Halloween Mix 2010 - DOWNLOAD NOW!

Here it is, almost Halloween and once again I have a spooky Halloween Mix for all of you boils and ghouls out there.  This years mix has a slightly harder edge than previous mixes but it should appease horror fans. 

Tell me what you think. You can download it here as a zipped folder:
https://www.yousendit.com/download/ZGJjc2ZEaytRWUpjR0E9PQ

1.     H.G. Lewis – It’s Almost Like Halloween

2.    The Bruisers – Gates of Hell

3.    Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You  (Dance Version)

4.    The Gazmen – Rigomortise Rock

5.    Buck Owens – It’s a Monster’s Holiday

6.     T.S.O.L. – Blackmagic

7.    Texas OU Chili Cook off Winner

8.    Goo Goo Dolls – (Don’t Fear) The Reaper

9.     45 Grave – Surf Bat

10.  Devil’s Brigade – Vampire Girl

11.  Sylvester Stallone – Drinkin’stein

12. The Birthday Party – Release the Bats

13. D.I. – Richard Hung Himself

14. Angry Samoans – They Saved Hitler’s Cock

15. Social Distortion – The Creeps

16.  Hasil Adkins – She Said

17. Agent Orange – Voices (in the Night)

18. Aiden – Cry Little Sister (theme from Lost Boys 2: The Tribe)

The Lost Boys (1987, Joel Schumacher)

Ah, memories.  I can still remember watching Lost Boys for the first time.  I was sitting on my living room couch squeezed between my mother and two sisters watching an edited for television version of the film on prime time TV.  It must have been sometime in the late 80s/early 90s.  I don't remember much of the gore being cut out but I do remember the obvious overdubs when someone would swear.  The most memorable part of the film was when the first vampire got a stake through the heart and he started pouring blood and slime all over the vampire hunters.  The scene actually made me nauseous and I had to turn away from the TV.  I probably watched the film at least 10 times as a kid and can still pop the film in pretty much anytime.

The Lost Boys follows the Emerson family, young Sam (Corey Haim), teenage Michael (Jason Patric) and divorced mom Lucy (Dianne Wiest), who move from Phoenix, AZ to Santa Carla, CA to live with Lucy's Dad (Barnard Hughes).  Soon after arriving, Michael falls in love with Star (Jami Gertz) who is involved with a group of trouble making kids.  After some tension, the "Lost Boys" accept Michael and get him to join their gang.  What they didn't tell him though is that they are vampires and that now he was too.  I hate it when that happens.  It is up to Sam and his new found vampire hunter friends, the Frog brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander) to save Michael.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that The Lost Boys is my favorite Vampire movie of all time.  Yeah, there's Dracula and Romero's Martin, but for me The Lost Boys is where it's at.  The film has it all: a classic story, great acting, humor, gore and scares.  The locations used in the film, especially the boardwalk and the cave are perfect as is Joel Schumacher's lively, yet dark direction.  I really can't find anything negative to say about the film (except maybe some of the hairstyles and Corey Haim's wardrobe).  I definitely would have to say though that the best part of the film is the legendary Tim Cappello's boardwalk performance of I Still Believe.

RATING:  10/10

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again (2009, Larry Blamire)

Since I'm sure you just read my review for Larry Blamire's The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra , you probably already know that this is a sequel to that film, which surprisingly took 5 years to make.  Back are pretty much the entire cast of the first film as well as that hilariously smarmy skeleton.  Recently released on DVD by Shout! Factory, along with Blamire's haunted house spoof Dark and Stormy Night, I knew it was going to be another hilarious take on the old fashioned sci fi and monster movies.

Dr. Paul Armstrong (Larry Blamire) is now an alcoholic living in the Amazon jungle when his wife Betty (Fay Masterson) and Reet Pappin (Frank Dietz) find him while on a search for an important rock called Jeranium 90.  Unfortunately another scientist, Dr. Ellamy Royne (Trish Geiger) is also heading a group on the hunt for this precious rock, which is infiltrated by two aliens (Andrew Parks and Susan McConnel) from the first film.  Throw in an Amazon queen, a trip to a "colorized" lost world and that darn skeleton of Cadavra and you've got quite the little adventure.

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again is a decent follow up to the first Lost Skeleton film with a few laugh out loud parts ("DROP IT...slow-ly").  Overall though the film loses some steam in the second half and starts to try the audiences patience.  Fans of the first will definitely want to check it out though because overall it's worth a watch.  The production value definitely seems a little higher and the film switches from black and white to color about half way through.  The film also tries to branch out a little from the tried and true formula of Cadavra, which works sometimes.  The cast is great all around and its good to see a continuation of the characters from the first film.

RATING:  6/10

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001, Larry Blamire)

 

 Much like in my last review for House of the Wolf Man, here we have another throwback to the good old days of black and white thrillers.  Though where House of the Wolf Man was trying to make a film that really looked and felt like it was made a long time ago, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is more of a send up, focusing on the absurdity of those films and magnifying it.  I first read about this film recently in an interview with director/writer/star Larry Blamire in a piece about the sequel to this film, The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and its accompanying haunted house homage Dark and Stormy Night.  Blamire's vision intrigued me enough to seek out his films.

The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra stars writer/director Larry Blamire as Dr. Paul Armstrong, a scientist looking for a meteor containing the precious element atmosphereum, with his wife Betty (Fay Masterson).  They end up finding the meteor and bring the atmosphereum back to the cabin they are renting in the mountains near the meteor.  Nearby is another scientist, Dr. Roger Fleming (Brian Howe) searching for the legendary Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, which he finds in a cave and is telepathically instructed by the Skeleton to find some atmosphereum to bring him it to life.  A spaceship carrying two aliens and a mutant also land nearby and must search for atmosphereum to get their ship running.  Needless to say, the three groups meet up and must fight for the atmosphereum.

Last Skeleteon of Cadavra was a hilarious, silly little film made by someone who obviously knows and loves the genre he is poking fun at.  There are plenty of things to laugh at in some of the old sci fi/monster/adventure films of yesteryear but it is all unintentional.  Here, Blamire makes those things intentional and the outcome is a huge success.  I found myself laughing out loud at several parts, either dialogue, kooky characters or ridiculous monsters.  The real star of the film though (as obvious as you think it would be) is the Lost Skeleton himself.  I don't want to give too much away but his snarky attitude and one liners had me in hysterics.  For anyone who loves old B movies and doesn't get sand in their vagina when people laugh at the unintentionally funny parts, I highly recommend this film.

RATING:  8/10

Second Anniversary / Third Quarter Review - 2010

I can't believe it.  TWO YEARS!  Feels like just yesterday I decided to start a blog and review crappy movies.  I just wanted to thank all of my supporters, followers, leavers of comments and companies kind enough to send me movies to reviews for keeping the blog alive. 

Now before I start to sound like a girl who needs to change her tampon, here is a list of the films I've watched from July 1st, 2010 through September 30 2010:

7/3
High Noon
Wild Bunch

7/5
French Connection

7/6
French Connection 2

7/7
Predator

7/11
Predator 2

7/12
Predators

7/13
Rhinestone

7/17
Alien vs. Predator

7/20
Inception

7/21
Memento

7/23
Batman Begins

7/24
Dark Knight

7/25
Galaxy of Terror
Forbidden World

7/26
Inseminoid

7/28
Beach Boys - An American Band

7/29
Hooper

7/31
[REC]2

8/1
Coca Cola Kid

8/2
Riding in Vans with Boys

8/3
Humanoids from the Deep

8/4
Piranha

8/6
Deathsport

8/8
Urethra Chronicles 2

8/9
Six String Samurai

8/11
Cannonball

8/12
Battle Truck
High Tension

8/15
Expendables

8/17
Alice Sweet Alice

8/20
Truth or Dare:  A Critical Madness

8/21
Creep

8/23
Piranha 3D

8/24
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell classic albums
Meat Loaf - In Search of Paradise
Last House on Dead End Street

8/25
Don't Go in the Woods

8/26
Shape of Things to Come
Populaton: 1

8/28
Star Crash

8/31
Night of the Living Dead:  Reanimated

9/2
Leonard Cohen - Bird on a Wire

9/4
May

9/5
Skeleton Key

9/8
Resident Evil
Resident Evil:  Apocalypse

9/9
Resident Evil:  Evolution

9/10
Resident Evil:  Afterlife

9/14
Letters to Juliet
McCabe & Mrs. Miller

9/17
High Noon

9/19
Machine Gun McCain

9/23
Behind Convent Walls

9/25
Dracula 2000

9/27
M. Butterfly

9/28
Frozen

9/30
House of the Wolf Man

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

House of the Wolf Man (2009, Eben McGarr)

Starting the October horror festivities is a brand new throwback horror film, House of the Wolf Man.  Made to look like it was filmed in the golden age of the Universal Monsters (as the poster above shows), this film instantly became a must see for me after reading a little write up on the film and seeing a picture of the Wolf Man makeup effects.  The film just looked like a lot of fun.

House of the Wolf Man has a familiar story to the haunted house movies of yore.  Five people, seemingly chosen at random,  are invited to the castle of Dr. Bela Reinhardt (Ron Chaney, great grandson of Lon Chaney Jr.).  The purpose is to select a person to inherit his castle (which is strange because he doesn't seem to be dying or even that old).  As in every film of this type, it is obvious that these five people were not just chosen randomly and the eccentric Dr. also has some sinister plan.

House of the Wolf Man started out a little slow but it did a great job of replicating those old haunted house/Universal monster movies.  The acting was good (except Chaney who was obviously chosen because of his heritage and not his thespian skills) and the story was a fun homage with its tongue planted firmly in cheek.  One actress I particularly liked was Cheryl Rodes who played the mysterious, raven-haired Elmira Cray.  She looked just like Christina Applegate if she were a Suicide Girl and was definitely the stand out in the cast.  Really though, the best part of the film is the last 15 minutes when the monsters are finally revealed and viewers are treated to one of the best fight scenes ever featuring Wolf Man and Frankenstein's Monster.  I mean, these guys throw each other through walls and leap off chandeliers.  It was something you have to see to believe.  Overall, the first half of the film could have had a little more action but the last half easily made up for it.


RATING:  7/10

October is here...and you know what that means!!!

Greetings readers.  Some of you might have noticed that I have not put up a review in a while.  That has ended.  Get ready for a month long of steady reviews for some fun, exciting scary, silly and gory films perfect for the best season of all...HALLOWEEN!

First up is a new film destined to become a classic among old horror movie lovers.   What could it be?  Stay tuned....