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Reviews
Shallow Grave (1987)
Unpredicatable, Dowbeat Suspense
Four friends head off to spring break in Florida, but get a flat tire in the middle of Medley, Georgia where one of them witnesses the local sheriff murder a woman. Now, they're on the run and who will take their word for it over the sheriff.
Shallow Grave rarely takes the traditional way out and you're never sure where it's headed. From the first scene of the movie that calls to mind both Psycho and the corny opening movie-within-a-movie moment from Blow Out, the filmmakers are playing with our expectations in a way that would make Hitchcock proud. It takes a traditional slasher film set up of party-loving teens breaking down in the middle of nowhere and makes it frighteningly realistic and plausible.
Shallow Grave doesn't have a franchise-ready iconic killer, but it's all the more frightening for it. It also has a main foursome of likable young women who don't go out of their way to grate our nerves or make unrealistic choices to drive the plot forward.
Fade to Black (1980)
Movie Buff Goes Psycho
Eric, a lonely film processor, lives for the movies and little else. While not at work or being berated by his cruel wheelchair-bound aunt, he's dreaming of being a film icon. When he meets an uncanny Marilyn Monroe impersonator, his real life and fantasy life start to blend together and he goes on a rampage, killing off anyone who gets in his way or upsets him.
There are many ways for a film like Fade to Black to go. On one hand, it could have been a more satirical and biting film about film fandom, but it goes the other direction and becomes a really somber and depressing affair. That's not to say that it's bad, but it could have used a little bit of levity here and there.
The real reason to watch is Dennis Christopher's performance as Eric. It's one of his best performances and what you leave remembering once the film is over.
Black Christmas (1974)
Scariest Slasher of All Time
The girls at a sorority are getting terrifying obscene phone calls during the Christmas season and, when one of them goes missing, they come to the conclusion that perhaps this harmless prank caller could be a murderer.
Bob Clark's holiday horror film predates John Carpenter's Halloween by a few years, but has many of the same tropes from the killer's P. O. V. Shots to the likable group of young women friends to the holiday setting and the chilling open ending. Unlike Halloween, Black Christmas has the added bonus of its power not being diluted by sequels over the years trying to overexplain its mysterious killer.
A Bucket of Blood (1959)
Entertaining Corman Flick
Walter, an unassuming busboy at a popular artist cafe, dreams of being an artist himself, but he never gets the chance to shine. When he accidentally kills his cat, he gets the sharp idea to encase the corpse in plaster and call it art. When that becomes a huge hit and he starts becoming a popular artist, he goes for real live humans this time.
Darkly comic with a quick pace and short runtime, A Bucket of Blood feels more in line with an episode of The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but that's not a bad thing at all. It's an interesting story that's well told with a great performance by B-movie staple, Dick Miller, at the heart of it.
Dementia 13 (1963)
An Interesting Curio
Louise hides her husband's body after he dies of a heart attack so that she still has a chance of being included in his mother's will. She pretends he's on a business trip and travels to Ireland to meet up with the rest of the family at their creepy castle where the family is still haunted by Kathleen, the youngest member of the family who drowned years ago.
For about the first half of Dementia 13, you can clearly see a master at work. Yes, it has many similarities to Hitchcock's Psycho, but the stark black and white photography and atmosphere-drenched castle helps create a really unsettling mood.
It's only midway through that the film stops being as interesting and it limps to the finish line without as much energy. It's still interesting to see an early work from a master like Coppola.
Next of Kin (1982)
Underappreciated Aussie Thriller
Linda returns home after her mother's death to look after the nursing home she ran out of her home and sees that the home's tenants are being murdered one by one. Who could be behind these brutal crimes and is Linda in danger?
Next of Kin does brooding atmosphere really well and many shots and sequences are nothing short of exceptional, but the pacing does dip a bit and the central mystery isn't quite as compelling as it should be which causes the film to drag more than it should. By the crazy finale, most of these faults will be forgiven as the film goes off the rails and delivers a whammy of a final act.
Madhouse (1974)
Gotta Love Vincent Price
Vincent Price plays a horror film actor whose fiance was found without her head and that leads him to have a nervous breakdown and become institutionalized. Once he gets out, the murders resume and everyone (including himself) thinks he might be responsible. If not him, who?
Madhouse has a great central performance by Price who's fun and also sensitive as the tortured actor and the effects, while never approaching bloodbath territory, are appropriately nasty and macabre. There's a wonderful bit with a collapsing bed with squeezes an unlucky character to a pulp.
Les lèvres rouges (1971)
Really Pulls You In
In this sexy vampire film, a newlywed couple stop off at an isolated resort during off-season and encounter a glamourous vampire and her spooky assistant/lover. Soon, she's seducing both of them and turning them against each other in the hopes of finding another lifetime companion.
Beautifully shot and featuring a hypnotic musical score, Daughters of Darkness is far from your usual vampire flick. The performance of Delphine Seyrig as the wicked and sexy Countess Bathory is truly a performance for the ages and the type of performance the horror genre rarely sees. She dominates every inch of the screen throughout and makes it easy to see why she's able to manipulate everyone around her.
For those wanting a more traditional vampire film, there's still enough random bursts of violence and gore to satisfy your bloodlust.
Creepshow 2 (1987)
"Thanks For the Ride, Lady"
The idea of creating a sequel to Creepshow would cause even the bravest horror writers many and many sleepless nights, but Creepshow 2 is about as good as can be expected. Instead of five stories, there are three, but each one has enough going for it to make it a worthy sequel.
The nastiest would be The Raft which has a group of young people being terrorized by a flesh-eating oil slick that's floating under the tiny raft they're all sharing. The most fun is The Hitchhiker which pits a wealthy adulterous woman mowing down a hitchhiker and being haunted by his rapidly deteriorating corpse. That one captures the previous film's playful tone the best.
Asylum (1972)
Fantastic Amicus Horror
Few anthologies are perfect, but Amicus Films' Asylum comes dreadfully close. Even the framing story involving a doctor summoned to a secluded asylum to help a doctor who lost their mind is creepy and darkly humorous. Then, there are the stories and they're all fairly interesting.
They have everything from murderous toys to sexy femme fatales and reanimated body parts coming back for revenge. As silly as they could be, the filmmakers walk a great tightrope between being cheesy and chilling.
Torture Dungeon (1969)
Truly Terrible and Entertaining
It's hard to imagine what goes through the mind of someone who could make a film this inept, bizarre, and amateurish, but whatever it was lead to the creation of an camp classic that's hard to forget.
Featuring a mix of both the most enthusiastic and the most lifeless actors you've ever seen, Torture Dungeon tells the story of a young woman promised to a royal duke in a magical land far, far away who discovers that he's a pervert and a sadist. And that's not even mentioning all the insane twists that show up right before the end credits.
The production values are like that of a cheap community theatre production of Once Upon A Mattress, but that does add to its do-it-yourself charm at times and many of the actors, while not exactly Robert De Niro, are at least enthusiastic and spirited enough to keep the audience awake.
Fright Night (1985)
Funny with Great Special Effects
There's something about 80's horror. There's so much imagination and a great sense of fun. Fright Night doesn't take itself seriously like a lot of other vampire movies and has fun with its Real Window-inspired story about a teenage boy who believes the man who just moved in next door is a vampire.
The comedy comes from the poor kid trying to convince everyone around him that he's right but everyone from his mother, his girlfriend, his best friend, and a washed up horror host refuse to believe him.
The script by Tom Holland is sharp and funny, taking the classic vampire legends and dropping them into the real world, asking "what would it be like if you found out your neighbor was a vampire? Would anyone believe you?" The performances are excellent with everyone doing fantastic work but Chris Sarandon's effortless charming vampire and Roddy McDowell's befuddled horror host are the most memorable.
Phantasm (1979)
Unusual and Haunting
Although it possesses little realism or logic, Phantasm does what few films can. It casts a spell on its audience, takes them to a whole new world, and doesn't let them doubt what they're seeing for even a moment. It's all the more impressive when you discover how inexpensive this film was to make. It's not your usual monster movie or slasher and takes its audience to a whole new world.
Don Coscarelli milks the inherent creepiness of mortuaries and graveyards and gives Christopher Lee-esque actor, Angus Scrimm, a role that commands immediate authority. You don't want to mess with The Tall Man.
There's also a very relatable relationship between brothers Jody and Mike and their friend, Reggie, that anchors the film when some of the stranger aspects begin to overwhelm it. Because of how well this part of the film is executed, it allows the audience to suspend disbelief and give into the film's more surreal moments.
Trilogy of Terror II (1996)
Nowhere Near As Good As the First
Also made for TV, Trilogy of Terror II tries to capture some of the same creep factor of the original, but its big showstopping sequel to the infamous doll sequence is more or less a lazy remake of the original segment with much less engaging characters.
This isn't actress Lysette Anthony's fault. She plays each role she's given realistically and compellingly from cold trophy wife to grieving mother, but the stories are an uneven bunch and the best one, Bobby, is also a nearly shot for shot remake of Dan Curtis' work in another anthology called Dead of Night, but less effective this time around. The child actor playing the title character is much more hammy than the more realistic performance in the 70's version.
Production values are nice and Anthony is pleasant to watch even if she's not the powerhouse that Karen Black was. It's just unfortunate that the two best segments in the film are basically remakes of other segments from other movies.
Trilogy of Terror (1975)
Great Final Story
In spite of two less than thrilling stories to open the film, Trilogy of Terror more than earns its horror badge with the final story featuring Karen Black running away from a terrifying tiny doll.
Black is wonderful throughout the entire film, but does come to life during the film's final segment where she plays her weak and easily dominated Amelia with ease, putting the audience of her side in the 5 minutes before the doll starts wreaking havoc.
The other two stories aren't exactly garbage, but they don't pack the same punch and are more of character dramas. They have Black playing a spinster college professor who's taken advantage of by a sleazy student and then as polar opposite twins.
Buried Alive II (1997)
If You've Seen The First One, There's Nothing New Here
7 years later, someone decided to make a sequel to Buried Alive, but it doesn't seem like they had any major ideas for the story since this is nothing more than a gender swapped retread of the original film with a few forced connections to the first film so that it can feel comfortable calling itself a sequel.
This time around, Laura (Ally Sheedy) discovers a strange man (Tim Matheson who returns as Clint and directs the film) at her uncle's funeral and, at the same time, she's going through the same issues he went through in the first film as her husband Randy (Stephen Caffrey) plots with his mistress, Roxanne (Tracey Needham) to kill her.
Just as in the original, this poison doesn't work, Laura gets buried alive, breaks out, and gets revenge on her husband and his mistress.
If you haven't seen the original, Buried Alive II might work better for you. It's not a poorly made movie and the acting is fine, but it pales in comparison to the original, especially when you realize it's not bringing anything new to the table.
Buried Alive (1990)
Great TV thriller
Given how most TV movies were at this time, Buried Alive feels like a huge step above the rest. OF course, there's only so much they can do in terms of content so you won't find any severed limbs or steamy sex scenes, but the style feels much more theatrical than the usual TV fare with strong performances and a sturdy script.
Buried Alive follows Clint (Tim Matheson) and Joanna (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who are having a few marital problems. The only issue is that Clint doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong, because Joanna is keeping her torrid affair with Dr. Van Owen (William Atherton) on the down low. When they decide they want to run away together, they hatch a plan to poison Clint, but it backfires with the poison doesn't work as intended and he's buried alive, forced to scratch and punch his way out of the coffin.
When he discovers the truth, Clint becomes intent on making Joanna and her lover pay for what they've done and that's when the fun really begins.
Buried Alive mostly resembles a feature length episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Tales From the Crypt and that's where most of the fun comes in. There's a delicious sense of karmic just desserts that'll leave you with a smile on your face.
The Landlady (1998)
Shire is Great
Excusing the Lifetime style plotting, dialogue, and shooting style, The Landlady isn't an entire bust. Talia Shire is fantastic as the titular character who inherits an apartment complex after she poisons her cheating husband with crab meat and develops an obsession with one of her new tenants.
Of course, in classic thriller fashion, once people start to get wind of Shire's less ideal personality quirks, she must kill them to cover her trail and end up with the man of her dreams.
There's some nice darkly comic touches sprinkled throughout, but the script never steps up to the plate and becomes more than your standard made for TV-esque thriller. Even more bizarre and potentially creepy elements like Shire installing a two way mirror in her wannabe lover's room next door so she can watch him undress doesn't go far enough to really creep you out.
Angustia (1987)
A Few Interesting Moments
Anguish has a little gore, but it's not exactly a bloodbath, either. Anguish has a few creepy ideas, but it's not exactly the scariest movie you'll ever seen. Anguish has some scenes that approach suspense, but many fizzle out before they really get exciting.
Anguish has a lot of ideas and many of them are great, but it never commits to anything long enough for it to work as a whole film. The entire film takes place in a theater where they're showing The Mommy - a slasher/giallo film about a mama's boy who cuts out people's eyes to bring them back to his mother - and for the first 15/20 minutes we think this is the film we're watching. However, the real story is that there's a psychokiller in the theater who's become a superfan of The Mommy and he's about to stage a massacre in this auditorium.
It's an interesting concept, but the characters are too abstract for us to really feel for them, especially our main character whose only defining trait is that she's terrified of horror films and spends the entire movie wide eyed with her hands across her eyes and face.
The Night Sitter (2018)
Stunning Photography Without Much Substance
If one were to hear the plot of The Night Sitter, it sounds potentially interesting. A young thief poses as a babysitter for a wealthy paranormal investigator and, while under her care, the paranormal investigator's young son gets out of his room and unleashes three wicked witches named The Three Mothers who wreak havoc and destruction to all of those around them.
For the first 20 minutes, The Night Sitter seems to be on the right path. The film, while clearly low budget, is beautifully photographed and the colored light gels invoke Dario Argento's Suspiria and Inferno. Unfortunately, it takes The Night Sitter over 45 minutes to get to anything even resembling danger and it's not like it's spent those first 45 minutes building up the characters, so it leaves us with a whole lot of nothing.
Still, this is something the film could easily redeem with an exciting second half, but even that begins to feel repetitive and lack a sense of threat. These witches seem more pesky than downright diabolical. It all adds up to one big missed opportunity.
Dream No Evil (1970)
Not What Dreams Are Made Of
I pride myself in being able to sit through some pretty awful movies. To me, low budget doesn't always equal garbage. There are a lot of hidden diamonds on the rough out there that the world passed by because they weren't marketed well or never got solid distribution. I'd hoped Dream No Evil would be one of those movies, but it's anything but. It's a tedious, slow journey into absolute nothingness.
A young orphan girl who suffers from bad dreams is eventually adopted, but she still longs to, one day, meet her real father. She grows up and becomes a flamboyant preacher's assistant in their church act which seems much more circus than the churches I've attended. She falls for a guy, she meets her real father, and then she goes insane and starts chasing people with an axe in the last 5 minutes of the film.
There's not a lot of logical story progression in Dream No Evil. There's an odd, fairy tale-esque voice over throughout that seems to have been added to help better explain what the hell is going on, but it's about as useful as buying a hooker for a nun. Character motivations come and go and you never know why anyone is doing anything.
I'm sad to report that Dream No Evil is a film better left buried.
Malice (1993)
I Am God
Malice is yet another in a string of adult-minded thrillers in the early to mid-90's focusing on yuppies behaving badly. This one has the good fortune of having some great actors attached such as Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, and Bill Pullman as the three main leads with other excellent actors such as George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, Peter Gallagher, Bebe Neuwirth, and a very young Gwyneth Paltrow offering lots of good support.
In a small college town, there's a serial rapist going around and attacking the students of a professor (Bill Pullman) as he's trying to deal with his wife's (Nicole Kidman) mysterious ovarian cramps. A former school friend of his (Alec Baldwin) shows up as a successful doctor with a God complex and operates on his wife, leaving her barren and aborting the fetus inside her. From there, things get increasingly complicated as twists and turns abound and you learn not to trust anyone.
Malice spends an awfully long time on the college girl rape subplot which ends up leading to nothing but a clue to what's really going on. It's a brave move, but it mostly works and, from there, Malice really takes off and turns into full film noir complete with operatic stormy nights and over the top music by Jerry Goldsmith which adds a lot of excitement to a few scenes that require it and maybe a little too much excitement to some scenes that don't.
Kidman really steals the film here as a woman who may have ulterior motives that she's not letting us in on. By the time the finale rolls around, the climax does feel a little cursory and unexciting after all that build up.
Videodrome (1983)
Maybe I Just Don't Get It
I can't deny that Videodrome has a great concept. It's a winner. James Woods and Debbie Harry make a great on screen team and the special effects are gooey, gross, and disturbing. So, why can't I enjoy this movie?
It starts off well with a local TV programmer who stumbles upon a series of hardcore, sexually changed torture films that he picks up on a satellite. He records them and feels like they'd be a great fit for his sleazy porn channel, but the more he researches the creator of these videos, the more his reality turns into rubber and he finds himself living in a nightmare.
One could say Videodrome is like a thinking person's version of Ringu (or The Ring) and was ahead of its time. There's the mysterious video tape, the search for its creator and origin, and the lead character's life turning into a waking nightmare, but Videodrome stops being interesting 45 minutes in, but keeps going and going without much point. Yes, there are some great special effects in the final act, but you can never figure out why you're seeing what you're seeing and they don't feel like they're there to serve the plot or characters. It feels like Cronenberg showed up to set with an hour's worth of legitimate material and made up the last stretch of the film as he went along.
There's a lot to admire and enjoy in Videodrome, but a lot of it is very frustrating.
Booksmart (2019)
One of the Best Teen Comedies in Ages
Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein light up the screen with their winning chemistry in Booksmart - the newest film from Olivia Wilde (who shows a flair for wacky comedy and moving friendship drama)
Amy and Molly are two overachieving high schoolers who never once stepped out of line or took their eyes off the prize (of getting into a great college.) When they realize that most of their seemingly party-obsessed classmates have also managed to get into top schools, they realize that maybe they need to have one wild, crazy night before graduation to get it out of their systems. Of course, nothing goes according to plan and the two friends find themselves all over town experimenting with drugs, sex, and several wacky characters.
In some ways, Booksmart feels like a teenage After Hours with our two leads exploring the L.A. nightlife and getting themselves into several wacky and bizarre scenarios. The entire supporting cast is strong, but Billie Lourde steals the show as a rich, spoiled and completely inane classmate who keeps popping up at random times.
Macabro (1980)
Good Head Transcends Death
Macabre (a.k.a. Frozen Terror) is 60% southern-fried gothic melodrama, 40% gross out Italian splatter movie and 100% certifiable.
When Jane receives word that her child is in danger, she rushes home with her extramarital lover in tow and gets into a horrible car crash that decapitates the lover and sends her to a stint in the funny farm. She's "cured" and takes up residence in a boardinghouse run by a blind man. Slowly but surely, Jane's fragile mental state begins to deteriorate in appropriately grisly fashion.
Macabre is the first film of Mario Bava's son, Lamberto, and it's quite a debut. I'm not sure if it's just the weird dubbing, but the performances teeter on camp throughout with hammy accents right out of a community theatre production of Steel Magnolias or A Streetcar Named Desire. As the film progresses, you keep thinking this movie can't possibly get any weirder and then it tops itself all over again.
Don't read any spoilers and just see the film for yourself.