A Howling in the Woods Movie Review

A Howling in the Woods is a 1971 thriller directed by Daniel Petrie and starring Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Vera Miles.

A woman called Liza(Eden) is taking a break from her husband Eddie(Hagman) by going for a break to the town of Stainesville. She drives into the town where she grew up, but there is hostile welcome for her. A man called Mr. Henshaw(Ford Rainey) appears and she talks to him. His son Lonnie is there also. She doesn't really like him. She goes to see her stepmother, Rose(Miles). She discovers that her father has gone away and she can't reach him. Liza wants to divorce Eddie(Hagman), her husband. She discovers that the maid is rude to her and doesn't seem to want her there either. Rose has a son called Justin(John Rubenstein) and he is living with her. Liza asks him why the locals are behaving so hostile. Justin tells her that they are bitter because of the local mine shutting down. They lost their jobs and they blame the family for that.

Justin keeps an eye on Liza. Rose isn't too happy about it. Liza hears a howling in the woods at night. Eddie calls her and tells her he wants her back but she tells him she wants a divorce. Eddie is upset. Liza meets a local who is trying to shoot a dog which is wandering in the woods. Liza meets a little girl called Betsy Ann. She tells her that her mother doesn't want Liza there. Betsy tells her about her cousin Melanie who drowned. It's all very mysterious. The locals chat about Liza. A local girl called Sally(Tyne Daly) wants to see Liza. Her brother Lonnie tells her not to talk to Liza. Rose tells Liza that the little girl was just telling stories. When Liza sees her the next time, she won't talk to her. She has a bruise on her face. Liza hears the howling once again and she goes to the local store to look for some scraps of meat to feed the dog. She talks to it and gives it some food. It goes off crying. She follows it and it leads her to a grave. She tells the Sheriff, Henshaw.

Henshaw tells her that there was just a deer in the grave. Liza worries abiut her father. She isn't able to contact him and she thinks that something is wrong. She is going to go and visit him. Rose types out a message from Liza's father and arranges to have it delivered. Eddie arrives in town. Liza tells him what is going on. Justin is jealous of Eddie. He wants Liza. He is sleeping with his so called mother, Rose.

Eddie tries to get Liza to change her mind, but she won't. He decides to leave. Rose is getting worried that Liza will discover the truth. Sally asks Liza to come and see her. Eddie decides that he won't leave as she thinks something odd is going on. Sally tells Liza she wants to leave town. She shows her an annymous letter which says that a man in a green car killed Melanie. She tells Liza that the only man they knew with a green car was Mr. Spangler. He also had a dog. He came to town every so often.

She showed the letter to her father, Henshaw and the townsfolk took the law into their own hands.

They killed Spangler.

The town covered it up and then discovered that Spangler was innocent as he was somewhere else when Melanie died. The dog has been in the woods crying for his owner. The locals kill him. Liza wants to know who sent the letter. Eddie meets Liza and tells her that he thinks Rose wants her out. Eddie hears Justin and Rose arguing. Liza visits Sally again and she gives her the money to leave and get away from the town. Liza and Sally find a broken doll that Melanie had with her when she died. Liza says that the dolls was hers. She looks around in her father's basement and she is followed by Justin. She is afraid of him. She finds a part of Melanie's doll and she realises that Justin is the killer.  Justin attacks her. They struggle. There is a fight. Rose has a gun and she stops him from killing Liza. She confesses that she and Justin killed the dad.Justin killed Melanie. Rose doesn't want any more killing. She shoots Justin. Eddie arrives and he stops Rose from taking her own life. Rose is the one who sent the note about Spangler. He was a bad man. The police come and Eddie leaves. Liza decides to follow him and they get back together.

This is a fun film. I can't hek=lp but think of I Dream of Jeannie as Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman starred in that together also. They both do a good job here and it is an enjoyable TV movie. It is quite tame so don't expect blood or scares. All in all, you could do a lot worse than this film. I recommend it. I will give it a 5/10.

Horror on Snape Island Movie Review

Trailer here.

Horror on Snape Island or Tower of Evil is a 1972 horror movie directed by Jim O'Connolly and starring Jill Haworth, Anna Palk, Bryant Haliday and William Lucas.

The film begins with two men coming to an island. They discover a dead body. They look around and find more bodies. A girl is there and she is hysterical. She stabs one of the men. The other man survives. She is taken to an asylum. Superintendent Hawk(Lucas) comes to see her but she is catatonic. Dr. Simpson(Anthony Valentine) hypnotises her. He wants to find out what happened to her. He brings her back to her arrival on the island. A man called Mr. Bakewell(Dennis Price) organises an expedition to the island to find treasure and artifacts. The archaeologists are Rose(Jill Haworth), Nora(Anna Palk), Dan(Derek Fowlds), Adam(Mark Edwards),Gary(John Hamill), Des(Robin Askwith), Brom(Gary Hamilton) and Dr Simpson. A man called Evan(Haliday) is also going to the island to find out about the girl's story. Evan talks to a fisherman called Hamp(Jack Watson) who will take them to the island. 

Hamp's brother and sister in law lived on the island. They had a baby but it died on the island. The group looks around the island. Des is the first to meet a bad end, followed by another girl. Gary gets it next. They realise that someone else is on the island. Nora sees something later and she screams and faints. It's a body. The others come and find her. Their radio gets wrecked and their boat is destroyed. Hamp talks to Adam. The corpse is Martha. She died six months ago. Hamp says that Saul was mad but he wouldn't kill anyone. The others think that he is in the caves. Hamp says that he only saw Martha when he dropped off supplies. The men search the caves.  Hemp tells Brom that there is gold in the caves and Saul knows where it is. Rose hears noises. She looks around and she sees a man. Nora is confronted by Saul and he throws her off the lighthouse.

Adam, Rose and Dan are going to blow up the rocks to find the caves. Evan is in there too. He finds statues.  Brom sees a statue too. He is looking for the gold. He takes stuff from the caves but he ends up dead when Saul catches him.  Evan finds the maniac and he shoots at him. The others show up and they hear the shot. Saul shows up and he kills Dan. Evan shoots him dead. Evan has a boat hidden on the island. Hamp is stabbed by Saul and Martha's son, Michael, who survived. Michael is after Rose. She manages to set him alight. Everything burns as the survivors escape. The tower explodes. 

I liked this film. It was fun. These 70's horror films are always entertaining. There is an impressive cast in this. The story was interesting and I liked the ending. I would recommend this one. It has enough to keep you watching until the end. I will give it a 6/10.

Fear City Movie Review

Trailer here.

Fear City is a 1984 thriller directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams and Melanie Griffith.

Matt(Berenger) and his friend Nicky(Jack Scalia) run a stripper management company together. Someone is on the streets attacking strippers. They go to hospital to see the latest victim. She tells them what happened. The attacker cut off her fingers. Matt was a boxer and he accidentaly killed his opponent in the ring. He has been haunted by that ever since. He is at a strip club with  a cop called Wheeler(Williams) comes in. He is investigating the stripper attack. He asks Matt about it. A stripper called Loretta(Griffith) is Matt's ex girlfriend. He is keeping an eye on her. Another stripper gets attacked and she gets cut. The psycho writes down his attacks. Wheeler talks to Matt again. Loretta is very upset about it. Nicky wants to go out and find the guy. Matt talks to a rival agency and he asks the guy if he is in on it but he isn't.

Wheeler tries to figure out why the person is attacking these women. Matt and Loretta have sex. Another girl gets attacked and this time, she dies. The two agencies come to an agreement. They are going to get the killer. Nicky sees a man in a strip club with a knife in his pocket. He and the club owner get the guy alone and they beat him up before they realise he isn't the one. Matt goes to see Loretta but she is on drugs, unable to cope with everything. Another girl gets attacked and killed. Matt is angry because none of the girls are showing up for work. All the clubs are losing customers. Nicky's girlfriend is almost attacked by the killer. He beats Nicky up. Wheeler takes Matt into custody. He beats him up. Nick is in hospital. Matt gets bail and goes to see his pal.

Matt goes to see a mob boss, Carmine and asks his advice. Carmine tells him to take of the guy himself. Matt gets ready. He combs the streets. Loretta is in a bad way and she goes out alone looking for her dealer. She finds the dealer dead. The killer stabs her in the leg. She maces him and runs. Matt shows up and he and the killer fight. Matt beats him so badly, the guy dies. The police show up as Loretta called them. Wheeler lets Matt go as he has done them a favour in catching the killer. 

This film is good. I liked the cast. Everyone was good in their parts. There are some decent scenes and I like the story. Berenger is good as the boxer turned stripper manager. Williams plays his part well, as does Griffith. I recommend this one. It is well worth your time. I will give it a 5/10.

Slash Dance Movie Review

Trailer here.

Slash Dance is a 1989 horror movie directed by James Shyman and starring Cindy Ferda.

The film begins with a girl called Alice who is supposed to audition for a part. She looks around but there is nobody there. She searches for someone and a killer emerges and murders her. Cut to a cop called Tori(Ferda). She works undercover. The Captain isn't impressed with her work. Her partner is called Jeff and he likes her. She beats up two men in a ridiculous scene where she is dressed as a bag lady.  We discover that her sister, Janet, died of an overdose. A drug dealer is responsible so she shot him. Another women shows up for an audition and she goes the same way as the previous girl.

A weirdo called Amos(J. Buzz Von Ornsteiner) works at a local theatre. He frightens the girls who come to audition .Tori is assigned to the case. She will go undercover and audition for a show in the theatre. Two local women ask Tori to help them track down a girl called Alice. The Captain wants Tori taken off the case but Jeff tells him that she has already started. Tori goes to the theatre and she sees Amos. A famous director called Logan Bridger(James Carroll Jordan) is going to be directing the show. The stage manager is called Rupert. Tori is lucky enough to be chosen for the show. Jeff shows up and he tells her that the captain wants her off the case. She asks him to pretend that he can't get in contact with her. Logan also likes Tori. He asks her out. They kiss.

One of the other girls called Holly gets attacked. Tori asks Amos if he did it. He tells her it wasn't him. Amos finds a rubber knife in the prop department and he is going to use to play a trick .Unfortunately, someone replaces it and when he pretends to stab himself, he really does and he dies. The cops are called in. Amos' brother talks to the police. The previous owner of the theatre died under suspicious circumstances. He left the theatre to his son, but he died so now his other son Oliver has it, but he wants to close it. Tori finds that her gun is missing. The killer shows up and he is after Tori. The killer turns out to be Logan. He says that the man who owned the theatre in the past did awful things to him. He hung him as he wanted revenge. He kills Oliver. He tries to kill Tori but she throws a stiletto at him and manages to hit him perfectly on the head! He chases her and they have a struggle. She manages to hit him and kill him with a saw. The film ends with another girl coming for an audtion. I guess he wasn't dead.

This is a bad film. It could have been a lot better. The name was funny but the film didn't live up to it.

There wasn't a lot of good acting. The dialogue was terrible in parts.The story didn't even make a lot of sense and it just felt silly. I don't mind low budget but this was just too bad. I couldn't watch it again. I will give it a 3/10.