TODAY I WATCHED... (Movies, TV) 2021

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" (2010)

Small town teens are being slaughtered in their sleep by the scar-faced, razor fingered kid-toucher Freddy Krueger, who's seeking vengeance for his fiery demise at the hands of their parents years earlier.
...honestly, I was expecting this flashy remake of Wes Craven's classic to be much worse, based on 10 years of bad word of mouth. Surprisingly, though, it wasn't terrible... it just felt unnecessary, like most remakes. It's got some cool, creepy set designs and effects, and Jackie Earle Haley is clearly trying his best to make the Freddy Krueger role his own, but he can't hold a candle to the great Robert Englund.
I guess your mileage may vary on this one depending on the depth of your fan hood for the old N.O.E.S. films. I tapped out on the series ages ago when Freddy started turning into a wise-cracking stand up comic, so I actually appreciated this newer, darker version. I may never sit thru it again, but I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time, either.

"Elvira's Haunted Hills" (2002)

The slinky horror hostess plays a showgirl traveling across 1850s Europe on her way to Paris. When she spends the night in a creepy castle in the Carpathian mountains she encounters weird people (including Richard "Rocky Horror" O'Brien as the evil Count) and experiences spooky supernatural goings-on, cracking one liners all the while.
This parody of Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe movies of the 60s has a nice retro look, and of course Elvira's always fun to look at, but there's no story at all - just an endless series of sight gags and corny, eye-rollingly bad jokes.
Skip this one and watch her first movie from 1988, "Elvira Mistress of the Dark," instead.

Paranormal Caught On Camera

American Horror Story:Red Tide

Only Murders In The Building

Marvel's What If...?

"Dirty Work" (1998)

Norm Macdonald's recent passing led me to revisit this cult classic comedy about two jobless slackers (Norm and Artie Lange) who find success when they start a "revenge for hire" business, pulling pranks on people for money. When they do a job for a crooked real estate developer and find out they've been played, it leads to their biggest "revenge" set up ever.
I hadn't seen this movie since it first hit video back in the day, fortunately it still holds up, I laughed a lot. Norm, we hardly knew ye.
Directed by Bob "Full House" Saget, of all people!

It's not quite Schlock-tober yet but last night I enjoyed a double feature of horror cheapies:

"Decoys" (2004)

Two slacker college roommates suspect that the pair of hot new sorority sisters on campus are not only responsible for a series of mysterious deaths around the school, but might even be of alien origin.
... this severely tongue-in-cheek teen horror comedy borrows heavily from the "Species" films,  but it makes the most of its wintry campus setting and the special effects are decent enough. Plus, there are lots of pretty girls in various states of undress. So I was entertained, though I doubt I'll ever bother with the 2007 sequel.

"Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" (1987)

In 1957, a prank gone wrong kills Hamilton High's uber-bitch Mary Lou Maloney just before she's crowned Prom Queen. 30 years later her restless spirit possesses one of the school's current prom queen front runners, using her body to do away with the competition and get some long overdue revenge.
This cheap but effective high school horror is bolted together from bits of "Carrie," "Nightmare on Elm Street" (Mary Lou is essentially a female Freddy), "The Exorcist" and more, but it's enjoyably sleazy fun in its own right. This is the only movie in the "Prom Night" series that's worth watching more than once.

FF, this may seem completely out of left field, but have you seen Martyrs - it's not a classic horror movie, which seems to be what's up your ally, but it's part of the New French Extremity movement and after watching it around ten years ago for the first time, I remember not being able to recall the last time a movie had me and my friend going "woah", quite like that one. All I can say, if you haven't watched it, give it a try, I'd love to read your views on it.

Mglaffas81 wrote:

FF, this may seem completely out of left field, but have you seen Martyrs - it's not a classic horror movie, which seems to be what's up your ally, but it's part of the New French Extremity movement and after watching it around ten years ago for the first time, I remember not being able to  recall the last time a movie had me and my friend going "woah", quite like that one. All I can say, if you haven't watched it, give it a try, I'd love to read your views on it.

I have not seen Martyrs, but I have heard of it and it's been on my radar ... I'm sure I'll get to it one of these years

I of course being a connoisseur of extreme have seen Martyrs. It's like 2 movies in one because the first half is a totally different story than the second half.

Kind of an odd combo last night...

"Godzilla vs. Kong" (2021)

In the latest epic installment of Legendary Pictures' "Monsterverse" saga, a team of scientists heads to Kong's homeland at the center of the Earth to find a source of unbelievable power, while an evil tech corporation on the surface provokes Godzilla to attack humanity in order to further their own nefarious purposes. Of course, this eventually leads to the inevitable clash between Big G and the King. The plot's mostly gibberish, but once the two titans finally started throwin' down none of that mattered to my inner 8 year old, especially when my boy Mechagodzilla showed up around the three quarter mark. Impressive mega-budget monster mashin' fun with terrific effects.

"Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!" (1966)

Tired of the Hollywood grind, a spoiled French actress (Elke Sommer) quits her latest film and runs off to a small town in Oregon. Her presence there soon complicates the life of a local business man (Bob Hope) who has to keep her location a secret from the press, the police, and especially from his wife and battle-axe housekeeper (Phyllis Diller).
This silly slapstick comedy essentially takes a half hour sitcom plot and stretches it out to 90 minutes. Hope and Diller constantly trade one liners and insults, and Elke Sommer doesn't have to do much but sit around in skimpy outfits and be hot, which was fine with me. Corny, but enjoyable.

I've had G vs K on blu ray for several months now and just haven't found the time to watch it yet.

"Black Widow" (2021)

The latest addition to the MCU focuses on Scarlett Johansen's cat suited super-spy, filling in her backstory as a former Russian "sleeper agent." After she's freed from her former boss's mind control, her next mission is to destroy the facility that he's using to train a whole new generation of assassins. Of course, lots of bullets fly, people get punched, things crash into lots of other things, and stuff blows up frequently.
A fast paced, slick, very entertaining popcorn butt kicker that even manages to squeeze in a few nice moments between Natasha and her "family" amidst all the explosions. Lots of action packed fun.

"Rock Star" (2001)

It's 1985 and a yokel metal tribute-band singer (Mark Wahlberg) steps up to the big time when his favorite band, "Steel Dragon," picks him as their new vocalist. He and his girlfriend/manager (Jennifer Aniston) are quickly sucked into the sex, drugs, and rock n roll road life, which eventually puts a strain on their relationship.
Loosely inspired by the real-life saga of Ripper Owens and Judas Priest, the first half of "Rock Star" is more fun than the second, when it gets bogged down with too much romantic-drama B.S.
I was inspired to revisit "Rock Star" after reading a 20th anniversary (!) retrospective on it that called it "the worst film ever made about rock." I felt that was unnecessarily harsh - don't get me wrong, "Rock Star" is certainly no "This is Spinal Tap" or "Almost Famous," but it's not "Rock of Ages" or "KISS Meets the Phantom," either.

Watched some old episodes of Family last night.

Only Murders In The Building

The Goldbergs

Jim Norton, "Please Be Offended" stand-up special. Dude is soooo wrong but he's funny as hell.

Added metal nerd bonus, his intro music when he came on stage was Black Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky."

"Espionage in Tangiers" (aka "Marc Matos: Agent S-077," 1965)

In this low budget Spanish/Italian James Bond knock off, the U.N.'s "Nuclear Safety Commission" sends a suave secret agent (he's "Marc Matos" in the European version, which was Americanized to "Mike Murphy" for the English dub) to Morocco to recover a stolen "molecular disintegration ray" weapon. Like most of these cheap spy flicks, there's not much plot, but there's plenty of car chases, fist fights, lovely European scenery, and pretty girls. It's not the worst "Eurospy" movie I've ever seen, but it is pretty generic, forgettable stuff.
Fun fact: a persistent Internet urban legend claims that George Lazenby, later of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" fame, is in this movie, but he isn't. Argentinian actor Luis Davila, who plays Agent 077, does bear a slight resemblance to George, though, which is probably how the rumor got started.

Maniac ( Hammer Films-1963)

Kickin' off my Schlock-tober horror marathon with...

"The Sentinel" (1977)

A fashion model moves into a spacious apartment in an old New York brownstone. She soon begins experiencing a whole bunch of weird supernatural shit involving the building's bizarre tenants and a mysterious, reclusive Catholic Priest who lives alone on the top floor. That's what happens when your apartment is built on one of the gates to Hell!

Michael "Death Wish" Winner's surreal cult classic was released at the tail end of the '70s "Satan Movie" boom so it cherry picks some bits from "Rosemary's Baby," "The Exorcist," and "The Omen," but it has a weird style all its own. It's got some cool/gross body horror bits, an overall doomy atmosphere, and a great cast that includes Chris "Fright Night" Sarandon, Christopher Walken, Beverly "Vacation" D'Angelo (who figures heavily in the movie's most notorious scene), Burgess Meredith, and Jeff Goldblum. Plus, the location scenes shot in late '70s New York are a nice time capsule.

I saw "The Sentinel" once many years ago and I didn't really dig it, but I enjoyed it much more the second time around.

That's one I don't think I've ever seen.

tohostudios wrote:

That's one I don't think I've ever seen.

It's got a very "Italian" feel to it (even though it's an American movie, and I believe the director is a Brit). Almost like a Dario Argento "Suspiria" vibe.

Fear Street Part 1 :1994 (2021)



A group of teenagers get caught up in an ancient curse that has been plaguing their community for centuries. A rather interesting film with some cool gore and great music from the era, including Iron Maiden. Apparently this is based on a series of books written by the same guy as the Goosebumps series. This is much more adult oriented than those. I look forward to catching the next 2 in the trilogy.

Schlock-tober entry #2:

"Tower of Evil"
(aka "Beyond the Fog" aka "The Horror of Snape Island," 1972)

Investigators head to a deserted lighthouse on an island off the British coast after a series of mysterious deaths, and soon they're being picked off by a shambling, homicidal something-or-other.
This British flick falls somewhere between the Gothic 60s horror of Hammer Studios and the 70s splatter craze. It starts off with a promising bang, but then drags along for the rest of the run time. There are a couple of legit gore bits and a healthy dose of female nudity, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)



One of the best horror comedies in my book. The duo get caught up in a plot by Dracula (played for only the second time on screen by Bela Lugosi) to place Costello's dimwitted brain in the body of the Frankenstein monster (Glenn Strange). Helping the duo is Larry"The Wolfman" Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) Good stuff that was a hit for them, leading to numerous,though not direct, Meet the Monsters sequels.