October Horror Movie Challenge: Day 6

I am beginning to realize that, despite thinking I'm not much of a slasher nut, that's basically all I've been watching as of late. How odd! Either way, the first film today was Humongous. Lately I've heard this movie getting praise so I decided to check it out. It was alright, but seemed to drag on for a while. This is weird particularly because the film is no longer than average so maybe there's just a fair bit of lulls in it.

I liked the introduction and was sad that the character wouldn't be a part of the cast later on. It seemed all very odd and mystical the way the pet dogs came to her aid, blah, blah, blah. I guess I was curious more how the "monster" of the film was pegged as being very near otherworldly in both power and look. Well, I guess you can't expect everything to be explained in horror films and that helps them quite often. It was an okay film overall but it doesn't seem worthy of praise over other slashers.

The Beyond was a pretty neat movie. I am not completely sure I understood what all was going on, but the basic premise came down to the fact that there is this hotel/apartment... and it's built on top of a doorway to Hell. This of course leads to a whole lot of problems for the new owner of the place as she tries to renovate it and get it ready for people to check in.

I really dug how weirdly dreamy it was at points so you weren't quite sure as to the authenticity of what was happening. There were just things that struck me as so odd, but entirely compelling. For example, a scene in the morgue: A young girl is waiting for her mother to finish dressing the father's corpse. However, even from sitting in the hall, she hears her mother yell. She hurries into the room only to see her mother's face boiling away thanks to a jar of some acidic substance that fell onto her. As her face melts away, it and the acid spread across the floor in an ever-expanding puddle. Instead of turning and leaving from the door she arrived in, the daughter simply stares at the wretched goo and tries to keep it from touching her as it continuously advances. It just felt very odd to me, especially when you had to wonder what caused the whole mess to begin with.

The movie is probably worth watching most for those who are Lucio Fulci fans. Personally, I watched it half in Italian and half in English. This was due to the fact that the subtitles playing stopped for some reason in the middle of the film. I then switched over to the English audio track to finish the film. It seems that the film was originally acted in English anyway, but I thought it would have been fun to try checking it out in aother language.

Although I wasn't really in the mood to watch anything else I checked out Mountaintop Motel Massacre. Maybe it was due to my lack of horror mood but it just wasn't entertaining. The story setup was fine though. Basically there was a woman and her daughter living alone together, but the mother had been in some mental institution years back. The daughter believed her mother to be slipping back to those ways so she tried to contact the dead father for advice. Stumbling upon the impromptu seance, the mother kills her daughter in a fury. After this, she is grief-stricken and just attempts to resume her life as a motel owner.

Of course, she can't go back to normal. Instead she hears the voice of her dead daughter calling out to her to kill people. So she does! I personally think it was kind of neat to see the fear on the mother's face when she knew what she was doing was wrong, but other than that, the characters weren't compelling. It also seemed to drag on.

Class of Nuke 'Em High

Year: 1986
Director: Richard W. Haines
Writer: Richard W. Haines, Mark Rudnitsky
Genre: Sci-Fi, Comedy

Is it sacrilegious of me to not like this movie? I feel like it's supposed to be a classic Troma centerpiece, but I just couldn't get into it very much at all. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I was tired. Or maybe it's just due to the fact that it's not very good.

Class of Nuke 'Em High starts us off in a small town which is right by a nuclear facility. Of course, something goes wrong there but they mostly don't seem to care about it. Water tainted with nuclear goo seeps into the local school and from there things get a little disgusting.

For a Troma film it's not all that gross. You've got weirdo teens screwing around with other oddballs but nobody is really that interesting or entertaining. The characters are all such caricatures but not in a way that I found appealing. There was a lot going on but I never cared for anyone so obviously didn't care when they came up on screen. But, when you don't like anyone in a movie then that means every seen is dull.

I still intend to watch the rest of the films in this series but I hope they pick up. This one seems a little close to The Toxic Avenger but without any real heart.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side

Year: 1986
Director: Brian Gibson
Writer: Michael Grais, Mark Victor
Genre: Horror: Haunting

Poltergeist is a classic modern horror film. While there are two more films in the canon, neither of them work out as well as the original. Because of that, it's hard to really judge Poltergeist II all on its own. It mostly stands as a "part 2" to the first, but the first movie never needed a second part.

In it, we see the family has moved to a new home. Things get stirred up almost immediately when some creepy old man makes contact with our young heroine. I don't recall him being anywhere in the original film so I feel like this was just a new way to bring the scariness to the film. Anyway, he's bad news and at least everyone recognizes him as such.

The movie feels kind of disjointed. Around the same time the creepy man appears there is also a wise Native American who comes to aid the family. His Native American heritage somehow makes him a very spirtiual man with knowledge the "white family" does not yet understand. Over the course of the film he teaches them and whatnot. It reminds me a lot of Walker Texas Ranger.

If you were a huge fan of the original movie I would not suggest watching Poltergeist II. There's really no need to (although there are a few wicked effects). However, I might recommend watching the 3rd film. I'll talk about that one next and to why it is a pretty good movie.

Spookies

Year: 1986
Director: Genie Joseph, Thomas Doran
Writer: Thomas Doran
Genre: Horror: Zombies

I came into Spookies with no real idea about what I was set to watch. As it turns out I probably should have done some research as it was a complete waste of my time.

This movie is extremely dull. The story is a little creative though. Basically, there is this monstrous spirit man who is haunting a mansion. He wants to bring back the woman he loved but to do that he requires sacrifices. So he lulls passerbys into the home and kills them off to get their souls for his beloved.

The people who get stuck in the mansion for the duration of the film are all different characters, but nothing really special. They basically are a group of stereotypes who don't have much going for them. Because they're all pretty dull it's not worrying when they begin to die off.

There is some good to Spookies however and that is the zombie and monster effects. They are rather creative and grotesque. Aside from that there's not much to congratulate the movie about so it's better to leave it be.

Critters

Year: 1986
Director: Stephen Herek
Writer: Stephen Herek, Domonic Muir
Genre: Horror: Comedy, monster

Critters is a distinctly 80s movie. That's probably the first thing I noticed. I got that feeling as soon as I saw the father walking around in a shirt parodying Ghostbusters and a moment where a "critter" went face to face with an E.T. doll. There's nothing wrong with the 80s of course and in this case it didn't really hurt the movie.

The movie itself is a pretty enjoyable ride. If you've seen and enjoyed Attack of the Killer Tomatoes this is probably right up your alley. In that one, the implausible killer tomatoes made everything absolutely hilarious. Here, the "critters" appear as weird little furry balls. They roll around like fuzzy tumbleweeds and devour everything they can. It seems funny to be scared of furry balls with mouths but that's part of the reason the whole thing is so enjoyable.

Each and every character realizes these monsters are ridiculous, but they respond in terror all the same. Wouldn't you, if you were faced with a furball launching itself at your brother or sister and taking a chunk out of them? The aliens themselves talk to each other occasionally and it's always for an extra laugh. I can expect that in the sequels the critters become more of a character instead of focusing on those being attacked by them.

I liked the movie. It's not very important in the canon of cinema but you could find worse things to do with an hour and a half.

Monster in the Closet

Year: 1986
Director: Bob Dahlin
Writer: Bob Dahlin
Genre: Horror: Monster

Upon starting this movie I thought it was going to be absolutely abysmal. The introduction to the film is supremely low budget and silly as all get out. However, if you can get past the first few minutes of the movie I think you'll find a decent monster flick.

The film focuses around a monster who inhabits closets. People who come near closets are typically the prey of the beast as closets are his "safe space". There isn't all together that much gore in the movie due to the fact that most killings go on off-screen (in the closet). Because of this it is the tamest Troma film I've seen. There's barely even any breasts on display either save for one appropriate shower scene. In the world of Troma this is probably the most kid friendly of their movies.

So what makes this move stand out? It realizes the idea of people being terrorized by closet monsters is hilarious so the film pokes a lot of fun at itself. The characters are also relatively well-defined and fit into their roles well. It must take quite a talent to shriek hysterically at a closet.

Overall the movie isn't especially fresh or anything, but if you have nothing better to do with your time it could be fun. This is one of those films that probably works best in a group viewing. Apparently there is a 2011 remake but I fail to see how that could in any way be a good thing. I expect it'd be like the Death Race remake which just killed all the soul of the original.

Deadly Friend

Year: 1986
Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Diana Henstell, Bruce Joel Rubin
Genre: Horror: Sci-fi

Deadly Friend is definitely a child of the 80s. That's the very first thing I thought as the movie started off with a boy and a large, friendly-looking robot buddy. The movie may verge on sci-fi for some important plot points, but  there's still a horror movie at the base of it. It feels more like a young teen horror flick than anything else, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth a watch. If for nothing else, it's worth watching to see a woman get her face smashed clean to bits after getting hit with a basketball.

Basically, the story revolves around a mother and son family who have moved into a new town. The teen is a genius and makes a robot that is able to learn and act of its own accord. Nothing could ever go wrong with that! Anyway, he makes friends with the neighbor girl. Boy likes girl, girl dies, boy puts robot brain into girl, girl comes back to life, girl-with-robot-brain goes on a killing spree... Same old, same old.

The theme of not being able to let someone go reminds me of the movie I watched earlier, Make-Out with Violence. It's handled differently obviously since she's not a zombie but a robot-brained girl. Either way, I found it fun. The sci-fi aspect doesn't make that much sense but if you just go with it you can enjoy the film. The ending in particular makes absolutely no sense. I think that Wes was forced to shove in an "exciting!" ending by others though, kind of like how he had to change the ending for the first Elm Street flick to satisfy others.

If you're watching the movie just because Wes Craven directed it you may be a little disappointed. A Nightmare on Elm Street this is not. For a movie that starts off with a cute babbling yellow robot though it's surprisingly enthralling.

Terrorvision

Year: 1986
Director: Ted Nicolaou
Writer: Ted Nicolaou
Genre: Horror: Slasher

Usually when I haven't heard anything about a horror movie that means there's not much great going on in it. With a name like Terrorvision I had supremely low hopes. However, as soon as I started watching I realized it was one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a good while.

Terrorvision plays out like a movie made in the 2000s mocking 80s culture. This is strange because it was made in the 80s and is strangely able to perfectly lampoon so much of the 80s. I don't know how it happened but it is excellent. Beyond that fact, the movie is just a huge romp.

It's a story of a family. The parents are swingers, at least they want to be. The kids are a cute little boy and a teenie bopper sister with a metal-loving boyfriend. The grandfather is an army vet and just a little bit off. They get some new satellite TV and get straight to enjoying it. Unfortunately, the satellite dish receives an alien transmission which beams a horrifying blob creature into their world. The blob monster is able to come out only when the TV is on (although it has a habit of turning the set on itself) and predictably eats people. What follows is a hilarious tale of an off-kilter family and how they handle an alien menace in their living room.

I really enjoyed the movie. It was so much better than I had thought. I especially loved that there was an Elvira knockoff known as Medusa. One of the silliest parts is when the Medusa show is about to go to break. The camera slowly zooms in on her before break however it zooms ever closer into her massive cleavage. Honestly, she was more impressive than Elvira. Anyway, it was a great time. I wholly recommend this movie.