Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Asylum Movie Review






Asylum is a 1972 horror movie directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Robert Powell, Peter Cushing,Charlotte Rampling and Britt Ekland.

The movie begins with a Dr. Martin(Powell) who is visiting an asylum for the insane for an interview
with Dr.Rutherford(Patrick Magee). He tells Martin that he has a request. He wants him to identity the former head of the asylum, Dr.B. Starr who is now an inmate as he went insane. He tells Martin that he can talk to the other inmates and determine which one is Starr.


Frozen Fear: 
Bonnie(Barbara Parkins) is having an affair with a man Walter(Richard Todd), who is married to a rich woman, Ruth(Sylvia Sims). She believes in voodoo and she has a magic charm to protect her from evil. She won't give Walter a divorce. She says that she will never let him go. He tells  her that he has a present for her in the basement. He has bought her a freezer. He kills her and he cuts her up and puts the pieces in the new freezer. He throws her bracelet in with her. Walter and Bonnie are going to leave together. Bonnie tells him that they will have to dispose of Ruth on the way. Walter hears footsteps dragging up the basement stairs. Ruth's head ends up rolling around on the floor. Walter finds the freezer open. A hand comes out and strangles him. Bonnie comes over and finds him dead in the freezer. She sees Ruth's head. The body parts come alive and crawl towards her. She tells Martin that it was real. He thinks that she is crazy.


The Weird Tailor:
The next patient is called Bruno(Barry Morse). He was a tailor. He is short of money until a man called Mr. Smith(Peter Cushing) comes in looking for a suit. He has his own material. He needs it for his son. He tells Bruno that he will collect it and that he is to follow his instructions exactly. Bruno makes the suit. He goes to deliver it. He is invited into the house and he tells Mr Smith that he needs payment. Mr Smith says that he has no money at the moment but that he will be coming into it soon.
Bruno sees the son dead in a coffin. There is a fight and Bruno shoots Smith by mistake and he goes home to his wife and tells her to burn the suit. She puts in on a mannequin. It comes to life and it tries to kill Bruno.


Lucy Comes to Stay:
Next patient is Barbara(Charlotte Rampling). She thinks that Martin is a lawyer. She tells him that she is not ill. The story begins with Barbara and her brother George(James Villiers) who are going back to a house. George has hired a nurse,Miss Higgins(Megs Jenkins) to look after Barbara. The nurse gives her a sedative but Barbara doesn't want it. The nurse has to go when she gets a phone call. Barbara is alone in the house. Her friend Lucy(Britt Ekland) shows up and she tells her that she called the nurse on the phone to get her out of the house. Lucy tells her that the nurse is her guard to keep her inside the house. She tells her that her brother George is trying to put her away so that he can have the house for himself. George comes back and he finds Barbara asleep. The nurse calls George and tells him that she will be back soon. Someone spikes his tea and he falls asleep. Lucy tells Barbara that it is time to go. She cuts the phone line. Lucy is mad when Barbara takes her pills and she goes. George is dead. The nurse comes back and Lucy kills her. It turns out that Lucy is Barbara and that she did it all herself.


Mannikins of Horror:
The last patient is called Byron(Herbert Lom). He says that he is a doctor. He makes models of his colleagues. He says that they are alive. He is making a model of himself too. Martin is disgusted with the place. Byron looks at his model and it comes alive. It heads out of the door when the orderly opens it. Rutherford asks Martin who the person is. Martin won't choose. The model comes into the room and he stabs Rutherford with a scalpel. Martin grabs the model and stands on it. Byron is dead. Martin realises that the orderly is Starr. He strangles Martin. He is completely mad. The movie ends with a man calling to the asylum for a job interview. Starr invites him in.


This is really entertaining and it has a great cast. I love these anthologies and this one is great fun.
The stories are fun and the whole movie was very enjoyable from start to finish. I had always meant to watch this movie and I am glad that I finally did. It is a fine example of 1970's horror made well.
Robert Powell was good as Dr. Martin and the twist at the end was pretty obvious, but I liked it all the same. I would recommend this. It is well worth a watch. I will give it a 7/10.


Saturday, August 26, 2017

Martin Movie Review





Martin is a 1978 horror movie directed by George A. Romero and starring John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel and Tom Savini.


The movie begins on a train. A young man called Martin(Amplas) has his eye on a woman who is also on the train. He breaks into her cabin and he attacks her. He has a needle and syringe filled with some liquid to knock her out. He tells her not to scream and that he wants her to sleep. He takes off her clothes and he cuts her wrist and drinks her blood. Afterwards, he cleans everything up and gets off the train. He is met by a man called Tateh Cuda(Maazel) who takes him to his house. The man says that he will save his soul. There are religious icons everywhere in the house. Martin is told to stay in the house and not to take people from the city.  He also is told not to talk to cousin Christina who also lives in the house.


Martin has flashbacks where he was called a vampire. Martin meets Christina and he can't speak to her. She tries to be nice to him. He shows her a magic trick and this breaks the ice. Her boyfriend, Arthur(Savini) comes to the house but they do not get along well. Tateh sets up a trap so he can hear Martin coming and going. Martin starts work at Tateh's store and he becomes friends with one of the customers who is a lonely woman. She wants to hire him to do some work for her. Christina fights with Tateh over his treatment of Martin. Martin sees a woman and he follows her. He calls to her house, pretending that he is deaf and asks for money. That night, he crawls up the wall and looks at her and her lover.


He sneaks into the house and attacks both of them. He has flashbacks to some other time and place.
He calls in to a radio show and calls himself The Count. He talks to the guy and tells him about being a vampire. He has sex with the lonely woman. Martin scares Tateh by dressing up as a vampire.  Christina leaves the house and Martin is sad.He becomes desperate for blood so he kills a hobo.
He is chased by the cops when he enters a gang's place. There is a shootout between the gang and the cops and Martin escapes. He calls into the radio show again. He discovers that his lonely lover has killed herself. The movie ends with Tateh staking him through the heart because he thinks that Martin killed her. He is buried in the garden and Tateh places a crucifix on his grave. Everyone on the radio wonders where The Count has gone.

This was a very good movie. I liked the lead actor and he played the part well.It is an odd movie in that you are left wondering what the real story is. Is he really a vampire or does he just think that he is?Are his visions real or are they just hallucinations? I wasn't too sure, to be honest. That was very interesting. This movie was recommended to me and I am glad that I watched it as it was very entertaining and I enjoyed the story a lot. I would certainly recommend it to any horror movie lover. I will give it a 7/10.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Puppet Master 4 Movie Review






Puppet Master 4 is a 1993 horror movie and the fourth movie in the Puppet Master series. It is directed by Jeff Burr and starring Guy Rolfe,Gordon Currie and Teresa Hill.


The movie begins at Biotech Industries. A man comes in with a case. It is a delivery for a Dr. Piper.
She is working on a robot project. She looks into the case. There is a puppet in it. The puppet comes to life and attacks her. Some weird creatures look on from Hell and their leader, Sutekh is sending the puppets called Totems to kill those who are working on the robot project as they are going to discover Toulon's secret. They kill another doctor. A young man called Rick(Currie) is working with Biotech Industries. He is a researcher and he is also taking care of the Bodega Bay Inn. Rick has been working on robotics too. His pals, Suzie, Lauren(Hill) and Cameron come to visit him.


Cameron is also working for Biotech. Lauren finds Blade and brings him out. She is psychic and she freaks out. She tells Rick to stay away from the trunk that the rest of the puppets are in. The friends open the trunk and they see the puppets. They find all of his stuff too. They find his diary and they read all about his secret. Pinhead, Tunneler, Six Shooter are in the trunk. The friends find the elixir and they realise that it reanimates the puppets. Rick injects them and they come alive. Sutekh sees this and he dispatches his totems to kill them all. Rick plays games with the puppets. Lauren and Cameron get a Ouija board out. Lauren feels a bad spirit. Cameron wants to find Toulon's formula. The totems arrive at the inn.


Lauren warns them that something bad is coming. Cameron is going to leave when he gets attacked by one of the totems. Rick and Suzie find the box that the totem was  in. Rick finds Cameron dead and he gets attacked by another  totem. Blade fights with it and Pinhead joins in. Tunneler kills it.
The puppets bring out another super puppet, Decapitron. They use electricity from a lightening storm to reanimate the puppet. Toulon appears and tells Rick about the formula. Two of the totems are dead but there is one left roaming the hotel. It attacks Lauren. Suzie intervenes and it tries to attack her. Rick has to reanimate Decapitron once again and it defeats the last totem. Toulon appears and he tells Rick that he has been chosen to be the new puppet master.


This was great fun. It was another decent sequel and I had a good time watching it. I liked the puppets as usual and the new one Decapitron was good. I liked the story and I was entertained throughout this film. I recommend it f you like the Puppet Master series. It is definitely worth a look.
It is a good sequel. I will give it a 6/10.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Trauma Movie Review



   
Trauma is a 1993 horror movie directed by Dario Argento and starring Asia Argento, Christoper Rydell, Piper Laurie and Frederic Forrest.


The movie begins with a murder. A woman is killed with a machine that can decapitate people. Cut to a young woman called Aura(Argento) who is standing on a bridge and looks as if she will jump. A man called David(Rydell) tries to help her and he stops her. He takes her for coffee and he asks her about herself. She gets irritated by his questions and runs outside. She is grabbed by two men who want to take her back to some clinic. David finds out where she has gone. Aura is brought back to her mother, Adriana Petrescu(Laurie). Her parents want to send her back to the clinic where she was being treated for anorexia. Aura is locked into her bedroom by her father. A lot of people show up at the house. Adriana is performing a seance. She contacts a spirit who is a victim of the killer. The person knows who the killer is and says that the killer is present. Everyone panics.


Aura sees her parents running off into the night. She climbs out of the window onto the roof. She finds her parents dead. She sees the killer who is holding the heads. A man from the Farraday clinic comes for Aura. David works at a newspaper and he is following the case of the killer who has been nicknamed The Head Hunter. Aura meets David again and they talk. He takes her back to her parents house. They look around the house. Someone is there and they smash his car window and run off. Dr Judd(Forrest) is at the Farraday clinic and he gets a call about Aura. He wants her back in the clinic.
Aura is staying with David. She disappears after she has a nightmare about her father's death. David finds her and they kiss. Aura gets taken back to the clinic. Dr Judd talks to her. He wants to give her something to make her remember the killer. He gives it to her and she hallucinates. She gets very upset. They tie her down and drug her. The killer is there. He is looking for her. David shows up and he wants to see Aura.


She manages to escape and David helps her. The killer murders a nurse. Aura and David find keys belonging to the nurse. They open a storage unit where  they find photographs of nurses. Some of them are dead. They find an address for one of the nurses who is still alive. They call her and she hangs up on them. They drive to see her. She sees them and flees to a hotel. She gets killed by the killer. David finds her before she dies and she utters the word Lloyd. He goes to the clinic and looks for a Dr. Lloyd. He talks to him and tries to get information, but he has nothing. He gets killed by the mysterious killer also. Dr> Judd attacks David. He gets chases by the cops and ends up crashing his car. He dies. They find severed heads in his car, suggesting that he is the killer.


David returns to his house to find that Anna had left. She leaves a note telling him that she is going to join her mother. He thinks that she has gone into the river. The case seems closed as the police believe that Judd was the killer. David thinks that he sees Aura. He is a mess. He sees her face at a window in a house and he goes inside. There is someone waiting for him. It is the killer. He is attacked. The killer is revealed to be Adrianna, Aura's mother. She faked her own death. She hits him. He wakes up with Aura in a cage. He is chained up. A kid from across the street has her decapitation machine. She goes mad with rage. She finds the kid hiding. The mother has some story about having a baby who was decapitated when he power went out in the hospital and that is why she was angry with the nurses and doctor and that is why she killed them. The kid uses her machine on her and kills her. The movie ends with the police coming and they find out who the killer is. David comforts Aura and they admit that they love each other.


I liked this film. There were plenty of twists and turns but it was interesting and the leads did their job well. I liked the cast and there is a lot to like about this film. It is decent and it kept me guessing until the end. I didn't know much about this when I sat down to watch it and I was pleasantly surprised. This has a good story and a decent amount of gore. Argento does very well here and I really enjoyed it. I am going to give it a 6/10.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers Movie Review






Halloween 4:The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 horror movie and the fourth movie in the Halloween series. It is directed by Dwight H. Little and starring Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris and Ellie Cornell.


The movie begins in a mental institution. Michael Myers is being transferred. He is ready to go. Two staff members from Smith's Grove put him into an ambulance. It turns out that he has a niece in Haddonfield. Michael wakes up and he kills the two staff members. Michael's niece is called Jamie(Harris) and she is unhappy and can't sleep. Her mother is dead. Michael is watching her. He tries to grab her. Her foster parent tell her it is just a dream. We are in Haddonfield, on Halloween.


A girl called Rachel(Cornell) is going to babysit Jamie. Dr Loomis(Pleasence) comes to the mental hospital and he is annoyed that Michael has been moved. He finds out that Michael has escaped. Dr. Loomis is going to look for Michael. Michael makes his first kill. Loomis stops for gas on the way and he finds the dead body. He knows that Michael is on his way home. He spots Michael and he asks him why now. He tells Michael to leave people in peace. Michael heads off. Cut to Jamie who is being teased about Michael Myers. She is getting a Halloween costume. She chooses a clown outfit which is similar to the one that Michael wore in the original Halloween movie. Jamie sees Michael in the store.


Rachel and Jamie are alone in the house on Halloween. Michael is there. Loomis goes looking for the Sheriff. The Sheriff isn't happy to see him. Loomis tells him that Michael is back and Jamie is in danger. Jamie and Rachel are out trick or treating. Rachel loses James. The Sheriff tells the locals to go home and shut their businesses down. The locals are worried. The Sheriff and Loomis go to the old Myers house but there is nobody there. Michael is wandering around killing a few more people.
He kills a man at the power plant and he knocks out the power in the town. Jamie is wandering around alone. She is lost. The locals decide to set up a posse and go and look for Myers.


Jamie and Rachel are worried about Myers. He gets into the house. He kills a friend of Rachel's. He wants Jamie. They climb up onto the roof and Michael follows them. Rachel sends Jamie down to the ground. Myers knocks Rachel off of the roof. Jamie gets down and Michael chases her. Dr. Loomis turns up and catches her. They go to the school. Michael turns up and attacks Loomis. Jamie is trapped and Michael comes for her. Rachel manages to to grab the fire extinguisher and sprays it at him. The locals arrive at the school. Rachel carries Jamie out of there. The locals decide to leave well enough alone. They take Jamie and Rachel with them. Michael turns up on the roof of their truck and he attacks the local men.


Rachel tries to throw him off the roof. Michael falls into the road but of course, he gets back up and  comes for them again. Rachel drives into Myers and he is hurt.The cops come and talk to Rachel and James goes over to Myers . He suddenly rises again. The cops shoot him and he falls into a well.Dr. Loomis is very happy that Myers has gone. Jamie goes home and she attacks her foster movie. Dr. Loomis is distraught. This was a pretty good movie. With these sequels, you know that the quality will not be great, but I enjoyed this all the same. I liked it despite its flaws and I would watch it again sometime. It is a middle of the road sequel, but I did like it nonetheless and I found it fun. If you like a by the numbers slasher movie, then you will find this worth your while. I will give it a 5/10.

Friday, August 4, 2017

Manhattan Baby Movie Review






Manhattan Baby is a 1982 horror movie directed by Lucio Fulci and Starring Christopher Connelly
and Brigitta Boccoli.


Professor George Hacker(Connelly) is in Egypt on holidays with his wife and daughter, Susie(Boccoli). Susie meets a mysterious woman in the desert who hands her an amulet. Her father is blinded when he goes into a forgotten tomb. They return home to New York where George has to
try and get through the days being blind. His wife tries to help him, but he is bitter over the whole thing. Susie has the amulet in her bedroom. She has a premonition and she sees the mysterious woman in her dreams. She is scared by the whole thing. She sees a blue light coming from the amulet and she is very scared by it. It comes from Susie's eyes also. She finds that she is able to control her brother, Tommy. She sees him walk through a doorway a disappear into thin air.


George hears something and he comes looking for his children. He finds Daddy Help Me written on the mirror. The blue light goes into the professor's eyes. He can see something. George goes to see his friend, Wiler, and tells him about the tomb and his eyesight returns.Wiler tells him about an ancient god who was evil and cruel. They look through his books and they see the symbol from the tomb. Susie and Tommy are playing a game with their Au pair, Jamie Lee. They are making her nervous.
A snake appears.  Jamie Lee calls Susie's mother to tell her that is going on. Her mother comes home with her friend, Luke. The children have locked themselves into their bedroom. Luke tries to help to open the door. He tries, but he gets zapped by something and he disappears. There is sand on the floor. The mother sees a scorpion. Jamie Lee sees a vision of the tomb and she screams. The mother looks for Luke. We see that he is in the desert, dead.


George looks at the sand in the room. The mother wants to call the cops but George doesn't. Wiler looks through his books and he finds the symbol from the tomb.Jamie Lee takes a Polaroid photo of the two children. Nothing shows up but the amulet. She throws it away but a woman picks it up and takes it and gives it to the mother with a name Marcato and an address on it too. Wiler discovers that the sand from the room came from Egypt. How can that be? Jamie Lee goes missing. The children say that she is on a voyage. Wiler researches the symbol and he gets bitten by a snake. Susie wakes up from her sleep screaming. She holds a picture of the tomb symbol. George wonders how she got it.
 George goes to see Marcato. They show him a picture of the symbol. He tells George and his wife that Susie is in danger. George thinks that he is a crazy person. Marcato tells them to ensure that she doesn't have the jewel. They go home and search for it. They find it. George discovers that Wiler has been killed.


Marcato goes to see Susie as she has fainted but he ends up bleeding and choking. He tells George that Susie is a prisoner of the jewel. It is using her for its evil deeds. The jewel can open the gate to space and time. They hold hands and end up in the desert. They have to take Susie to the hospital. The doctors can't figure out what Susie's illness is. Marcato looks into the jewel. Tommy is alone at home when Jamie Lee's dead body comes through the wall. Susie wakes up and blood pours out of her mouth. George goes to see Maracto. He says that now Susie is okay because he has taken the curse from her and put it onto himself. He gives the jewel to George and tells him to get rid of it.
 Marcato gets  killed when his stuffed birds come back to life and peck him to death. The movie ends with George throwing the jewel into the river. We see another girl in Egypt receiving the jewel from the same woman, starting it all up again.


This was an okay movie.  I didn't love it, I have to say. I liked parts of it, but on the whole, it wasn't brilliant. It was pretty entertaining, but if you look at some of Fulci's other work, this doesn't even come close to it. I found the movie a little dull in parts and it could be slightly confusing, with a lot of twists and turns. It was worth a look, though and there are some parts that are pretty good such as the bird pecking scene, so if  you are a Fulci fan, then you might enjoy this one. I will give it a 5/10.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Amityville: A New Generation Movie Review






Amityville:A New Generation is a 1993 horror movie sequel directed by John Murlowski and starring Ross Partridge, Julia Nickson, Lala Sloatman and David Naughton.

Keyes Terry(Partridge) is a photographer who is taking pictures on the street. He takes a photograph of a homeless man and he goes over to talk to him. He has a mirror with him and he gives it to Keyes as a present. His best friend is Suki(Nickson) and she wants Keyes to put on an art show in his apartment. Suki likes the mirror and she wants to borrow it. While she is out, her ex boyfriend comes around and lets himself into her place. He sees the mirror. He destroys some of her paintings and the mirror starts to glow. He sees his reflection in the mirror and it begins to change. He is cut by something and he ends up falling through the window and dying. There is a reflection of the Amityville house in the mirror.


The police come and Detective Clark(Terry O'Quinn) asks questions about what happened. Keyes has nightmares about the Amityville House. Suki is very upset over her ex dying. She looks into the mirror and she hears voices. Keyes' girlfriend, Llaanie (Sloatman) is worried about him. Suki begins to change. She paints some really dark and sinister paintings of demons. She comes on to her landlork, Dick(Naughton). Dick likes her and she tells him to look into the mirror. She kisses him but Detetctive Clark calls on her. He wants Suki and Keyes to sign his statement. Later on, Suki sees something in her apartment. The mirror is calling her and it makes her kill herself. Keyes has more nightmares about Amityville. He sees the mirror. Detective Clarke calls Keyes to identify the homeless guy and Keyes says that he will pay for his burial.


Dick goes into Suki's place. He finds her dead body. Keyes is very upset over the death of his friend.
He discovers that the homeless guy who gave him the mirror murdered his family in Amityville. He claimed that he was possessed. He went to a mental hospital and he was released. The man is called Franklin Bonner and Keyes goes to find out more about him. Franklin got the mirror from the Amityville house. Keyes imagines himself as Franklin and has a vision of himself and his mother.
Detective Clarke shows Keyes files about Franklin who turns out to be Keyes' dad. Keyes decides to get rid of the mirror(finally- I would have tossed it out of the window long before this!) but he has a sudden change of heart.


Keyes is acting weird. His pictures are not right. He is having nightmares about the Amityville killings. He is worried that he will turn out like his father and become a murderer. He is going to go ahead with his art show. The power goes out on the night. Dick sees Sukie who tells him that she is lonely. She comes over to him but then she changes into something horrible. Keyes looks at the mirror. He sees a light glowing inside it and he tells his dad to go to hell. His father calls him into the mirror. He gets pulled in. He ends up in the mental hospital where his dad was. He sees his dead friend and he sees his father. His father tells him that Amityville is in his blood. Detective Clarke is on his way to the show. Keyes gets ready for his show. He is supposed to have a fake gun and pretend to shoot his friends as a surprise for his guests, but he actually has a real gun. He relives the Amityville killings. His friends get worried. His father tries to make him kill them but he doesn't give in to it. He destroys the mirror and everything ends up well.


What can I say about these Amityville sequels? They are getting worse as I go along. This one had a mirror, so that makes a clock, a lamp and a mirror all from the Amityville house. There are a lot of objects being found from that house! The quality is declining which is normal with sequels but this one was pretty poor. The story was okay, but I didn't really think that there was anything scary in this.
The idea of the haunted object from the house has been done twice before. Once with a clock and again with a lamp.There was nothing special in this film. It was just about watchable. I wouldn't really recommend it if you are expecting something to do with the Amityville house. It is disappointing and not scary so be warned if you do decide to watch it. I will be kind and give it a 4/10.
Blog Widget by LinkWithin