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

I love the Jack O Lanterns one. I enjoy the "Jason meets his match" one too. I agree that the story quality lags a bit in the middle but with 10 separate stories that's to be expected and overall I enjoy that one a lot.

Curse Of The Black Widow (1977)



Surprisingly good made for tv movie about a private investigator investigating murders where the victims have huge puncture wounds in their chests and completely drained of blood. In the middle of the investigation are two sisters, one of whom may be the killer. Consider this to be a werewolf movie but the monster instead is a giant spider.


Horror Of Dracula (1958)



Hammer Films first Dracula flick with Christopher Lee as the titular Count and Peter Cushing as Dr. Van Helsing, searching for his missing friend Jonathan Harker and discovering the Count's vampiric activities. Pretty good film with a classic cast, although Lee barely speaks in this film, for some reason.

The Mummy (1959)



Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee team up again in this Hammer Film. Cushing stars as one of 3 archaeologists who unearth the tomb of Princess Ananka and her mummy protector Kharis (played by Lee). This angers a local believer in the ancient ways of Egypt who uses Kharis as an instrument of revenge. Pretty standard take on the old mummy movie tropes but enjoyable nonetheless.

Critters (1986)



A group of voracious alien creatures escape from a prison asteroid and high tail it to Earth, with 2 malleable bounty hunters hot on their heels. Landing in rural Kansas, the creatures begin eating every living thing in sight while a farming family is forced to fight them off. Will the bounty hunters be able to arrive in time and save the family and their town. Better than average sci fi horror film with the right amount of comedic touches.

"Famously Haunted: Amityville" (2021)

Tubi's latest foray into original programming is a documentary about the famed Long Island house whose long, lurid history of mass murder and supposed hauntings spawned a mass media franchise that started in the 70s and continues to this day.
Interviewees include legal experts, a Catholic demonologist (!), journalists, and neighbors who witnessed the events on Ocean Avenue as they unfolded.
There have been dozens of previous "Amityville" docs (and this one doesn't reveal anything really new or shocking), but I've been fascinated by the Amityville story since I was a kid (even tho deep down I'm pretty sure it's all b.s.) so I will always make time for another one.

Fat Freddy wrote:

"Famously Haunted: Amityville" (2021)

Tubi's latest foray into original programming is a documentary about the famed Long Island house whose long, lurid history of mass murder and supposed hauntings spawned a mass media franchise that started in the 70s and continues to this day.
Interviewees include legal experts, a Catholic demonologist (!), journalists, and neighbors who witnessed the events on Ocean Avenue as they unfolded.
There have been dozens of previous "Amityville" docs (and this one doesn't reveal anything really new or shocking), but I've been fascinated by the Amityville story since I was a kid (even tho deep down I'm pretty sure it's all b.s.) so I will always make time for another one.

Would you spend the night in that house alone for $1000?

Troublezone wrote:

Would you spend the night in that house alone for $1000?

Sure. I ain't fraid of no ghosts

House Of Frankenstein (1944)



Universal monster mash with Boris Karl off as a mad scientist escaping from an insane asylum with his hunchbacked assistant in order to enact revenge on the people responsible for his incarceration. Along the way he recruits Dracula, the Frankenstein monster and Larry Talbot, the Wolfman, to use as instruments of revenge. A pretty fun movie, especially for fans of the classic Universal monster pictures.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Troublezone wrote:

Would you spend the night in that house alone for $1000?

Sure. I ain't fraid of no ghosts

Okay, make it free! And let’s throw in a few artifacts from Ed and Lorraine Warren’s cursed museum for good measure.

I’m sure there will be a few shoulder taps and ear whispers to keep it interesting.

"Madhouse" (aka "There Was a Little Girl," 1981)

A teacher's insane twin sister escapes from the hospital a few days before their mutual birthday and starts killing off all of her siblings's friends, building up to a horrific b-day "celebration."
An obscure, slow-burning Italian-made slasher flick with a couple of decent gory bits, though some glaring plot holes dull the impact of the final scene.
Fun fact: this movie was the first and only acting credit for leading lady Trish Everly, who played the imperiled "good" sister and then promptly disappeared from show biz... which is a shame, cuz she was kinda foxy.

"Citizen X" (1995)

A Russian police inspector (Stephen Rea) investigates a grisly series of murders of women and children. His suspicions that a serial killer is at work is initially dismissed by his superiors, who would rather cover the case up than admit that their worker's paradise has produced a psycho, until the body count becomes too big to ignore.
Essentially this made-for-HBO thriller is a Soviet "Silence of the Lambs," based on the actual case of  Andrei Chikatilo, aka "The Rostov Ripper," who killed more than 50 people before he was caught.
The movie is a bit dry and talky in spots, but the performances are great and you feel bad for Rea's character, who spent nearly a decade constantly butting heads with the USSR's institutional bureaucracy, corruption, and police ineptitude while bodies kept piling up.

Watched Tales Of Halloween again.

Not only do the middle stories suck but a few don't even make any sense. The one where a bunch of kids kill some drunk/high idiots in their home doesn't make a lot of sense. The one that riffs on Hansel and Gretel makes even less sense. And the ones that do make sense are just dumb - like the one with the hoodlums on mountain bikes (?). But the first 2, the "Jason" episode, the "kidnapping" one and of course the carnivorous jack o lantern episodes make up for it.

Schlock-tober continues...

"Absurd" (aka "Monster Hunter," aka "Anthropophagus 2," aka "Horrible," 1981)

A seemingly indestructible psycho, the product of a science experiment gone wrong, escapes from a hospital and proceeds to kill a whole bunch of people in various gory ways, with a cop and a priest hot on his trail. Yes, that's the entire plot.
This sleazy Italian horror flick reunited director Joe D'Amato and actor George Eastman (who also wrote the script) of "Anthropophagus" infamy, and in some countries it was marketed as a sequel to that film... but aside from Eastman playing the same kind of character (a hulking, silent psycho killer) in both movies, they are not related.
It seems like they were trying to go for an American style slasher flick ala "Halloween" here, but "Absurd" just kind of stumbles along, with idiot characters and lots of dead air in between the kill scenes. The gore effects, which are plentiful, are nice n' splattery but other than that "Absurd" is pointless junk.
"Anthropophagus" was not a great movie by any means, but this one makes it look like the Royal Shakespeare Company.
AVOID.

tohostudios wrote:

Watched Tales Of Halloween again.

Not only do the middle stories suck but a few don't even make any sense.  The one where a bunch of kids kill some drunk/high idiots in their home doesn't make a lot of sense.  The one that riffs on Hansel and Gretel makes even less sense.  And the ones that do make sense are just dumb - like the one with the hoodlums on mountain bikes (?).  But the first 2, the "Jason" episode, the "kidnapping" one and of course the carnivorous jack o lantern episodes make up for it.

Yeah, I hate the Hansel & Gretel segment. I've seen the movie four or five times now and I *still* don't get what the F is going on in that story, haha.

I can take or leave the "hoodlums on mountain bikes" story. It gets a pass from me mostly cuz the chick leader of the gang is kinda hot.

I like the "kids kill some drunk/high idiots" one though. I like how at first you think the kids are the aggressors, till they reveal that the drunk/high idiots had carved up one of their friends (and took selfies while doing it) earlier so the other kids are just getting even.

The Walking Dead:World Beyond

Fat Freddy wrote:

tohostudios wrote:

Watched Tales Of Halloween again.

Not only do the middle stories suck but a few don't even make any sense.  The one where a bunch of kids kill some drunk/high idiots in their home doesn't make a lot of sense.  The one that riffs on Hansel and Gretel makes even less sense.  And the ones that do make sense are just dumb - like the one with the hoodlums on mountain bikes (?).  But the first 2, the "Jason" episode, the "kidnapping" one and of course the carnivorous jack o lantern episodes make up for it.

Yeah, I hate the Hansel & Gretel segment. I've seen the movie four or five times now and I *still* don't get what the F is going on in that story, haha.

I can take or leave the "hoodlums on mountain bikes" story.  It gets a pass from me mostly cuz the chick leader of the gang is kinda hot.

I like the "kids kill some drunk/high idiots" one though. I like how at first you think the kids are the aggressors, till they reveal that the drunk/high idiots had carved up one of their friends (and took selfies while doing it) earlier so the other kids are just getting even.

I totally missed that connection. I saw the chick deleting photos from the phone but I completely whiffed on the "victims" actually being psychos themselves. I had no idea what the hell was going on at the end of the segment to be honest.

007 wrote:

The Walking Dead:World Beyond

I could never get into that spin-off.

Chapelwaite, a limited series based on a Stephen King short story

Women On Death Row

Paranormal Activity 4(2012)-another entry in the series as this time the story moves from California to Nevada where a family agrees to let a little boy stay with them while his mom is in the hospital. Before long, strange things begin to happen and it all seems to be connected to the boy who moved in. So far, I've enjoyed the PA series, and this is overall another solid sequel. Granted, there is nothing new whatsoever brought to story with this and the movie does seems to kind of loose a little steam at the end. But, there was enough creepy atmosphere and a few jump scares to keep things entertaining enough to forgive it for being little more of a retread of the previous films. 3/5

More episodes of Chapelwaite

Took a break from schlocky horror last night, in favor of an old sci-fi favorite:

"Logan's Run" (1976)

In the 23rd century, humans live in a high-tech domed city where everyone is young and beautiful... because your life ends at the age of 30. Those who try to extend their life spans, known as "runners," are hunted by police officers called "Sandmen."
Logan (Michael York) is a Sandman who's assigned to go undercover as a runner in order to seek out and destroy a mythical place outside the dome known as "Sanctuary."
This flick looks kitschy as hell nowadays but in the '70s it was pretty mind blowing stuff, with a unique dystopian premise, lots of cool/weird visuals, and fabulous eye candy courtesy of the barely-dressed Jenny Agutter, who plays Logan's love interest. I saw it a bunch of times on HBO when I was a kid and it's still fun to watch today.
The movie inspired a short lived TV series with Gregory Harrison in York's role and an equally brief Marvel comic book spin off.

Back on the Schlock-tober trail:

"KISS in Attack of the Phantoms" (1978)

The super-powered rock group comes to California's Magic Mountain amusement park and battles evil android duplicates of themselves, created by the rock n roll hating mad scientist who built the park's cybernetic creatures and robots. Hilarity ensues.
This is an alternate cut of the legendary TV movie KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, which was released theatrically outside of the US in 1979. (It's available in the KISSology Vol. 2 DVD box set.)
I've seen the TV movie version of this film many times, but this was my first time seeing this cut. Of course, it's still cheap looking, incredibly silly and mostly terrible, but I have to admit that it moves faster and flows better than the NBC-TV version, and it contains more KISS music (mostly cuts from the '78 solo albums), so it was a slightly less painful viewing experience. If you absolutely must watch this film, I'd say this is the version to seek out.

"Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters and Marvels" (2002)

Stan Lee sits down with filmmaker and comics fanboy Kevin ("Clerks") Smith and shares stories of his life in the comics industry. Long time nerds probably won't learn anything new, but I could listen to Stan the Man talk about the early days of the Marvel bullpen all day.

...and then a few more episodes of AMC's "History of Horror" ("Monsters" and "Vampires").

Finished up Chapelwaite. Pretty good show.

Mischief Night double feature:

"Halloween Kills" (2021)

Picking up moments after the events of the 2018 Halloween "reboot," Laurie Strode is hospitalized after her latest encounter with Michael Myers, and the citizens of Haddonfield, tired of living in fear, form a posse to find the madman and finish him once and for all. Three guesses how well that turns out for most of them...
There's a lot going on in this movie. On the good side, the violence is frequent, swift, and brutal, with Michael racking up an absurd body count. On the other hand, there are way too many secondary characters running around with their own plot threads and unnecessary call-backs to Carpenter's '78 O.G. Jamie Lee Curtis spends most of the movie lying in a hospital bed babbling about fear and regret and its effects on everyone's relationships, and how Michael's evil has poisoned the town's soul, and blah blah blah. Is this a slasher movie, or "Terms of Endearment?"
I liked the 2018 movie but this was a bit of a let down. Oh well, nothin' to do now but wait till "Halloween Ends," due this time next year...

"The Forever Purge" (2021)

A wealthy Texas ranch family and their Mexican farmhands must band together to survive when an insurrectionist group called the "Purge Purification Force" declares that the annual "Purge" will NOT come to an end after the traditional 12 hour time limit, and chaos continues to erupt nationwide.
So yeah, this is yet another 90 minutes of ultra-violence disguised as social satire/commentary, which as usual is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the forehead (i.e., our heroes must cross the border into Mexico to escape the violence in America. Wow, that's a switch!). However, the mayhem is impressive as usual (lots of stuff crashing, blowing up, etc.) and the leads are likeable enough that you find yourself rooting for them even though you know most of them won't make it to the end credits.
In short, if you liked the other "Purge" movies you'll dig this one too.