NOPE. TWIST TIME FOLKS.

The family this time in the woods are more old English stuck in 1700s style folks. They kill anyone that enters their domain.

After the college kids get captured most die. But our lead lady manages to work out a deal to save her and her boyfriend.

Skip ahead a few months. Matthew Modine,remember him?,is the lead lady's father and he is searching for her.

He finds her. And through a bunch of stuff they manage to escape.

Skip ahead a few months. Our lead lady is entering her home and sees the leader of the woods family in her home. She agrees to leave with him,seems she is pregnant with his child. Credits start to roll. But don't stop the movie yet. Nope our lead crashes the RV and slaughters the evil West Virginia family. And the end.

Wow wasn't expecting this much of a change. But get why they did it. Keep hearing their might be  a sequel. Hope so.

Wrong Turn(2021) gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 28 Alison's Birthday

 

TITLE-Alison's Birthday

SOURCE-Shudder streaming service

One thing I have noticed is usually within a month of being released lots of cult/horror boutique label releases hit Shudder. Which makes it more than worth the low price for a year. What I pay for a year of Shudder is what two purchases would cost from a Boutique.

When Severin released their "folk horror" big boxed set I wanted to see a few of the films in the set and the documentary. But not wanting to drop 200 bucks I waited. Tried watching the documentary on Shudder and still haven't made it all the way through it. 

Earlier this year had someone tell me this early 80s Austrailian made horror was worth a watch. Alison's Birthday is almost a forgotten film. I had heard of it but never seen it until earlier this year. And out of the cast only person I knew was the  lead. Who IIRC was Mad Max's lady in the first film.

So needing a film to watch today put this on for my second viewing. Starts off with 3 teenage girls attempting to contact a spirt. One girl gets possessed and warns Alison to leave this place and make sure to never be  here on your 19th birthday. They crazy shit happens,wind blowing a shelf falls on the possessed girl. And Alison ends up leaving her home and moving away.

Skip ahead a few years Alison is almost 19. And she gets a call from her aunt and uncle.They want her to come stay a bit and celebrate her up coming birthday. And off Alison and her boyfriend head to the Aunt and Uncle's. Riding in what appears to be a street legal dune buggy. 

Once at the home Alison is reminded of just how odd stuff is. Like one area of the property she is reminded to avoid "cause there is snakes". And her aunt's ancient grandmother who rarely leaves her room.

This is a real slow burn of a film. While only being 1 hour and 30 odd minutes it feels longer. This isn't a flaw. But to people not use to how cinema had a slower pace a few decades ago I can see it being an issue.

We finally find out the Aunt and Uncle are druids. And they are planning on holding some kind of ritual when Alison turns 19. The boyfriend tries to prevent this from happening. But he fails. At the end the ritual causes Alison's mind to go into the ancient grandmother's body. And vice versa. And we end on alison in the old elderly body screaming.

Worth watching if you want a slow but decent religious horror. No real gore or much violence. Some nice camera angles and shots. 

Alison's Birthday gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2023 Day 27 Critters

 

TITLE-Critters

SOURCE-WB DVD

Every so often I watch a movie and think I wish I hadn't already covered this for 31 days of Horror. Then go check my master list and realize I haven't. That is what happened with Critters. I was sure I  covered it years ago. Nope.

Set in a tiny town. A bunch of aliens,known as Krites,who are like deadly porcupine/hedgehog combos land. With two bounty hunters hot on their trail.

This simple premise that has been done before ended up birthing a franchise that has produced 5 films so far and a fairly large fanbase.

So what made this movie so memorable? What made it stand out from the onslaught of Gremlins clones in the mid 80s? One thing is the Chiodo brothers and their studio handled making the puppets/Krites. But it was how the film balanced that line between horror made for adults and horror kids can watch. Yea it has a PG13 rating. But there isn't much gore or extreme violence in the movie.

The cast ain't bad with Dee Wallace and Don Keith Opper being the stand outs. Now sure most reading this know who Dee is,But Don Keith Opper seems to be unknown unless you are a big Critters fan. His character of Charlie is the lynchpin that keeps this franchise going. 

Charlie starts off as the town drunk. Not far from rock bottom and only still surviving cause most of the small town feels for him. But by the end of the film he has a purpose. He will go off and hunt krites.

If you never seen it track down the first film and give it a watch. No clue where it is streaming currently. If you enjoy it find this 4 pack. Seen it selling as cheap as 7 bucks.

Critters gets a B.