Hey everyone, here’s a new YouTube video of me unboxing my new Kotobikuya Chucky statue.
Tag Archives: horror
Ghoulies (1984)
One from the re watch pile…
Ghoulies (1984)
The bluray cover to Glass Doll Films release of Ghoulies
Film: If you’ve read other reviews I’ve written on this site, you may have come to the conclusion that my favourite horror movies come from the 80s, and that conclusion is correct. All the films I truly love are circa 1979 to 1986, and Ghoulies is one which whilst I am not a huge fan of, I do think is a fun film to watch.
Little monster movies were a cool fad of my beloved horror period, and this film was one amongst those, along with Gremlins and Troll. Ghoulies was written and directed by Luca Bercovici, who is possibly better known as an actor, judging by his actor credits.
Our story starts with baby Jonathon (played as an adult by Peter Liapis), being spirited away from his cult leader father, Michael Graves (Michael Des Barres) by cult member Wolfgang (Jack Nance) after a his sacrifice is unsuccessful.
25 years later, Jonathon returns to the house, with his girlfriend, Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan) after his father’s death and decides to quit university to restore the old place. In his cleaning of the house though, he discovers an old book which he is drawn to and he seemingly knows how to cast the spells written within instinctively.
Lisa Pelikan and Peter Liapis as the young lovers.
Quickly, he calls up a bunch of ‘ghoulies’, two of which, Grizzel (Peter Riche) and Greedigut (Tamara De Treaux) who inform him that if he want that which he craves, enlightenment and power, he needs to complete a ritual which will require the assistance of 7 of his friends, but will all of them survive the night?
This is 80s cheesy filming at its very cheesiest. All the staples of horror and ‘horror comedies’ of the time are present: the stoners, the awkward guy, the guy who thinks he’s cool but isn’t and a bunch of canon fodder disguised as flirty girls, including an early appearance of SVU’s Mariska Hargitay.
The misstep this film makes is the appearance of the Ghoulies and of Grizzel and Greedigut. This story is actually a pretty cool supernatural tale, but the addition of special effects artist John Carl Buechler’s pretty poorly designed puppets and the little people actors who look more like they should be in Willow than here detract from what could be an amazing movie. I also must say for the period, the lack of nudity is unusual for a film of this low caliber.
They are my only complaints though. The movie is quite short so at no time are you bored, and it is quite imaginatively filmed, so except for those dodgy effects, it does entertain.
Score: ***1/2
Ghoulies Australian Bluray menu screen
Format: This review was performed with the Australian Glass Doll Films region B Bluray release which runs for approximately 81 minutes, and is presented in a clear, though occasionally artefact-y image 1.85:1 with a crisp Dolby DTS-HD audio track.
Score: ****
Extras: There’s a bunch of cool extras on this disc:
First there is a great commentary featuring Luca Bercovici, hosted by film historian Jason Andreasson which really tells some great behind the scenes stories.
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste – an Interview with Scott Thomson sees Thomson, who played Mike, recall anecdotes and musings on the making of the film.
“Just ‘Cos of the Chick, Man” – with Luca Bercovici sees Bercovici, the writer/ director of Ghoulies, discuss his career in multiple roles in cinema, from dialogue coach to actor to writer.
Editing an Empire – An Interview With Ted Nicolau sees editor of Ghoulies Nicolau reflect on his career.
It’s an interesting collection of interviews which when all watching one after the other, don’t paint the prettiest picture of Charles Band.
There is also in informative booklet about the film by Dave Jay, and the cover is reversible, with the orphan poster on one side, and some cool fresh art on the other.
Score: ****
WISIA: 80s monster movies? Yeah, I’m watching them again!
A Ghoulie.
Child’s Play (1988) Review
One from the re watch pile…
Child’s Play (1988)
Film: What is it with clowns and dolls? We enjoy both of them as kids but when we grow up, some of us are creeped out by them, but not me!
Definitely not me!
I LOVE movies that have a scary doll or clown in it! Never let it be said that I avoid either. Damn, I even saw Annabelle just because of the doll, even though I knew it to be part of the universe that the disappointingly dull Conjuring films exist in.
Why do I love horror films with dolls in it? The blame can be aimed directly at this film right here: 1988’s Child’s Play, starring the most loveable smartarse serial killing doll, Chucky!
This film was written by Don Mancini, also with John Lafia and Tom Holland, who also directed.
This film tells of Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), a serial killer who, upon being almost captured, uses voodoo to transfer his mind to a fresh body, which happens to be the most popular toy of the day, a Good Guys doll.
Karen (Catherine Hicks) is desperate for a Good Guy doll for her son, 6 year old Andy (Alex Vincent) and manages to acquire the one that Chucky transferred his persona into. Very soon, Chucky is on the rampage, and wants a human body again but he find out that he can only return to the body of the first person he revealed himself to… otherwise he’ll be trapped as a doll forever, but a human doll with organs and blood, and one that can be injured… and killed, so the race is on to get back to Alex, and become one with him…
The first thing one has to note about this film is just how amazing Alex Vincent is in it. Mostly kids come across as obnoxious or just annoying in these sorts of films, but the whole preposterous story is sold on how good the kid sells it!
The special effects of Chucky need some props as well. Occasionally it is a little person dressed up, but there are also times where it is a puppet or an animatronic, and in both cases it looks convincing… once your sense of disbelief kicks in anyways.
On the point of the silly concept of the film, Hicks and her co-star Chris Sarandon both deserve credit for playing the entire film completely straight, which is exactly what this film needs. Brad Dourif’s menacing voice doesn’t hurt that either… he’s a nasty piece of work in this!
It’s a great deal of fun, and even though the sequels, like all sequels, are occasionally stupid, this is an effective film that tells a great story even though what we are supposed to believe is out there.
Score: ****
Format: This film was reviewed with the UK DVD release that runs for approximately 83 minutes. Unfortunately this DVD wasn’t really made for widescreen TVs it doesn’t appear to be anamorphic, and the widescreen image just seems to float in the middle of your screen. I tried it on several different settings and couldn’t get it to play to the full screen of my widescreen TV. The image itself though is a clean one, and the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is fantastic.
Score: **
Extras: Only a trailer, I’m afraid.
Score: *1/2
WISIA: It’s an eighties horror classic, you better believe it!
Pin (1988) Review
One from the re watch pile…
Pin (1988)
Film: It’s no secret that my favourite films are from the 80s. I mainly loved the ones that were over-sequelised like the Nightmare on Elm Street series, or the Friday the 13ths series, but now and again I’d find a one-off that was totally off the wall, and amazing.
This film, Pin, is based on the novel by Andrew Neiderman with the script written by Sandor Stern, a man whom every horror fan knows better as the script-writer for The Amityville Horror. This film was also directed by Stern, and he proves himself to be an efficient director with a skill in. Retaking uncomfortable cinematic atmospheres.
Pin tells the story of the Linden family. Leon (David Hewlett) and Ursula (Cyndy Preston) have had an extraordinarily strict upbringing: their mother, Mrs Linden (Bronwen Mantel) is a OCD cleaning-obsessed fruitcake, and their father, a doctor (Terry O’Quinn) is a cold fish who educates his children using a life-sized, anatomically correct dummy, named Pin, and his skill with ventriloquism.
The problem is, Leon doesn’t have the emotional growth to understand that Pin isn’t real, and as he grows older, he develops a split-personality, his own and the other being Pin.
Unfortunately their parents die in a car accident, and without the good doctor there to temper Leon’s schizophrenia, ‘Pin’ becomes more and more dominant, which doesn’t really help in Ursula’s plan to lead a normal life, even though she does tend to allow Leon’s fragile state of mind to continue… but will it eventually become dangerous?
Stern has created a truly bizarre film with this one. There is an amazing oppressiveness whilst the parents are alive which is replaced by a constant feeling of uneasiness as Leon’s mental state devolves. Hewlett nails the performance of Leon which helps the unsettled mood as well.
One of the other super-creepy things about the film is the voice that is given to Pin. Jonathon Banks, who plays Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, performs it with this slightly high-pitched calm that somehow suits the bizarre empty stare that the dummy has. It’s a weird thing when the dummy is one of those ‘visible man’ medical training dummies, but when it is painted, wigged and dressed by Leon it becomes something out of nightmares.
This is a well made, fascinating film, and I really recommend it to anyone who likes a good psychological horror film.
Score: ****1/2
Format: The reviewed copy of this film was the Arrow Films, region 2 DVD release which was produced under their ‘Arrowdrome’ line. The DVD runs for approximately 98 minutes and is presented in a slightly soft images 1.85:1 with a sufficient Stereo 2.0 audio.
Score: ***
Extras: Arrow presented this film with a reversable cover, the other being the original artwork from the 80s. This package also contains a booklet about the film which features an essay by Lee Gambin. The disc contains a trailer as well.
The disappointing thing about this disc is the cover offers a commentary, but there is no option to select it.
Score: **1/2
WISIA: I have liked this film for years and it gets a regular watching.
The Darkness (2015) Review
One from the to watch pile…
The Darkness (2016)
Film: I like bacon on everything: burgers, pizzas, sandwiches, and even films. In general I can say I like films that have Kevin Bacon in them as he has quite a presence.
I’m not quite sure if he’s a fine actor, but sometimes he just nails parts that are handed to him, and I’ll site Flatliners, Cop Car and Death Sentence amongst those that really made me sit up and take notice… and I reckon I’ll include The Darkness in one where a fairly generic story is raised by Bacon’s performance, and for that matter so-stars Radha Mitchell, David Mazouz and Lucy Fry.
Lucy Fry is also known for her appearance in the TV series of Wolf Creek, which was created by Greg McClean, as is this film, which he directed and co-wrote with the writers of the fantastic Australian film Acolytes, Shayne Armstrong and Shane Krause.
The Taylor family, father Peter (Bacon), mother Bronny (Mitchell), and children Stephanie (Fry) and Michael (Mazouz) have been on a camping trip with some friends, and young autistic Michael has discovered some pebbles with runes on them inside a cave where a strange Native American village once stood.
Michael’s communication issues cause him to not tell the rest of the family about his stones, and he becomes, all of the sudden, very possessive of the backback he keeps them in.
The family starts having problems, and weird things start happening around the house as whatever it is that Michael has brought into the house starts to eat into their fear and escalate their failings. Michael in particular starts acting strange, and then the weird occurrences start taking place… and then all hell breaks loose.
Peter’s boss, Simon (Paul Reiser) suggests they get in touch with a psychic his wife knows to see if they can alleviate the situation… but will they provoke it instead?
For me this was a well acted, well cast, well directed film but the story suffers from being so generic, as far as the ‘haunting’ aspect goes. The familial issues are right out of a decent drama film and are probably the best part of the script especial with the delicate subjects of autism, bulimia, alcoholism and adultery, but all the ghost story stuff reads like a megamix, best-of, greatest hits album of ghost movies, and the lack of originality makes the story suffer, which is a shame as all the other, previously mentioned stuff is quite good.
With a better, more original story this had the potential of being some great, rather than something sub-average. Shame.
Score: **1/2
Format: The reviewed copy of this film was an Australian region 2, 4 and 5 DVD which has a flawless 2.40:1 image and a matching Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. The film runs for approximately 88 minutes.
Score: ****
Extras: There is an alternate ending which runs for about 9 minutes and honestly is the far better, ‘shocking’ ending. Also we have 9 deleted scenes which whilst don’t move the story forward, do flesh out the characters and their various issues.
Score: **
WISIA: I’m not really a ghost story type so I can’t really see myself watching it again.
Easter Review: Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Happy Easter everyone! Hope you are enjoying your eggs and get to spend some time with the ones you love. The guy from THIS particular film wanted to do that very thing, but got more than he bargained for…
‘Tis the day of resurrection, and so here is one from the re watch pile…
Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
Film: The first Return of the Living Dead film was a revelation to me when I saw it at Village Cinemas Sylvania when I was a teen. It was probably one of the first dates I ever took a girl on, and she never went out with me ever again.
Sorry Kylie.
Everything that was achieved in the film was amazing: art design, soundtrack, the cast… it felt like, to this little Australian suburban kid, what the American punk experience would be like, and then you throw something like zombies into the mix: astounding!
A few years later the sequel came out, and I was a slightly older teen then, but could immediately recognise that the new filmmakers hadn’t necessarily realised what made the first film what it was and filled the sequel with a real generic group of victims and they amped the dumb comedy up as they possibly didn’t have the skill Dan O’Bannon had with delivering the subtleties of black comedy.
By the time I had heard a third was coming out I was rolling my eyes, wondering how crap it could be… then I saw female lead Mindy Clarke on the cover of Fangoria and I though immediately,’ I gotta see this’. Looking like the daughter of a mating between Pinhead from Hellraiser and Trash from the first Return of the Living Dead, the contrast between the actress’ beauty and her ‘body modification gone bad’ appearance stunned me, and put this film in my headlights!
Whereas the first sequel had gone for laughs, this sequel written by John Penney (The Kindred) and directed by Brian Yuzna (Beyond Reanimator, Society), I had a pretty good idea that this movie was gonna be a trip.
Onto the film…
Julie (Mindy, now Melinda, Clarke) is desperate to see what goes on in her boyfriend Curt’s (J. Trevor Edmond) father, Colonel Reynolds’ military research facility. Curt, due to… well him being a teen and Julie being smoking hot… steals his father’s security card and sneaks in to find out what is going on.
What IS going on is that Colonel Reynolds is a part of a team who are trying to use 2-4-5 Trioxin, a chemical originally created to destroy marijuana but had the awful side effect of bringing the dead back to life, to try and create an army of controllable undead ‘bio-units’ to use in war instead of living soldiers.
They witness one of the experiments, and Julie becomes entranced by the idea of the Living Dead, hungry for brains.
Unfortunately, Curt and Julie have an accident and Curt decides to take Julie’s corpse to the lab to revive her, not knowing, or not caring, that she’ll become a zombie.
Of course she does become one, but finds that through self-mutilation she can control the urges up to a point… but how can a relationship work when one of the members is a reanimated corpse? Especially when you’ve upset the local gang… and maybe have bitten one of them…
This film is a blast; director Brian Yuzna isn’t the greatest director who ever lived, but what he lacks in talent he makes up for in enthusiasm and his ability to assemble a cast who can deliver a crazy story convincingly. Also, his lack of restraint when it comes to special effects is also something to be admired!
Black humour is one of those things than can easily not work, and the best thing they could of done with this story was keep it as the tragedy it was set up to be, which they did, and the whole tale works perfectly. Using some of the ideas proposed in the other two films, that is: being dead hurts, makes for a pretty interesting journey our heroes go on.
It’s atypical of most zombie films as there are actually few zombies! There’s no gigantic pandemic, no masses of the undead, just a couple of people in love making bad decisions… it even at times riffs on Frankenstein with its creator/ monster relationship.
I do enjoy every second of it and recommend it to fans of the zombie genre.
Score: ****
Format: The reviewed copy of this film was performed on a region 1, USA release DVD which is about 10 years old. The film runs approximately 96 minutes with a not very sharp 16×9 image but with an OK Dolby 2.0 audio track.
Score: **
Extras: Surprisingly, this disc has three extras on it. There are two commentaries, one with director Brian Yuzna where he muses on the creation of the film and his cast and crew, and the other with actor Mindy Clarke, and second unit director Tom Rainone. Both are interesting, and it’s even more fascinating to hear about the making of a film from employer and employees.
There is also trailers for this film, and other Yuzna directed films Progeny, The Dentist, The Dentist 2 and Faust.
Score: ***1/2
WISIA: I really like this film and honestly, probably haven’t seen it enough! It’s time it returned to a higher rotation!
Easter Review: Critters 2 (1988)
Happy Easter from the To Watch Pile! Thanks for your continued support. Over the next three days we’ll have three special reviews JUST for Easter!
One from the re watch pile…
Critters 2 (1988)
Film: In the 80s, after Gremlins, every movie company wanted to try their hand at a little furry monster film. The difference is, whilst it took Gremlins several years to pop out a sequel, other series’ came and went, like Troll, Ghoulies and this series Critters.
For me, Critters didn’t grab me… well, not until this sequel which came out a few years later me and I totally dug it. The beautiful thing about this sequel was it realised that the premise, and the Critters, were a little stupid and decided to amp up the comedy aspects. This also may be due to the trend of horror films at the time was to make ‘horror comedies’ at every opportunity, thanks to Freddy K and the humour that had been injected into his series.
For me this was the best idea, and it really works. Sure a lot of the jokes refer to other movies (and with Mick Garris co-writing and directing, you can guarantee a Stephen King joke is gonna slip in there too) and if I’m totally honest, there is a load of Dad-jokes throughout the preceding.
Our story tells of Bradley Brown (Scott Grimes), who has returned after two years to his home town which several years ago had been the victim of an alien incursion by little furry eating machines called ‘Krites’.
Unfortunately for Bradley, his return also heralds a return of the Krites as a local antiques dealer purchases a bunch of Krite eggs that have been dormant (they’ve been in a cold barn) for this whole time. As soon as he puts them in his warmer antiques shop, they begin to hatch, but not before he sold some to a local childcare centre so they can paint them for their Easter parade.
Bradley teams up with the daughter of the town newspaper editor, Megan (Liane Curtis) and intergalactic shapechanging bounty hunters Ug (Terrance Mann) and Lee (played by various actors including scream queen Roxanne Kernohan and professional nerd Eddie Deezen), and their human sidekick, former town drunk Charlie (Don Keith Opper) to fight the Krites, but will the small town of Grover’s Bend be able to survive another alien attack?
Mick Garris is one of those directors who doesn’t do anything special with his direction, but really conveys a story brilliantly and he does so here. The sense of whimsy in this film is present all the way through and it seems clear the cast and crew had fun making it. As I previously stated, there are several dad jokes and some sound effects added to visual jokes that make a slightly amusing scene even funnier.
The cats is extraordinarily likable and you can also spot support acting regulars like Lin Shaye (Insidious), Barry Corbin (No Country for Old Men) and Sam Anderson (Ouija:Origin of Evil): I kid you not, these last two faces will make you point at the screen and go ‘that’s the guy from the thing with the man in that TV show’.
One warning though: Cynthia Garris has written a jingle for the towns fast food restaurant ‘Hungry Heifer’ that is so insidiously catchy that you’ll find yourself humming it for days later.
I thoroughly enjoy this film and of the 80s horror-comedies, which I don’t REALLY called horror, it’s one of my comfort-food styled favourites, liked a celluloid hot chocolate.
Score: ****
Format: The review of this film was performed with the New Zealand (which is really a ratings re-stickered Australian one) Region 4 DVD which runs for approximately 82 minutes and is presented in a good 1.85:1 image with an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Score: ***1/2
Extras: Only a trailer I’m afraid.
Score: *
WISIA: Oh yeah I’ll watch this film again and again… and not just for Roxanne Kernohan! It’s a hoot!
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film (2009) Review
One from the To Watch Pile…
NIGHTMARES IN RED, WHITE AND BLUE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN HORROR FILM (2009) REVIEW
Film: Even though their releases are hit and miss, I am always willing to giving Australian company Monster Pictures a go. Sometime I get a gem like All Through The House, other times I am kicked in the nuts with trash like Pod, but I still feel that support is important.
On a few occasions, Monster Pictures will release a documentary ABOUT films, like Andrew Leavold’s The Search for Weng Weng, the unusual film about Richard Franklin’s descent into madness Lost Souls, and this, the more mainstream horror based doco about the American horror film, Nightmares in Red White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film.
Now I am a massive fan of documentaries about film, and site The History of Film TV series as my second favourite TV series of all time (the first is Doctor Who, the third is Criminal Minds) and I am a regular viewer of other docos like Video Nasties, Channel Z, Not Quite Hollywood, Machete Maidens Unleashed, Rewind This et cetera.
I think the reason I am so interested in these documentaries is because I am somewhat of a frustrated filmmaker myself, and would love to make docos!
Now the history of horror films would be a TV series unto itself as so many countries have a massive horror film industry themselves, so this one egotistically narrows its focus solely on the American horror film.
The film is narrated by horror icon Lance Henrickson, and features interviews with various directors like Joe Dante (The ‘Burbs), George Romero (Land of the Dead ), Brian Yuzna (Beyond Re-animator), John Carpenter (Halloween (1978), Larry Cohen (The Stuff), Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II), Mick Garris (Riding the Bullet), Tom McLoughlin (Sometimes They Come Back) and Roger Corman (trust me, you’ve seen a Corman film), as well as film historians John Kenneth Muir and Dennis Fischer and ex-Fangoria editor in chief Tony Timpone.
This is a pretty good movie, though as the title would suggest, its very insular and outside a couple of mentions of what is happening in the overseas film industries, it talks repeatedly about what was happening in America, to Americans (though apparently Canada is America now, according to the Cronenberg mentions) and how the various world wars effected Americans and the American horror film industry.
That’s a minor criticism though and the documentary takes a fleeting look at the entire history of American horror from the dawn of cinema appearing in America to Universal Monsters, to thrillers, savage cinema, slashers, zombies: you name it.
This documentary also looks at the highs and lows of the industry, and how the ‘real’ world (whatever that is these days) effects the quality and tone of horror films.
Horror movie fans will love the fact that this film doesn’t hold back on the violence and blood: obviously the director, Andrew Monument and writer, Joseph Maddrey (also the writer of the book on white this was based) know where the bread and butter of the genre usually is; you know, that surface interest before the story or acting or direction becomes and appeal.
The real shame in this film is the lack of female discussion: no women directors, historians, journalists or actresses get a say here which I found unusual, considering how great their presence has become, and how important both sexes are to the genre. Seriously, Rue Morgue, the wonderful horror magazine was at its best when under the control of now-director Jovanka Vukovic, surely someone like her or her contemporaries (like Monica S. Kuebler or Rebekah McKendry or April Snellings or any of the other wonderful female voices in horror) would have had something important to say.
Even over that, I enjoyed this documentary and am happy to have it in my collection of docos about horror films.
Score: ***1/2
Disc: This region 4 DVD release from Monster Pictures runs for roughly 96 minutes and is presented in a 16×9 image of varying quality, which is not entirely fair as some of the footage is from old films but some of the interview do have some noise on their image, and the audio is presented in an entirely functional Dolby Digital 2.0.
Score: ***
Extras: Not a sausage.
Score: 0
WISIA: I have no doubt that I’ll watch this again as I do re-watch horror documentaries regularly.
Bernie Wrightson R.I.P.
Today was tough for this comic and music fan. I awoke to the news that Chuck Berry had passed away and though to myself, ‘well this day is gonna suck.’
Then I found out one of my comic heroes, Bernie Wrightson, had passed away from brain cancer.
Bernie was best known for his horror comics and for the co-creation, along with Len Wein, for probably the world’s most famous muck-monster, Swamp Thing, which is where I was first introduced to him.
When I first became aware of Wrightson’s art, I actively pursued his comics, and at one time was listed amongst my favourite artists along with Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Harvey Kurtzman and Robert Crumb.
Actually, that list is probably still current.
Some of the highlights of his career for me were his collaboration with Steven King, ‘The Cycle of the Werewolf’…
His illustrated Frankenstein book…
and the amazing ‘Jennifer’, written by Bruce Jones which was adapted by Dario Argento for the TV series Masters of Horror.
I am sure all comics fans will feel his passing along with me, and if I may, please think about donating to one of the wonderful charities that support cancer sufferers and their families, like Bear Cottage.
Nerds of Oz: week ending 10th February 2017
Week Ending 10th February 2017
Mini-haul…
Blurays
This week I grabbed a couple of new releases: the animated Justice League Dark and Ouija Origin of Evil.
Bust/ Statues
Grabbed this cool Harley Quinn (yes, again) Mugshot bust. Normally I’d do a YouTube opening, but I couldn’t resist getting stuck into this straight away!
Board/ Card Games
Picked up a copy of Games Workshop’s Space Hulk. I had this years ago, and saw one quite cheap so I jumped on it. I loved this game in my twenties, this and another called Talisman, and I’m glad to have it again.
Digital Retribution 