Spooky Empire 2014

Only five more days until Spooky Empire.  We'll be there all three days, then we're all hitting Halloween Horror Nights on Sunday evening. 

Dracula Untold

It's a shame when so many things are done right in a movie, that they missed the most important one,the script. 

This movie looks amazing.  The effects are top notch, the sets and costumes look great.  While Luke Evans wouldn't have been my choice for Dracula, he does a good job showing the warrior side of Dracula. 

The problem is that there are far to many plot holes for the movie to be effective.  The way that Dracula becomes a vampire makes little sense, and without spoiling it, brings up more questions later.  The death of one character who is thrown from a 1,000 foot high cliff only to land perfectly on their back and with no blood is laughable.  Another issue is that you could have made this same movie and left out the Dracula name, and it wouldn't have changed it that much. 

As the first major studio Dracula movie since Dracula 2000, I was hoping for better. 

Annabelle

I finally got to check this out tonight.  It's a well enough made film, but it was nowhere near as scary as it was made out.   I can't think of anything in it that made it deserve the "R" rating.

To me it felt like a made for TV horror film from the 70's.  Knowing what becomes of Annabelle in The Conjuring tends to blunt the edge of it's scares.

Not a terrible movie, but not a memorable one either.  

Doctor Mordrid

Thanks to the good people at Fangoria and Full Moon, I now have a copy of Doctor Mordrid.  Thank you very much!

Doctor Mordrid started as an adaptation of "Dr. Strange" but after the rights were lost they retooled it. 

It should be interesting to watch. 

Pinhead vs Freddy

It will never happen, but this would be my ultimate horror movie crossover. 

Just imagine that one of the kids Freddy is tormenting tries to use Lemarchand's box to stop him.  Freddy might even kill a few of the other Cenobites, but in the end my money's on Pinhead. 

The Darker Side of Robin Williams

It's been a couple of months since Robin Williams died, and it still doesn't feel real yet.  So in this entry I thought I would recommend a couple of his darker movies.   Everyone is familiar with ones like "One Hour Photo" and "Insomnia" but there are a few more that are worth while.

In a future society people can get memory implants that allow them to record their entire lives.  Williams plays Alan Hakman a "cutter".  Cutters are people who assemble the recorded memories of a person into a movie viewable at their funeral.  His latest assignment leads to more than he bargained for.

Williams plays a radio host who receives a manuscript from his biggest fan.  Intrigued by it, he tries to make contact, only to be drawn in a bizarre mystery. 

A private detective is trying to find out the identity of a woman with amnesia.  He turns to a disgraced psychiatrist, played by Williams, for advice. Williams appearance in this shocked people at the time because he was uncredited. 

AMC Fear Fest 2014

The schedule is up for the first week AMC's Fear Fest and it looks great!!
-----
Friday, October 17, 2014

• 9:00am – Graveyard Shift
• 11:00am – Silver Bullet
• 1:00pm – Thinner
• 3:00pm – Cujo
• 5:00pm – Dreamcatcher
• 8:00pm – Firestarter
• 10:30pm – Children of the Corn (1984)

Saturday, October 18, 2014

• 12:30am – Riding the Bullet
• 4:00am – Cujo
• 6:00am - Children of the Corn (1984)
• 8:00am – Tremors
• 10:00am – Tremors 2: Aftershocks
• 12:15pm – Tremors 3: Back to Perfection
• 2:45pm – Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
• 5:15pm – Tremors
• 7:15pm – Tremors 2: Aftershocks
• 9:30pm – Tremors 3: Back to Perfection

Sunday, October 19, 2014

• 12:00am – Tremors 4: The Legend Begins
• 2:30am – Creation of the Humanoids
• 4:00am – Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
• 6:00am – The Howling
• 8:00am – Pumpkinhead
• 10:00am – Child’s Play 2
• 12:00pm – Child’s Play 3
• 2:00pm – Bride of Chucky
• 4:00pm – Seed of Chucky

Monday, October 20, 2014

• 7:00am – Friday the 13th (1980)
• 9:00am – Friday the 13th, Part 2
• 11:00am – Friday the 13th – Part III
• 1:00pm – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• 3:00pm – Friday the 13th (1980)
• 5:00pm – Friday the 13th, Part 2
• 7:00pm – Friday the 13th – Part III
• 9:00pm – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• 11:00pm – Friday the 13th – A New Beginning

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

• 1:00am – Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives
• 3:00am – War of the Colossal Beast
• 7:00am – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
• 9:00am – Friday the 13th – A New Beginning
• 11:00am – Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives
• 1:00pm – Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
• 3:15pm – Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
• 5:15pm – Jazon X
• 7:15pm – Friday the 13th (2009)
• 9:15pm – Friday the 13th (1980)
• 11:15pm – Friday the 13th, Part 2

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

• 1:15am – Friday the 13th – Part III
• 3:15am – Violent Midnight
• 3:30am – Corridors of Blood
• 3:45am – Invasion of the Neptune Men
• 7:00am – Slaughter of the Vampires
• 7:15am – Invasion of the Neptune Men
• 7:30am – How to Make a Monster
• 7:45am – The Funhouse
• 10:00am – Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare
• 12:00pm – The Fog
• 2:00pm – Survival of the Dead
• 4:00pm – Land of the Dead
• 6:00pm – Lake Placid
• 8:00pm – House on Haunted Hill
• 10:00pm – Return to House on Haunted Hill
• 11:45pm – An American Werewolf in Paris

Thursday, October 23, 2014

• 2:00am – Puppet Master
• 7:00am – Eight Legged Freaks
• 9:30am – Lake Placid
• 11:30am – Cujo
• 1:30pm – I Know What You Did Last Summer
• 4:00pm – Thirteen Ghosts
• 6:00pm – A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
• 8:00pm – Ghost Ship
• 10:00pm – Scream

Friday, October 24, 2014

• 12:30am – Deep Blue Seas
• 7:00am – Scream 3
• 9:30am – Ghost Ship
• 11:30am – Firestarter
• 2:00pm – The Omen (1976)
• 4:30pm – Damien: Omen II
• 7:00pm – Omen III: The Final Conflict
• 11:30pm – Hide and Seek

Saturday, October 25, 2014

• 4:00am – Graveyard Shift
• 6:00am – Christine
• 8:00am – Friday the 13th (2009)
• 10:00am – A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
• 12:00pm – Child’s Play 2
• 2:00pm – Child’ Play 3
• 4:00pm – Bride of Chucky
• 6:00pm – Seed of Chucky
• 8:00pm – Child’s Play 2
• 10:00pm – Child’s Play 3

Doll Movies

With "Annabelle" coming out today I thought I would bring up some of my favorite "evil doll" movies.

Despite coming from James Wan and  Leigh Whannell this movie just didn't find an audience when it was released.  It's found a following now on video and deservedly so.  

If this doesn't haunt your dreams I don't know what will.

Space cop Brick Bardo (yes really) comes to earth and gets reduced to 13 inches.  Somehow he still finds a way  to fight crime.  This movie came out in the era when Tim Thomerson starred in almost every direct to video movie.  It's goofy fun and Thomerson takes it way more seriously than it deserves.

This is movie that was a staple of video stores in the 80's. This was one of the first movies I rented on my own.   It was a good film and I'm shocked it never got a sequel.  It was certainly a big enough hit.  

Darkroom

“You’re in a house—maybe your own, maybe one you’ve never seen before. Do you feel it? Something evil. You run, but there’s no escape, nowhere to turn. You feel something beckoning you, drawing you into the terror that awaits you in the darkroom!”


Before "Tales From The Darkside" brought anthology horror to television, there was "Darkroom".

The series, hosted by James Coburn, lasted only last seven episodes.  Each episode featured two or three short horror stories, and they some of the scariest I've ever seen. 

The series featured writers and directors with some impressive credentials, such as Robert Bloch (author Psycho) who wrote three episodes and Rick Rosenthal (dir. Halloween II) who directed four.

Sadly the show hasn't gotten a DVD or Blu-Ray release in the United States.  Some episode are available on Youtube, but the quality varies.  

Here's hoping that Scream Factory will get their hands on this.  

Tourist Trap

 For years I had searched for this movie, the only problem was that I didn't know it's name.  I remembered seeing it as kid while I was on vacation with my family.  I was 10 or 11 and I caught it late night while my parents were sleeping.  Years later I looked for it, but I had only vague memories of it and I couldn't remember who was in it.  This summer I was describing to a friend and she managed find the name, for that I thank you Jackie!  In a strange twist of fate I won a copy on Blu-Ray from Dread Central the very next week. 

The plot is a pretty standard, a group of friends gets stranded in the middle of nowhere and wind up in clutches of a killer.  What elevates this above other similar movies is it's atmosphere.  Robert Burns, who was the art director on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", handled both art direction and the majority of the special effects. He does an amazing job making the film look creepy and disturbing. 

Written and directed by David Schmoeller it was based on his student thesis film.  Schmoeller would later go on to write and direct "The Puppet Master" which spawned a whole franchise. 

Chuck Connors stars as Slausen the owner titular Tourist Trap

I don't want to spoil anymore of the plot, but it takes some interesting turns.  I guess the best way to describe the plot is a mixture of elements from "The Hills Have Eyes"and "Carrie".  This sounds odd, but it really works in the movie. 

Whatever he's selling, I'm not buying. 

Do yourself a favor this Halloween and check this forgotten gem out.