Friday, June 30, 2023

Demonic Toys 2 Movie Review



Trailer here.

Demonic Toys 2 is a 2010 horror movie directed by William Butler. It is a sequel to the original Demonic Toys. It stars Alli Kinzel, Selene Luna and Lane Compton.

The films begins with someone putting the toys back together. The person manages to put Oopsie Daisy and Jack Attack. They are given to someone else for money. Cut to Dr. Lorca who has purchased the evil dolls. He is meeting an antiques expert, Mr. Butterfield(Leslie Jordan) and a student Cailtin(Kinzel) from the university, about a castle in Italy. He wants to look around the castle. The owners are going to give it to the Italian government as a museum. Lorca has his fiancée, Lauraline, with him.  She has her stepson, David(Compton) with her. There is also a psychic called Lilith(Luna). They go inside and see a toy that has been found. It is called Divoletto. Lilith sees awful sights when she touches the doll. They all have to stay overnight when their cars disappear. Divoletto lets itself out and it spots the other toys and brings them back to life.


Lauraline is having an affair with Lorca's helper, Eric. She is working with him to trick Lorca so she can get her hands on the doll. They are going to switch it and take the real one and go off together. Lilith wants to hold a séance. Of course, nothing bad ever happens when a séance is held in a creepy old castle! Eric gets killed as he tries to replace the doll. The other toys help Divoletto to kill him. Lilith realises that the doll has been switched. David and Caitlin explore the castle. Lilith sets up her séance and the castle starts to shake. A spirit is calling out. It is called Fiora and she enters Lilith. David and Caitlin are underneath the castle and they find an old exorcist journal. Butterfield meets the killer toys and dies. Caitlin reads the journal. An exorcist performed rituals on a lady who owned the castle.


Lilith talks and the toys listen. She tells Lorca that the doll is a replica. Oopsie Daisy attacks David. The toys kill Lauraline. The rest of the group runs away from the dolls, who are out to get them. Lorca wants all of the toys. He is angry because of the switched doll. David has survived his encounter and he punches Lorca. He and Cailtin run off. They meet Lilith and head for the dungeon. Lorca has lost his mind and he chases them with an axe. He gets attacked and dies at the hands of the toys. Lilith summons the spirit of Fiora and she fights the toys. David kills Divoletto. A devil creature comes to kill Lilith. David kills the toys. Lilith fights the creature and she sends it back to wherever it came from. It says it will return. David packs the remains of the evil toys into urns and leave them in the castle. There is something evil still there though, as they leave.


This is a weak film. The acting is bad and the film just wasn't very good. I did enjoy the toys and they were better that the rest of the cast. If you liked the other films, then maybe watch this for completion, but there isn't much here to entertain you. I found it so so and I wouldn't want to watch it again. I will give it a 4/10.

Friday, June 23, 2023

Open 24 Hours Movie Review




Trailer here.

Open 24 Hours is a 2018 thriller/horror directed by Padraig Reynolds and starring Vanessa Grasse.

A girl called Mary(Grasse) is applying for a job at a gas station. She was in prison for setting her boyfriend on fire. He was a serial killer and a lunatic. She gets the job and she has to work the night shift. She is having hallucinations. She thinks that she sees a figure watching her and it is James, her ex boyfriend. She tells her friend, Debbie, about it. Mary had to watch some of the murders and she is traumatised by it. She starts her shift and meets another employee called Bobby. He shows her what to do and everything. Someone attacks Debbie. Bobby goes off and Mary looks around the place. She thinks that she sees someone and she has a vision of James on fire. Bobby comes back and they chat. They get around to talking about James. She tells Bobby what happened. She found body parts in the basement and James threatened to kill her if she told anyone. She set the house on fire while he slept.


Bobby leaves but his truck breaks down on the way home. Mary gets a call. There is music on the line. It is the same music that James played down the phone to her when he was going to murder someone. Mary discovers Debbie's licence in the bathroom and the toilet overflows with blood. James appears and he tells her that people are going to die. A woman comes into the gas station and Mary thinks that she is the same woman who called her earlier in the evening. Debbie's car is outside and 'you like to watch' is written on it. Mary tries to call Bobby but he has left his phone at work. She suddenly sees Bobby and Debbie. They are tied up. The woman comes up to her with a picture of her daughter. She blames Mary for the murder of her daughter by James. She has a knife and she attacks Mary. Mary locks herself into the stockroom.


The woman breaks in and wants to kill Mary, who hits her with a bottle. Her parole officer, Tom, shows up and he shoots the woman. He tells Mary that James has escaped from prison. James appears and he hits Tom over the head. Then he goes to set her on fire. She wakes up and realises that it was just an hallucination. She is tied up with Debbie and Bobby and Tom. James kills him in gruesome fashion with a sledgehammer. He smothers Debbie. He is going to burn Bobby alive when someone turns up at the gas station. Mary gets free. Bobby tells her that there is a gun in one of the lockers. He tells her how to load it.  The customer calls the cops. A truck driver wanders in and James kills him.


Bobby gets the gun from Mary and they try to escape. The cops come. James kills Bobby. Mary tells the police that James is after her. James shoots the cop and Mary runs. She runs into a shack outside and finds a shovel. She hits James with it and runs back into the gas station. He is after her. She finds a deer's head with antlers and she impales him on it. He dies. She collapses and when she wakes up, he's gone. How could he have survived that???Cut to some time later and Mary is working in a hair salon. She thinks that she sees someone watching her. Is it the psycho ex boyfriend???


I enjoyed this film. I liked the premise and it was fun. It isn't the best film ever, but I found it entertaining. There isn't much originality here, but that doesn't matter. There is lots of blood in it and some tense scenes. I think that it is better than a lot of newer films that I have watched. I'm more into older films, but this one surprised me. It is an above average horror/ thriller and I definitely recommend it. I will give it a 5/10. 

Friday, June 16, 2023

Horror Hospital Movie Review


Trailer here.

Horror Hospital is a 1973 horror movie directed by Antony Balch and starring Michael Gough and Robin Askwith.

The film begins with two people running through the forest covered in blood. A car is following them. They both get killed by someone. A man called Jason(Askwith) wants to have a break. He sees an advertisement for a holiday. The company is called Hairy Holidays. He calls to their office to arrange it. He meets a man called Mr. Pollack(Dennis Price) who fills him in on the details. He gets the train down to the countryside. He meets a girl on the train called Judy(Vanessa Shaw). It just happens that she is also going to the same holiday home. The place is called Brittlehurst Manor. It is less holiday home and more health farm. There is a sinister person called Dr. Storm(Gough) who looks very strange indeed. He runs the place. He sends a man called Frederick to meet them. Judy meets Aunt Harris there. Her aunt doesn't want Judy there. Why??


There is something fishy going on in the manor. The other guests are odd. Aunt Harris tells Judy and Jason that the others have been working with Dr. Storm, but that they haven't been cured yet. Dr. Storm makes an appearance. He is also weird. Jason goes exploring and Judy follows. She runs into some of the other guests and she realises that there is something wrong with them. Two men come and take her away. Jason gets knocked out. Pollack shows up at the house. He has been working with Storm and he has been bringing him subjects for his experiments. Pollack ends up dead. Jason sees him being killed. He tells Frederick that he saw Pollack die. Storm talks to Jason and reveals his experiment. He uses hippies and he turns them into zombies. He has total control over them.


Jason escapes but he is caught again and locked up. Aunt Harris wants to take Judy and get out. She has had enough of Storm and his craziness. Another young person arrives at the manor. He is looking for his girlfriend. He is attacked and dragged inside. Aunt Harris is killed by some sort of creature. Frederick releases Jason and the other person. Dr. Storm finds them. He tells them that he worked for Stalin, but he got kicked out. He met Aunt Harris and she found him subjects for his experiments. Frederick gets locked up with Jason and the other person.  Storm is going to perform his experiment on Judy. Frederick climbs out the window and he released the two men but he gets killed. The two men go to get Judy. 
They destroy Storm's machines and beat up his guards. The place gets set on fire and they see that Storm is the creature. They chase him as he tries to escape and kill him. He falls into a swamp and sinks. His hand emerges from the swamp. Is he dead?


This film is an interesting watch. There are some comedic parts and it can't really be taken seriously. I did enjoy it, though. Gough is good as the crazy Dr. Storm. The rest of the cast are decent too. It is well worth a look if you enjoy 70's horror. It has enough to keep you entertained. I always enjoy these types of films. It's something about the cast and the time that they were made that make them fun. I will give this one a 5/10.

Sunday, June 11, 2023

The Last Matinee Movie Review


Trailer here.

The Last Matinee is a 2020 South American horror movie. It is directed by Maximiliano Contenti and stars Luciana Grasso in the lead role.

The film begins in Uruguay in 1993. A killer goes to the cinema. He is dressed all in black. A girl called Ana(Grasso) comes to the cinema looking for her father who is the projectionist. She tells him to go home and rest and that she will take his place for the evening. There are people coming in to see the movie. There is an old crazy guy, three teens, a couple, a boy and a girl. The killer takes the life of the old man in the cinema. Nobody seems to notice. He takes his eyeball. Cut to Mauricio, the security guard, who is annoying Ana. He doesn't last long, as the killer disposes of him and he closes the shutters of the cinema, locking all inside. Ana has locked the door of the projection office as she does not want to be disturbed. She is studying. Someone tries the door. It is the killer, but she thinks that it is Mauricio. This saves her life. The killer is making his way through the rest of the audience.


Ana looks for Mauricio but he isn't there. She sees blood. She also finds the boy who has sneaked in to see the film. He runs from her and she chases him. The killer claims
 another victim. Ana sees him. He is killing everyone in sight. One of the teens is called Angela and she has to fend off the killer with a fire extinguisher when he comes for her. She bumps into Ana and tells her what is happening. The killer is collecting the eyes of his victims. He sees the two girls and he comes after them. They run from him but he keeps coming. The kid is running too. Ana manages to stab the killer in the eye(LOT of eye related gore in this one!!) Ana calls the police. Ana, Angela and the boy lock themselves into the projection room.


The killer finds them and they have to run again. Angela doesn't escape from the killer this time and she ends up getting killed. The killer comes for Ana but she grabs a pole and kills him with it. The killer drops his jar of eyeballs and it smashes. His eye collection ends up on the floor. The boy watches the eyes. If you like eyeballs, then this film will be for you! They feature in this film a lot. There is also a nice poster of Dario Argento's Opera which I enjoyed. There is an eye scene in that film too. This is fun overall. There are some good scenes and some gore. The setting of the cinema appeals to me so I liked that. This film is in Spanish, so be prepared for that. I think that it is an entertaining horror film and it is nice to see something different once in a while. I will give it a 5/10. It is certainly worth a look if you can find it.