Blue Monkey Movie Review

Trailer here.

Blue Monkey is a 1987 horror movie directed by William Fruet and starring Steve Railsback, Gwynyth Walsh,Susan Anspach, Don Lake and John Vernon.

An old lady called Marwella has an unusual plant in her greenhouse. It comes from an island somewhere. Her friend pricks himself on it. He feels weird afterwards and he collapses. His finger is infected. He is brought into hospital. The doctors look at it and they are baffled. The man spits out something odd. At the same time, Detective Jim Bishop(Railsback) arrives at he hospital with his partner, who has been shot. The insect pupa is put into a jar and taken to the lab so the doctors can look at it. They are going to call the institute for disease control for help. Dr. Judith Glass(Anspach) is interested in it and she cuts into the pupa. An insect emerges. Dr. Rachel Carson(Walsh) is looking at it also. She calls a friend of hers-Dr. Elliot Jacobs(Lake), to look at this new insect.

Everyone is in quarantine, including Jim, until they can discover what this insect is. The man who carried the insect suddenly gets worse and he dies. More of the patients are being infected. The sample taken from the hospital is analysed at the institute. They have never seen anything like it. They call the health department. Some kids who are wandering around the hospital go into the lab and they pour some sort of powder on the insect. The insect starts to grow and it kills some staff members. People are beginning to panic as the insect is on the prowl. It turns out that the powder the kids spilled on the insect was growth hormone. The police show up, along with the army. Roger Levering(Vernon) is the hospital director and he is not happy about this at all. 

The hospital is put under quarantine and nobody is leaving. The insect is killing people in the hospital. Dr. Jacobs, Jim and Rachel see the insect. It is gigantic. It looks as if the growth hormone has caused it to become a giant killer. It gives birth to another insect. Soon, it will be breeding all over the place and there will be giant insects roaming the corridors. Dr. Jacobs tells them that they need to kill the female to stop it breeding. They need to use fire.

They search for butane and they need to lure the male into another place and get at the female. They search for the female. The eggs are hatching already. They are chased by the male and the female is alone. Jim burns the female and the eggs. The male sees this and he is mad.

Jim is chased by it. Rachel wants to get into the laser lab and kill the thing. Jim shoots at it. He tries to lure it away from everyone else. He gets cornered. Rachel and Dr. Jacobs play a recording of the female's voice. They lure it into the laser lab and Rachel uses the laser on it. It doesn't work at first, but then they point it at the creature's eyes. It starts to die. Everyone survives, but of course, there are more eggs.

This was a fun creature feature. The idea of a huge insect running around a hospital killing people has to be fun! It's definitely entertaining and one to watch.I will give it a 5/10.

Day of the Reaper Movie Review

Trailer here.

Day of the Reaper is a 1984 horror movie directed by Tim Ritter and starring Cathy O' Hanlon, Todd Nolf and Patrick Foster.

This film begins with a man escaping from a mental institution. He wanders off into the woods. Jennifer(O' Hanlon) is talking about her friends being killed thirteen months ago. She says that the killer was caught but she is afraid he will come for her. She has nightmares about it. Some girls are on the beach. Their car breaks down and they go for a look around. Jennifer stops at a phone and she calls a detective. She tells him that she thinks the killer is after her. The detective Rosenberg, tells her that the killer is in prison. He is angry with her and he tells her that she is crazy and needs to see a shrink. He finds out that the killer has escaped. He is called the Reaper. 

Jennifer talks to Doctor Bloch(Foster) and he tells her that the killer is back.  The Reaper(Nolf) kills Rosenberg. The doctor wants to get rid of the Reaper and he wants to use Jennifer as bait. The doctor has trained someone to face the Reaper(what??). The person is dressed as the Reaper and they face off. He gets killed by the real Reaper. Dr. Bloch then kills the real Reaper and he cuts out his heart and eats it. This turns him into the new Reaper and he kills Jennifer.

Now, this is really low budget. This is not a decent movie at all. The whole thing is amateurish and the acting is dreadful. The story is bad etc. I understand that there isn't much money put into this and it is just a starting point for the director. So, just be aware of that if you decide to watch it. It wasn't for me, but I can cut it some slack because of the lack of money and experience. I am giving this 1/10.    

Of Unknown Origin Movie Review

Trailer here.

Of Unknown Origin is a 1983 horror movie directed by George P. Cosmatos and starring Peter Weller, Jennifer Dale and Lawrence Dane.

A man called Bart Hughes(Weller) is saying goodbye to his wife, Meg(Shannon Tweed) and his son Peter. They are going on holiday to her father's house. Bart is staying at home as he has a lot of work to get through. He is alone in their apartment. He hears noises. His dishwasher is broken and he calls a handyman, Clete(Louis Del Grande) who tells Bart that a rat could have damaged it. Bart sets some rat traps. One of his traps get mangled. He goes back to Clete for more advice. He arrives back from work one day to find that his mail has been shredded. He deides that he needs to upgrade his traps. The rat is watching him. Bart stars to research all about rats and becomes more and more obsessed with getting the rat.

Bart purchases some rat poison. He tells Clete that he found a rat in the toilet. He discovers baby rats so he realises that rat is female. Mother rat is watching him. She attacks him and the babies fall out of the box they are in. They end up in the sewer. Bart calls an exterminator. He also finds a cat and brings it into the apartment. By now, Bart has started to hallucinate about the rats. A rat attacks him in his bed and the poor cat meets a grisly end. Bart is falling apart at this stage and he cannot do his job. His assistant Lorrie(Dale) comes over to see him as they are close. She wonders what is going on with him. He tells her to leave.

The rat chews through the electrical wires. Bart has a baseball bat and he gos after it. It sttacks him. He gets away but all of his work papers have been shredded. Bart turns up at work dishevelled. His boss, Eliot(Dane)is not happy.He cuts him some slack though. Bart wants his wife and son to come home, but she won't come home yet. The rat chews through the phone line. Lorrie comes around to visit him but he tells her to leave him alone. Clete goes to see him and he finds Bart making his baseball bat into a weapon. Bart goes looking for the rat and finds it. It attacks him once again and this time he hits it. He kills it and looks around at his ruined apartment. His wife and son return and he has to explain to them what happened.

This was a good film. It is unusual and there is a lot to like about it. I liked the idea and it is creepy thinking about rats in your home.This really is about home invasion, but with rats instead of people.I recommend this and I will give it a 6/10.

Cry of the Banshee Movie Review

Trailer here.

Cry of the Banshee is a 1970 horror movie, directed by Gordon Hessler and starring Vincent Price, Hilary Dwyer, Essy Persson, Hugh Griffith, Patrick Mower, Elisabeth Bergner and Sally Geeson.

The film is set in England in the sixteenth century. A court has a young woman accused of witchcraft. Locals throw things at her. A local man tells the magistrate, Lord Edward Whitman(Price) that there is a creature killing his sheep. Lord Edward offers a reward for its head. Whitman is an evil man. A brother and sister are brought to him. They are peasants from the village. A howling is heard outside. They think that the two are marked by the devil and Edward stabs the boy. The girl is shot.Whitman's wife, Lady Patricia(Persson) is shocked and calls him a murderer. She says that their house is cursed. Edward's son, Sean(Stephan Chase) comes onto her and rapes her. Edward's other son, Harry(Carl Rigg) comes home from college. 

Maureen(Dwyer) is Whitman's daughter and she is having an affair with a servant called Roderick(Mower). Sean goes to the local inn and he tries it on with a serving wench, He and his pals accuse a girl of witchcraft. Maggie is her name. Sean wants to know about the local coven. He finds out that the leader is a women called Oona(Bergner). He rounds up a posse and they go to get the witches. Oona gets angry. Soldiers kill and capture more of the coven. Oona is spared but she is very angry and curses the Whitman family. She calls Roderick and she wants him to be her avenger. Sean gets killed after he hears howling and sees something menacing. Edward is upset. Oona is very happy. Edward thinks that it is some kind of mad dog. They see it and shoot at it.

Lady Patricia is not well. She knows that there is a curse on the family. The locals think that she is evil. Edward figures out that Oona is behind his son's death. He and his lackeys look for her. They torture her friends. Roderick kills Patricia. He is some sort of animal. The local priest and Harry look for Oona. Meanwhile. Edward discovers Roderick with his daughter and goes mad. He throws Roderick in the dungeon. Oona arrives at a tomb where Harry and the priest are waiting. They see her curse Maureen. Roderick breaks out of his prison. Maureen is looking for him. Roderick attacks her. The priest intervenes. Harry kills Oona. Maureen doesn't die. Edward is looking for Roderick. He is coming for Maureen. She lets him in. Edward tries to kill him. Roderick turns into the creature/banshee. Maureen shoots him and she and Edward leave with Harry. 

Edwards goes to see Roderick's grave, but the body is not there. Edward is horrified. He finds his son and daughter dead in the carriage. The carriage driver called Bully Boy is also dead. Roderick is in the seat now and he takes Edward and his two dead children off with him. This film was pretty good. It does have a Hammer feel about it. Price is good, as always, and it feels like he is taking some inspiration from his character in Witchfinder General here. I'm not complaining though. He does his job well and he is surrounded by a good cast. This is a lot of fun and it is well worth watching. I will give it a 6/10.