Black Christmas 2006
It was the weirdest thing, my wife came home with a DVD in her hand and passed it over to me. “I had some time to kill before my nail appointment, and I saw this and had to get it for you!”
I’m pretty sure I saw this version of Black Christmas before, but it may not have made quite as much of an impact on me… There were things that I remembered, certain beats but all in all it felt fresh, like watching it for the first time.
I’m a great apologist for a lot of remakes. I don’t hate on them simply for the sake of hating on them, but I do understand how this one might have drawn some serious criticism. Black Christmas is a cult favorite, with a very loyal fan base and any sort of a remake was going to inspire hate. Curiously enough, the director himself was a fan of the original and Bob Clark, the director of the original was on set to supervise occasionally.
There’s another thing that probably irritates a lot of the fans of the original… There’s a significant tonal shift here. You’re bound to get that when you’re going from the 70s film to a New Millennium movie, but 
it’s more than that. While it’s not official, as far as I’m concerned, the original black Christmas is a giallo. We have an unseen killer, we have POV shots of murederous hands and mysterious phone calls… It’s still kind of a horror movie, with some original kills and murder and none of the redeeming features of a say an episode of Law and Order, but as horror films go it has more in common with the giallo than other forms of film. There’s a far greater emphasis on the detective work than the stalker. The 2006 film on the other hand, is most definitely a slasher. There’s over-the-top Gore, a deformed stalking killer, and even a trophy reveal towards the end with all the victims piled into one place. The slasher genre isn’t quite as intellectual as the giallo… Not quite as respected.
Here’s the thing though, I don’t like giallo. Give me a good slasher film any day.
That may be why this take on this material appeals to me. In a very real way, it’s a very different film from its namesake. We have a couple of similar titles and names, and a handful of homage set pieces, but other than the fact that you got a killer in a girls dormitory at Christmas time, it’s simply not the same film. Remake is kind of stretching 
the definition. Reboot might serve it better.
I like the fact that we get to know the killer… Or should I say killers? We’ve got some deformities to make them into monsters and some well thought-out kills. Indeed, the amount of blood and gore in this film actually surprised me – a pleasant surprise mind you and this time around engaged through the whole thing. I got to admit, I really enjoyed this and it’s been enough to get me to check out some of the directors other work – not to mention giving me a reason to pull out the original film complete with Margot Kidder and John Saxon! I’m relying on dim memories for most of my comparisons here and I’d like a refresher.
Maybe we’ll tackle that another time. I’m running out of days until Christmas…
Shadow Warriors 2
I’m just going to flat out say it. The biggest problem with the Shadow Warriors movies is the fact that Hulk Hogan does not have his trademark mustache. Seriously, I understand why he did it, but if I’m gonna watch the Hulkster, I wanna see the freaking mustache.
I bought the original shadow warriors TV film ages ago at a dollar store, and here’s the kicker… This is it! The movie was just branded as Shadow Warriors, no subtitle, so I had no idea it was in fact, the second film in the series! So not only am I discovering that there’s more than one of these, I’m actually quite surprised to discover that the one I’d already seen was in fact, the sequel! I really enjoyed it for what it was, Hulk Hogan, Carl Weathers, and Shannon Tweed in an action film. What’s not to like?
Two Thousand Maniacs
Two Thousand Maniacs franchise
Se
e, one of the things is about 2000 maniacs is that the whole 1964 aesthetic and the silly country song. Everything looks reasonably normal… Especially for the southern time in the 60s. You have no idea what kind of carnage is in store for you.
One of the things that I find distracted watching this original with more after watching the remake is the year. In the remix they’re very much caricatures, but if you look at the folks in town in the original, they all look pretty normal. To be fair it’s Mayberry. sure, and Rufus and Lester are a bit cartoonish, but like I said, it’s 1965…You would still see some people like this in the deep south.
Out on the road, these two cartoon characters set up a detour to lure a couple of unsuspecting carloads of victims into Pleasant Valley for their centennial. Pretty young Betsy Lewis a husband away from his wife so townsfolk can abscond with 
her and turn her into BBQ.
One of the other Yankee guests is a hitchhiking teacher, and he starts to get suspicious when he thinks about the date… 1965… What happened 100 years ago? The end of the Civil War of course… So why are these Southerners celebrating it? But when he tries to contact a colleague who is an expert in the Civil War, he finds that there’s no phone lines out of the town. There’s no getting in touch with civilization, but he soon find a plaque that commemorates the tragedy of Pleasant Valley. In April 1865 renegade union soldiers laid waste to the village and killed emulated many of its citizens the markers memorial to the gallon citizens who gave their lives and testament to the vengeance pledged in their memory.
Uh-oh. They’ve stumbled into centennial blood vengeance… and the killing is about to start in earnest.
The kills themselves are clever… Horse race, barrel roll, seemingly innocent things that turn very deadly. The whole country fair atmosphere also serves to make sure you know the hometown is involved. Meanwhile the teacher in his driver I’ve had enough and then making a break for it.How to do that properly, just gotta figure out where they hid her car. They tricked one of the local kids into feeling the location and find the keys and race out of town, kicking up clouds of dust on the dirt road.
“What if they make it to the state police?“ Lester asks nervously.
“Doesn’t matter, centennials almost over,“ Mayor Buckland replies. “Ain’t no one gonna be around here anyhow… They may find themselves in the loony bin!“
That
’s some good foreshadowing just before the end… Because you see, when they do find their way out, and bring back the police…All they find is weeds and the monument. Pleasant valley has been populated full of ghosts all along. It’s a genuinely clever twist that I didn’t necessarily see coming… And really liked.
Between the twist and the gore, you can really see why this is a classic among horror bands and completely incomprehensible to the general public. Still, Lewis always said this was his favorite of all his films and I can absolutely see why. It’s genuinely creepy, and well put together, giving me every bit as much blood as I crave, but never abandoning the rigors of storytelling as well. This is a high recommend, and despite the reboots and remakes that would follow, it’s still the best of the bunch.
The Howling 3 (The Novel)
The Howling Franchise
I
wasn’t sure what to expect from The Howling three. Gary Brandner has been WAY more interested in preserving continuity in his novels than the producers of the films ever were. This book isn’t so much the direct sequel that the second novel was, but rather more of a sidequel – a book set in the same universe, but not with the same main characters. We open at a small town just down the road a bit from Drago. They talk about the aftermath of the fiery conflagration that ended the first book – the unease, the tourists, the way of life.
Now, years later, a strange kid wanders into town – silent, dirty…and with strange green eyes. He’s nursed back to health by Dr. Holly who tries to find out who he was. Through hypnosis she uncovers his past – time spent in the foster system for a while before one of Drago’s old residents Derak wisks him away back into the forest to ease him back into his true nature.
The boy, Malcom meanders through the woodland life. He hungers. he can live off the land with bark and berries and roots, but craves meat. One night he gets caught in a bear trap, but is rescued by a woodsman. This still turns tragic when some hunters accidentally murder the man, and add to Malcolm’s tapestry of misery.
In the meantime, as Dr. Holly helps Malcolm remember these things, one of the hunters slinks back to town to tell the sheriff about shooting something in the woods and “one of those things from Drago” getting his partner. At this same time, a suspicious doctor named Pastory from a special clinic up north is vying to get his hand on the boy and have him transferred.
This causes problems when one of the wolves of Drago crashes into the hospital looking for Malcolm, but he’s too late. Malcolm has already been spirited away to the northern lab to be tortured and experimented on. The Wolf, Derak rampages briefly in the hospital, leaving behind dead bodies and broken glass.
Dr. Holly figures out where Malcolm is being held and heads out there, the Sheriff close behind, and ultimately Malcolm escapes into the night.
“…he survived. Moving on, always moving so he would not become well known in any one place. He moved from the cities to the smaller towns and through the countryside, taking a bus when he had money, hitching rides when he didn’t. Surviving. Searching. He knew somewhere his destiny waited. He would find it, or it would find him. There was no escape.”
That feels final. It seems like a good place to stop – especially considering this book is about a third longer that the prior ones. It’s not the end though. Net even close! We’re not quite two thirds in actually, and there’s still a LONG way to go. As we move forward, I almost feel like we’ve drifted into another book 
– a proper sequel to this one…and I don’t think I’m alone.
While the film version of the howling three could never be considered any real kind of adaption of this book, it cetianly draws from a few of the elements as it crafts it’s own narrative. You can definitely see them picking up the idea of a scientist experimenting on a captured Werewolf from here. Indeed, it’s an idea that only shows up that one time in the Howling series, and plays into another aspect. It’s the first time we see the werewolves played as sympathetic characters. Sure, they still kill and rip and tear, but our time with Malcolm really humanizes them. In the previous book, the Temptress Marsha is really played as fundamentally evil. Perhaps not the spawn of 
the Devil that they sometimes theorize, but definatley a villain on the same order as any mustache twirling baddie who spends his days tying helpless maidens to railroad tracks. Even Roy, Karyn’s husband-turned-werewolf is portrayed as far more savage after his transformation and the wolves are never more than monsters. Malcolm is different. Perhaps some of that comes from us encountering him as a kid (werewolf kid is also an element of movie 3!), but we really get into his head, and start to see the other werewolves as his people….not just monsters.
What’s also interesting to me is that as we move into the second part of 
the book, we find Malcolm living as a drifter; a theme we’d see recur in Howling VI : The Freaks (and to a lesser extent in Howling VII : New Moon Rising).
The drifter life isn’t where the similarity ends though. In a small California town near Death Valley Malcolm encounters a small traveling carnival (complete with a freak show). He accidentally wolfs out in front of the owner Styles – an involuntary reaction to the stress. Styles see potential and dollar signs, offering Malcolm a job on the spot as “Grolo the Animal Boy“! If he can learn to do that on command, he’ll make it worth his while. It’s not the coersion we get in The Howling Seven, but you can definitely see where the germ of the film’s idea came from.
Freaks echos in my ears as I read Styles telling Malcolm;
” ‘You’re one of us now.’
One of us. Beautiful words. He really wasn’t, of course, but it was as 
close as Malcolm had come to belonging anywhere in a long time.”
Brandner has a really good way with words here, setting up this next part of Malcolm’s story.
Malcolm tours with the carnival, now it’s most spectacular act – and gaining enough notoriety that get the attention of several people – some good and some ill.
Doctor Holly comes to see him, but so does the mad scientist Pastory and even Derak. While Malcolm is occupied with dealing with Pastory, Derak kidnaps Dr. Holly to draw Malcolm back into the woods so he can rejoin him with his people…ultimately culminating into a final confrontation ….man to wolf but also werewolf to 
werewolf.
This was interesting. Absolutely not what I expected after reading the other two books, but a really good bit of world building and expanding this universe out a bit. I’m actually most surprised to discover elements that would go on to shape several of the movies, even if they are just concepts – adaptions in the way The Running Man is an adaption of the book. At the end of the day, I really like Brandner’s ideas and admire his prose. Check your local library. All three of these books are definitely worth your time.
Star Lord in space
Star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy has become one of my go-to costumes for comfortable cosplay. Simple stuff, muscle pants, t-shirt and the jacket with baby Groot on my shoulder. (Rocket Racoon puppet optional)
Pacific Inferno
I’ve got to admit, Pacific inferno has a sheen to it that makes it look old. Perhaps it’s just the stock footage of World War II planes about to hit Pearl Harbor. I’m not a big war movie guy, but a part of me still looking forward to seeing Jim Brown Street his stuff in this film.
After we see the Japanese attack on America, it’s finally time to hit the credits and get to the final fall of the Japanese in 1942. The bomb drops, and the tanks roll in. After six or seven minutes of stock footage, it’s exciting to finally get something that looks like live action. Of course that action is Jim Brown and his crew been delivered into the hands of the enemy, as prisoners of war. But they’re not ordinary prisoners of war, they’ve been brought a board for a specific task, to retrieve a sunken treasure in Manila Bay.
I’m not sure how this classifies as an action movie. We get some flexing muscles and some diving, along with some POW camp action, but all around… I don’t get an enormous amount of action here. Even for a war movie it’s reasonably team, and basically be grade exploitation. Not even Blaxploitation, which is what I was hoping for with Jim Brown. Just want to pass. Fortunately, there’s plenty of other good stuff on this collection to keep me occupied!
The Howling 2 (The Second Novel)
The Howling Franchise
I 
bet that there were more than a few confused readers who picked up Gary Brandner’s second book in the howling trilogy. Anyone coming to this expecting a sequel to the first film was going to be lost. And anyone grabbing it thinking that it was a novelization of the second film (don’t underestimate the number of people who read those either, especially in the 80s. Back then, novelizations were basically where we got our special features – deleted scenes and insights on the characters that the films might have left on the cutting room floor) would be completely befuddled by this utterly different story with different characters and different outcomes.
While The Howling II was, as a film, direct sequel to the first Howling movie… It started off with Dee Wallace‘s character dead, shot by a 
silver bullet after turning into a werewolf on national television, then proceeds to follow Christopher Lee’s werewolf Hunter and Dee Wallace‘s brother Rob Brown – Captain America – through an adventure to the old country.
Karen isn’t the only survivor. Out in the wild, hidden among the gypsies still lives her ex-husband Roy, still a werewolf and still with the Temptress Marsha, who he nursed back to health after the final battle and conflagration of the first book. Marsha’s silver wounds have robbed her of her ability to transform into a wolf, but she still remembers the life and longs for it. She also knows that Karyn, still alive, is a danger to them. The gypsies owe their allegiance to the werewolf clan, and not only hide Marsha and Roy, but also keep tabs on Karyn and wait for their chance to dispose of her… A loose end.It’s a subtle plan. Marsha is playing with her… Stalking her. In the distance, Karyn is hearing a howling at night, and for a moment getting a glimpse of her werewolf husband at the mall. They snuck in to poison her plants to distress her and wind her up. Karyn’s no longer leaving the house if she doesn’t have to. More importantly, they’re getting ready for the next phase of their plan… To kill her son.
The attempt is a swing and a miss. Roy crashing into the house in his wolf form, the housekeeper who was babysitting the son bought him enough time to escape over to the neighbors house, losing her own life in the process. It’s a sloppy attack, and the wolf is seen… Even though from a distance. The police report includes possible dog sightings. After all, wolves don’t make sense – they need wilderness and there’s none in this area. Still, it’s enough to set Karen off. She knows exactly what’s happening and who’s coming for her. She hopes the next plane to LA in the hopes that it’ll keep her family safe. She can run, but she can’t hide. It’s less than a week before they find her, and she hears the howling again in the middle of the night.
Knowing she can’t run, Karen prepares to fight… And listing the aid of her friend Chris – her lone surviving ally from that terrible night in Drago. Time is running out though. Even as Karen finds herself lured into a trap well Chris acquires a blade of silver, time is running out for both of them. The full moon is coming, as well as a final showdown for them all.
no beef with The idea of a werewolf Hunt starring Christopher Lee… When you got Dracula available, you use him. Nevertheless, The Howling II novel is such a much more compelling story, and a real page turner. Enough so that I blew through it in a day. It’s a fascinating follow up in the most directive sequence you could imagine. It’s interesting to see what happens to these characters after the events of the first book and where the author really wanted to take them. This one’s actually a higher recommend than the first Howling novel, although I do occasionally see this series sold together as one set. That may well be your best bet. It’s the version I’ve gotten my hands, and I’m going to hurry up and finish this blog post right now… So I can get back to reading and start book 3.Black Cobra 2
I’m going to admit, I like this one better than the first one… Action films frequently work this way – where the character gets a little bit more established and the pace of the film just runs better in the second instalment.
In this film, Williamson’s character is transferred to a special mission in the Philippines. As silly as that sounds, it actually helps the movie establish it’s own identity and distinguish Williamson character as more than just a generic action hero
He’s still a bit of a loose cannon, with a style that is deemed too reckless by his partner – this time around played by Nicholas Hammond, of both the Sound of Music and the Spider-Man television show. There is chemistry there though, and the buddy cop format is a good match.
In retrospect, this may well be my favourite instalment of the Black Cobra series… The format is running on all cylinders, and Fred Williamson is at his best here.
The Coven
The Coven starts off with a bang, with a overhead shot of a gorgeous school and group of young witches gathering together to perform a rate. And performit they do, complete with a shocking sacrifice.
On the other end of the credits, the coven is now looking for a new fifth which to complete their circle… And it just so happens there’s a young woman dabbling in the occult, trying to contact her mother with the local psychic. They set up to recruit her, after finding she’s a direct descendant of the witch they’re trying to raise. For her part, all she wants is to bring back her mother, who should have initiated her into the art. The coven convinces her that they can do that, and she is initiated… And branded.
Of course it’s a double cross. They know that evil and when she arrives. It’s up to our heroine to try and find a way to bind her and vanished her back I know it’s not a bad film. It comes off a little bit more comic book and horror though. The magic is very Doctor Strange. Lightning bolts coming out of your hands and laser beams and holographic snakes… Less about the mysterious dark arts and unseen and moving things, and more about straight shooter mopped. It makes for a fun film, but not nearly what I was expecting.
The Howling (The Novel)
The Howling Franchise
It didn’t surprise me to discover that the howling was based on a book. It did surprise me to discover that there’s three books!
Both films contain several of the elements… Particularly idea of getting away to a remote and isolated place to heal. While they’re there, they find a hidden community of werewolves.
In both cases we’ve got a temptress going after the lead characters man… Although exactly the nature of that girl changes from story to story
. Perhaps it’s a savage looking country girl who is very good at cooking rabbit. Perhaps it’s a artsy antique dealer, or pretty proprietor of a tacky gift shop. The details shift, but the elements are right there.
elements, and more importantly a lot of the themes of the book, if I were to read the book and create a film adaptation of it, I’ve got to admit, it would look a lot like part four. The names are different, but the locations are the same. This isolated little country town it’s very much what’s displayed in The Howling part four. The book even features elements like the nun, and the pet dog that becomes an early werewolf snack. We get the cops harassing our lead character on our way into town, and then towing away her friends camper in the middle of the book.
As far as the original movie goes, I think when it really pulls from the book is its sexuality. This is a facet that would kind of fade away from the movies after part two, but it’s very fundamental and central to The novel. In part four, our characters heading out to the retreat to try and get past writers block. But in the original movie Dee Wallace is trying to cope with an almost deadly encounter with her stalker. The book goes even further, making it a flat out rape. The entire purpose of this getaway is to try and cope with that, and perhaps get a spark back in Her marriage. While rape is a trigger for me, it’s actually a better explanation for why the main character isn’t being intimate with her husband, and the length of time that he’s had to wait… The sort of patience that eventually runs thin and leaves him vulnerable to the Temptations of an interloper. The first howling movie actually does something very smart using this strange pornographic snuff tape to sidestep an actual sexual assault on the Wallaces character. Were able to transfer the trauma shown on film to her character without actually having to molest her. It’s a very smart way of handling it, particular given how graphic detail the book goes into.
The other thing that surprised me here is that book is better. I don’t mind The Howling part four, but something about going through it in prose just works a little better. Interesting, that I still picture Dee
Wallace as the main character even though it’s such a dramatically different story. Perhaps the other thing affecting my opinion of which is better is time. The Howling clocked in at about 90 minutes. I know I spent much, much more time than that reading the book. How long do you spend with these characters, the more connection you get. I wonder if it also helps that I watched the movies first, so I have an abbreviated version of the story in my head… But that allows me to delight in the deviations.
As I stated, it’s very much the same story… Perhaps taking a sharp right turn for the last third of the book. The main character, Karyn, is dealing with the trauma of a rape. Unlike the film, this isn’t anybody special. Nobody connected with the werewolves… Just some disgruntled Joe schmo. But it’s an assault that leaves scars. So she and her husband of one year head out to the small valley town of Drago, to try and recover. At night, Karyn hears howling, and her husband seems to drift further and further from her… Indeed, into the arms of another 
woman. What Karyn doesn’t realize, is the town is full of werewolves.
I imagine it was a shocking and innovative twist when this was written back in 1977… And The whole base for the series movies established.
Daughter of Darkness
I certainly can’t fault Daughter of Darkness for starting in a graveyard. Not only do we have a funeral, we have Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend (The fact that the character is from Chicago just abuses me all the more) chasing a black robed figure into a bolt that transforms into a long handled chamber… Between this opening in the knowledge that Anthony Perkins is going to show up in a second, I’m totally on board.
For a TV movie, this has got a good opening scare, and I kind of dig the Dark Shadows font on the credits. They’re setting it in Romania (actually filming it in Bucharest, Hungary) you know the Stuart Gordon is going to make the most of that landscape!
There in Romania, Mia Sara dreams of more black robes, and mysterious shops, and people catching on fire. She awakens from the nightmare, so it only makes sense for her to pop on down to the American Embassy, manned by Jack Coleman from Heroes… (Or more importantly Nightmare Café ). She’s looking for her father, the only family she has left.
As she searches through Romania for some trace of her father or his work, she discovers the glassworks he used to work at, inhabited now by Anthony Perkins… who introduces himself as her father’s old apprentice. Perkins also informs her that her father is dead. She just can’t believe it, and decides to stick around a little while longer to investigate.
As we learn more about her father’s background, his work as a reformer and his flight from the secret police, one can almost forget that I’m watching a vampire movie … 
except for Sarah’s dreams, and a brief scene with one of the club kids… but as we get into the second act, we’re definitely about to be plunged into vampire madness. Sara starts to fall for a vampire club kid, but at the same time attracting the attention of the Romanian government who claim her father didn’t exist. Indeed, when the exhume the grave, that’s not her fathers body there, but that of an old woman. Moreover, she discovers that the necklace she wears is the crest an old family, rumored to be vampiric. She is determined to find their family strong hold, which resides of course, in Transylvania.
The castle is now a tourist attraction, but a statue in the courtyard catches Sara‘s attention. It’s the black cloak to figure from her dreams and it’s pendant matches hers. It’s about here, at the halfway point of the film, that the vampire cult catches up with her, and she discovers that Perkins himself is in fact, her father.
It seems like a missed opportunity when she calls him a maniac… She should’ve 
called him a psycho. Just saying.
While Mia Sara is inprisoned with other vampire victims, the vampire council debates her fate… and it’s the first time I really feel like I am in a TV movie. We’ve got some of these councilmembers pulled straight out of central casting chewing the scenery. Still the entire subject matter is quite a bit spicier than what I expect to see on a CBS movie of the week, and it’s still lit with shocking skill. Stuart Gordon has his fingerprints all over this.
The plan is to breed Sara, to create a hybrid vampire… A race that could in fact, walk in the light. The club kid tries his best to seduce her, two woo her, but she’s not having any of it. Her father to, would not wish that life upon her. He springs her, and spirits her away. The cult however, isn’t willing to relinquish their prey quite so easily, and reach out through their vengeance on her father.
It’s such a strange collection of actors and actresses, that in of itself makes the film feel eclectic. But the mixture of Stuart Gordon and television production values is another one of those things that really makes us curious oddity. It feels like exactly the sort of film that should’ve been a regular rental at Blockbuster, like the Patrick Stewart vehicle Safehouse, or the Curse of the Blair Witch. In many ways, Gordon infuses the fun that I usually find a full moon feature, perhaps with just a touch less lunacy in a bit more sterility. Moreover, he’s come up with a curious twist on the vampire. Indeed, Stuart Gordon has given us most unique creature designs I’ve ever seen for a vampire… completely out of left field and way more creative than anything you expect from a TV movie. I almost wonder what this would be like if Gordon hadn’t given the option to do this as unrated or R rated. But honestly, I can’t see it making a huge amount of difference. The film stands on its own and acquits itself well.
Gremlin
I’ll give Gremlin this… Monster within moments of the film starting, and it looks exactly like it does on the box. The gremlin is trapped in an ornate box that has an arcane timer on the top. The trick is you have to give it to somebody that you love before the timer runs out… And then they have to pass along as well. It’s a hot potato, and you don’t wanna be caught when it opens.
It’s made its way to a family that’s recently lost their son, and they don’t know about the older daughter is knocked up. They’re already going through a hard time… But things are about to get harder.
Grandma is the first to get it, and it turns out the thing doesn’t wanna go back to the box unless it’s killed somebody. Of course, when they try and pawn it off on the deadbeat boyfriend, he’s not someone I love… And the Gremlin expresses its displeasure by murdering the boyfriend right there. that still leaves the problem of how to get rid of it.
One by one the family dies, and the prophecy about what happens when the time reaches its final countdown is revealed… Bringing us to a fairly spectacular climax. All I see is the Cloverfield monster design seems very popular these days.
All, this is not bad. It, promotes a certain hopelessness and inevitability, and overall really makes you care about the characters and their fight. This one I’m definitely glad I found.
The Howling : Reborn (Part 8)
The Howling Franchise
Wa
sn’t the howling already reborn once?I mean, you can’t have Howling 8 “Reborn, when you just had Howling V Rebirth just three sequels ago!
Made in 2011, Howling 8 is a very different looking movie, young people, quick cuts, and desaturated film stock. We get typical High School bullying and an outcast named Will, worried that after graduation everything will change – or worse, NOTHING will change.
“Fun science fact – what separates us from other animals? 2% of our DNA” – it’s a good line that stats to touch on the themes of the original movie, and well representative of the introspective nature you’re going to get throughout this entire thing.
Will gets chased by a werewolf in the sewers one night after a party, but it could just be the ecstasy talking. Still it gets him thinking about it. He’s not just worried about being food, but about what happens if you expose the secret of their existence.
Hey! There’s a scratch on his neck and he doesn’t need his glasses anymore (also the vegetarian wants meat – another nice callback to Christopher Stone in the original movie)! That bully about to pound him in the bathroom is in for a surprise. It’s all very Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, until the bully pulls a gun and then it’s Wolf POV time.
Will’s best friend is up on the lore and gives us the rules for this movie. You don’t necessarily need to be bitten, the wolf just needs to draw blood. Silver and fire will kill you and wounds instantly heal in a nice 21st century CG morph. Fortunately, the girlfriend is into it.
But now school is over, the building is locked down (It’s an awfully high 
tech lockdown for a crumbling old church-like building! this thing puts House on Haunted Hill to shame!) and the rest of the clan is coming for Will, and they’ll either bring him into the pack or destroy him. Of course they have to destroy the girlfriend first, right? It’s the wrong move and he flees with her instead. They head to the school lab to fashion weapons. The flame throwers Will makes remind me a lot of Mike’s from Phantasm 2.
Down in the basement, the werewolves have slaughtered everyone. 
Will father is there and killing him is to be Will initiation. He won’t d it, and decides to fight back – and now it’s finally time for some (brief)wolf action.
I actually really like these werewolves. Muscular and leathery – real Twilight influence. CGI and suits. But they are seen so briefly throughout the whole thing that it might be disappointing. For me though – I actually found the story and the personalities so compelling that I barely noticed the lack of wolves.
The ending sets itself up to be a homage to the original, and twists at the last moment – subverting expectations. It’s a good example of the surprisingly strong storytelling going on here. This is a genuinely good sequel, though not really enough to reignite the brand in the age of much more familiar werewolves in things like Twilight and Teen Wolf on MTV. Nevertheless, don’t overlook this one. Modern reboots get a bad rap, but this is one of the good ones.
Silent Night Deadly Night 4 : The Initiation
Clint Howard watching a flaming corpse fly off a roof? Now THAT’S how you start a movie! Between this, Reggie Bannister and Allyce Beasley (the receptionist from Moonlighting), I have high hopes for this film. Seeing Brian Yuzna in the director’s chair is another good sign. The director of Return of the Living Dead 3 (arguably the most iconic of the series with it’s pierced heroine) and several of the Re-Animator films, this is a guy who gets how to make a solid, memorable piece of horror, especially a sequel. He also knows enough to hire someone like Screamin’ Mad George to sling latex and create horrific monster FX, not to mention bringing Full Moon alumni Richard Band along to do music.
We find ourselves in the bullpen of a newspaper with a classifieds clerk who wants to break in to reporting and thinks the jumper, being ruled a suicide, is her big break. She heads to the jump site where the chalk outline is still fresh and encounters Clint Howard – “Ricky”, as she browses books on spontaneous combustion. He’s a creepy homeless person who follows her to the roof as she checks out the ledge the victim jumped from. Cockroaches seem to follow her home – a problem that will escalate around the half hour mark with the most terrifying giant roach I’ve ever seen, a skull airbrushed into it back. It almost feels like our slasher series is morphing into a horror edged fantasy as our reporter drifts into nightmarish visions.
There’s nothing particularly Christmassy about this story of a young woman, being initiated into a coven of witches. No real connection to the rest of the Silent Night series 
either unless Clint Howard’s “Ricky” is meant to be Ricky Cauldwell, somehow still alive and now having grown some skin over that brain box from the last film. It’s possible. He almost hints at it during a scene where he watches the dream sequence from SNDN3 and answers “Santa Claus Killer” when asked who he is. He serves the witches and I suppose they could have magically shoved his brain down and generate some flesh to cover it.
In any event, the creepy FX are spectacular and the dreamlike confusion of the film give it a “Serpent and the Rainbow” kind of feel. It’s actually a really good film on it’s own, but feel like it should be it’s own thing and not a part of this franchise. That’s kind of ironic, because it may just be the single best film in this series.
The Haunting of Borley Rectory
After a flash of horrific warfare in World War I, we get a shot with a couple of psychics coming back to the Morley rectory before it was demolished. One of them wistfully talks about Love at first sight, and the feeling that one of the spirits… A male spirit is back. We come back in time and come to the soldier we get started getting moving in. The rectory is going to be a listening point, but he doesn’t yet know that it’s haunted by a ghostly greasepaint nun.
Visions and bad dreams plague him. Gradually, he becomes aware of the presence in the house, and seeks out information. The haunting is well under way now. Before the war, the caretakers and was looking 
after the house, preparing to move in when he got married. Whispering in the air and praying in the distance in the house, and then one day, she saw her standing in the doorway. As quick as she saw it, it was gone. But it was a bad omen.
Cut to him finding the books he needs, but he’s interrupted by his commanding officer paying a visit. The CO is worried about his drinking, but it’s an important listening post.
Slowly the hauntings increase and the present starts to intrude on the 
past, merging into a haunting nightmare.
This is one of the better films of it”s kind, and I kind of dig that the director, Steven Smith, frequently works with Lousia Warren. It may not be a buy, but it’s a good one if you happen to come across it on a streaming service like Tubi or even youtube.
Honor
Honor begins at an underground fight, with another dumped line about coming here to find a better life. It’s got a very kickboxer feel to it. I know this is a Roddy piper vehicle, but if you didn’t know that, the words “they live” spray-painted on one of the graffiti walls he is a not so subtle hint. But when I’m really interested in seeing is Linda Park and Russell Wong in this. I’m familiar with them as big players in other productions and that kind of inclusion always makes films like this more interesting.
The street fight is juxtaposed by some gang kids chasing someone else and murdering him on a city bridge. We then get a hard cut to a couple of cops, Piper and Park. Piper is trying to make peace with one of the local bad guys – I think he killed his son… It’s not entirely clear. The bad guy passed. He’s not happy though and heads off into the darkness, into an underground fighting ring where he announces he’s taking over.
Back at home, Piper’s announcing that he’s retired and opening a bar. Suddenly at the back door, he finds his long-lost adopted son Gabriel, discharged from the army and looking like a homeless drifter. He’s home and looking for trouble.
Gabriel finds himself in a Chinese restaurant when the local gangsters come and collect action money. The owner tries to fight them off himself, really effectively actually, but three against one is still too great of odds even for his kung fu. Gabriel gets in to the scrap himself, and gets invited into an underground fighting ring. The bad guy offered Gabriel a deal, join him now… Because you’re either staying with me or against me. Gabriel wants no part of it, The bad guy wants him in the ring and it’s not about sending a message ones to get him there.
Piper is pretty much playing me mentor role in this film, it’s not his movie, though he does finally get a fight scene in the third act when the bad guys attack his bar to put pressure on Gabriel. Newcomer Jason Barry is really meant to be the focal point here, but Piper outshines him whenever the two are on screen together, and for a supporting character, he don’t get a lot of screen time. It makes it hard to keep up the interest in… Nevertheless, this is not an ensemble piece which is probably to its detriment.
On the other hand, between the organized fights, the gangsters leaning on their victims we get a lot of good fights, so if you’re looking to spend a little bit of time with Rowdy Roddy Piper and watch some call fistfights, you could do worse and pick Honor.
The Howling : New Moon Rising (Part 7)
The Howling Franchise
We 
open howling 7 with a skeleton in the desert and a motor cyclist (filmmaker Clive Turner, who may or may not be playing the same surviving character he did in Howling 5) rolling into town. The credits are bad. Like 80’s network sitcom bad. Plain letters with a drop shadow in a bad video overlay. The cheapness of it all gives me a bad feeling about this.
We’re introduced to a priest who investigates occult crime, and the cops what his help.Forensics suggest it’s a wolf killing – but a wolf on it’s hind legs. It’s shocking since it’s such a small town. Even smaller than the one from the last movie, and it’s full of rednecks. Imdb describes it this way;
“Since Clive Turner always wrestled people for control of the films (basically having John Hough direct Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) and then re-shooting much the film because Hough wasn’t hired to do the film he thought needed to be done), he decided to make his 
own Howling movie and star in it, and why not have it take place at one of his favorite towns and get all the local hillbillies to act in it. “
“Clive Turner frequently clashed with Roger Nall over the direction of the film. Nall wanted to make a werewolf movie set in a small town, but Turner wanted to make a character driven story which focused more on the hillbilly community in the small town and less on the werewolf. In the end, Nall walked off the project and Turner re-shot much of the film himself. ” This really comes through as well. For the first third or so of the movie, the werewolf stuff is strictly kept to the priest recapping, while the rest is mostly centered around the bar – you almost forget this is a horror movie and not some strange 70’s western biker movie.
Oh no. Line dancing. The bane of 1990’s existance! But they’re doign it in the dark with blank, emotionless faces. It’s like the Devil’s Line Dance!
Anyhow, the drifter lands a job that pays bed and board, (much like Ian in the previous film) then goes out to find out about the town before they find out about him.
Cut to an inexplicable musical motage. What’s worse, it won’t be the last! We get constant intermissions where the owners of the bar do some old fashioned country music. I appreaciate that it’s Willie Nelso
n style rather than Garth Brooks, but at the same time, I’m really missing the new wave punk that used to be a pert of these movies. Still it might be better than the lone guitar that plays the music from Renegade between scenes.
There’s an attempt to tie this back to Howling 5 and 6, referencing the werewolf origin from 5 (seriously, how much of this run time is just reused footage from part 5? There’s so much that you could pretty much skip 5 and watch this 
instead – though I don’t know why you’d want to) and mentioning the survivor Mary Lou’s appearance in 6. The filmmakers are desperately trying to create a connection with as many of the previous films here as possible. I repeat…they’re TRYING….which is more than what the non-actors populating this film are doing.
The drifter gets into a fight at the last call and later that night, the werewolf wakes up and sees red.
The priest continues with the backstory. See, it’s 3 years to the day that the castle from part 5 burned down – an that’s EXACTLY how long it takes a Werewolf to grow to maturity. On the next full moon, bad juju is coming down. It’s about this time, after some hanky panky at the bar, that Marie from part four shows up looking for help from the priest. It’s time for extensive clips from part four to recap…
I don’t even know what this is anymore. The thing is half a clip show – at levels that would make even Charles Band blush! This isn’t even fan fiction level…. can we just start up the third act please? And maybe see the werewolf? No. Instead we’re going to sing a song about 
prescription beer around a bonfire. Still, we’re running out of film, so it’s about time for Clive to beat up a cop and try and make his escape before anyone knows his secret. Then a werewolf’s face kills the cop and Clive is arrested for it. AND THE GUARDS HAVE SILVER BULLETS!
While he rots in jail, the priest and the detective talk some more…and the priest tries to tie everything together, and explain how all the movies fit together. However, instead of explain the plot….it kind of 
makes it even more confusing and convoluted. I think i could perhaps understand it better if I gave it another try…. yeah. That’s going to happen.
I watched a recording of this that included Joe Bob Briggs hosting segments – and that may well be the only thing that got e through it. This one is the absolute worst of the lot. The absolute bottom of the barrel. Avoid at all cost.
Phantasm
While they did make a Tall Man and the ‘Cuda, we never got any of the heroes. I grabbed a Peter Parker from the animated series and then fluffed out his hair with hot glue before painting it a darker color.
Reggie is a “Pirate Worf” from Star Trek Generations, with the head popped ff and replaced wiht a Captian Picard head (those smaller figures make him look younger). I darkened the hair, painted the vest and glued Worf’s ponytail on the back. The quad-shotgun is 3-d printed, from a air of shotguns I modled together and then physically sawed off the ends. One f these days, I need to make a Mike…..
I am Zozo
Big thanks to I am xoxo for daring to make a Ouija board movie without the word Ouija!
The film opens with the hands of unseen people playing the board and summoning Zozo… Until one of them succumbs to paralyzing laughter.
Oh crap, this one’s based on a true story!
Of all the entities that have been summoned with Ouija boards, there is one that continues to repeatedly identify itself. Thousands of people reported contact with this evil entity. If you are contacted by spirit that vibrates towards the term Zozo, use caution!
– this quote is apparently from a survivor named Darrell Evans.
We get old grainy super eight footage of our heroine as a little girl, juxtaposed with footage of her as a young adult playing a cello. It seems like it’s an interview in a hospital though, with someone asking for her whole story.
A bunch of kids in Halloween costumes had to remote cabin for the weekend. (does this sort of thing ever go well?)
One of the group locate the Ouija board inside playing this on Halloween is a good idea. The Ouija board even warns them. One of the spirit tells them there’s danger coming, but they’re not to be deterred.
Is your name Zozo?
Sounds Greek!
That night the shenanigans start. Sing with the resident magician, and attacked a girl in her bed, but they all just shake it off and do more cabin weekend activities as the next day wears on The second act is an enormous amount of getting to know you… Really should’ve been covered in the firstact . I mean, is the entire point of this movie to showcase the coffee shop folk music they overlay the scenes with?
About 12 minutes before the films end, somebody realizes that this was supposed to be a scary movie so we go back to night time, with the witch playing the Ouija board alone. Beth wanders in, and the watch commanders the board to tell her there’s a secret…Doesn’t really go anywhere though. We ultimately end up with… She was just mad. And madness always works as an excuse for not resolving a storyline, right?
This thing is tacky and plodding and boring, and I don’t feel like it at all what I was going in for. Pass
The Howling 6 : The Freaks
The Howling Franchise
Running in the woods at night. A girl is bloody and bruised and running over loud threatening music. She predictably trips and looks into the face of her killer.
Howling six. The Freaks.
Look, I’m good with freaks. I like the film of the same name and I think that Basket Case 3 was a really smart idea for that franchise. All I’m saying is that in addition to the freaks, I expect to see some werewolves.
A slimy mayor is running for re-election in a small western town just begging to be a horror movie. A British drifter named Ian wanders into town and picks up a job just ahead of the freak show that’s about to roll in. The local preacher needs help to restore the Church. He sets 
him up with a room in the attic and together the get to work. Ian is also catching the eye of Lizzie, the preacher’s daughter.
Harker’s World of Wonders then rolls into town, trailers playing music and clowns handing out pamphlets. They set up outside of town, past the church that’s newly painted. And alone in his room, Ian circles the date at the end of the month….the full moon. The freak show seems to distress him.
Still, the show must go on, and the carnival opens with music and lights, baloons and games. Lizzie and Ian make the scene. If you watch really closely you might spot Mary Lou from the previous sequel in the crowd (it’s an uncredited, non-speaking cameo. Don’t expect anything from it here). I like the place. Good carnival, freakshow and spook house – very reminiscent of Ghoulies 2 or KISS meets the Phantom of the Park. Harker himself appears to guide them. It’s unnerving. Still, it doesn’t matter. Ian was planning on leaving anyhow….except he oversleeps (okay. That;s a bot dumb), and awakens to see the full moon. We get a good enough transformation but a regrettable body suit (Makeup doesn’t do it for me either – strange considering how good the other monster makeups in this film are). Outside, one of the freaks lurks…watching. Within moments, they have him. Harker knows what he is and how to control him.
Of course it’s not just the mystic that he uses to manipulate Ian, it’s talk as well – lies about Ian Lizzie. But it’s his use of a magic crystal that he can make Ian change at will. So the real struggle here is reconciling, is Ian a man or a monster? Or maybe that’s NOT the question. Because Harker himself has a secret of his own (the name should tip you off)….and it’s the reason why everywhere this carny 
goes….people end up dead…and this time Ian will get the blame. Even as the townsfolk gather together with silver bullets to go after Ian, Ian prepares for how own showdown- one with Harker.
The climax is….well, they try.
They aren’t quite up to the final meltdown, but the fight scene is pretty fun. I really enjoy what I’m seeing.
This film has a lot going for it. monsters, magic, freaks, a carnival show and a solid cast that is genuinely puttinging a good performance for 
such a low budget flick. It’s completely stand alone of course. We’re well past any real kind of continuity so the name doesn’t matter except for name recognition. Indeed, part of me wishes it could just try and stand on it’s own, because this series hasn’t felt like “The Howling” in quite a while. But maybe that’s a not a bad thing, because whatever this is – I think I like it better.
The Graveyard : Bloody Murder 3
The Graveyard is not necessarily a direct sequel to the Bloody Murder films, although it was planned as one. As it is, the film is more of a sidequel, taking place in the same town and at the same camp but not necessarily with the same character as a killer. Nevertheless, you can tell even within the opening minutes that it shares a great deal of the DNA from the previous two films and it very much belongs as a part of the series.
The film opens with a group of stupid teenagers sneaking into the Placid Pines cemetery through a broken gate. I say stupid teens, by the way, not because they’re teenagers but because they are really acting dumb and half drunk announcing their entry and competing for the most interesting entrance to the cemetery. The whole party is overdubbed by a miscellaneous rockabilly song as they run in between the tombstones. While they don’t specifically state that the game they’re playing in the cemetery is “bloody murder” it is set up the same… One person is it and has to go find the others. However the person counting down doesn’t notice the masked killer behind him – and when he opens his eyes a white mask and a knife are coming straight at him. That’s enough for him, game 
or not he takes up running – but the mast killers pursues him, scoring a victim along the way. He wasn’t looking – and impales himself on the broken fence, it’s only then that we discover our masked killer is one of the dumb teenagers – it was all a massive fake out (just like it has been in every previous film) – one that ended up tragic.
Five years later, the masked teen, Robert, is getting paroled after being charged with manslaughter for this incident. One of the girls from that night is taking him back to town, where they hang out at the campsite from the previous two bloody murder films. We get a melancholy shot of the cemetery as they drive past in Roberts pensive mug staring at the windows. The gangs all coming back to the camp now that Robert is out.
During the getting to know you sequences we get a couple of jump scares with the groundskeeper – someone who is not part of the reunion going on here. Everyone seems to be in fairly high spirits except for Bobby gloomy-McWet-blanket. Perhaps he’s just tired of hearing the couple in the cabin next door have sex. He ominously warned them 
that the woods aren’t safe.
The rest of the group has a quick power in the dining room where they discuss whether or not it safe to be around body – turns out his family was murdered while he was in jail, an incident involving arson – the plot thickens. One of the girls freaks out and runs to the cemetery, convinced that karma will follow her and the only way out is to beg forgiveness… In the darkness, a masked killer stalks. He’s not just following her though, he seems to be everywhere – his reflection showing up in the mirror as one of the others heads to the bathroom for an obligatory shower scene.
Back at the graveyard, the dead friend’s grave is empty – dug up.
While they’re investigating the graveyard, shower girl gets it. The group hears screaming but by the time they arrive, the shower is empty. Everyone tries to figure out what happened – her bags are still there and her car is still there. Bobby tells them if she went to the woods, she’s gone. He believes it retribution for what they did five years ago… It doesn’t matter the group decides to head up to the woods to search for her.
In the words we run into an angry ex-girlfriend – this might of actually served as a nice misdirect if they didn’t kill her off as soon as she storms away. We get some squabbling as they wander aimlessly through the effectively lit woods, complete with another fake out– not only a mask but also a retractable blade. They laugh it off, despite the fact that the caretaker warns them once again – these woods aren’t safe, and one of their people are still missing.
Back at camp, the cars have all been tampered with – slashed tires, missing batteries and cut gas lines. That should be ominous, but the pacing feels off and the tone hasn’t built up enough dread. While the boys try and fix the cars, the girls smoke pot and pontificate – that is until the killer shut up again, this time with a severed head in hand (Possibly the best gore in the entire film). The camp is lit beautifully, with that light blue mist we’ve become so used to in the Bloody Murder films and the sight of the killer walking across the field to stalk his victim feels iconic.
Gore signals the beginning of the third act, and now the remaining campers know they’re in danger.
It’s about this time that the cop shows up… He catches Bobby with a bloody knife that the killer used on someone in the woods and he finds himself back in custody. Morning 
comes and our survivors gather together in one of the dorms, while the cop throws Bobby in a jail cell. Meanwhile, at the cabins the remaining campers think they have figured out who the killer is.
While it’s clumsier than the two Bloody Murder films, The Graveyard still throws us twists, turns and enough fake outs to keep you wondering through the third act who the killer actually is. Truly the only thing keeping this from being a fully realized Bloody Murder film is the absence of the series slasher, Trevor Moorehouse… And even without him, we still have a masked killer who looks like a natural evolution from that stalker. The white mask this killer wears could just as easily be a weathered and patched up version of the one from Bloody Murder 2. It’s definitely worth watching with the other films and absolutely deserves its place in this trilogy.
Shadow Warriors
Shadow Warriors part one opens with Hulk Hogan doing some pleasantly generic spiritual/martial arts meditation, before switching over to the team on a plane heading towards thier Mission and Shannon Tweed seducing Billy Drago.. (wait a minute, Billy Drago’s in this? The cover didn’t mention this! It also doesn’t mention Billy Blanks or Martin Cove, the bad guy from the first karate kid! )
Hogans team parachutes into the coast of San Domingo, with a stealthily infiltration carrying their big guns. Hogans teammates get slaughtered, but it’s worth it to see Carl Weathers with a Gatlin gun. Mission failed because Hogan‘s team has a rat in it. But at the last minute, Shannon Tweed rescues the Hulkster, and they discover that they’re both on the same side. This gives rise from the seven soldiers to a new team, The Shadow Warriors.
There’s a lot of getting to know you and Shannon Tweed running around in her underwear while the bad guy rebuilds his forces and Hulk shows off his gun collection. There’s a sort of attempt to give the Hulkster a certain sort of warrior mystic feel, but it kind of feels lame. Carl Weathers shows up to reluctantly join the team, just before the bad guys launch a helicopter assault on the Hulksters home, kicking us into the action packed third act. And I just saw the bad guy has hostages – which allows them to make this into a real mission, sanctioned by the government.
Martin Cove shows up as the envoy from the government, an agent who will eventually join them as they mount their assault on Devils Island. It’s in an isolated place, with dungeons that are filled with water, knee-deep… Exactly where they’re keeping the hostages. Good thing the team has plenty of explosives and Carl Weathers Gatlin gun.
Up top, Hulk Hogan‘s stunt double fights with Billy Blanks, in a melee that has to last at least 10 minutes, spread across a good chunk of the third act. I’ve got to hold onto my suspension of disbelief here, because I’m reasonably certain that Hulk Hogan would not be able to defeat tae bo in any even or realistic matchup. I also got a feel bad for Billy Blanks boss, even if you do happen to recognize him as Kano from Mortal Kombat, Blanks is way more famous than he is and that’s got to be kind of a drag to be less well-known than the guy you’re in charge of!
I actually enjoyed this way more than I expected to. It’s all really solid action fun. Carl Weathers is still absolutely ripped in this movie, and Shannon Tweed is charming and curvy and all the right places, as long as you don’t think too hard about where her mouth has been. Hulk Hogan is actually a way better actor than anybody gets him credit for, and looks pretty dashing in that lace front hair piece that he’s wearing. He’s acting circle to round Billy Blanks, but then again, that’s let’s face it… That’s not what we’re watching this more! Billy Drago is his usual smarmy self and custom-made for this sort of generic bad guy role. If there’s any weakness here, it’s the third act which really drags as they get all the origin story stuff out of the way, fortunately there’s a sequel where we don’t have to be bothered with any of that nonsense. You can tell it’s a good movie when it leaves you wanting more, and I’m definitely wanting more shadow warriors. I only wish there was more than two movies!
The Howling 5 : The Rebirth
The Howling Franchise
How
ling five has the distinction of being the first Howling sequel to come out from the same production company as the last one!
Credits against an empty rocking crib and then flashback to Budapest in the 1400s and everyone is dead. The last knight and lady need to die too, to end the evil. It doesn’t work. And the evil survives…. to 1989.
A group of stereotypes (tennis jock, bimbo starlet, aging actress, rich playboy, normal girl, the unconventionally handsome practical dude, ect.) are heading to an event at an old castle – undisturbed for centuries. It’s a stunning set (that I can’t find good photos of), and a beautiful place for a horror movie – especially if you’re budget conscious and doing primarily a single location. The 
lighting an sets give me the comfortable feel of a Full Moon film (But perhaps a tad more pretentious).
“Legend was this area was terrorized by wolves and they suspected it was actually the devil in the guise of a wolf.” Okay. I think we’ve got the setup. 19 minuets down, an hour and seventeen to go.
Things lurk in the walls and downstairs, chains drag. A professorial type gets locked in this dungeon level while examining a skull in the straw of the dirt floor, and moans float through the halls. Then, out of the dark, jaws attack.
Upstairs, there’s more history over dinner, talk about how the castle was sealed 500 years ago and forgotten….fading into obscurity. while they chat, a snowstorm rages outside, stranding them in the castle with a long night ahead of them. there’s secret passages and dimly lit stone corridors to explore, and perhaps even a monster or two in their midst. It’s a good werewolf suit by the way – or at least, they know how to photograph it to get good lighting, and lots of shadows to create an effective image. POV shots racing through the halls helps add to the feel.
But as people start to disappear they discover the labyrinth below the castle, and decide to head down as a search party. That of course is where the wolves and blue fog live, plunging us straight into the third act.
Despite the fact that I keep referecing the clock and where we are in the three act structure, this thing really manages to move. It’s a good straightforward horror movie with just enough action and monsters to keep you engaged the whole way through. I’d still like more wolf shots and gore but it’s obviously not in the budget, but at the same time, they aren’t trying for any sort of convoluted story. There’s no real mystery, no sexy temptress trying to seduce someone’s husband, no tragic struggle with turning into an animal or reconciling monsters and evil. Just a good setup in a nice location with a good monster to just knock ’em down. I have to be honest, I may have enjoyed this late series sequel more than any others that came before! Of everything I’ve watched, this seems like the one I’m most likely to come back to sometime.
Hellraiser Pyramid
I always wanted to customize a Hellraiser puzzle box – something in a different shape. I did a little rejiggering on the panels converting them to equilateral triangles, and made them three-dimensional in Microsoft 3d builder and laid them onto a basic pyramid shape. I printed out the bottom panel separate to make it easier to print.
Model can be found here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2758479
Argo City Comics 