It's Only A Movie Podcast Episode 1: Jason Takes Manhattan

Episode one of our podcast!  We are looking at Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan!

http://www.itsonlyamovie.work/blog/2016/10/18/its-only-a-movie-podcast-episode-1-jason-takes-manhattan

Joe Bob's Search for "The Nair Witch"

Ever wonder where this awesome promo shot came from?

With hype in full swing for Adam Wingard's new take on the Blair Witch franchise I thought it would be fun to look back to the year 1999, when the original Blair Witch Project took horror audiences by storm.  During this time our hero and legendary drive-in film critic, Mr. Joe Bob Briggs, was in the later years of his classic TNT Monstervision series.  These were dark times for the show as TNT had forced Joe Bob to relocate to Hollywood, the show was referred to as Joe Bob's Hollywood Saturday Night instead of Monstervision, and there was a noticeable attempt being made to show more mainstream films, presumably to lure in people that wouldn't normally tune in for the cult and horror flicks Joe Bob usually featured.  For Halloween that year Joe Bob hosted an all night marathon of films (Carrie, Child's Play 2, Phantasm, and Phantasm 2) with the host segments forming an ongoing narrative not unlike his famous Friday the 13th marathon.  The loose plot is that Joe Bob, along with Rusty (always my favorite Monstervision Mail Girl) and another lady named Summer (who I'm not really familiar with but who is apparently the dog walker of the lady who Joe Bob is staying with) are searching for the mysterious Nair Witch, "the hairless hag whose blood curdling screams can be heard all over the Hollywood Hills when she gets her twice daily bikini wax".

The show opens and immediately stays true to the "found footage" aspect of The Blair Witch Project, the film it is obviously parodying.  Joe Bob's crew can't find him but they find a VHS tape and decide to see what is on it.  As we watch the tape we see the main man being filmed with a handheld camera by Rusty as they prepare to go looking for The Nair Witch, some "legendary" creature who has a different non-sensical backstory depending on who is asked.  First they order delivery groceries to take along and then head to Joe Bob's trailer to pick up some beer.  Along the way they encounter decorative plastic rock piles and hanging popsicle stick figures.  As they head off into the woods Joe Bob never misses an opportunity to introduce a movie or give some interesting trivia even as he goes more and more crazy as they get progressively more lost in the Hollywood Hills.  The whole thing wraps up in a typically bizarre fashion that doesn't make much sense honestly.

The whole thing is silly and at this point pretty cliche but Joe Bob elevates it as he does most things.  I never tire of hearing him talk about movies and these special editions of Monstervision always just seemed even more special than the already awesome weekly show.  The whole thing would probably make more sense (especially the ending) if one had been watching the episodes leading up to this one but it seems that some of the integral plot points, like why Joe Bob is staying at that house, to this parody have been slightly lost in time over the 17 years since this originally aired.  Sadly, less than a year later from when this episode aired Monstervision would be good forever, leaving Saturday nights Joe Bob-less and far more lame.  Speaking of the time period, some of the bits definitely act as a time capsule of 1999.  It's funny to see characters wearing Star Wars Episode 1 backpacks and even toasting with the Star Wars character cans of Diet Dr. Pepper that were everywhere at the time. (Interesting side story: I remember trying to collect every one of the Star Wars collector cans during that time and then putting a ton of them in my closet where they would surely appreciate in value.  The only thing they did was explode at some point and get soda all over a bunch of my stuff).  It all just goes to show how much Blair Witch mania had taken over at that time, and it's crazy that it's been so long since the original movie premiered.  It's cool that there is a new film coming out directed by an awesome director so hopefully it will be good.  Before you head out to the theater to check out the new one, check out this awesome bit of Joe Bob nostalgia right HERE.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) Review

"God, look at this place.  It's The Town That Dreaded Sundown." - Tatum

"I saw that movie, it's about a killer in Texas, huh?" - Dewey

Scream (1996)

Funny that this bit of dialogue from Scream, one of the most often cited examples of meta horror, probably brought the 1976 film The Town That Dreaded Sundown back into the public consciousness for a lot of people and now the 2014 remake/reboot/spin-off/"meta-sequel" of the original Town owes as much of its plot to Scream as it does its own source material.  Indeed, there a parts of this movie that almost feel ripped straight out of Craven's classic (and its sequels) but that isn't really a bad thing in my opinion.  I, personally, love movies that acknowledge that other movies exist.  Where the Scream series went with Stab, a fictional parody of their own film, Town goes the Human Centipede 2 route and features its own original film in the remake.  This leads to a lot of interesting plot elements such as how the town featured in the original film reacted to the film being made and as a possible motive for the new killings.

Despite all of its meta elements the film is at heart a brutal throw back to the early days of slashers, where wondering who was doing the killing was as important as the kills themselves.  The tone of the film is bleak and somber, with basically no room for any type of comedic relief, but that doesn't mean that it's not a blast to watch.  Now, despite having owned the once sought after VHS of the original Town for years I've never actually watched it so I can't comment on how much the new film borrows plot wise from the original.  It does make me want to go watch the original then re-watch the remake so if nothing else that is a sign of the quality of the new film. The original was loosely based on real life killings and the remake is based on fictionalized killings happening in the same town that are presented as if they really happened so you can get an idea of how many levels this is operating on.

The film is currently streaming on Netflix and I would recommend any slasher fans to give it a shot if they are looking for a serious take on the genre.  It was produced by Blumhouse Productions, who are famous for their Paranormal Activity and Insidious franchises, so I don't understand why this didn't get at least a modest theatrical release aside from playing some festivals but instead we are soon going to be getting a SIXTH Paranormal Activity movie in the theater.  Oh well.  At least it exists and we get to check it out.  With quality modern slashers being few and far between, this one comes as a breath of fresh air, hopefully you enjoy it like I did.

Interview with Shadow Windhawk of Shadow Windhawk and the Morticians

TG:  Shadow, first off I'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions.  If you could, could you give our readers who may not know who you or your band are a bit of your history?
 
SW:  It is my pleasure, thanks for having me. I formed Shadow Windhawk and the Morticians back in June 2013 as my solo project. At the time I was preparing to play guitar in Argyle Goolsby’s debut solo show. The band was originally conceptualized as a live five piece horrorpunk / doom / shock rock outfit, with me serving frontman duties and a backing band playing my songs. Getting a solid five-piece lineup together took some time. The original lineup that recorded “Casket Spray” with me was Trip MD on the drums and Rich Misery on bass / backing screams. I tracked the guitars, wrote music and lyrics and sung lead / backing vocals on the album. The album came out last February (digitally and on CD) and we debuted the band live together as a three piece, opening for Michale Graves. That was quite an honor. Shortly after that show, I brought on my friend Stich (All Gone Dead, Corvid, Tragic Black) to play guitar in the live band and we opened for Doyle in September as a four-piece. In October, I also brought in Tony “Mr. Drinks” Schvaneveldt on live guitar and he was slowly worked into the band during rehearsals, up until the five-piece of SWATM finally debuted live on January 30th this year, when we opened for Calabrese in SLC on their “Lust For Sacrilege” tour. As of now, Rich Misery is not playing bass for SWATM any longer. So the live lineup is back to Stich, Trip, Tony and I. At the moment, we’re working on the follow up to Casket Spray, called “Cremation Garden”. The album is a full length that I hope to have recorded and completed by Fall this year. We are also working in a new bassist at the moment, but for now we have no shows booked in the immediate future. We will announce more on all that when the time comes and rest assured when we return to the live stage it will be with a bite.

Your debut album, Casket Spray, has been met with great feedback and multiple sold out pressings I believe.  What was it like recording the album and seeing it's success?
 
It has been incredible and humbling, to say the least. I did not expect people to respond so positively to Casket Spray. The album has been enjoying a great deal of good press and exposure that only seems to continue as time goes on. It’s completely bizarre for a young band to have the audience we have at this point in the game, I’d say. People from all over the world write me on a regular basis now. Four people in the UK have SWATM tattoos now. It all just blows my mind, man. And yes, we sold out three small CD pressings of the album in 2014, which was really wonderful to see. However I have to say, success isn’t something I would measure by CD sales. In reality, we only ever break even with merch and CDs, we sell hardly anything compared to the bigger bands out there and no profit is ever seen, because all the funds we make from sales of the album go straight back into the band’s projects. If we do ever ‘profit’, it is in the fact that our next album will basically pay for itself as far as studio time goes. But we do things very quick and dirty in the studio, the way a band like ours should (in my opinion). Casket Spray was tracked in one 12 hour day and by the end of day two, we had the final mix and master in our hands.

Casket Spray Vinyl Cover by Tim Jacobus

Speaking of Casket Spray, you recently revealed an awesome new painted cover by Tim Jacobus of Goosebumps fame for an upcoming vinyl release.  How did that come about?


On a shelf high above my desk is a collection I keep of the original Goosebumps books that Tim illustrated. For me, they represent the aspect of my youth that inspired me to fall in love with, well to be blunt - scary shit. The old covers of those books played with my imagination when I was growing up. They set the tone for the stories that RL Stine was telling and put my mind in that headspace with one glance. The wild colors and dramatic lighting always struck my fancy, especially the cover for #1 “Welcome to Dead House”, which would become the template for the Casket Spray album cover. Today looking back, Dead House reminds me of Dario Argento’s Suspiria in a way. I love how Tim paints haunted houses. And that is what this all boils down to. I was sitting in my office listening to the album and looking up at these Goosebumps books, I pulled “Welcome To Dead House” off the shelf and got this wacky idea in my head of my band illustrated as authentic 90s Goosebumps characters, not this new stuff but the real deal - the Jacobus way. It seemed ridiculous and I definitely regarded the concept as a pipe dream. But the thing about me is, I actively pursue my pipe dreams. To me, nothing is outside the realm of possibility and once that is established in the mind, I honestly believe anything is possible. In May 2014, I contacted Tim through his studio. He agreed that my band would be perfect for one of his illustrations. We kept in contact and I launched an IndieGoGo campaign with SWATM to raise the money to hire Tim to create the new album artwork and pay for a pressing of the album on 12” vinyl. When the campaign closed on its goal, Tim and I proceeded with what we had been discussing and after a phone call cementing the old-school 90s feel and ‘true Halloween’ look I wanted for the piece, Tim went to work for two months. In February this year I got the cover back. Thanks to the fans, the band officially owns the illustration and it will be printed for our vinyl pressing which is currently in production! The whole process has truly been unbelievable. I am so thrilled to say this is one case where a crazy dream of mine actually came true.


I love the mood and tone you capture by combining inspiration from horror films and even using samples from films.  What is the process that goes into writing your songs?  Do you pick movies that inspire you or do you write music and then find a film to fit it?


 Thank you man. Every song I write begins with me and an acoustic guitar. I will sit and write lyrics with different potential riffs for the verses and choruses and then arrange the music so it has a clear and direct structure that can be brought to my band for tweaking and polishing up. Once I have that skeleton done and we are working with it as a band, I will tweak things periodically over time, or add little ideas here and there and Trip often will do the same with his drumming. I go home and play the songs on the acoustic with fresh ears after trying something new with the band and hearing Trip’s beats for them and at that point the songs find their final shape, they become cemented over time as we rehearse them over and over. The way we lock it all in as a band after I have written it determines a lot of the final result. Trip’s drumming might change the way I sing a song occasionally and in a lot of cases for the better. He throws his ideas rhythmically into my stuff and it makes me look at what I have started working on in a different light, which gives me ideas of different ways to sing a song in some cases. He interprets my songs and adds in the drums how he imagines they should sound and it flows out, not just organically but also in the sense that Trip understands my sensibilities and tendencies. He knows what I love already, so I really never have to worry about the drums. He knows what I want. I love working with Trip. We understand each other in a way that few others understand us, we’re like brothers in many ways. Aside from that process, some of my best work lyrically comes as a hook in my head, when I’m watching a film. I’ll get these random moments of inspiration watching my favorite horror movies, even if I have seen the film a million times. For example, I was watching Nightbreed on tape one night and got the lyrics and melody stuck in my head for the chorus of ‘Midian‘ - There’s a place where monsters go/when the world has crumbled/when I have lost my soul. It came out of fucking nowhere but I knew right then I had the chorus to a song about Boone and the Nightbreed. That spark metamorphosed into the skeleton of ‘Midian’ which ended up becoming the single longest song I have ever written and probably the longest song ever written about Nightbreed, by a horror punk band or otherwise. And I’m not saying that is exactly a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a ‘thing’, I suppose. Haha. So after Casket Spray came out, I’ve started referring to my old VCR as the ‘inspiration box’.

 Do you feel that horror punk is having a bit of a renaissance?  I've been a fan of the genre since the early to mid 2000's and it seems to be getting back to it's former glory with a more lively scene.  What do you feel has contributed to that?
 
Horror Punk is a small pond and it has its ups and downs. A lot of bands lack staying power. Some people might say that’s because a lot of Horror Punk outfits are immature, but I would say the same can be said for any musical genre - bands come and go for many different reasons. And there’s a lot of fucking bands out there. There’s a lot of great bands nobody knows about because we’re all broke and don’t have big labels to advertise for us or put us on tour. So I don’t know if there is a ‘renaissance’ going on, but certainly the genre is alive and well. As for returning to former glory, I can’t say for sure if that is the case. I see it all as an actively changing entity. Horror Punk is different now than it was and yet it is still much the same. The faces change but the pond always stays in tact somehow. If there is a big surge in its popularity now, I am all about that. It makes me happy to see the audience for bands like mine growing. I feel like Horror Punk definitely has not reached its peak yet. Not even close.


A trademark of your image and live show is your use of theatrical props, make-up, and custom masks.  What goes into the creation of these aspects of the band?
 
I am a film geek and as such I love theatrics. I’m a huge Skinny Puppy fan and I love GWAR, Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. My belief is that putting on ‘a show’ which is visually identical to a rehearsal in terms of appearance, presence and energy has become a bullshit standard. Sure, it is all about the music but there is nothing wrong with putting the SHOW back into the SHOW, you know what I mean? That is my mission. To keep working and building up my production on stage so I can get crazier and get more theatrical. Interacting with the crowd and ‘baptizing’ them in stage blood is one of my favorite things that I do on stage but I want to go so much further. It’s just going to take time and money, as with all things. As far as what goes into my band’s live theatrics at the moment, my brother Jimmy (Nex FX) is a fucking genius. He shares my Halloween kid spirit and understands my sensibilities as an artist. The pumpkin king scarecrow mask I wear on stage was custom made by hand, crafted and designed by Jimmy. He gave it to me for my birthday in 2013. I knew right away that mask was something special and so far I haven’t been wrong. The mask is a symbol of my band and I owe a lot to Jimmy for that. Jimmy also airbrush paints my band prior to each gig to give them the ‘dead’ mortician look that has become our signature style. His work can been seen in our music video and promo photos also. The chalice I use on stage was custom carved for me out of a baseball bat blank. It was made by hand on a lathe by my great friend, Mr. Steven L. Godfrey. Aside from that I use “Bottle of Blood” by Fun World. Tons of it. It’s probably gonna give me stomach cancer someday.

We here at It's Only a Movie are big fans of Halloween 4 and 5 which were filmed in your home town of SLC.  You guys have utilized the infamous "Gothic Mansion" version of the Myers' house from part 5 in both promo photos and a killer music video for the song "Halloween '63".  How did this come about and what was it like to be able to use part of a classic franchise for your music?


It’s an indescribable feeling. It truly was a great honor to have been given permission to use the Myers Mansion for the filming of “Halloween ’63”. I initially got the idea from always trying to one up myself. The typical three dudes in a graveyard horrorpunk video and promo photo shoots are fucking played the FUCK out. And I’m not saying that as an attack on any band in particular but man. It’s done, put a fork in it. So I started brainstorming new ideas, settings that are uniquely horror but also special to Salt Lake, that represent us as a distinctly SLC Horror Punk outfit. The Myers Mansion to me is a monument to SLC’s horror history and it felt perfect to immortalize it as a part of my band’s image. Once I got the idea in my head I knew it was too good to not try it. But I also needed to be granted permission. I’m not an asshole and I wasn’t about to use somebody’s house for all this shit without them fully endorsing my endeavor. So literally the way this went down was, I walked up to the house on my way downtown from the University one day and knocked on the front door of the mansion. A young woman answered the door and I introduced myself as a local recording artist looking for a place to shoot promotional photos. She was very gracious and said absolutely we could shoot in front of the house. She was happy to hear how much I love the place and wished me and the band good luck with our project. The owner is a very nice woman and I owe a lot to her for granting me permission to celebrate a piece of horror history that has been forgotten for many years. The house really is like a miniature Hallmark Haunted House, you know the ones that light up? I adore the place. When the video shoot came up in November, I called the owner of the house back and asked if we could shoot the “Halloween ’63” video exteriors there. She was totally fine with it once again. Such an awesome person. So not only were we able to use the mansion for exterior shots in “Halloween ’63” and as the backdrop of our promo photos, but it also served as the background of the cover Tim Jacobus illustrated for the upcoming 12” vinyl release of Casket Spray. Yes, the house behind us in the Goosebumps style Jacobus painting, is in fact the very same Michael Myers Mansion from Halloween 5, rendered how Tim Jacobus sees it. I specifically requested that the mansion be featured in our cover as though it was the ‘Dead House’ from the first Goosebumps book. If that is not the crazy dream of a 90s kid / horror nerd I don’t know what is.  I am damn proud that it all worked out how it did. It feels like a dream to know that Mansion is now forever connected to my music. It makes me feel even closer to the Halloween series somehow and as a die hard fan it means a great deal to me. Really crazy.

 And finally, before I let you go, I'd like to hear about some of your film making efforts both including the video and otherwise.  You are a film student if I'm not mistaken, do you think you will make more videos or even branch out into a feature film?

 Last year I made a little short called “visitation” for my production class at the University of Utah. I also produced my debut music video “Halloween ’63” and scouted locations, painted the Myers mask, etc. I am first and foremost a lover of all things to do with cinema. I am currently working on completing my BA in Film and Media Arts at the U. I am also working on the second draft of my first feature length screenplay, “Nine of Bats”. I do hope to make another short film, a dollar baby project I obtained non-exclusive rights to from Stephen King, which is called “One For the Road”. Hopefully I find the time to make that happen this year!

I'd like to thank you again for taking the time to chat with us.  Is anything we didn't cover you would like to speak about or anything you would like to promote?

Thank you, the pleasure was mine.  Just as a reminder to all the boils and ghouls out there, you can now pre-order the 1st 12” vinyl pressing of the Casket Spray LP on colored vinyl featuring artwork by Tim Jacobus! Secure a copy at our website: http://shadowwindhawkandthemorticians.com. If you want SWATM merch and records, that is the place to go!

Check out Shadow Windhawk and the Morticians and give them a 'LIKE': facebook.com/shadowwindhawkandthemorticians

Why I Love Horror Movie Sequels

Sequels get a bad rap.  Most people say that the best a sequel can hope to do is recapture what made the original good but it will still be inferior because it lacks the originality factor.  This has some truth to it as most sequels that succeed do so by expanding the story of the original in ways not possible the first time around or by taking things to crazy new heights.  The Godfather Part 2, almost universally considered the benchmark of sequels, gives us back story that the original didn't have time for while also moving the story forward.  Aliens, James Cameron's renowned spin on Ridley Scott's classic, took the character of Ripley and fleshed her out while also introducing great new characters and upping the stakes exponentially.  Cameron's other sequel masterwork, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, took the simplistic sci-fi/horror charm of The Terminator and expanded it to a truly epic action movie and showed us the evolution of characters we cared about.  This is all to say that sequels in general can be good, even exceptional, but are usually derided as cheap cash-ins, which at times they definitely are.  But I've never felt that they are pointless because at worst you end up with a mess that fans of the original can just ignore, or at best you end up with an expanded world in which you get to spend more time with characters that you like.

Nowhere is the sequel more popular than in the world of horror movies.  And, yes, it's undoubtedly true that just about every horror sequel ever made was made to make money.  Take a surprise hit, spend some money (a lot of times less than what was spent on the original), and have something new to sell.  But then we also have something new to watch, and whether it's genuinely good or so bad it's funny, its usually pretty fun to check out.  Just about all sub-genres of horror have had needless sequels churned out over the years but the ones with the craziest amount has to be the slasher flick.  The plots of slashers are so simple that you can basically just keep making the same movie over and over with different characters and people like me will watch them all.  The Halloween series has ten titles to its name, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Hellraiser both have nine, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has seven, and even something as silly as Child's Play has six.  The reigning king though has to be my favorite, Friday the 13th.  The Friday the 13th franchise has cranked out twelve movies since 1980 and more will surely be made.  To most people this probably seems like overkill, but I, and a lot of other horror fans, can't get enough.

"Well...maybe he can come back."

The Friday the 13th series is actually the perfect example to flesh out my defense of horror sequels.  The first entry originated as a cash in rip off of John Carpenter's Halloween about a disturbed mother who kills camp counselors as revenge for the death of her disabled child.  Along the next 11 movies that dead child inexplicably grows up to be a murderer living in the woods worshiping his mother's severed head, a resurrected Frankenstein-ish zombie creature, a body jumping Hell worm, a reluctant astronaut, and an opponent to Freddy Kreuger in a fight to the death.  How the hell did these things happen?  Why the hell did these things happen?  That's what makes these movies so fun to me.  The original Friday the 13th is basically a simple but effective murder mystery but the fact that the producers wanted to keep exploiting its success caused a lot of different people to come up with more and more strange ideas and it's interesting to see the various ideas that get used.  It's almost like the way comic books work.  Characters exist in a fictional universe but different writers give them a different flavor over the years and you eventually have a mythology that might not make the absolute most sense but is no doubt fun to study and critique.  Each subsequent entry gives you something completely new to dissect and you can then compare and contrast it with the previous entries.

So, even though some of these films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween are stone cold classics I've never felt that the sequels hurt those legacies.  Sure, there are some duds like Halloween: Resurrection and the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake that get made along the way when the studios keep the franchise train rolling but that doesn't take away from what made the originals so good.  And when the reins of these sequels are given to smart, creative, and ambitious young filmmakers sometimes you end up with entries that are almost as good as the source material like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part 6 and that makes it all worth it.  Take a chance and revel in the insanity of some of these sequels one day.  Some of them are good, a lot turn out bad, but they are always a fun way to spend a movie night. - TG

Dead Snow 2: Red VS Dead Review

When I first watched the original Dead Snow years ago on my girlfriend's recommendation I definitely enjoyed it but was pretty sleepy at the time and always meant to give it another try as I felt I hadn't given it it's fair shake.  I did that late last year and wasn't sorry.  The movie is a gorefest filled with self-aware characters and an over the top plot that I totally dug.  The main thing that stuck with me about the flick even from that original viewing was that the characters in the movie were horror fans themselves and by extension it's clear that the people behind making the movie were too.  So what would those horror fans come up with when it was time to make a sequel to their cult hit?  Their answer was apparently:  "Let's go crazy with it."

In all honesty this is the first zombie movie that I've watched in quite a while that didn't bore me.  The zombie thing has become so prevalent today that it's hard to stay interested, but director Tommy Wirkola and his writing partners Stig Frode Henriksen and Vegar Hoel deliver such a unique and interesting spin on the sub-genre that you might forget for a minute that zombies have become television staples, in league with other creatures such as the "20 something New Yorkers" and "The five member nuclear family".   The prevelance of zombie culture is even poked a bit of fun at in the movie with a few characters being American zombie nerds fiending for a real zombie attack, something most horror fans have at least come across.  But anyways, not only are these zombies Nazis, as you probably knew, but they also have a lot in common with traditional zombies...the old school ones that were resurrected with a purpose like completing a task for a master or retrieving something, not just shambling corpses like Romero's classics.  Throw in some supernatuaral elements, such as characters with the ability to raise the dead (no matter how many times they have died), and it's clear this isn't some Night of the Living Dead retread.

The first Dead Snow actually did start as somewhat of a slow-burn, cabin in the woods style horror movie that eventually devolved into gore soaked insanity but this entry picks up exactly where the original left off and just gets crazier by the minute.  I would say it's not random that a character in the first Dead Snow was wearing a shirt of Peter Jackson's Brain Dead (Dead Alive), as this movie could almost be seen as a spiritual successor to that movie.  Make no doubt about it, this is a horror comedy in league with classics like Jackson's early films, Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetary Man), and Sam Raimi's immortal Evil Dead 2.  And, like those movies, this one throw all good taste out the window.  I thought I had almost grown out of shock/gross out humor but I found myself genuinely laughing at the moments where they were obviously trying to offend.  Children, old people, mothers and their babies in strollers...nobody is safe in this movie.  Plus, there are tons of great deaths and stunts (this movie wasn't made on a shoe string budget, there was money put to good use on this one) that would be right at home on one of Joe Bob Brigg's classic Drive-In Totals.

All in all, if you enjoy horror-comedies, you probably won't be disappointed in this one.  I have to give it my full recommendation.  Check it out! - TG

The Ultra Depressing Life of Halloween's Jamie Lloyd Part 3

Check out parts ONE and TWO!

Quick recap:  Jamie Lloyd is the daughter of Laurie Strode.  Her mom is dead.  She's also the niece of slasher Michael Myers.  He wants to kill her.  At the end of part five, she had been kidnapped by a mysterious Man in Black who is seemingly in league with Michael.  Could things get worse for the poor girl?  Oh yeah, they sure could.

"Hey guys, I'm new."

Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers takes place 6 years after five and is the end of the loose Jamie trilogy (though it is clear she was more of an after thought in this one than the previous two).  It has to be noted that the actress who had brought us this character in parts four and five, Danielle Harris, is absent from this installment.  There's been a lot of speculation over the years as to why Danielle didn't come back but it seems to come down to money and her not being happy with the way her character was to be treated this time around (that should say something).  In her place is an actress named J.C. Brandy.  I have to be honest here, I didn't even realize that she was supposed to be the character of Jamie when I was younger.  The last time we saw Jamie she was 9 years old which means she should be 15 in this entry but the girl playing her always came across as being in her mid-twenties to me.  J.C. does a fine job with what she was given but I still wish Danielle would have been there to give the character closure.

So, let's get down to how things could possibly get worse for Jamie.  The Man in Black who kidnapped her is actually Dr. Wynn (the dude who apparently was giving Michael driving lessons) from the first Halloween who has secretly been a part of a cult manipulating the actions of Michael all along.  The Cult worships the Thorn rune and use blood sacrifices of the family members of their pawns to prevent a curse that would cause a plague upon the land.  Oh yeah, they also are scientists using the power of Thorn for weird experiments.  Something like that.  I don't know if anybody knows exactly what they are supposed to be up to honestly.  Anyways, the point is, when we first see Jamie this time she is giving birth.  She's supposed to be 15 years old and has been kidnapped for the past 6 years and has gotten pregnant somewhere along the way.  This is already really shady as it's clear that the cult have apparently raped her.  Rough.  But wanna get rougher?  It's implied that the father of this baby is Michael.  Her uncle.  Yep, things got worse. 

"Now I'm dead."

A nurse that helped deliver the baby has a change of heart and helps Jamie escape the cult.  Jamie is on the run but Michael is not far behind and ends up killing Jamie after all this time.  The baby is safely hidden but the heroine of the past two movies just died within the first ten minutes of her third appearance.  Michael takes her out by impaling her on some farm implement which he turns on and we get to see Jamie get churned up real good.  I've never understood why they got rid of her so early and easily but it's always kind of annoyed me.  It seems they wanted to turn their attention to the exploits of Tommy from the first Halloween and new character Kara who would be Jamie's adoptive cousin I guess. 

But that wasn't always how it went down.  As most horror fans know part six was a bit of a mess behind the scenes.  The infamous producer's cut of the film included a lot more information on the Thorn Cult and also some different plot elements.  In the original cut Jamie didn't die at the hands of Michael but instead was taken to a hospital.  There, later in the movie, she was taken out by the Man in Black with a gun.  Still not a very satisfactory ending to her character if you ask me.

The writer of Halloween 6, Daniel Farrands, is a true horror fan (he helped bring us the untouchable documentaries Never Sleep Again and Crystal Lake Memories recently) and a good writer.  I like how he fleshed out the Thorn concept that was established in part five and I personally really enjoy Halloween 6, I just don't think Jamie should have went out that way.  She definitely could have been a part of the plot, helping Tommy and Kara fight against the Thorn Cult and get some revenge for the terrible life she had to endure at their hands.  Alas, it didn't happen, and a couple of years later Steve Miner and crew effectively made the Jamie movies pointless with the retconning of H20 so does any of it really even matter? - TG

Five Legendary Moments from NBC's edit of Tremors.

Tremors is unquestionably one of the boys here at It's Only a Movie's top choice flicks of all time.  It is the perfect blend of horror and comedy with awesome monsters, a great cast of characters, and infinitely quotable dialogue.  But, the version of the movie that now sits on my shelf in all it's PG-13 glory isn't the one that I grew up on.  When I was a kid I recorded Tremors off of NBC's Saturday Night Movie presentation and I watched that VHS so often that it was burned into my mind.  So, when I finally saw the actual theatrical cut of the movie a few things seemed off.  Here are the top five moments from the hilarious television edit of Tremors:

The Ultra Depressing Life of Halloween's Jamie Lloyd Part 2

In case you missed part one check it out here!

The last time we saw Jamie Lloyd at the end of Halloween 4 she was covered in blood after stabbing her foster mom and Dr. Loomis was wanting to bust a cap in her with his trusty revolver (presumably six caps as that's his thing).  So, has Michael Myer's essence transferred into his niece making her the brand new prodigy of evil?  Nah, she's just spent the whole year that takes place between parts 4 and 5 a mute relegated to a children's hospital.  It's never really explained exactly why she attempted to kill her mom but I guess it is just supposed to be chalked up to the effects of the traumatic experience she had just went through.  Loomis is still lurking around too, not quite as gun happy as last year but he definitely has an eye on Jamie and suspects that she may have a connection with her uncle.

"Hey dude, I'm up."

He's right of course, and since Michael didn't die after the assault at the end of part 4 but instead took a lazy river ride to a hermit's shack for some year long complimentary room and board things are shaping up to be pretty crappy for Jamie on Halloween again.  We learn the extent of Jamie's link with Michael when he wakes up and kills the hermit (talk about being unappreciative of the dude who let you be in a coma on his couch for a year) and Jamie sees it in a vision.  Not good.

On the seemingly good side is the fact that Rachael, Jamie's foster sister from part 4, is still around though her foster parents are conveniently out of town.  Yep, good ol' strong willed Rachael who kept Jamie safe and helped put Michael down last time is there to make sure everything is okay.  Well, that is until she gets a pair of scissors in the neck about 15 minutes into the movie.  We are left with Tina, Rachael's friend who is the main teenage character of this movie for whatever reason (the reason probably being that the chick that played Rachael didn't want to commit to a starring role).  Tina is a pretty polarizing character among horror fans and while I fall on the side that can put up with her I can understand how some find her annoying.   Two other new characters also show up, one being Jamie's stuttering buddy from the hospital and the other a mysterious Man in Black whose face we don't see but who is lurking around all the events in the film.  One of these characters will prove to be important to the Halloween 4-6 mythology and the other one stutters.

"Something, something, heart made of neon"

But back to Tina for a second.  Because Jamie can now kinda see through Michael's eyes at times she knows that he has killed Tina's boyfriend and that Tina is now taking a ride with a killer.  Jamie is able to communicate that she knows where Michael is to Dr. Loomis (in the amazing Cookie Woman scene) and they are able to save Tina.  Jamie gets her voice back for some reason too, thus resolving a seemingly purposeless plot point.  Unable to graciously accept a life saving and spend the night with her savior though, Tina goes off to a party at a farm to be with her jerk boyfriend who an hour earlier abandoned her as far as she knows. Michael is headed there himself and because Jamie wants to try to save Tina she heads out on foot with  her stuttering buddy, thus putting herself in grave danger yet again.

Michael slashes a few teenagers and by the time Jamie and friend arrive at the farm Michael is chasing them and Tina in a car.  Michael's driving lessons from part 1 come into play but it seems unlikely that he would pass a driving test once he crashes into a tree.  He ain't dead though and he's after Jamie once again until Tina intervenes.  Tina gets a good stabbing, and while it definitely seems like she is probably dead they never really state that she is, and Jamie escapes with Loomis.  Loomis has a plan and it involves using poor little Jamie Lloyd as bait.  Loomis screams at the woods a bit, telling Michael to go home.

"Close enough."

How Michael knows to find his house is hard to say since what they are passing off as the Myers' house in this film is more along the lines of a castle than a small middle class home.  The director of part 5, Dominique Othenin-Girard, stated that he wanted to take the series back closer to the original but apparently his plan to do that involved changing tons of things not least of which was making Michael's childhood home a Gothic mansion. 

Jamie is successfully used as bait but her cop bodyguard is killed and she ends up trapped in a dang laundry shoot and has to use the stabbing of Michael's knife as a step to get out, only to go hide in the attic in a child's coffin.  Rough.  She has a sentimental moment with her uncle when she tries to communicate with him sensibly but it inevitably turns into a rage attack from Myers, yet another traumatic experience for our little hero.  She runs downstairs to find Loomis leading to a session between the good doc and his patient that includes some tranquilizer darts and a two-by-four.  Loomis seemingly does him in and they are all taken to the police station.

Michael is unstoked to be in chains in a prison cell as we seeing him rocking back and forth and it seems that the unstoppable madman has at least been captured finally.  All is well that ends well.  But remember that dude in a black trench coat?  He shows up with a freakin' machine gun and completely lays waste to the station, rescues Michael, and kidnaps Jamie.  Can this girl get a break? It's only been one year and she's had two awful nights in which she was tortured and saw tons of people die. 

Who was that dude?  What is his connection to Michael and what do they plan to do with Jamie?  Why does he have the same mark on his arm as Michael?  It wouldn't be revealed until six years later when Halloween 6 was finally released.  Click HERE for the third and final look at the sad state of poor Jamie's life soon and we'll find out. 

Interview with Vincent Renfield of The Renfields

TG: Vincent! Thanks for taking the time to do an interview, I'm a big fan of the band. Could you maybe introduce yourself and give people an idea of who The Renfields are if they don't know?

VR: Hi! I'm Vincent Renfield! I'm the singer, guitarist, and heart throb for the hit Transylvanian Pogo Punk band The Renfields... However I am currently only fulfilling about half of those qualifications in the band... since we are not a hit and I am not a heart throb... despite having a Justin Bieber haircut. The Renfields have been making music in the underground for the past 10 years, we have released a bunch of albums and played a ton of shows in that time... we're all very nice and personable individuals and Glen Danzig would be ashamed of us.

TG: Awesome! Could you go back and give us a history lesson of how the band came about?

VR: Yeah! The Renfields started out as a one man project around 2007. I was in another band and was really unhappy with where it was going, I attempted to convince everyone to quit and start the Renfields with me but they hated the idea and we disbanded. Instead of waiting to find band mates I started recording music in my bedroom on my Fostex 8 track recorder. I recorded everything in mono and played everything except for the drums. At the time I was using a drum machine, which became known as the Invisible Man. I released 2 full length CDs and used them to recruit members. The idea was to record everything in mono and mimmic budget rock bands like The Mummies and The Ripoffs. Eventually I met our first drummer Dr. Herbert III and we continued on as a 2 piece for a while, we were like a horror punk White Stripes... Over time we built up a full band with a bass player, pipe organ, and a mummy hype man/sample player. That lineup was solid for about 4 years and we continued recording and releasing DIY albums on our own. About 5 years ago we had a massive lineup change which was also the end of the budget rock/DIY Renfields. With a completely new lineup in place, we started making a conscious effort to make very polished pop punk music like Teenage Bottlerocket and Masked Intruder. The result of those efforts is our new album "GO!", which was the first Renfields album done in a professional studio.

TG: Very cool. Now, you re-recorded a good bit of songs from the old material for the new album. How did you go about picking which songs you wanted to put out on your first professionally recorded album?

VR: By the time we started recording our new album, all of our old CDs had been out of print for 3 years or more. We were in a situation where most people only knew our stuff from hearing it live. Due to our change of direction musically, the songs had sort of morphed into hybrid versions of the originals. We chose to do 10 old songs spanning our first 5 releases and 4 brand new ones that weren't on any of our previous releases. It took us 2 years to finally finish the new album, so by the time it was released even the "new" songs were old. The plan is to do 10 and 4 on each new release.  We still have about 25 songs that we would like to re-release.

TG: Sweet, sounds like we have something to look forward to over the next little bit. Now, since we are a horror page I'd like to get into the horror aspect of your band.  Your stage show and costumes are part of what set you apart in my opinion.  Were there a lot of bands that you took inspiration from or were you trying to do your own thing as far as the horror imagery and such goes?  

VR: My biggest influence when I started the band was Kiss. My older brother gave me a copy of Kiss Killers when I was 8 and it completely changed my definition of what a band was. For better or worse, after I saw that album cover I stopped thinking about what my future band was going to sound like and started thinking about our image and stage show. Obviously The Renfields didn't form until much later, but Kiss set me on the path. Later on it was the budget rock band The Mummies, Gwar, and King Diamond that played a part. There is obviously a Misfits connection there as well, but not so serious. In the end, horror punk is a lot of 30 year old men trying too look tough and scary and very few can pull it off. We took the approach of being actual monsters that were trying to fit in with normal people as opposed to being normal people trying to look like scary monsters.

TG: I agree that bands that try to recapture Danzig's "tough attitude" persona usually fall flat and I love that you guys just have fun with it.  Everytime I've seen you guys live it's been a blast.

VR: Thanks!

TG: A good bit of your songs are about horror movies and at times even reference actors like Nick Castle and Tom Atkins. What goes into writing one of your songs? Do you get inspired by movies to write specific songs or do you write music and then apply a theme to it?

VR: I always start with a title and then go from there. I write lyrics from the perspective of a really obsessive horror fan, so I like to put a lot of details and references that other obsessive horror fans will pick up on. I like to add in tag lines from the original movie posters and quotes from the films when I can. I try never to limit myself in terms of lyric writing. I don't force myself to write lyrics solely about the movies. A lot of Renfields songs have horror movie titles but reference ideas or situations outside of horror. On our Stalk and Slash Splatterama Part. 1 EP, we had a song called "War of the Robots" that was 50% about an episode of Lost in Space and 50% about Bush Jr. era politics. But I don't like to hit people over the head with that kind of thing so it's not overt. The song "Invisible Man" on our new album is the same way. It's about the movie but also about me having a resentment towards an ex band mate... Which I have since resolved, so I'm glad it's well hidden in dual meanings!

TG: Awesome. As a big horror fan I have to say that I definitely appreciate the details that you put into your songs. Something like referencing the song Mr. Sandman from Halloween II in your song "Halloween Night" just makes it even more cool. Aside from the songs that are obviously about specific horror films, you also have songs about The Renfields' backstory and their home of Transylvania which are really unique and deepen the mythology of the band. Is that just your creative side coming out, wanting to tell stories?

VR: The Transylvania songs work to further the characters in the band and the back story of the Renfields. The alternative is having a bunch of exposition in the stage banter and that requires things to be scripted, which is not appealing at all to us. For a band like Gwar it would be necessary. But we can manage with keeping it in song form. There is 10 years worth of Renfields lore to draw from at this point, so it's pretty easy.

TG: I'd like to know all of it, you should put out a book or something.

VR: We did have comic books... but they are long out of print!

TG: You guys have also in the past put out well made and hilarious videos for promotion and such. Have you ever given any thought to making a horror movie, or just a movie in general? 

VR: We did a short film called Christmas Break at Crystal Lake a couple years back. We originally planned on doing a monthly web series that was a horror punk version of the Monkees TV show. We ended up getting too busy with shows and recording to follow it through, but it's still on the to do list. 



TG: Sweet, I love to see that come to fruition. Well, Vincent, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for me, The Renfields are awesome and I hope to see the legend grow. Anything you would like to let people know that we didn't cover?

VR: All I'd like to say is take a second and check us out, burn it off the internet, buy it, see us live, steal it, whatever. And thanks!

Check out The Renfields and give them a 'like': The Renfields on Facebook
And pick up their new album GO!: The Renfields Store

Photos by Mike Winland Studios

Saw: The Tenth Anniversary Re-Release

It's hard to believe that the Saw film franchise has been around for 10 years.  In that time they managed to churn out 7 total films (of which I think I saw four...maybe five, I can't remember) and go from one of the hottest events of October for modern horror fans to the bargain bin.  By the time Paranormal Activity came along and gave people something completely different, I think people wanted a break from the ultra-violence and convoluted story lines.  It's now been 4 years since a new film has been released and Lions Gate decided to celebrate (and possibly test the waters a bit during) the tenth anniversary of the release of the original with a limited theatrical run.

My girlfriend and her buddy had a bit of a tradition of going to see each Saw sequel around Halloween so when it was announced that the original would be gracing screens again they were stoked.  I went along for the ride as well, making me one of apparently very few that went out to support the re-release.  Our theater was completely empty aside from us and a couple of young kids (without supervision who very possibly could have snuck in).  It was a matinee on a Saturday which might account for some of the empty seats but being only the second day of release I expected more people.  I'm sure Lions Gate did too but they only came up with around 315 bucks per theater according www.telegraph.co.uk.  Doesn't bode well if they really were gauging interest in a new installment in the series. 

How does the movie hold up?  Not bad, but I wouldn't say too great either.  The overall experience, especially the "twist" at the end, was still satisfying to me but some of the other components didn't age well.  The acting and editing were my main gripe I guess.  Leigh Whannell, who created the concept with director James Wan and wrote the script, is regrettably featured in way too big of a role for a debuting actor of his talents.  He just can't really cut it in some of the more intense scenes, but surprisingly Cary Elwes, who WAS a professional actor at the time and had been for years gives an at times cringe worth performance too.  Tobin Bell, as Jigsaw in a very limited role, and Danny Glover give good performances but they don't get the screen time Whannell and Elwes do.  The editing also doesn't sit well with me, way too much "kinetic cutting" and camera shaking during a lot of the flashbacks for my taste.

The main strength of the movie remains the concept and the twist.  I'm a big fan of movies that focus on characters stuck in situations and how they have to deal with it so a movie about two guys stuck in a room and not knowing how they got there is right up my alley.  I firmly believe that had the movie not become the huge success that it did it would be looked back on now as an unsung classic by horror fans. Unfortunately, the constant retconning and increasingly convoluted storyline of the cash-in sequels betrayed the simplicity that made the original so enjoyable. 

If you haven't seen it in a while and remember it fondly, I'd say you could find worse ways to spend two hours than checking it out again while it's on the big screen.  As for if we will ever see another entry, I guess time (and more likely money) will tell.  If they could recapture what they had with the original I might give another one a shot. - TG

The Ultra Depressing Life of Halloween's Jamie Lloyd Part 1

When Jamie Lloyd, who is the protagonist of Halloween 4 and 5 and also featured in Halloween 6, is first introduced she is an eight year old orphan suffering from intense nightmares of her murderous uncle...and her life doesn't ever get too much better from there.

Jamie (not too subtly named in honor of Jamie Lee Curtis who was onto more "legit" movies by that time) is daughter of Laurie Strode from the original Halloween and it's sequel and the niece of Michael Myers.  It's never stated who her dad is (it definitely ain't Ben Tramer) but both him and Laurie die, pretty anticlimactically by the way, in a car crash sometime between the second and forth films.  Maybe they were distracted by Tom Atkins running down the road raving about Halloween masks.

Even though Jamie now has a foster family that cares for her, her life is already pretty crappy.  She feels like a burden on her foster sister Rachael and the kids at school torment her relentlessly.  I've always felt that bullying in movies seems forced and fake more often than not but Halloween 4 takes the cake.  The kids that Jamie goes to school with give her crap simply because she doesn't have a costume on like they do and then proceed to rip on her because her mom is dead.  "Jamie's mommy...is a mummy!".  Low blow, fake 1988 eight year old kid, low freakin' blow.  After that they chase a crying Jamie out of the school chanting "Jamie's an orphan! Jamie's an orphan!".  Pretty over the top.  What does this make Jamie do?  Change her mind about not wanting to go trick or treating so she can fit in.  Social peer pressure is rough for nieces of Boogymen, dude.

"I'll just take this."

Jamie picks out a clown costume at the drug store (in which we see a ton of awesome '80s Halloween masks) in an allusion to the costume little Michael wore at the beginning of the original Halloween and is either riding high off of some double scoops or looking forward to them.  But she can't make it out of the scene without something bad happening and ends up seeing "Nightmare Man" in the drug store.  She freaks out and breaks a mirror and everybody just assumes that she...hallucinated I guess?  No such luck though as Nightmare Man is Michael in the flesh and he just got himself a brand new white face mask.  Her evening isn't about to get any better.

Rachael takes her trick or treating she runs into the bullies from school who now miraculously want to be friends since she has a costume.  Little jerks.  But once a curfew is called and all the kids are picked up by their parents, Jamie is alone and scared. After finally meeting back up with Rachael they are escorted by some cops to a house to hold up because Jamie's uncle is on another murder rampage and his intended target just happens to be his niece.  Well, of course, everyone in the house aside from Rachael and Jamie are murdered and after a brief detour at the Haddonfield school with Dr. Loomis the girls are on the run.

It all culminates with Michael on the receiving end of a pick up truck and what basically amounts to a SWAT team.  Michael falls into a well (I guess that what that is) and nobody thinks to follow him or make sure he is dead but all is well that ends well.  Oh, except for that brief moment when Jamie touched Michael while he was down for a minute.  That probably wasn't good.

The girls are brought home and Jamie's foster mother is fixing her a nice warm bath.  Could it be that this poor girl is going to escape with a happy ending?  The ominous POV shot that just put on a clown mask and picked up a pair of scissors puts an end to that thought.  Jamie, who has had a pretty rough Halloween, has decided to end the day by stabbing her foster mom.  Has Michael's evil been transferred into his little niece?  Loomis, who is ready to bust a cap into an eight year old, seems to think so but nobody found out until a year later when Halloween 5 was released and that will be the movie I look at in the next part of this three part look at the life of one of the most put upon characters in history. - TG


Check out part 2 here!

Hard Rock Zombies

Hardrock Zombies, to me, is the holy grail of cheesy horror flicks. It started off as just footage shot to be shown on a drive in movie screen in the background of another film but was actually just filmed to completion itself. This flick features a song that will resurrect the dead, an awesome "skateboarding/townsfolk looking on in disapproval" montage, a midget zombie trying to eat a cow, a midget zombie trying to eat himself and above all else....Hitler! That's right. Hitler wasn't killed during WW2, he just moved to the country with his wife and midget grandsons to figure out a new way to conquer the world. The band is practicing at Hitler's joint when they are electrocuted to death. The resurrection song, having been previously recorded, is played by Cassie (the underage love interest of the lead singer!). The band is resurrected and mayhem ensues. If you've never heard of this movie I couldn't suggest looking it up more. It's perfectly bad. -TC

Blood Salvage

Blood Salvage, from 1990, is the type of movie that this page is made for. It's a low rent Texas Chainsaw knock off about a hillbilly and his two "slow" sons who kidnap people and keep them alive with hillbilly science in order to sell their body parts to Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Not too many familiar faces in this but John Saxon is in it and Evander Holyfield makes one of the most pointless cameos of all time.
The actual plot of the flick is that the main hillbilly has fallen in love with John Saxon's wheelchair bound beauty pagent contestant daughter and kidnaps the family with intentions of making her walk again with his vague backwoods medical know how. The fact that in order to make that happen he will have to take some spinal fluid from her younger brother doesn't seem to bother him. Make no mistake, this movie is ridiculous but it's the glorious kind of ridiculous. The skinny son (because of course there is a fat one and a skinny one) is so over the top and awful at acting that he stands out as the funniest part for me.
I don't know how hard it is to come by, I bought a bootleg of it a few years ago at a convention because I always remembered the cover art from the video store as a kid, but if you can find it give it a watch. - TG

Slither

The lady friend picked Slither last night for our ongoing October Horror-thon and that was perfectly fine with me. This movie is absolutely one of the top choices for a future cult film from the past ten years. James Gunn, who got his start writing for Troma and broke into the mainstream writing the Scooby Doo movie and Dawn of the Dead remake, made his directorial debut with this one from a script he wrote. He is probably more well known now for writing and directing Guardians of the Galaxy for Marvel nowadays but he is definitely a horror nerd at heart.
The movie is a play on the Night of the Creeps style space slug infected zombie and while some dismiss it as a pure rip off I see it as way more of an homage. There are tons of references to classic horror films and directors that will keep fans interested and the cast is awesome. Michael Rooker slowly turns into a giant squid monster commanding an army of zombies and Nathan Fillion is the affable police cheif in over his head.
If you dig horror comedies along the lines of Return of the Living Dead, Tremors, or Evil Dead 2 you'll probably have fun with this one. It stands as a perfect stepping stone between Gunn's earlier career in low budget gross out movies and his current superstar status as a director of audience pleasing fare like Guardians. - TG

Leprechaun: Origins

I watched Leprechaun: Origins last night and it was in no way what I expected.  Not that it was any different than any other "group of friends stuck in a house while something tries to get them" movie. It wasn't at all an origin story of the leprechaun Warwick Davis made famous. 

This little guy was a vicious little flesh eating Pumpkinhead lookin' thing. I was expecting a murderous midget spitting dirty lymrics and "Give me back me gold!"   What I got was 4 friends trapped in a house by an Irish father and son trying to protect their village.  Offering them up to the leprechaun as a sacrifice. Gold is on this leprechaun's list but it ain't that high on it.  It more or less targeted the people wearing gold as victims using his leprechaun/predator vision.  Every shot from his pov is all yellowed out almost as if everything looked like gold to him.  So no sir, this wasn't my leprechaun movie.  It tries to be too straight forward while anyone watching a movie about a killer leprechaun should know better. -TC

Pinocchio's Revenge

Pinocchio's Revenge. I've been seeing this movie on video store shelves since 1996, the year it was released straight to video (I believe). I always kinda felt like it would be something I would like since I'm usually a sucker for the low budget horror that came out in the early-mid '90s before Scream changed everything but didn't ever actually check it out until last night.
The cover and synopsis seem to assure you that you'll be getting some cheesy Full Moon style killer doll action but that's not what it is at all. Written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney (who gave us the awesome Night of the Demons and Witchboard), what we actually have here is a more serious "psychological thriller" style flick dealing with the seperation issues a young girl is suffering after the divorce of her parents. Don't worry though, there is a strange Pinocchio doll involved too.
Despite the high concept and relatively entertaining story, this movie can't hide it's low budget stripes. Gratutitous nanny nudity, generally bad acting, and cheap sets give it away. Not that that's a bad thing. It's still a pretty good watch and a pleasant surprise. You could do way worse - TG

You're Next

I have to throw a recommendation out to one of the best modern horror flicks I've seen in a while: You're Next. I usually don't get my hopes up for modern slashers because they usually are missing something that makes me love the older ones but this one had me entertained the whole way through. I went into it expecting another home invasion flick along the lines of The Strangers or even The Purge (which I had just watched and been bored to tears by) but was suprised to find something more along the lines of a slasher with some twists, turns, and a genre defying heroine thrown in for good measure. Some of the twists and revelations may be somewhat obvious to people that pay close attention (which my lady can claim though I have to be honest and say some of them took me by surprise...in hindsight it seems pretty obvious though) but that doesn't take away from how fun the whole thing is. It's streaming on Netflix right now so check it out. - TG

Night of the Demons

This one is always on my "Must watch for Halloween" list. A fat punk rocker with C.O.C. stickers on his car named Stooge. A goth chick getting possessed by demons and dancing to Bauhaus. A grumpy old man trying to destroy kids by putting razor blades in apples. It's a classic. This awesome artwork is from the vinyl soundtrack release put out earlier this year by Lunaris Records. - TG

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark

I checked out this awesome piece of the '80s personified yesterday. If you have any desire at all to see a movie with a ton of double entrendre about how big Elvira's boobs are, Will a.k.a. The Wizard Master from Dream Warriors checking out Elvira's butt, or a disgusting witchcraft cassarole enduced old people orgy this is the flick for you dude. - TG