31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 09 Frankenstein's Daughter

 TITLE-Frankenstein's Daughter

SOURCE-The Film Detective Blu ray

Over a decade ago I discovered a horror podcast and through their forum met a pile of fellow horror fans. Piles of them I am still in touch with, even now when that forum is long gone and none of us have bothered with the podcast in a long time. One of those folks is CodyLL. We talked a bit on the forum and I realized we had a pile in common. So at least 3 times a month we will chat on the phone for a few hours. And when Cody is clearing out his movie collection he will hook me up with stuff from it. That is how I got today's film.

I was 5 when I discovered that one of the channels we got on the tv had a guy showing horror films each Saturday night. And I was allowed to stay up and watch it. Sgt Graves was the host's stage name. He was a dead soldier from the Civil War. And his tag line ,which he said before each ad break, was "Don't touch that dial or I WILL HAVE TO BITE YA!" We got 2 movies each Saturday and I would have the VCR set to record both. There was no way I could make it through both films. The first one started at 1030pm and was over at 1230am. It was rare I made it through the first film all the way. Normally I would see half fall asleep. Then the next morning after we got back from Sunday Mass I would watch my tape and see both films.

That is how I first saw Frankenstein's Daughter. A low budget indie horror film that came out in 1958. And is either public domain or assumed to be. And ever year I knew I would see Frankenstein's Daughter at least once that year on Sgt Graves.  I loved it. 

Which means months back when Cody mentioned he had a copy and was getting rid of it I of course said I wanted it. 

Few nights after I got the Blu ray in I couldn't sleep. Put the film on and wow forgot how much fun I had as a kid watching this. Watched it twice that night. First time with the great Tom Weaver commentary. A commentary that one of the first lines was "I saw this as a kid which is the perfect age to see it" and yes Mr Weaver you are right.

Set in modern day California Dr Oliver Frank is wanting to do experiments like his grandpa did. Dr Frank is a failure with women, so he normally experiments on them. 

The lady to me looks more like a werewolf than a Frankenstein's monster. Either that or she looks like she was prom queen at Sontag High School 1956.

See that looks more like a Frankenstein's monster. And the makeup on the creature is great but has one flaw. The creature is a female. But it is obvious the monster is a male.

This is a good example of a film I looked forward to seeing as a kid and I enjoy it now cause of the old memories. I put this Blu ray on and I can see and hear SGT Graves. I get flashbacks to the Hoffman Furniture ads. 

Frankenstein's Daughter gets a C-

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 08 Fright Night II

 

TITLE-Fright Night 2 New Blood

SOURCE-Unrated FOX Blu Ray

I had skipped this thinking it was  a sequel to the remake. And really felt like Fright Night didn't need a remake. Then was at a Dollar General, found this sealed for 4 bucks. Figured worst case keep the digital copy and sell the dvd and blu ray and make my 4 bucks back.

So instead of a sequel to the remake we get another remake of the original. Yea stuff is changed. It is updated for modern day. And now the lead vampire is a female. But this is Fright Night just slightly changed.

The biggest changes is the abundant nudity and blood/gore. Like piles of nudity and gore. Got a blood bath scene that is loaded with both.

The stand outs are the lead vampire, never seen this actress in anything else. But she commands your attention when she is on screen. And the new Evil Ed. Who looks like the old one just fatter.

Worth seeing but keep in mind this is a remake.

Fright Night II New Blood gets a C.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 07 In a Violent Nature

 

TITLE-In a Violent Nature

SOURCE-DVD

Every year there is a few horror films that play the festivals and usually hit home video in October. This film along with Late Night with the Devil was the two this year that got my attention. And thankfully they appeared on SHUDDER fast. I watched both and loved them. So bought them on home video.

Shot as if a cameraman is almost always following our Killer In a Violent Nature is a neat spin on the well worn Slasher sub genre. 

A group of young adults are in the woods. One of them picks up a necklace and this causes our killer to come back and start trying to find this necklace. Plus killing anyone in his way IN A VIOLENT NATURE!

Amazing kills like really amazing kills. That didn't feel the need to go into extreme gore territories like some films did,Terrifier 3. Decent acting from the cast. Plus a gimmick that works and isn't something that has been done a pile.

If you have already seen all the classic and modern slashers In a Violent Nature is one to track down. 

In a Violent Nature gets a B+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 06 Croczilla

 

TITLE-Croczilla

SOURCE-Echo Bridge DVD

The four bonus movies promised on the cover and PD horror films you already got on other sets. This is one you buy for CROCZILLA and CROCZILLA only.

A croc farmer sells his giant croc to a shady resturant owner. The owner plans on cooking it and selling it. But Croczilla escapes before this can happen. She is ready to lay eggs.

On her path she eats a lady's purse that has 1 million Euros in it. Which is why in China this film is known as The Million Dollar Crocodile. Oh yea this is China's first big budget creature feature. Costing 4.5 million US.

So word gets out about the purse with the money in it in Croczilla,and we get the lady after it. The resturant owner and a cop. Plus Croczilla's original owner. Tagging along is a kid that became friends with Croczilla,yea like Gamera.

Only really one on screen kill,and it isn't that bloody. The CGI Croc looks good. For 2012 this looks better than most of those SYFY Saturday night creature features. You know stuff like Mega Shark vs Crocasaurus and Meth Gator.

The acting appears to be good,the dubbing is not great. Lots of bad accents and all that. I could see  some people finding the dubbing to be a bit offensive.

Nothing amazing but still a decent way to pass an hour and a half. 

Now the drawback to this release. Got 5 movies on one DVD. Croczilla is majorly compressed. The picture always looked a tad out of focus. Like when you first wake up in the morning and everything is a bit foggy. Nothing major. The sound was simple 2 channel stereo.

Now I want to find a decent Blu Ray of this. I can see myself going back and watching this again.

Croczilla gets a B-

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+