31 Days of Horror 2025 day 05 Late Night with the Devil

 

TITLE-Late Night with the Devil

SOURCE-DVD

Last year near the start of October on a whim I bought a few dvds of newer horror films. Late Night with the Devil was one I kept hearing about. 

Watched the DVD,with the commentary going,as I did laundry one day. Yea I'm weird and will do stuff like first time watching a  movie put on the commentary.

Then way late in October it aired on Joe Bob's annual Halloween special. Watched it again,and Joe Bob had on the lead actor. Fuck this is good.

So today wanted something to watch saw the DVD on the shelf,put it in the player and yea this is damn good.

Our lead is a late night tv show host in the mid 70s. He is trying his best to beat Johnny Carson. After his wife dies from lung cancer his contract about to end on Halloween night 1977 he does a show that he hopes will get him the ratings he needs to keep the show going.

Starts off with a psychic coming out on the show. Cold reading the room and using the normal cold reading tricks. This kind of bombs. Then a former magician comes out shows how the Psychic did the cold read. 

But now the Psychic isn't feeling good. And he ends up projecting vomiting black bile. Rushed off to the hospital and dies on the way.

The next guest is a parapsycologist and her current patient. And young teen girl who is the only survivor of a Satanic Cult.

The teen girl is strapped to a chair and on live tv the demon appears in her. And yea I was like ok this is decent but why was everyone raving about it at this point.

The film does a great job recreating how 70s tv looked. And the BTS footage is a nice touch.

Now the magican is back out. Takes the co host of the show hypnotizes him and the audience and shows that this is how the demon appeared.

Nope,all through out the film many mentions are made of our lead going to "the Grove". Yea Bohemian Grove is part of the plot of this film.

The Demon takes over the little girl. She starts killing everyone in the studio. And our host survives.

Then we get the twist ending. It is strongly hinted the host sold his soul to the Devil to get ratings. And one of the prices of this was his wife was a sacrifice.

Fucking amazing film. I got vague memories of seeing a few late night talk shows in the late 70s. Mostly nights I was being babysat.  The sets,clothing and hairstyles look right to me.

Late Night with the Devil gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 04 MaXXXine

TITLE-MaXXXine

SOURCE-Blu Ray

Few years ago pretty sure I covered Ti West first 2 films in this trilogy,X and Pearl. I loved X and enjoyed Pearl. So once I saw MaXXXine had hit home video I ordered a copy.

Maxine aka Mia Goth is in 80s era LA. Working in porn still. The Night Strangler is loose. Maxine is trying to get a part in aa horror film. Puritan II,a sequel to a infamous video nasty.

After getting cast in Puritan II Maxine starts being followed by a asshole played by Kevin Bacon. And starts getting odd messages and even a VHS.

Take 80s LA Porn Scene. Mix in the Hollywood of that time. Add in the Satanic Panic and you get a love letter to 80s Hollywood and its culture.

Best part is unlike so many films I see set in the 80s this looks like how the 80s were. Not how people that were not born back then think it looks. 

Great soundtrack,good FX work. And the cast is good. Bobby Carnivalle is great in his part. 

This feels in a way like an 80s version of Once Upon a time in  Hollywood. Just minus the way over long length,and Tarentino's need to put feet on the screen too much.

MaXXXine gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 03 Hotel Translyvania

TITLE-Hotel Translyvania
SOURCE-Blu Ray

Yea I had heard of this franchise. Seen pieces here and there. But until last year in October I had never seen it. Found it cheap at a junkstore.

Dracula is about to celebrate his daughters 118th birthday. She wants to go out see the world. And he is trying to prevent that. While also running the famous hotel for monsters.

All is going ok,Dracula lets Mavis go to a nearby village. That is a facade on the level of the fake town in Blazing Saddles. The villagers are just hotel zombies in masks. 

A human male makes it to the hotel. And the rest of the film is Dracula hiding that this guy is human,claiming him to be a cousin of the Frannkensteins. And Mavis falling in love with the human.

Well animated. Fairly quickly paced and funny,Hotel Translyvania is one of those kids films that the adults forced to watch it will enjoy.

The voice cast is pretty good. Got Adam Sandler as Dracula. Selena Gomez as Mavis. Normally I'm pretty good at figuring out celebrity voices. In this I was horrible. With only Sandler and then the great Steve Buscemi as the werewolf being ones I figured out before the ending credits.

Blu ray looks and sounds good. Got a bunch of extras including a original short with Bigfoot.

Worth grabbing and watching.

Hotel Translyvania gets a B.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 02 The First Omen

 

TITLE-The First Omen
SOURCE-BLU RAY

When this came out I planned on seeing it opening night at the local theater. Got there too late and it was sold out.

Waited on it to hit home video. And months after buying it watched it late one night. And now after a second viewing I got an idea where this falls in the franchise for me.

Set before the original film,which is such a great film,this tell us the origin of the child that became Damien.

1971 a young Nun to be from the States goes to Rome to work at a orphanage. There she ends up bonding with a young orphan that has issues.

Margaret is this young Nun. Who goes out to a local disco with a fellow nun to be. Margaret meets a guy,is dancing. Blacks out and finds out way later she was raped in a Satanic ritual.

Seems to make the faith of the church strong a sect in the church has started bringing about the birth of the Anti Christ. 

Margaret learns she is pregnant. And after an attempt to abort the fetus she is captured by the sect. Tied down and gives birth to two kids. A boy and a girl.

The boy of course is Damien. We see him being taken to the hospital to be given to the couple that will be his parents. And the other child is a girl. 

The film ends with Margaret and the girl living way out in the countryside. Then get found and learn that Damien is alive and someone is after the girl.

The FX work in here was damn good. Yea lots of CGI but it worked. Seems one scene that shocked me some is a bit cut down. Originally the film got a NC 17. So a scene where a demon arm comes out the vagina of a woman was cut down.

Acting wise this was good. No one in it I really knew from much. And some times the accents were a bit hard for me to decipher. But that is why i normally watch most stuff with subtitles on.

As far as where this ranks in the Franchise? Above 4,the remake and 3. Equal to 2 and not as good as the original.

The First Omen gets a B-.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 01 Casper

 

TITLE-Casper

SOURCE-DVD

30 years ago this film came out. I saw the trailers and figured it would bomb. Nope was a big theatrical hit and a huge home video and cable hit.

Cathy Moriarty has just inherited a huge old mansion up in Maine. With Eric Idle she travels there to see what can be done with it. Finds it is haunted by not only Casper the Friendly Ghost but also The Ghostly Trio.

After trying a few things to get rid of the Trio,including cameos from Father Guido Sarducci and Dan Ackroyd as  Ray the Ghost Buster, Casper sees therapist for ghosts on TV. After seeing the therapist daughter,played by Christina Ricci,Casper is in love and makes sure Cathy knows about this ghost therapist.

Once they get to the house Ricci and her dad try to work with the Ghostly Trio. And Ricci starts getting to know Casper. Learns his past,how he died and that Casper's dad made a machine that will make a ghost living again.

This is just a fun family comedy that has light horror elements. Moriarty and Idle are great in their roles. Ricci shows that even back in her teen years she was a great actress. 

The FX work on the ghosts is pretty good. It holds up now 30 years later.

Seems like to most under 40 if they know Casper it is cause of this film,it's many sequels and the spinoff Saturday Morning cartoon. Which hey that is fine. Those old Casper cartoons and comics I doubt would hold much appeal to modern kids. They didn't have much for my generation back in the 70s.

Casper gets a solid B.

Don Simpson's Megaton Man iBooks TPB

 

TITLE-Don Simpson's Megaton Man

SOURCE-iBooks TPB

Ahh Megaton Man,the 80s superhero parody that sadly got outshined by The Tick. Created a few years before the Tick,and using a similar premise,Megaton Man has been erraticly published for close to 40 years now.

I first heard of Megaton Man thanks to a short review of one of the issues in some fan press magazine I had gotten. Next trip to the comic shop I grabbed one of the issues from this first volume and loved it. Wasn't until the early days of Image that I found another Megaton Man comic. This time his crossover with Savage Dragon. I read Bizarre Heroes when I found the issues. And then kind of forgot about not only Megaton Man but also his creator the uber talented Don Simpson.

Megaton Man is kind of your basic Superman parody. His secret identity is a reporter for a newspaper. And of course there is a lady reporter he is in love with. Simpson takes the somewhat insane stories from the Silver Age Superman and transforms them into parody and also a warning. Warning the readers of the this series back in the 80s what was coming in the 90s.

Look at the art in Megaton Man. It looks like that early Image overly muscled look. And the being dropped into a comic world with a history that isn't explained. Yep that happened in many of those early Image titles.

5 issues,all in color,with some of the funniest writing of the decade. Really my only complaint about this TPB is the colors are a bit dark. 

Don Simpson's Megaton Man TPB from iBooks gets a B+

Arak Son of Thunder Issue 1

 

TITLE-Arak Son of Thunder #1

SOURCE-DC Comics

Back in what I guess is the summer of 1981 this oddball comic came out. Now I was a kid back then and by 81 all I wanted from Comix was superheroes and horror. So that cover made me think this was another Conan the Barbarian ripoff from DC. I skipped it. Many times over the decades since I have found big runs of Arak in the cheap bins and just flipped past them. Then back in the spring was at a big annual community yardsale. One guy had a pile of longboxes. Got issue 1 for a buck. And few weeks back as I ate dinner I read this and now am on a quest to get the rest of the run.

Arak is a Native American. Who is found in a boat by some Vikings. He gots adopted by one of them and grows up to be one of their fiercest warriors. While on a raid on a monestary Arak rebels against a very cruel Viking and we get a small hint at where this series is going. The issue ends with Arak fighting a giant sea serpent.

Created by Roy Thomas and Ernie Colon Arak was as I figured when I was a kid another attempt by DC to get some of the Conan  audience Marvel had. First appearing in an issue of Warlord,which is a series I need to write about one day,Arak lasted a few years and from what I have seen is a good series that cause it wasn't a superhero comic when that was the big thing,has been forgotten.

Arak Son of Thunder issue 1 gets a B+

Swamp Thing by Rick Veitch Vol 1 Wild Things TPB

 

TITLE-Swamp Thing Vol1 Wild Thing

SOURCE-DC TPB

Oh yessss after years the start of the run of Rick Veitch writing and penciling Swamp Thing is back in TPB form.  This is a series I was reading back as it came out. Was one of the reasons I made sure each month to get to the comic shop.

After the stint out in space during Alan Moore's run the Parliment of Trees has started creating a new Earth Elemental. And Swamp Thing is in charge of finding it a host. 

Lots of set up for the future issues. And like the Moore run,Veitch takes some older forgotten DC characters and brings them back updated for the modern world of the 80s.

The art,with Alfredo Alcala on the inks,is amazing. With the Moore run the writing was amazing and so was the art. This time the story is just damn good,which on my scale is a bit below amazing. Now part of that might be this is the start of Veitch's run and stuff that felt dropped to me might get picked up in the next volume.

Swamp Thing By Rick Veitch vol 1 Wild Things gets a B.

The Walking Tall trilogy DVD Set

 

TITLE-Walking Tall 1,2,3

SOURCE-Shout Factory DVD set

I had seen at least the first 2 films back in the early 80s. Having been told the story about how someone  that worked with dad was Buford Pusser's cousin. So months back when I found this for 50 cents,gotta love the good junkstore,I grabbed it. Planning on one evening watching all three.

WALKING TALL

Buford is a Marine that just did 5 years as a pro wrestler. Him and his wife and two kids move to rural Tennessee. He sees how a local bar/whore house/gambling den has taken over the town. And after getting beat up for trying to stop all these illegal activities Buford runs for sheriff and wins. With the rest of the film being him and his deputies stopping all the crime in town.

Nothing amazing but I can see why this was a huge hit in 1974. Joe Don Baker is great as the lead. With the rest of the cast being decent.

WALKING TALL II

Made just a few years after the first one,and with Bo Sveson as the lead. Like how they use Buford getting shot in the face in the first movie to explain why he looks different this film. More car chases more stunts and less story than the first. With lesser acting too. Guessing this was a hit too. Also this one ends after Buford has died.

WALKING TALL III

Yep another film,Bo is back. But now it is set about a year after the first film,ignores most of the second. And even less plot than the last one. I see why this was the end of the film franchise for what 30 years?

Overall the three films aren't bad. The first one is something I can see myself going back watching again. But parts 2 and 3? Nah skip those turds.

The Walking Tall Trilogy DVD set gets a C+

That Man Bolt

 

TITLE-That Man Bolt

SOURCE-DVD

It is rare I find a blaxploitation film that I had never heard of. This film is one I had never heard of. I got a big lot of "Kung Fu DVDS" cheap. And this was in it.

Fred the Hammer Williamson is in jail in Macau. He gets released to escort a pile of money out of the country. But it seems various groups want to make sure he doesn't succeed on his mission.

Simple plot. And it works. The almost 2 hours running time flies by. The film is an odd mixture of Blaxploitation+James Bond+70s Martial art cinema. Add in a dash of In Like Flint/Our Man Flint.

You can tell while watching that the writer was sure this would be a hit. So much stuff is hinted at that could be explained in sequels. If there had been sequels I would watch them.

Not amazing but still one where now I want it on Blu ray.

That Man Bolts gets a C.