Reviews

The Last Matinee gets the giallo gore and style right on the mark, but also carries over its lack of interesting characters and story drive. It takes a bit too long to get to the slashing and everything plays out about as one would expect. There are very few surprises, but it's entertaining enough for a one time watch.

Pleasant scope photography elevates this poorly thought out "whodunit" where there's no mystery as to who the killer is for even a second. Every character is a cardboard cutout in line for the slaughter and all the death scenes lack variety. This might be one better left forgotten.

Hawke's masked serial killer is a bit too giggly and light to ever be truly scary, but Thames and McGraw have excellent chemistry as brother and sister and anchor the film. Without them, it really wouldn't be effective at all. I hope these two fantastic young actors go on to have wonderful careers. Some of the supernatural elements can come across as silly, but it's not a film without a few eerie moments.

If you were to listen to the filmmakers and actors talking about this movie, you'd think they'd just made the greatest horror film since The Exorcist.

It is not. Far from it.

If gory kills are what you're after, I don't think you'll be able to do much better than this, but there's no connective story tissue between kills to keep the audience emotionally invested. Characters are introduced only to be murdered a minute or two later without any time to get to know them or care about their fates.

A conversion camp seems like an obvious place to set a slasher film and They/Them does so little with this premise that you'll find yourself infuriated. The kills are mostly dry and spread far too apart and the talented cast of LGBTQ characters are never put in any real jeopardy which keeps the scare quotient down to zero. If you're going to take the time to develop these characters so we care about them, put them in jeopardy and raise the stakes. Don't even get me started on the abysmal ending. The messaging couldn't be more bizarre if it tried.

What starts out as a fairly faithful remake of George Romero's 60's classic takes some dramatic turns towards the finale and goes in an exciting new direction that's very much appreciated. Tom Savini understands what made the original so special and doesn't try to top it, but simply brings his own style to it.

The original Return of the Living Dead deftly balanced horror and comedy without turning into silliness, but this sequel embraces the silly aspects of the story and runs with them. Sometimes, it's entertaining, but most of the time, it'll give you a headache as the entire cast tries to see who can be the loudest and hammiest. There are still a few genuine laughs thrown in there.

Society has more good ideas than most horror films, especially ones coming this late in the 80s. Unfortunately, good ideas don't always translate to great filmmaking and Society had its fair share of missed opportunities, flat characters, and bad acting. What it does do incredibly well are the special effects which are appropriately messy, disturbing, and darkly comic at times. It's worth seeing just for the special effects on display.

It's easy to understand why The Last House on the Left is considered to be a trail blazer in the horror/exploitation genre. It was the first major breakthrough for both Wes Craven and Sean S. Cunningham who'd later go on to much success. It's a roughly shot film with the production values of one of your parent's 8mm home movies, but this grit is what gives much of the film its power. Besides some ill advised comic relief, it still packs a brutal punch.

For a tiny budgeted little movie, the effects work is fantastic even when the thin script can make you scratch your head and twiddle your thumbs. Some of the actors are decent, but some are downright laughable. The killer isn't very imposing to look at, but he does some serious damage and there's a catchy theme song. The Mutilator might be middle of the road as slashers go, but there are fast worse ones out there and the effects give it that little extra bit of pizazz to give it a solid cult following.

Talky, nearly gore-free, and overlong at under 90 minutes, The Police Are Blundering in the Dark might be one of the least interesting giallos ever made. While most giallos aren't known for their award winning scripts or realistic dialogue, there's usually a little style or sleaze to keep one's interest, but this film is too coy and pedestrian to keep one's attention.

As badly made as Unhinged is, don't be surprised if a few moments sneak up on you and give you a case of willies. The location, cast, photography, and music score are all just strange enough that they, occasionally, create something very effective in spite of the meandering, thin script. The finale has been done before and might offend people these days, but it's executed well here and leaves things on a haunting, disturbing note.

Killer Workout is bottom of the barrel, direct to video trash, but it's hard not to have a decent time when a slasher film dares to have its killer's weapon of choice be a giant safety pin. For a moment, you might believe this is some sort of satire or parody, but as the film goes on, it becomes clear that it's taking itself incredibly seriously and it's all the better for it.

The local color is on full display in House of Death and seems as if the whole town has come to to play and help bring this silly slasher film to life. There's a lot to like about this movie - some of the death scenes are interesting, there's an attempt at some character development here and there, and there's an enjoyable low budget energy to everything. However, the version I saw was so poorly lit and/or color timed that most of the death scenes look like colorless blobs. It also renders the big finale and killer reveal totally useless, because it's too dark to see the killer's face. Don't ask me whodunit, because I still can't figure it out.

A demonic severed hand springs to life and attacks Samantha Eggar and her husband before going on a mad killing spree, infecting and possessing anyone that comes into contact with it. It's hard to know what to make of Demonoid. Despite a handful of campy and silly moments, it's not fun enough to enjoy as a drunken party movie and it's definitely not serious or scary enough to work as a terrifying horror film either. It does decide to keep its run time fairly short so that you don't feel like you're wasting too much of your time and I appreciate that.

The concept for Fade To Black could go many different directions, but the film wavers between serious character drama a la Joker, made for TV melodrama, and a cursory attempt at a slasher film. They never really mesh and the film feels too confused to make much of an impact in spite of a wonderful central performance by Dennis Christopher. Linda Kerrige also makes for a smashing Marilyn Monroe impersonator.

Strange Behavior loads a lot into its 98 minute run time. There's a mad slasher running around in a creepy mask carving up the local teens and that's not even the half of it. There are also strange doctors doing even stranger experiments on said teens which leads to the titular strange behavior. It's not the goriest or scariest horror film ever made, but that makes some of the film's more effective and grisly moments stand out all the more.

Just your average love story between a deranged woman and her lover's decapitated head. Macabre gets by on its grisly concept alone. The dialogue and acting aren't bringing much to the plate, but the story is loaded with melodramatic Southern gothic by way of Italy sleaze which at least makes it for a memorable viewing experience.

Jason Lives features some of the most likable victims of Jason's machete that have ever populated the woods around Camp Crystal Lake and the film has a much more satirical tone than the other entries in the series, but doesn't get too cutesy about it. The gore, though mutilated a bit by the MPAA like all the other entries in the franchise, isn't the star attraction here, so it fares better than some of the other sequels in the franchise that were more about the effects.

The killer is striking and some moments work, but most of The Demon is a big bore and one of the most obvious and less inspired Halloween clones out there. They try to bring in some psychic/ESP stuff, but they do away with that by the middle of the film and you almost wish they'd never even bothered with it in the first place. I suppose it is memorable for being one of the only films I can think of that has its heroine completely nude for the final chase sequence.

I came upon this one by pure accident and wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. Like the other films in the Ghosthouse universe, the plot isn't the best and the characters are crudely drawn at best, but the horror set pieces are memorable enough to keep one's interest throughout and it doesn't even crack the 90 minute runtime mark, so it's not a big commitment. People walking around with minimal horror makeup shouldn't be as creepy as they are in this movie. A lot of the horror scenes are made creepier by how unremarkable and mundane they are and then the film hits you with something insane like someone being decapitated by a washing machine.

A woman who had a supernatural encounter in her childhood gets possessed by a demonic spirit who turns her into a violent succubus, terrorizing gardeners, maids, and her own husband. The effects are great even if the movie feels cheaply made and the script didn't get that final polish it needed before going in front of the cameras. Acting is middle of the road with LaWanda Page stealing the show as the housekeeper who gets out of harm's way ASAP once danger starts lurking. Despite its many issues, it's very entertaining in spite of it all and still worth seeing.

Heartfelt and funny horror comedy in the tradition of Landon's previous two films. It's either a style you'll love or one that'll annoy you. The odds are it's probably too slashery and gory for the comedy fans and too funny for those wanting a straightforward slasher. For those of us who enjoy a little mashup every now and then, I can't imagine anything more fun in this day and age. The story isn't the most original, but some of the death scenes are fun and Newton and Vaughn appear to be having the time of their lives.

Sarah Paulson is great channeling Misery's Kathy Bates as a deranged mother who'll stop at nothing to keep her invalid daughter from going off to college. While the performances are strong and some scenes really crackle with suspense, one sometimes wishes they embraced the nuttier aspects of the story to create something a little more memorable, because the story and Paulson's performance stop just short of being brilliant. I kept imagining this being directed by Curtis Harrington in the 70's starring someone like Shelley Winters.

A nearly 2 hour excuse to showcase some grisly deaths and silly plot twists, but that's not a bad thing. I did sometimes wonder if the film's content really supported the run time, but the pacing isn't terrible, so you don't spend most of the movie checking your watch. It's nice to see Melissa Sue Anderson in something other than Little House on the Prairie and she's really likable in this as the birthday girl with memory problems whose friends keep disappearing and she might be the one responsible. The finale is one of the silliest and most entertaining conclusions I've ever seen.