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25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) (FTV)
Eight years after the original 1977 film, a group of young friends are menaced by the clan of desert cannibals.
This Wes Craven film came right on the heels of his excellent first A Nightmare On Elm Street, and it is much maligned by critics and Wes Craven himself. It's often seen as a low-quality cash grab film capitalizing on the name recognition of the first Hills film, and the name of Wes Craven, and that's a fair assessment, but the film actually isn't nearly as bad as it's reputation.
Yes, this has none of the brutish subversive horror that made the original a classic, but does have many of the same elements and same characters, most notably the return of the egg-headed Michael Berryman, and Janus Blythe as Ruby, the reformed feral girl with a heart. New characters are introduced, most of them disposable except for a blind girl named Cass who has superior hearing and sense of smell, and who I found myself rooting for. There's the usual desert setting and nasty booby traps that the clan sets to maim and kill their unwitting human prey, and some fun chase sequences on motorcycles. Things sag a bit in the middle but pick up nicely at the end when the survivors left turn tables on the killers and make some booby traps of their own, leading to a satisfying ending.
Despite being a mid-80's film, the tone and music feel much more like a late 70's TV movie, blood and guts aside. Maybe Wes Craven was just phoning it in, but If you know nothing about the original film, this plays as an average, if dated, low budget action-horror film.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5
Absolutely!
Vincent Price and Peter Cushing are the go-to scary guys. This movie is one of those that I just love for the nostalgia of the times and the actors. Typical Amicus fare that I am very fond of.
1. Ghost Stories*
2. American Murder*
3. Christmas Evil*
4. Vault of Horror
5. The Green Slime*
6. The Blue Elephant 2*
7. Theatre of Blood
8. Ghost Ship
9. Deathdream*
10. Fiend Without a Face*
11. Maniac* 1934
12. Books of Blood*
13. Escape Room*
14. The Severed Arm*
15. The Binding*
16. The Cured*
17. Friday the 13th
18. Tarantula*
19. Jennifer's Body*
20. Fantasy Island*
21. Mrs. Amworth*
22. A Fantastic Fear of Everything*
23. Within*
24. Trick r' Treat*
25. BEWARE! The Blob*
26. The Haunting of Bly Manor*
27. The Nightcomers*
28. Dementia 13
29. Coherence*
30. Midsommar*
31. Scary Stories*
32. Extra Ordinary*
33. What We Do In The Shadows
34. Lovecraft Country*
35. The Hand
36. The Exorcist
37. The Tingler
38. Bad Hair*
39. Madhouse
Another Peter Cushing/Amicus collaboration. This 70s anthology is one of many anthologies made during these years that make me so happy.
1. Ghost Stories*
2. American Murder*
3. Christmas Evil*
4. Vault of Horror
5. The Green Slime*
6. The Blue Elephant 2*
7. Theatre of Blood
8. Ghost Ship
9. Deathdream*
10. Fiend Without a Face*
11. Maniac* 1934
12. Books of Blood*
13. Escape Room*
14. The Severed Arm*
15. The Binding*
16. The Cured*
17. Friday the 13th
18. Tarantula*
19. Jennifer's Body*
20. Fantasy Island*
21. Mrs. Amworth*
22. A Fantastic Fear of Everything*
23. Within*
24. Trick r' Treat*
25. BEWARE! The Blob*
26. The Haunting of Bly Manor*
27. The Nightcomers*
28. Dementia 13
29. Coherence*
30. Midsommar*
31. Scary Stories*
32. Extra Ordinary*
33. What We Do In The Shadows
34. Lovecraft Country*
35. The Hand
36. The Exorcist
37. The Tingler
38. Bad Hair*
39. Madhouse
40. From Beyond the Grave
01. Dracula's Daughter
02. Son Of Dracula
03. House Of Frankenstein
04. Rogue
05. Crawl
06. Count Dracula
07. Mrs Amworth
08. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow
09. The Vampire
10. Creature From The Black Lagoon
11. Alone In The Dark
12. Murder By Decree
15. I Married A Monster From Outer Space
16. Ravenous
17. Jack The Ripper
26. Orca: The Killer Whale (FTV)
A killer whale seeks vengeance on the fishing boat captain who killed its pregnant mate.
Produced by the legendary Dino de Laurentiis, this 1977 film was obviously meant to be the next Jaws, and although it had a fraction of that film's quality, it saw some success. I distinctly remember as a nine-year-old seeing commercials for Orca and being thrilled at the sight of that toothy killer whale mouth that seemed to jump right out of my family's 19-inch black-and-white TV screen. The film doesn't quite live up to the thrilling trailer, but it delivers most of the goods, but with a certain amount of cheese and incredulity. This is one smart and pissed-off whale!
Richard Harris, already looking something like a withered old man in 1977, plays the fishing captain with gravitas, and his character actually grows and transforms during the movie as he grows to respect the whale that bears a grudge against him. Charlotte Rampling, sixteen years younger than Harris, plays a whale expert and is ostensibly Harris' love interest, which I found to be more unbelievable than the idea of a whale bearing a grudge. Stunner Bo Derek makes her big screen debut here as the most unlikely fishing boat crew member in history, and somehow manages to not be in a swimsuit the whole movie despite being near the ocean the entire time. Also look for Will Samson (Chief from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), character actor Keenan Wynn (Dr. Strangelove, among many other films), and a soundtrack by Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly).
If you can get past (or perhaps celebrate) the more ridiculous elements of the film (like the Orca pushing an iceberg into the boat to damage it, or knowing enough to start a gasoline leak and a fire on land by head-butting a pier support), then you'll have a good time with Orca.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5 (FTV)
26. Orca: The Killer Whale 3/5 (FTV)
01. Dracula's Daughter
02. Son Of Dracula
03. House Of Frankenstein
04. Rogue
05. Crawl
06. Count Dracula
07. Mrs Amworth
08. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow
09. The Vampire
10. Creature From The Black Lagoon
11. Alone In The Dark
12. Murder By Decree
15. I Married A Monster From Outer Space
16. Ravenous
17. Jack The Ripper
18. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
Children Of The Full Moon, an episode of the Hammer House Of Horror TV series, a young couple's car breaks down and looking for help the discover a large house deep in the woods....
01. Dracula's Daughter
02. Son Of Dracula
03. House Of Frankenstein
04. Rogue
05. Crawl
06. Count Dracula
07. Mrs Amworth
08. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow
09. The Vampire
10. Creature From The Black Lagoon
11. Alone In The Dark
12. Murder By Decree
15. I Married A Monster From Outer Space
16. Ravenous
17. Jack The Ripper
18. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
19. Children Of The Full Moon
This was a Norwegian story and I really liked it.
There has been a nuclear event and now people have to survive. Food is scarce, decisions have to be made.
Emerging from the hazy nuclear landscape comes a snake oil salesman in his brightly lit carriage, very reminiscient of the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang calling out the people to come see a play at the local grand hotel. A meal is included. That's what gets everyone. The meal. And the lead character was an actress, and she wants to give her daughter a fun night, a "normal" night of creativity, and talks her husband into accepting tickets.
Like cattle, the filthy, starving citizens queue up on the appointed evening and find themselves at this amazing venue with real food. They are happy and relaxed and can't believe their luck. They are wolfing down the food, happy but guarded -- like an animal that is expecting something dangerous to take their food away.
After the dinner, the audience are given masks to wear to keep the audience separate from the actors and are told not to remove them. They are told that everything they see is the play. And so it starts. The action begins with just two actors and the audience follows the storyline of one of these two actors out of the dining room. It's voyeur theater.
As they go deeper into the hotel, if another "scene" appears that is more interesting, they can branch off and watch that. The actors and scenes exponentially grow, and the number of audience members watching any one scene shrinks as everyone splits up to follow what interests them.
I guessed immediately what was happening and you probably will too, but it's interesting to see how this plays out. It has it's weak points but overall, I was intrigued. I'd like to say more but it's all a bit spoilery.
And please watch it in the language it was filmed in. Read the subtitles. We're all readers. Hearing the actors in their language perform is the best way. Choosing to listen to some stiff, robotic non-actor speak the part ruins these shows.
Horrible way to watch anything creative.
1. Ghost Stories*
2. American Murder*
3. Christmas Evil*
4. Vault of Horror
5. The Green Slime*
6. The Blue Elephant 2*
7. Theatre of Blood
8. Ghost Ship
9. Deathdream*
10. Fiend Without a Face*
11. Maniac* 1934
12. Books of Blood*
13. Escape Room*
14. The Severed Arm*
15. The Binding*
16. The Cured*
17. Friday the 13th
18. Tarantula*
19. Jennifer's Body*
20. Fantasy Island*
21. Mrs. Amworth*
22. A Fantastic Fear of Everything*
23. Within*
24. Trick r' Treat*
25. BEWARE! The Blob*
26. The Haunting of Bly Manor*
27. The Nightcomers*
28. Dementia 13
29. Coherence*
30. Midsommar*
31. Scary Stories*
32. Extra Ordinary*
33. What We Do In The Shadows
34. Lovecraft Country*
35. The Hand
36. The Exorcist
37. The Tingler
38. Bad Hair*
39. Madhouse
40. From Beyond the Grave
41. Cadaver*
27. Green Room (FTV)
Punk rockers witness a murder in a remote white supremacist club, and must find a way to escape alive.
I'd heard a lot of good things about Green Room back in 2016 but at the time I was fatigued with the sheer amount of films that were dealing with a single claustrophobic location and torture, which is what I incorrectly perceived this film to be based on the marketing. Yes, a good deal of the film is spent in the titular green room and the band's attempts to figure a way out of their plight, but while the film is quite violent and gory, it's not at all a torture film--unless you count the audience being expertly tortured by a master director.
This film features not one but two Star Trek alums in Anton Yelchin (Chekov) and Patrick Stewart, both playing against type to great effect. Their cat-and-mouse game is the highlight and central conflict of the film, but there's a great supporting cast (including the apparently ubiquitous Imogen Poots) and the characters are complex and nuanced. Even the neo-Nazis aren't treated as caricatures but actual (if very flawed) human beings. Sometimes we get angry at the decisions these people make and it's hard to really root for anyone, but you always feel like you're watching real people, not cardboard cutouts being put through their paces.
The director does a great job of building tension, holding the audience by the throat and slowly tightening it until we can barely breathe, with intermittent explosions of brutality and gore that will make even seasoned gore hounds squirm. He also shines light on the brutal underbelly of an America that we at once can't recognize but know has always been there, lurking in plain sight. Great stuff, can't recommend enough.
4 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5 (FTV)
26. Orca: The Killer Whale 3/5 (FTV)
27. Green Room 4/5 (FTV)
28. Prevenge (FTV)
Pregnant widow must satisfy the apparent bloodlust of her unborn child, bent upon revenge.
An astonishing directorial debut for British actress Alice Lowe, who also wrote and stars in this film. This is precisely the kind of film that only writer/director/actors are occasionally capable of producing: something with a truly unique and singular voice. Prevenge is at once a very black comedy and a tragedy, a weird-out, and even a touching drama about grieving and feminine loneliness. You'll laugh, you'll gasp, you'll even think a bit.
Things unfold in the manner of a subjective point of view horror mystery, so we don't always quite know what to believe or think, and answers are gradually arrived at over the course of the movie. But coming in at a brisk 92 minutes, things never really drag, and there are several violent and bloody shocks scattered throughout the film to keep gorehounds happy. It's not always clear how we're supposed to feel during certain scenes--I suspect this could be a divisive film, as some might want a more consistent (or spoon-fed) tone. It manages to stake territory somewhere between Looking for Mr. Goodbar and I Spit On Your Grave, with a dash of Inside. Personally, I can't wait to see where Alice Lowe goes next in her career.
4 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5 (FTV)
26. Orca: The Killer Whale 3/5 (FTV)
27. Green Room 4/5 (FTV)
28. Prevenge 4/5 (FTV)
01. Dracula's Daughter
02. Son Of Dracula
03. House Of Frankenstein
04. Rogue
05. Crawl
06. Count Dracula
07. Mrs Amworth
08. The Wolf Of Snow Hollow
09. The Vampire
10. Creature From The Black Lagoon
11. Alone In The Dark
12. Murder By Decree
15. I Married A Monster From Outer Space
16. Ravenous
17. Jack The Ripper
18. Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
19. Children Of The Full Moon
20. Alien
Maybe we'll just leave it at that.
(I have seen that scene, though only from other shows making fun of it, otherwise, nope... didn't know the storyline even.)
29. Night of the Lepus (FTV)
Giant rabbits menace a small ranching community.
So bad, it's good! This 1972 film takes itself so damn seriously, populated by actors like Janet Leigh (Psycho), western mainstay Rory Calhoun, academy award nominee (but not for this film) Stuart Witman, DeForest Kelley (Star Trek's Bones), but this just makes the film even funnier. The giant rabbit effects are done with a combination of optical effects and briefly seen costumes, but mostly they just put the rabbits on miniature sets that look like they were purchased at the local hobby train store, and let them run amok in slow motion. There's also extensive use of scratched-up stock footage of rabbit hunts and military vehicles, and a deadpan news announcer to set the stage.
The highlight for me was when the patrons of a drive-in theater were enlisted by the military to help herd and corral the rabbits to an electrified section of railroad. The general pulls out a megaphone and stands in front of the movie screen (which is playing a Tom & Jerry cartoon) and says with a straight face: "Attention please! There is a herd of giant killer rabbits headed this way! Please proceed to the nearest exit and await further instructions!" And the patrons all groan and honk their horns at this interruption to their night out.
I watched this with my 15-year-old daughter who is a big fan of Godzilla movies but had never seen any of the other "giant creature" films of the era, although by 1972 this was pretty darn creaky stuff. She just kept thinking the rabbits were cute, even when their buck teeth and fur were drenched in fake blood.
3 out of 5 stars.
Bob's October 2020 Horror Movie List
*FTV denotes first-time viewings
1. Viy (1967) 4/5 (FTV)
2. Night Visitor 3/5 (FTV)
3. Tigers Are Not Afraid 5/5 (FTV)
4. I Trapped the Devil 4/5 (FTV)
5. Vivarium 3/5 (FTV)
6. The Kiss of the Vampire 3/5 (FTV)
7. The Invisible Man (2020) 4/5 (FTV)
8. Horrors of Malformed Men 3/5 (FTV)
9. Come to Daddy 3/5 (FTV)
10. Dead Alive 4/5
11. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things 3/5 (FTV)
12. Swallow 4/5 (FTV)
13. One Cut of the Dead 4/5 (FTV)
14. 3 From Hell 3/5 (FTV)
15. Scared Stiff (1987) 3/5 (FTV)
16. Zoltan: Hound of Dracula 3/5 (FTV)
17. To Your Last Death 2/5 (FTV)
18.The Lodge 4/5 (FTV)
19. Zombie For Sale 4/5 (FTV)
20. The Wind (1986) 3/5 (FTV)
21. The Silent Scream (1979) 3/5 (FTV)
22. Dream Demon 3/5 (FTV)
23. Z (2019) 3/5 (FTV)
24. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4.5/5
25. The Hills Have Eyes part II (1985) 3/5 (FTV)
26. Orca: The Killer Whale 3/5 (FTV)
27. Green Room 4/5 (FTV)
28. Prevenge 4/5 (FTV)
29. Night of the Lepus 3/5 (FTV)
Needs no introduction, I still love this one just as much as I did when it came out.
6. IT (2017)
The first chapter of the remake. I loved this, so well done--plenty scary (not just for me) and the casting was perfect.
1. The Cured
2. Extra Ordinary
3. Godzilla
4. The Haunting of Bly Manor
5. Beetlejuice
6. IT (remake, chapter one)