Update

Hey folks!

I've been trying to keep it a secret from most everyone online but I've been dealing with wrist issues for the past month or so. Because of that I find it tough to do my typical computer use schedule of writing, writing, and writing! I can write somewhat but not nearly as long as I would be able to normally.

As such, you've probably noticed I'm not updating this blog in my regular Mon/Wed/Fri thing right now. I'm not sure when that will resume but for now I'll just post things when possible. I'm still watching movies a great deal, just not as ready to jump on the keyboard and start clacking away.

Just letting you know where I've been and that I'm still enjoying horror (and other) films! :)

Cheerleader Autopsy

Year: 2003
Director: Stu Dodge
Writer: Stu Dodge
Genre: Horror: Comedy

Cheerleader Autopsy is not an exploitation flick, which is what I first thought when first coming across it. It does have to do with cheerleaders and autopsy but the main focus is the "humor" of death and morgues. If you have a hard time thinking of anything humorous about these things then maybe you should stay away from the film. If, however, you're looking for some extremely lowbrow, cheap laughs then go right ahead.

I enjoyed it. The movie knows completely it is a joke and runs right along with it. Sometimes horror comedy just doesn't work. Cheerleader Autopsy might be a big waste of time for you but for me it wasn't so bad. You've got a group of cheerleaders - The Beavers - and they're ready to go to some sort of big championship. Before they can get there however they manage to all get run over by their schoolbus. Whoops.

From here on the story shifts to the tale of the men in the morgue and how they ineptly handle their job. It almost makes me wonder if the director was a mortician because this seems like the kind of humor only they could come up with. That, or it's a bored young guy who has a screw loose. I suppose I'll never know.

I'd suggest probably going to check out other low budget horror comedies before this one. Stuff like Freak Out isn't so bad and seems to be made by actual horror fans.

Dolly Dearest

Year: 1992
Director: Maria Lease
Writer: Maria Lease
Genre: Horror: Evil dolls

I have a real love/hate relationship with evil doll/toy/dummy movies. For whatever reason, the idea of those inanimate objects coming to life really scares me - especially dummies. I think in the case of dummies it is their weird mouths. Anyway, so because of that it took me a really long time to ever watch these kinds of films. Child's Play, for example, took me years to sit down and watch (and then I loved it). Magic and other films I basically had left untouched until really deciding to deal with this.

Dolly Dearest is the story about a doll possessed by the spirit of a demonic child. This is fine and good but the movie itself fails because the doll has no real presence. It's not a witty, wisecracking thing but it isn't completely mute and terrifying either. It was at the start though, but then became increasingly silly as the film went on. When it started talking I basically lost it and couldn't take things serious anymore.

To say the movie is without merit though would be wrong. It tries to be something different. Minus the whole "possession of doll" thing it doesn't attempt to crib heavily off other films. The idea of a family moving to Mexico to run a factory manufacturing dolls makes sense, I guess. It certainly added a flavor you usually don't get in horror films too. Although of course it did have the trope of a religious and/or superstitious native of the region who knew something was up.

Overall it wasn't that great but it wasn't a nightmare either. If you're really in need of doll movies you could do worse than watching this. I guess that's a compliment!

Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil

Year: 1992
Director: Clay Borris
Writer: Richard Beattie
Genre: Horror: Thriller

I don't know what happened to Prom Night IV. While Prom Night 2 did sort of start up a new story, III at least continued it on. IV though reset itself once again and has only the slightest connection to any prom. In the first five minutes we see teens being teens at the prom. Two end up in the parking lot where a young priest stalks and kills them both before torching the car. So, we've got a crazed fanatic who killed people in a flashback - now said priest is locked up in some church somewhere.

It's of course as the film takes off that this long-dormant murder wakes up and stalks a new generation of young adults. The group appears to be college students though so there's no prom for them to visit ever. Why is this madman pursuing them then? I guess it really had nothing to do with a prom at all. So then why call this film PROM Night IV? Eh, we'll never know.

Just judging the film as a specific entity it doesn't do much new or different. It feels like a simple thriller. The characters are at least semi-interesting but there's very little to make this movie stand out against others. I'd suggest avoiding it, even if you're a fan of the previous movies. The correlation is extremely tiny at best, and at worst it's a completely different and dull little flick.

Prom Night III: The Last Kiss

Best cover ever? 

Year: 1990
Director: Ron Oliver, Peter R. Simpson
Writer: Ron Oliver
Genre: Horror: Comedy

Prom Night is one of my favorite 80s horror films. Even the sequel was a pretty fun film, although it wasn't really correlated much to the first. Prom Night III takes off at some point after 2 and brings back the Mary Lou Maloney character. Since she was one of my favorite things about the 2nd film this just made III even more entertaining.

In this film for some reason Mary Lou's spirit is disturbed. She awakens and finds herself smitten with a rather homely young teenager at her old school. She reveals herself to him and becomes a sort of succubus. She wishes to help this young man with all his high school problems, but in the process ends up killing a handful of people.

Prom Night III is one hundred percent a horror comedy. Normally, being confronted with the corpse of one of your teachers you might really freak out. But nope, instead of that Mary Lou just gets a verbal lashing. In a way, this film is almost completely a 80s comedy just with the addition of murders going on, and Mary Lou's creepy spirit.

While watching the film it felt so very much like a teenage dream - with a hint of nightmare. Because of this I really enjoyed it. The only way I've ever seen this film on DVD is in a double pack with Prom Night 4. Unfortunately the final Prom Night isn't nearly as goofball as this...

Madman

Year: 1982
Director: Joe Giannone
Writer: Joe Giannone
Genre: Horror: Slasher

I'm not sure what drew me to Madman but if you haven't seen it yet maybe you should put it on your list. Really, it depends how much of an interest in random serial killer movies you've got.

In the film you're taken to yet another summer camp. For some reason, it seems summer camps really draw in the killers. Anyway, the summer counselors are all having a great time around the campfire telling spooky stories. Someone shares a story about "Madman Marz", who, apparently will stalk everyone down if they shout his name. So of course one of the teens does exactly that.

From here everything progresses rather predictably. One by one the group is picked off by Marz because he was angered by their call. What I found most entertaining about the film is that it is so over the top at times. The acting can become super hammy and it almost feels like a parody of the slasher genre. However, in 1982 I doubt they were thinking "parody" so much as "let's make this really scary". I think the blissful stupidity of the film really works in its favor.

There are some interesting death scenes and a lot of goofy acting. If you're interested in either, but especially the latter, then totally give this movie a watch. If you're more interested in sophisticated slashers though then stay far away.

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever

Year: 2009
Director: Ti West
Writer: Joshua Malkin, Randy Pearlstein
Genre: Horror: Body horror

Cabin Fever was a movie I ignored time and time again. The "cabin" portion of it made me jump instantly to summer camp cabins and I wrote it off as a dull slasher. Of course, when I finally watched it realized what a fool I'd been. It is an excellent film and plenty disgusting too. Until recently I had no clue that there was a sequel. Practically as soon as this was discovered I got a hold of it and watched.

First off, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever might imply it's a sequel but it really isn't. Well, only in the vaguest of senses. It starts off where the last film left off... which is that the water is highly infected. The water continues down and gets sucked up and brought into town because nobody realizes they're pawning off contaminated water to people. Making contact with the water spreads the infection. From there, simple skin to skin contact will transmit it further.

So what makes this movie different? It isn't focused around a bunch of campers. Instead it is based in and around a high school. The way the characters interact and the things they go through are quite different from the characters of the first film. I'm not sure if I liked it more or less, but it was still a pretty great experience. It definitely retained the gross-out scares that we'd expect, even without Eli Roth at the helm.

If you give this a watch be ready for some seriously unexpected gross out moments. One in particularly completely caught me off guard. It's something I was anticipating throughout the film, but when it finally occurred... wow!