Sunday, October 15, 2023

Terror At Red Wolf Inn Movie Review


Trailer here.


Terror At Red Wolf Inn is a 1972 horror movie directed by Bud Townsend and starring Linda Gillen, John Neilson, Mary Jackson and Arthur Space.

A college girl called Regina(Gillen) wins a holiday at an inn called The Red Wolf Inn. She arrives there and meets a handsome young man called Baby John(Neilson). He seems a little odd. They arrive at the inn and Regina meets Evelyn(Jackson) and Henry(Space), They are Baby John's grandparents. There are two other girls staying there too. They are Pamela and Edwina. Regina wants to use the phone but it is out of order. Regina has weird dreams. She goes downstairs to get something and Baby John comes along with a big knife. She is scared. She decides that she likes him, though. The next day, Evelyn tells Regina that Pamela has left. Evelyn is weighing the girls. Regina looks around and she finds a little house. She goes inside and she finds Pamela's dress.


A party is held for Edwina. She is leaving tomorrow. Baby John wants to talk to Regina. He likes her.
He tells Evelyn that he wants her. Evelyn isn't so sure about it. Henry and Baby John knock out Edwina and they take her down to the refrigerator. They cut her body up. Regina discovers that Edwina has gone. She is starting to wonder what is going on. Regina calls her mother, but Evelyn cuts off the call. Regina tries to leave but she can't. Baby John takes her back to her room. Regina asks him about Edwina. He won't say anything.  A cop comes to the house, but he is related to Evelyn and her husband, so he is no help. Regina gets her hands on the keys to the freezer. She sees human body parts. She escapes the house and runs to the beach. She sees a boat and swims out to it.  Baby John sees her. She finds a house on the shore and she tries to get help, but it is deserted. Baby John catches her.


Evelyn and Henry come along and they all take her back to the house. Baby John doesn't want to kill Regina. He gets her and tells her that they need to leave. He leads her outside but they get caught. The dog attacks Regina and John kills it. Evelyn tries to stop him from leaving. He goes to comfort her and then Henry goes to kill Regina. The movie ends with Regina making food for Baby John. Evelyn and Henry are dead and Regina seems to be the new chef.


This film was okay. I don't think that it is a great film. The story was decent, but the execution was not.  I wanted to like it more than I did. It is a low budget affair and there are no big names in this. I found it middle of the road but it is worth a look for fans of 1970's horror. I will give it a 4/10.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

The Ghoul Movie Review




Trailer here.

The Ghoul is a 1975 horror film directed by Freddie Francis and starring Peter Cushing, John Hurt, Alexandra Bastedo and Veronica Carlson.

The film is set in the 1920's. A young woman called Daphne(Carlson) hears a voice calling for help. She sees a man who has hung himself. It is all a prank by her friends. They are having a party. Daphne has a boyfriend called Geoffrey(Ian McCulloch) and he wants to race his pal. They drive off into a fog. They get lost and run out of petrol. Daphne tells him to go and find some. She is left alone in the car. Someone is there, watching her. Daphne gets out of the car and goes looking for her boyfriend. A man comes alone and he asks her if he can help. She tells him no. She comes to a house but the man tells her not to go up there. He says that it is empty. She is spooked and runs up there. He hits her on the head with a rock.


Daphne wakes up in a shack. The man is there. His name is Tom(Hurt).He tells her that he didn't want her to go up to the house. She tries to escape and he chases her. She meets another man called Doctor Lawrence(Cushing). She tells him what happened. He offers her tea and a room to sleep in so she can recover. Tom is the gardener. Geoffrey's pal is stuck in his car. Tom decides to push it off a cliff. He just laughs. Dr. Lawrence tells Daphne about his life. He was in India. He was a priest. His wife and son were part of some odd religion. She wants to go, but he tells her that she has to wait until the fog lifts. There is a weird housekeeper called Ayah. That night, Daphne is killed by someone. The weird housekeeper cuts up her body. Dr. Lawrence seems to be in on it.


The police find Geoffrey's pal.  Geoffrey identifies the body. He wants to find Daphne. The police don't seem interested in finding her. He looks around while a friend, Angela(Bastedo) drives to the house. She almost crashes into Tom and she gets knocked out. She wakes up in his shack. Tom tells her that she isn't leaving. Geoffrey comes to the house and he enters. He gets caught by Dr. Lawrence. He finds one of Daphne's buttons and he knows that something is wrong. Lawrence lies and tells him that she got the bus. He also says that Angela probably did too. Geoffrey leaves, but he isn't happy. Tom tells Lawrence about Angela. She knows too much. Lawrence tells him to bring her up to the house. Angela fights against Tom.



Geoffrey hasn't left. He finds Tom's shack. He asks for help with his car. He also asks him some questions about Daphne. Tom won't answer. Geoffrey chases him. He falls into the marsh. Tom also falls in. Geoffrey gets out but Tom is stuck. Geoffrey asks him about Daphne and he confesses that there is a monster in the house and it needs to be fed. It eats human flesh. That is why Daphne was killed. Geoffrey confronts Lawrence. Lawrence breaks down and he says that the monster is his son. Geoffrey goes into the room where it is but gets killed by Ayah. Tom somehow survived being stuck in the marsh. He is after Angela. The monster is on the loose and it kills Tom after Angela bashes him with a statue. Lawrence shoots the monster and then himself as Angela escapes.


This is a decent film. Cushing is great in his part, as always. The story is good. It is a little light on horror, but that's okay. It is directed by Freddie Francis who gave us so many great films such as Paranoiac, The Evil of Frankenstein, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave and many more. The acting is pretty good overall. Hurt pays the part of the creepy gardener well and Cushing plays a villain with his usual flair. I recommend this to fans of Cushing and 70's film. I hadn't heard anything about this before I watched it. I don't ever see much about it so if you can find it, it is worth a watch. I will give it a 5/10.

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Funeral Home Movie Review




Trailer here.

Funeral Home is a 1980 horror movie directed by William Fruet and starring Kay Hawtrey, Lesleh Donaldson and Barry Morse.

Heather(Donaldson) is a young woman who arrives at her grandmother Maude's(Hawtrey) house to help her. Maude is converting her house, which was a funeral home, into a bed and breakfast. There is a weird guy called Billy(Stephen E. Miller) who lives there and works as a caretaker. A couple arrive at the house. They are called Mr. and Mrs. Browning. A man called Mr. Davis(Morse) is staying there too. Maude has someone locked away. The local cops are searching for a missing man. They ask Maude and she says that her husband disappeared too. Heather meets a local man called Rick(Dean Garbett). They like each other. Mrs. Browning tries to come on to Billy. She laughs at him. Maude discovers that Mr. and Mrs. Browning are not actually married. She is a religious woman and she wants them to leave.


They refuse to leave. That night to go for a quiet drive to a local quarry and they get killed. Rick and Heather go on a date. Heather discovers that the basement door is locked. She and Rick try to find a way in there. They get in and look around. Someone is there. They get out before Maude can catch them. She tells Heather not to go into the basement. Rick tells Heather that they used to go to the funeral home when they were kids and that her grandpa caught them and pushed them in there. There were dead people. Rick tells her that her grandpa was a mean man. Heather is at home when she hears noises coming from the basement. She sees Maude and she is talking to someone else. Maude knows that someone was watching. She comes looking for Heather, who pretends to be asleep.


Mr. Davis is looking for his wife who disappeared in the area. He knows that she came to Maude's. He asks Maude about it and she denies it. He talks to Billy about it. Heather overhears him. She tries to get back into the cellar. Mr. Davis is murdered. Someone buries him. Heather wonders where he went. The cops get a call from someone who is looking for Mr. Browning. A local girl sees the bodies in the lake.  This brings the cops to Maude's door.  Heather tells Rick that there
 is someone in the basement. Rick decides to look around. Billy wanders down there and gets killed.  Rick and Heather enter it and they find him. Maude appears and attacks Rick. She has gone insane. She tries to kill Heather too. The cops come and they find that Maude has had grandpa's corpse down in the basement. It turns out that she killed him and his girlfriend. Mr. Davis' wife was the girlfriend and when Maude discovered that her husband was having an affair, she killed them both. She also killed the missing people in the area. She is taken away.


This is an okay film. There were some good moments and some not so good ones. It is worth a look if you like 1980's slashers, but it is not one of the best. I found it okay but I wouldn't want to watch it again, really. I can think of better ones. I will give it a 4/10.

Saturday, July 15, 2023

Troll Movie Review



Trailer here.

Troll is a 2022 Norwegian monster movie directed by Roar Uthaug and starring Ine Marie Wilmann and Mads Sjogard Pettersen.

The film begins with a girl climbing a mountain with her dad. It is called the Troll Peaks. There are legends of trolls who were turned into stone. She sees the faces of the trolls in the mountains. Cut to the Atlantic coast, Norway. That same girl is older now and her name is Nora(Wilmann). She is working as a paleontologist. She and others have been called in to investigate the deaths of workers in the mountains. They were drilling into it and the whole thing exploded. Nora wonders what is going on. She is the one who thinks that something odd is happening. There are shapes in the ground that look like footprints. The others think that it is ludicrous. The prime minister is involved and he sends a soldier called Captain Holm(Pettersen) to help them.


Nora meets with some military personnel who have video footage of some sort of creature. It seems to be roaring. The  team can't believe that it is a creature. Nora tries to tell them that it is. She wants to find out. She is made into a scientific advisor. She and the prime minister's aide, Andreas, go to find clues.
They go to a house which was ripped apart and they ask what happened. The owners of the house say that they heard weird howling. What could it be? Andreas and Nora visit her father. He has gone crazy. He is obsessed with trolls. Nora tells him about their find. He believes that it is a female troll.
They see it finally. There is no denying that it exists now.


Nora, her father and Andreas talk to Captain Holm. They want to go with him to get the creature. The army gets ready to attack it. Everyone waits and the troll emerges. The army are ordered to fire on it. They can't hurt it. It gets very angry.  Nora's father tries to talk to it. He gets hurt and dies. The others come up with plan to destroy it. The troll shows up at a theme park. People panic and run. The army and Nora play bells through a loudspeaker. The troll hates the noise. News of the troll goes all over the world. The
 prime minister decides to use missiles to get it. Andreas resigns and he joins Nora to try and get at the truth. They find out that the royal palace is built over the home of the troll king who was slaughtered along with his family. The troll is trying to go back to its home to be with its ancestors. Nora's dad found out about this and he was discredited.


They realise that sunlight can kill the troll. They need to stop the missile. Andreas has a friend who he asks to help stop the missile. It works. Captain Holm helps too. Nora and Andreas get a skeleton of a dead troll and they take it. The troll follows. It is very angry. The missile is back online as Andreas's pal gets found out. The army distracts the troll with lights as it is after Nora. It is upset about seeing the skeleton and Nora realises this. She turns off the lights to try and save it, but the sun comes up and destroys it. Everyone is delighted but Nora and Andrea think that there might be more. They seem to be right as something is coming back to life in the original mountain.


This was a really fun film. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I liked the idea of the trolls being woken up after a long time and coming back to get revenge etc. It is very entertaining. If you like a good monster movie, then this will be right up your street. It's good to see these kind of movies are being made in countries other than the US. It might be in Norwegian, but subtitles are okay. Don't let that put you off. I recommend this one if you can find it. It is well worth your time. I will give it a 6/10.

Friday, July 7, 2023

Havenhurst Movie Review



Trailer here.

Havenhurst is a 2016 horror movie directed by Andrew C. Erin and starring Julie Benz, Fionnula Flanagan and Danielle Harris.

The film begins with a girl Danielle(Harris) who is with her boyfriend in an apartment in New York. He gets killed and then she is chased and taken away. A woman called Jackie(Benz) is a recovering alcholic who moves into the same apartment complex. It is run by a woman called Eleanor(Flanagan) and her weird son, Ezra who is the caretaker. Eleanor takes people into her apartment complex who have had problems in their lives and she helps them turn their lives around. Jackie is a friend of Danielle's and she wants to know what happened to her friend. She asks around but she can't find out anything. She meets a child called Sarah. Her parents are bad people. One of the other tenants have been asked to leave. She is attacked. Jackie hears her screaming and she goes to see what is happening.


Jackie tells her friend Tim(Josh Stamberg) about it. He is a detective. She asks him to look into the tenant who she heard screaming. Sarah appears in Jackie's apartment and she has a key that Ezra gave her. She also has one of Danielle's cameras. Sarah's foster parents are taken away by unknown people and meet their end. Jackie finds Danielle's map of the building. She gives it to Tim. Jackie begins to go back to the booze. She looks at the pictures that she found of Danielle's camera. She thinks that there is a secret door in the laundry room. She opens the door and she finds an old office. There are files on people. She discovers that the building belonged to H.H.Holmes, a serial killer. She gets an eviction notice.


Jackie calls Tim and tells him about the secret office and who the building used to belong to. Sarah gets taken by someone. Jackie confronts Eleanor. Eleanor says that she won't be leaving the building. Jackie is grabbed by a man and she ends up finding a passage. She falls into a huge oven and she gets out just in time. She finds Sarah and they both try to escape. Sarah escapes, but Jackie pulled back inside by another of Eleanor's sons called Jed. He is a killer and he has been taking care of people who don't live up to Eleanor's standards. Jackie is no different. She gets punished for her drinking. The film ends with Tim coming over there with the cops to find her, but there is no evidence of her being there. Sarah is asked to join Eleanor and her two weird sons and she agrees.


I wasn't crazy about this one. It is a middle of the road horror film. The actors were okay and the story wasn't too bad, but I just didn't love it. The ending wasn't great either. Sometimes, you watch something and you don't love it or hate it. It is just alright. This is one of those films. For that reason, I will give it a 4/10.

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.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Graduation Day Movie Review



Trailer here.

Graduation Day is a 1981 horror movie directed by Herb Freed and starring Christopher George, Linnea Quigley, Michael Pataki.

A girl called Laura dies on the running track during a meet. A few months later, her sister Anne, arrives back in town to attend a graduation ceremony at the high school where her sister will be honoured. She is in the Navy. She sees one of Laura's friends, Paula. She is jogging through town. Someone is following her. She gets killed by the person. Paula's teammates are waiting for her. When she doesn't show up, they have to take their team picture without her. Anne calls to see her mother. She looks around Laura's room. Anne's stepfather isn't happy to see her. Someone has a photo of the running team and is crossing off Paula's face. Anne goes to the graduation ceremony rehearsal. She visits Laura's boyfriend, Kevin. She gives him the graduation present that Laura had bought for him.


Coach Michaels(George) is hard on the running team. He expects perfection. He yells at one of the girls, Sally. She is alone in the locker room and someone is in there with her. It is the killer who has a fencing sword. She ends up dead. Anne blames Coach Michaels for Laura's death. She thinks that he pushed her too hard. Another member of the track team meets a grisly end. Principal Guglione(Pataki) gets calls about missing students. An Inspector Halliday shows up at the school to investigate. He is interested in the students and what has been going on. The principal thinks that it is a prank. The inspector thinks that maybe they are off somewhere partying.


More students start to die. The inspector goes to see Coach Michaels. He asks him some questions. The coach gets fired. Sally's dead body pops up . Coach Michaels finds it and people think that he is the killer. Kevin chases him and they have a fight. Coach Michaels runs, Kevin follows and so does the inspector and Anne. The coach finds another body in the woods and Kevin is revealed to the killer.
He is bitter because of Laura's death. He tries to kill the coach too with a knife. Coach Michaels gets the knife when the inspector arrives and shoots the coach as he thinks that he is the killer. Anne goes to see Kevin and she goes up to his room where Laura's body is sitting. Kevin catches her and admits to digging her body up and bringing her back to his house. He tells her that they are getting married. Anne is horrified. Kevin turns on her.


She pushes the body and it forces Kevin out of the window. He isn't dead though and he carries Laura's body back into the house. Anne runs back to the school. Kevin is there. They fight and he chases her. She finds the dead students. Kevin gets impaled on a spike and he dies. Anne leaves the town after her ordeal. This was a fun slasher with a little bit of gore. I liked that it was a mystery also and there were lots of suspects. The characters were generic, but I don't think that it matters much. I liked this movie. It is an entertaining 80's slasher and I recommend it to fans of the genre. I will give it a 5/10.

Sunday, February 19, 2023

The Prey Movie Review



Trailer here.

The Prey is a 1983 horror movie directed by Edwin Brown and starring Steve Bond, Debbie Thureson, Jackie Coogan and Carel Struycken.

The films starts in 1948. There are fires in the woods in a place called The Northpoint, Keen Wild in Colorado. The fire wipes out some gypsies who live in the woods. Cut to present day and a couple are camping in the woods in the same place. Someone is watching them. They get killed. A group of people are coming to Keen Wild forest to camp. They meet forest ranger Mark O'Brien(Jackson Bostwick). There are six of them. Nancy(Thureson), Joel(Bond), Gail, Greg, Skip and Bobbie(Lori Lethin). They make camp in the woods. Gail gets left behind. She thinks that something has followed her back to camp. They find out that the gypsies were actually burned by the locals because one of them was accused of raping a local girl. Only one of them survived. He was a giant child at the time.


That night, Gail and Greg hear something. Greg goes to see what it is and Gail gets attacked. Greg is next. They both die. The next morning, the others are baffled by their disappearance. All of their belongings have gone. A man called Lester Tile(Coogan) gets a call from the police saying that a couple have gone missing in the forest. Lester is the head ranger and he takes it seriously. They are the couple who were murdered at the start of the film. The group search for Greg and Gail. When they can't find them, they decide to go on without the couple. They leave a note at the camp for them. Lester talks to Mark and they talk about the missing couple. Lester tells him that he saw the giant child who survived the fire. He tells Mark that he was burned. Mark tells him that he will have a look around and he takes a tranquilliser gun.


Joel and Skip go climbing down the mountain. Mark sees buzzards eating something. It is a body. He recognises Gail. Skip gets killed next and Joel falls off the mountain when his rope is severed. Bobbie and Nancy come running where they hear a scream. They find Skip's body. Nancy finds the cut rope.
The killer approaches them. Bobbie falls into a trap and she is killed. Nancy is left alone with the killer. Mark happens to see them and he shoots at the killer with his tranquilliser gun. He manages to tackle him and knock him out. Unfortunately, the killer is strong. He kills Mark. He takes Nancy to his cave.
The film ends with a baby's cry suggesting that she has been with him and has given birth to his child.


This was a decent slasher movie. It was entertaining and there were some lovely nature scenes. The acting was so so but overall, it was good. The killer was played by the same guy who played the giant in Twin Peaks. I always enjoy films set in the woods or with a camping theme. It makes for a fun horror film. This one is better than some I have seen. I recommend it and I will give it a 5/10.

Sunday, February 12, 2023

Significant Other Movie Review



Trailer here.

Significant Other is a 2022 horror/sci-fi movie directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and starring Maika Monroe and Jake Lacy.

The films begins with something falling from the sky into the woods. It is some sort of alien being. Cut to a couple called Ruth(Monroe) and Harry(Lacy). They are are on a trip into the woods. They set up camp for the night. Ruth sees a weird deer when she gets up to go to the bathroom. It stares at her. She feels weird. Harry proposes to her and she turns him down. She doesn't want to get married. They argue about it. She wakes up the next morning and Harry has gone for a walk. She finds a dead deer. It has been sliced in half and covered in some sort of fungus. Harry comes back and he sees it. They look for it in a book they brought and discover that it is a virus. Ruth is worried about what killed the deer. She and Jack make up.


Ruth goes off the find a spot to pee in. She sees a cave and there are glowing things in there. She finds a puddle of glowing goo. Something is in there. Harry looks for her and he finds her standing in the woods. She seems odd. She starts behaving strangely. The next day, she tells him that she was wrong about turning him down. She says that she wants him to ask her again in the same spot as before. When they get there, she pushes him off the cliff and kills him. She passes out and a couple find her. They ask her what happened and she can't remember. They take her to their camp. Harry appears. He is fine. Ruth runs away. Harry kills the people who helped Ruth. He confronts her and she tells him that she knew that Harry was dead. She saw his body in the cave. She realised that the alien was in Harry and that is why she pushed him off the cliff.


Harry tells her that he is a scout. He can't kill her. He tells her that he loves her. She runs away. She tries to attack him but he says that he is Harry. He can feel everything that Harry felt. They go to the beach and he shows her his spacecraft. He wants to take her to another planet. He tells her that more of the aliens are coming to earth. She agrees to go with him to distract him then he runs into the water. He follows her but gets attacked by a shark. He revives himself again. He gets her and puts her into a cocoon in the cave. Harry can turn into her.  She lets all of her fears and anxieties go into him. The creature has a panic attack and looks for something to help. There is nothing. She breaks the cocoon and she kills it as it has been weakened. She reaches her car and she drives off. The creature talks to her through the radio. The movie ends with the aliens coming.


This film wasn't bad. It was comedic in parts and I didn't really like that. I thought that this film would be different. I thought that it would be more about something evil in the woods rather than a body hopping alien. It could have been better, I thought. I wanted more of a killer alien hunting them down. That would have been more interesting. I don't want to put you off, though. If you enjoy a bit of horror with a lot of sci-fi, then give this a try. I wouldn't class it is as straight horror, but there are horror elements in it so I can't call it a sci-fi film alone. I will give it a 5/10.