Bloodsuckers Movie Review 368

Bloodsuckers or Incense for the Damned is a 1970 British horror movie directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and starring Patrick Macnee, Patrick Mower and Peter Cushing.

The film revolves around a man called Richard(Mower) who is at Oxford. He goes over to Greece for some research and falls under the spell of a Greek woman called Chriseis. She has taken over his life and he is with her and her weird pals. Richard's friends Seymore, Bob and his girlfriend Penelope go over to Greece to see what has happened to him. They take along military attache Derek Longbow (Macnee). Penelope's father is Dr. Walter Goodrich(Cushing) and he is wondering what has happened to Richard also. The group go to where Richard was last seen and they discover that he is with this woman and her friends. Penelope is upset that Richard is with another woman. The Greek police/military want him out of the country as they want to avoid a scandal.

The gang search for Richard as he moves around with the band of weirdos. They find him in some old monastery. They get him away from Chriseis but she will be back. Richard wakes up but he is very weak.
He is not himself at all. He tells them that they are in danger.He tells them that one of them will die soon.
Penelope goes back home. Derek gets killed after seeing Chriseis. He falls from a cliff after following her.
She goes in to get Richard and fights with the other two men and dies. She has bitten Richard. They all go back home to the UK and try to find out what happened to Richard. Richard seems to recover and be himself again. He still hears Chriseis calling him. Dr. Goodrich wants Richard to marry Penelope but Richard isn't too sure. He doesn't seem to want her anymore.

The finale comes at a dinner in Oxford. Richard is going to give a speech. He gives some weird speech and surprises everyone. He runs off with Penelope and bites her. He runs off when he sees what he has done and Bob chases him. Richard jumps off of the roof to his death. Later we find out that their deaths are pronounced as suicide. Bob and the others have to put a stake through Richard and Penelope confirming that they were vampires. This film was an interesting one that I had never heard of . I enjoyed it. It was good fun and had a good cast. I recommend it for any lover of 1970's British horror. I will give a 5/10.

Lavalantula Movie Review 367

Lavalantula is a 2015 SyFy original monster movie directed by Mike Mendez and starring Steve Guttenberg,Nia Peeples,Michael Winslow and Marion Ramsey.
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So, the story begins in Los Angeles and with faded movie star Colton West(Guttenberg) .He is on the set of a movie but he falls out with the director played by Leigh Whannell.He is on his way home when there is some tremors which he thinks are from an earthquake.What he doesn't know is that the tremors are from volcanoes which are erupting and spewing out hot lava but in the lava are giant mutated spiders who breathe fire and kill everything in their path.Colt wants to get hone to his wife,Olivia (Peeples) and his son Wyatt(Noah Hunt). Wyatt is trapped in a warehouse with his two pals, one of who has been bitten by the spiders and another who was burned on the arm. They are trying to survive. Colt hijacks a sightseeing tour bus full of fans. He tells them what is happening, but they think that it just a movie stunt or something.

Leslie Easterbrook from the Police Academy movies makes a cameo as does Michael Winslow and Marion Ramsey as pals of Colt's from the movie set. There is a great scene where Guttenberg meets Ian Ziering and he asks him for help, but Ziering tells him that he has a shark problem. This is an obvious nod to Ziering's Sharknado movies which are great fun. Cole meets some weird and wacky characters as he tries to get to his family and they battle their way through the giant spiders. They meet a scientist who tells them that there is an underground network of lava tubes just like an insect nest and at the heart of it is the queen spider. She  has to be destroyed to stop the breeding of any more spiders. Colt and his pals have to smoke her out with nitrogen thrown into the tubes and they do smoke her out.

I am not a lover of spiders at all. In fact, I detest them. The queen spider is MASSIVE and it gave me the creeps even though you can see that it isn't real. Colt steps up and faces the queen and manages to throw a bomb into her mouth and blow her up.End of movie. This was really great fun. I really enjoyed it and it is great to see Guttenberg on screen again. I was a fan of him in the 1980's and he does a really good job hamming it up here. It is just a fun movie and you can relax and have a laugh and just enjoy the ride. I would recommend it. It is just pure B movie fun.These movies can come in for some harsh criticism and I say that I have seen some pretty crappy movies in my time and this isn't one of them. I will give it a 7/10 because I really liked it. Bring on the sequel!!!!

Something Evil Movie Review 366

Something Evil is a 1972 horror TV movie directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Sandy Dennis,Darren McGavin and Ralph Bellamy.

Paul Worden(McGavin) and his wife Marjorie(Dennis) decide to buy an old house that is for sale in the countryside. Marjorie falls in love with it and she persuades her husband to buy it. They have two children, Stevie(Johnny Whitaker) and little girl. The previous owner is a bit strange and he warns them that the house might not be suitable for them, but they go ahead. They notice that their neighbours are a little odd and that there are some strange customs. Marjorie hears a child crying at night and she investigates, but there is nothing there. She thinks that it must have been a dream. Paul is filming an advertisement at their home as he is a producer and there are loads of people around. Marjorie makes special charms for everyone to ward off evil. Two of the film crew get into a terrible car accident after leaving the house and they die.  Marjorie tells Paul about all of the weird happenings at the house but he is no interested in it.

Marjorie and Paul meet a neighbour called Harry Lincoln(Bellamy). He believes in the Devil and he talks to Marjorie about it. He shows her some protective pentagrams. Marjorie paints one of these protective pentagrams in the children's bedroom. She has a book and she reads out a special chant to ward off evil.
Marjorie tells Harry about the noises that she has heard. He wants to record her stories. She gets scared when things begin to  happen and she tells Paul that she wants to leave. He thinks that she has gone mad.
Paul tells her that he will sell the place if she wants. He talks to Harry about his wife and Harry agrees that they should move out.

Meanwhile Stevie is acting up. He is being very disruptive and naughty. Marjorie is losing her patience with him. Marjorie talks to Harry and tells him that she thinks that the Devil is in her house. Harry gets attacked in his house and is brought to hospital. Marjorie locks the children into their bedroom and tells them that she is sorry, but that she can't look after them anymore. She runs into the barn and climbs up to the loft to throw herself off but the previous owner shows up and stops her. He tells her that her son is possessed. They run to save him. Paul arrives home and they all go to the bedroom to save the children. Marjorie faces off with the evil son ans she brings him into the protective pentagram. She tells the evil that it will not get her son. She defeats the evil and they movie out. The movie ends with us wondering is the son really saved....

This was a decent enough horror movie. It isn't very scary but the story is somewhat interesting. I think that it worth a watch as it is very early Spielberg and it is an interesting tale. There isn't much in the way of scares really, but it will be a fun way to pass the time if you get a chance to watch it. I will give it a  5/10.

Stir of Echoes Movie Review 365

Stir of Echoes is a 1999 horror movie directed by David Koepp and starring Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Erbe.

Tom Witzky (Bacon) lives in Chicago with his wife, Maggie(Erbe) and their son Jake. He is at a party with his wife and her kooky sister,Lisa(Illeana Douglas) who is into all sorts of paranormal and supernatural stuff. 
Tom doesn't believe in any of that stuff and he tells her that she can hypnotise him.She does and she plants a suggestion to open his mind. When he wakes up, he feels a bit weird and he begins to see a young girl in visions. She turns out to be a girl called Samantha who was only 17 when she disappeared six months ago.
Coincidentally, the sister of the missing girl is their babysitter and she overhears their son Jake talking to her sister. She is very upset and she takes the boy with her to a train station where he mother works. Tom has a feeling that there is something wrong with Jake, so he goes home and finds him gone. He goes to the train station and there finds his son. The babysitter and her mother want to know how Jake knew her sister. Tom lies and says he doesn't know anything about it. He tells Maggie later that he has been seeing Samantha in visions.

Tom wants to know more about Samantha so he asks his pals Harry(Conor O'Farrell)and Frank(Kevin Dunn) and their sons Kurt and Adam about her, but they think that she was just a runaway. Tom is not so sure. Jake and his mother are strolling in the graveyard when they see a cop who tells them that he can see that Jake has a gift. He tells them that there is a meeting of people with the same gift and that he should come. Maggie goes instead and she meets the guy who tells her that her husband has been contacted by a spirit and that it wants something and if Tom doesn't do it, the spirit will not be happy. Tom begins to be haunted by Samantha who wants him to help her. He tries to get Lisa to reverse it all, but she can't. All that she can do is hypnotise him and the spirit tells him to dig which he does. He digs the backyard and the house looking for something. Maggie heads off to a funeral with her son and he is in the house alone. He digs up the basement and then he pulls down a wall and finds the dead body of Samantha wrapped in a plastic sheet.

Tom sees what happened to her in a vision. She was murdered by Kurt and Adam in a rape gone wrong.
They told Frank and Harry who covered it up. Tom gets Frank to come over and shows him. Frank is horrified. He has a gun and he tells Tom to leave him in the basement. When Tom hears a single shot, he assumes that Frank has killed himself. Harry and his son Kurt arrive at Tom's house to kill him. There is a fight and  Maggie reappears and they take her hostage.They are going to kill them when Frank appears and shoots Harry and Kurt dead. The film ends with Samantha walking away happy and free. She is buried by her family. Tom and his family move out of the house and head off into the sunset. Jake still hears voices from all of the spirits in the houses they pass..

This wasn't as bad movie. I liked the cast and the story was okay.It was an enjoyable watch and I will give it a 5/10.