31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 22 Monster from Green Hell

 

TITLE-Monster from Green Hell

SOURCE-The Film Detective Blu Ray

Sure I saw this as a kid on the local horror host show. But watching it now I really remembered nothing about it.

A rocket is sent into space. On it is some wasps. They get exposed to radation and the rocket falls back to Earth. Landing in a part of Africa dubbed Green Hell. Cause of the hellish jungles. A group of scientests go to investigate after rumors of giant monsters attacking,plus they need to find stuff that was on the rocket.

Made up of piles of stock footage this was a popular film on various horror packages in the days when syndicated movie packages were big on broadcast tv. Either the film was public domain or assumed to be cause it appeared on so many horror shows.

Mostly black and white,with a short bit of color towards the end,this is from near the dying days of the US cycle of giant "FILL IN THE BLANK" on the attack films. 

This is barely feature length,runs 71ish minutes,and feels much longer. Part of that is the giant wasps attacks are spaced so far apart in the film. The big climax,our heroes finding the wasps nest happens about 10 minutes before the ending. 

Monster from Green Hell is a film that is mostly remembered cause of it's great title. And well for me cause I heard the Misfits song Green Hell so many times over the decades.

Now while the film ain't great,this blu ray is amazing. The film looks great. We get a commentary from comic great Stephen Bissette. Plus the 4:3 and 16:9 versions of the film. Huge thanks to Cody for giving me this blu ray.

Monster from Green Hell gets a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 21 Silent Night Deadly Night 5 the Toy Maker

 

TITLE-Silent Night Deadly Night 5 The Toy Maker

SOURCE-Vestron Video Blu Ray

Back when this hit home video the neighbor across the street told me a bit about it. Back then,had to be early 92,all I had seen was the first 2 films in this now 6 film strong franchise. This 5th film  sounded insane and I wanted to see it. No video store we rented from  had it and after a bit it faded from my memory.

Skip ahead and Lionsgate puts out 3,4,5 all on a dvd set. I grab it watched 3 and  4 and just never watched 5. Then Vestron puts out a 3 pack but this time on  Blu Ray and adds some extras.

After being  in a bad accident our lead's young son has stopped talking. She takes him to the locally ran toy store,Petto's Toys. Ran by Mickey Rooney,who was one of the folks that protested the original SNDN film. When in the store they meet Petto's creepy son Pino. And legit first few times I heard them say Petto I thought they said Pedro.

Seems Mickey and Pino make killer toys and are a bit nutty. By this entry in the series you just want good kills and maybe a small connection to the previous 4. We get both.

Clint Howard is back as Ricky,he played this part in the 4th film. This time he is a mall Santa. The kills are just fun. Got a electric larva toy that enters a guys mouth and burrows out his eye.The best is the kill near the end. Left with a babysitter our young boy is put to bed. The babysitter goes to another room to get laid. And Mickey releases a pile of toys. Got a robotic arm,that  crawls onto the bed and gropes the boyfriend. Got a pile of soldiers and tanks,that fire bullets. And a odd looking kitbased Batmobile armed with spikes and buzzsaw blades. 

By the end we learn Pino is a robot. Who then dry humps the lead lady. And after his death we get an ending that hints there is more than one Pino.

So Pino  is short for Pinchicco. Petto's first name is Joe...Joe Petto. This is a twisted Pinochio tale. 

Nothing amazing but the kills help elevate it above other DTV horror from the early 90s. 

And yes Jeff Monson,the neighbor that told me about this film decades ago,this was "Worth seeing just for the robot guy dry humping the mousey mom."

Silent Night Deadly Night 5 The Toy Maker gets a C+.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 20 Amityville The Evil Escapes RIFFTRAX

 

TITLE-Amityville The Evil Escapes

SOURCE-Rifftrax Live Blu Ray

Oh Amityville. Over the many years of 31 Days of Horror I have covered some of the Amityville movies. And I did see this one,part 4,back in the day at a friend's home. Really didn't remember much about it.

Was recently at a junkstore. Saw they had a pile of Rifftrax Blu rays so grabbed a few.  I was thinking this was the Amityville about the doll house,I get all the ones after part 3 mixed up. Nah this is the start of the haunted items leave the Amityville House and go fuck with other people.

A lamp from the infamous home is sold to an old lady. Who cuts herself on it and dies from this. So the lamp gets shipped to her sister. A sister that has her daughter and the daughter's three kids living with her. The daughter is Patty Duke,yep by 1989 Patty was down to doing made for TV horror sequels.

The Made for TV budget and restrictions show. Besides the one kill from a garbage disposal there is almost no gore,and I have read that kill was cut on the tv version having been restored on home video. So you get stuff like a parrot appearing in a toaster oven. Or the old lady cutting her finger on the lap and then the finger looking like it has gangreen.

This is not a good film. It is the kind that decades ago we would have rented,sat there chugging beer and cracking jokes. Which is ,minus the chugging  beer,what the Rifftrax guys do.

Appears the only other blu ray release of this is in a out of print Vingar Syndrome boxed set. It's not worth what that set is going for now. Betting you can find this Rifftrax version fairly cheap. And it takes a D+ movie and majorly improves it.

Amityville The Evil Escapes gets a B-. Only the Rifftrax version without that it is a D+.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 19 The AGFA Horror Trailer Show

 

TITLE-The AGFA Horror Trailer Show 

SOURCE-AGFA Blu Ray

I've always loved trailer comps and this one is one of the best. Set up like you are at a drive in and watching almost 90 minutes of trailers and ads for Drive in consessions. The trailer selection is really good too. With some of these trailers making total shithole films look worth seeing. Fear No Evil is one I had never seen and now got on my must see list.

If it was just that this would be a great buy. But nope there is more. First a commentary on the feature. Filled with info. Then a second feature. That focuses on late 80 thru late 90s SOV and DTV horror. I was impressed by how good some of these trailers in this second feature look.

Really a good trailer comp needs not the same 40 trailers we have seen many times before. And a good pace. This one does both.

The AGFA Horror Trailer Show gets a A.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 18 David "The Rock" Nelson Collection Vol 1

 

TITLE-David The Rock Nelson Collection Volume 1

SOURCE-Saturns Core Blu Ray

In the late 90s I was buying all the genre film mags. Stuff like Video Watchdog,Phantom of the Movie's Videoscope,Cults Movies and of course Alternative Cinema. It was in the latter two I started seeing ads for David the Rock Nelson films. Stuff like the Devil Ant or Conrad Brooks vs Werewolf. The films looked horrible and the one review I saw for one of them called it "the worst shit I have ever seen." I really wanted to see one. Back then it would have ran me almost 30 bucks with shipping to get one of these films. So I wasn't gonna bother.

Skip head 20+ years and now a partner label of Vinger Syndrome put out this collection. Which not only has Conrad Brooks vs Werewolf and Son  of the Werewolf  but also two of the Adventures of Janet films.  If it was just all that I would have grabbed it but maybe waited for a sale. Saturns Core also includes an almost hour long documentary on David The Rock Nelson. Yea I gotta get this. I pre-ordered it.

Who the fuck is David The Rock Nelson? A military vet who loves old monster movies. So using a vhs camcorder and super low budgets he makes these odd as hell films. And has gotten a fairly big cult following.

And how are the films? They are some of the worst films I have seen. But not the bad films that are boring and make you want to turn them off. Nah these are the kind that are horrible but stil entertaining in their horrible ways.

You get David The Rock Nelson  running around in rubber masks playing more than one character. The audio appears to be recorded using the camera's built in mic. Errors and flubs are left in.  Plus most of the films  are way longer than needed.

The films feel like shit I would start and never finish. Back in the early 90s when we got our first video camera. Gather some friends,have no script and after 1 day of filming no one comes back. But with David the Rock Nelson manages to finish his films and gets them out to the "fans".

David's love for monster movies shows in  his films. And that is part of their appeal. Feels like most of us horror fans born before 1990 had a phase where as a kid we love monster movies. 

David The Rock Nelson Collection volume 1 is a solid C.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 17 Frogman

 

TITLE-Frogman

SOURCE-Terror Vision Collector's Edition Blu ray

This is something I normally would have watched before buying.  Being not only a modern low budget horror film but also found footage. But also I like supporting smaller media labels and Terror Vision is a tiny label. So when I was in Walmart and saw this I took a chance.

Starting off in 1999 a family is on vacation and the son captures on video,for a fleeting second,a giant frog/man looking thing. Skip ahead 20 years and everyone claims the Frogman footage is fake. But the now grown kid is sure Frogman is real. So he takes a buddy and this girl he has been in love with for years up to Loveland Ohio to film a documentary about Frogman.

I know ,I know,sounds so much like Blair Witch Project. And the first bit being set in 1999 really makes this feel like a Blair Witch ripoff. Slowly we see that while this is inspired by Blair Witch it takes a different turn.

SPOILERS
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First off we see the Frogman in this fairly clearly. And then we got the part near the end. Which gives this a Lovecraft vibe. Seem the residents of Loveland worship Frogman.

------------------------------------------------------

SPOILERS OVER

Now I've never been a huge found  footage fan.  I don't hate it but so many films that use this gimmick don't do it right.  Frogman does.  Like how not everything is framed right or even captures in the camera's view. Making this really feel like footage 3 folks in the woods shot when they were scared for their lives.

This Blu ray is loaded. Got a commentary on the film. Then a pile of BTS stuff. Plus a bunch of short films from the same director,some of which also have commentaries.  

Betting this is streaming on one of the Free Ad Supported TV apps like Tubi or PLutoTV. And if it is and you like found footage and regional folklore this is totally worth seeing. I am happy with my blu ray and feel it is worth the 20 bucks it cost me.

Frogman gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 16 Heart Eyes

 

TITLE-Heart Eyes

SOURCE-DVD

There has been more than a few attempts at creating a Valentines Day horror franchise. My Bloody Valentine,which got a remake and both it and the OG are worth seeing,you got Valentine from what 20 years ago. It gets crapped on but I enjoyed it. Now we got Heart Eyes.

The past few years a killer has been targeting couples on Valentines Day. The last kill a ring with J.S. engraved on it is found. Our lead,Olivia Holt,is feeling down. And gets mistaken for being part of a couple. So Heart Eyes targets her. The cops show up and cause the man she is with has the mask and knife and his intials are JS he is taken in.

Rest of the film is Ms Holt trying to figure out who the killer is. Which ends up being a neat twist. And of course there is a mid credits scene.

Fairly bloody for a theatrical release with decent acting this was way better than I expected. My biggest issue is this is another film that would work better at 40 to 60 minutes. I wish there was a weekly horror anthology tv show where shorter works could air.

Heart Eyes gets a C+

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 15 The Substance

 

TITLE-The Substance

SOURCE-MUBI Blu Ray

Kept hearing about this movie for what felt like the last half of 2024. Saw the Blu ray and grabbed it. Then it sat in the unwatched pile for months. Only to be watched 3 times in less than a week recently.

Demi Moore is an aging actress. Who is now the host of a morning workout show. She gets let go cause of her age and find out about a black market drug that might help her regain that youth she needs to succeed in Hollywood.

Take the great body horror of the early Cronenberg films and add in a  much higher budget and a big name cast and you got The Substance. 

Demi finds out about a substance that will cause her to create a younger copy. Who feeds off Demi's older body for a week. Then Demi takes over for a week. 

The film has so many damn levels it is working on. You got your basic Young vs Old. Each viewing it feels like I find another level or something I didn't notice.

The FX work is amazing. The withered old crone hag monster thing Demi becomes near the end is pure nightmare fuel. The cinematography has your eye always drawn to what the director wanted to to focus on. Even the sound and music is well chosen.

One thing I thought would be an issue was the length. The film is a bit over 2 hours 20 minutes. So I expected it to drag some. Nope. Wasn't until about 15 minutes from the ending that I was thinking damn how much longer this got.

Worth seeing and if this blu ray had more extras I would say worth owning. The Substance gets a A-.

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 14 Exit 14

TITLE-Exit 14

SOURCE-CineDigm DVD

When out thrifting any horror dvd I havent seen and dont own that is 25 cents or less I will normally grab. Got a tote full of this stuff. And I try to once  a week grab one or two films out of that tote and attempt to watch them.

Generation X knows that Friday nights you had it on whatever channel Dukes of Hazzard was on. And John Schneider was the co lead on that show. Now he works with CineDigm making piles of Christian films down in South Louisiana. Exit 14 is one of the few horror films this group  has made.

On spring break a group of College kids stops at a store. A store right off the supposedly supernatural Exit 14. This store is ran by Tom Sizemore,which makes me think it is either a front for a coke ring or Tom really was running the store when the production company stopped in to piss and grab some snacks.

Their SUV dies,they get picked up by a tow truck and the driver,Tom again,offers for them to stay at his home that night. The college kids get told about a woman that died. Then  they get drunk and summon her spirit. Which of course causes stuff to go all spooky.

Also known as Devil's Doors and  being released in 2016 this is below the level of those Tubi Original horror films. Imagine a modern Full Moon movie. Now take out the nudity and gore and humor. And slash the budget in half. 

Avoid this turd. Now time to go put it in a box to mail to CodyLL.

Exit 14 gets a F.

 

31 Days of Horror 2025 Day 13 Clowntown

 

TITLE-Clowntown

SOURCE-ITN DVD

Yep another DTV film from ITN (The International Turd Network). This time it isn't a UK or Spanish film, nope this was made in the US.

A few friends are on their way to a concert. Get stuck in what appears to be an abandoned town. Then learn roaming bands of clowns took over the town. This film was made 10 years ago when there was all those "creepy" clown sightings. 

The acting is what you expect from a low budget DTV horror. FX work ain't bad. The clowns look creepy. Like legit creepy. 

What sucks is now so much crap is coming out that decent stuff like this gets lost in the sea of shit. Yea Clowntown ain't amazing. But it is better than most of the horror crap filling up streaming services like Peacock,Tubi,Fawesome,PlutoTV,etc.

Most years for 31 days of horror I try to work my way through my huge stack of unwatched dvds/blu rays/4ks. This had been sitting in that stack for at least a year. Having been found for a buck or less. 

It is one that you find it streaming give it a watch. One of the better ITN films and I was surprised.

Clowntown gets a C.