The Prowler

aka Rosemary's Killer

In 1945, on the night of the graduation dance in Avalon Bay, Rosemary Chatham and her new boyfriend were brutally murdered. The killer was never found. Flash forward to 1980, where preparations are underway for the first graduation dance since that tragic night back in 1945. Spirits are high among the soon-to-be college graduates, but someone is about to ruin their night. Someone with an old score to settle. The Prowler is a semi-independent horror movie from the golden age of slasher films. It's definitely riffing on movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th and there's even an allusion to Jaws at one point. Plot wise, The Prowler is very similar to My Bloody Valentine. Which is likely coincidental, since they were both released the same year. The cast, the music, the setting and the killer are all on point, but The Prowler's script is a little weak. There's not enough going on in the movie, which feels padded out by some long sequences where the main characters explore the same old house twice. The Prowler's main selling point is definitely Tom Savini's special effects makeup. Unlike some of Savini's other work from this era, The Prowler never holds back during the kill scenes. There are several long, lingering shots of people being stabbed and skewered in The Prowler. The kind of shots that typically got cut down by the MPAA in Friday the 13th films. Though not obscure by any means, The Prowler is an under the radar slasher that is well worth seeking out.

Rating: 71%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Sentinel

Alison Parker, a fashion model with a troubled past, sets out to find a new apartment. Her search takes her to the gates of hell, literally. The Sentinel is a slow burn but when it feels like ramping up to some crazy shit, it really goes for it. The movie's supporting cast includes Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Eli Wallach, Christopher Walken, Jerry Orbach, Beverly D'Angelo and Jeff Goldblum.

Rating: 70%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Alison's boyfriend is played by Chris Sarandon, who was in Fright Night and Child's Play.

The Great Alligator River

aka The Great Alligator

A photographer is hired to take promotional pictures for a newly built tropical resort. The local tribe worries that the resort's construction has angered Kruna, a god that will take its revenge in the form of a giant alligator. Sergio Martino's The Great Alligator River shares a little DNA with Joe Dante's Piranha but it's a Jaws rip-off through and through. The alligator in the movie isn't really a puppet or an animatronic, it seems to be more of a statue than anything else. There are a number of scenes where you see the alligator underwater and it's stiff as a board. When the alligator attacks the tourists, it isn't chomping down on them so much as they are swimming into its mouth. Let's just say, it's no Alligator.

Rating: 60%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Barbara Bach and Claudio Cassinelli were both in Sergio Martino's Island of the Fishmen.

Blood and Black Lace

A masked killer stalks and slays fashion models while trying to get his black gloved hands on an incriminating diary. Mario Bava's stylish giallo is a proto-slasher that revels in creative kills. The masked killer looks like The Blank from 1990's Dick Tracy movie. And, much like in Mario Bava's A Bay of Blood, almost every character in the movie is a scumbag.

Rating: 65%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Someone's Watching Me!

Shortly after moving into a new apartment in an LA high-rise, Leigh Michaels starts getting weird phone calls and strange packages. Unbeknownst to Leigh, her stalker has placed surveillance equipment in the apartment and is also watching her through a high powered telescope. Leigh's sanity starts to unravel as the harassment ramps up and the police claim that they are powerless to help her. Eventually, it becomes clear that her stalker will only stop when one of them is dead. Someone's Watching Me! was written and directed by John Carpenter and aired on NBC in November of 1978. Shot shortly before Halloween, Someone's Watching Me! features a number of stylistic touches that would become synonymous with Carpenter's work. Steadicam is used in a couple of scenes and the cast includes Charles Cyphers and Adrienne Barbeau. The music, done by Harry Sukman, lends to the Hitchcockian feel of the movie. Though widely available now on home video, Someone's Watching Me! was long considered to be John Carpenter's lost film.

Rating: 64%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Harry Sukman also did the music for Salem's Lot.

Kids vs. Aliens

From the heart of Dartmouth comes Jason Eisener's Kids vs. Aliens. Imagine if the kids from Stranger Things met up with the kids from Super 8 but instead of being into Spielberg and D&D, they were really into Troma and the WWE. It's a coming of age tale about family and creativity that's not afraid to get weird and gross at times.

Rating: 60%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Leopard Man

After a publicity stunt goes wrong, an escaped leopard terrorizes a small New Mexico town... or so it would seem. The Leopard Man once again pairs up producer Val Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur for another stylish and atmospheric horror film. Plot-wise, The Leopard Man is almost an anthology. There are characters that we follow throughout but the movie will occasionally introduce new characters that exist only to be killed off a few minutes later. The religious imagery throughout the film gives off serious Guillermo del Toro vibes. In some ways, The Leopard Man is very much ahead of its time but it's still a movie that will be primarily enjoyed by audiences that appreciate films of its era.

Rating: 66%

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Raven

Instead of trying to adapt Poe's poem, Roger Corman's The Raven is primarily about a trio of squabbling magicians played by Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. Much like in Tales of Terror, Price and Lorre have great comedic chemistry together. While Karloff is mostly there to lend gravitas to the picture. Hazel Court is lovely as the devious Lenore and a young Jack Nicholson plays Lorre's son Rexford. Despite indulging in many of the same tricks and tropes, The Raven is much more of a straightforward comedy than any of Roger Corman's prior Poe pictures. There are plenty of jokes throughout the movie but the climactic magician's duel at the end of the film goes for broke with big, Looney Tunes energy.

Rating: 62%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Son of Dracula

Proto-goth girl Katherine invites Count Alucard to visit her family's plantation estate. Katherine's boyfriend Frank begins to suspect that there's something going on between Count Alucard and Katherine. Those suspicions are quickly confirmed after Katherine and Alucard get married. Meanwhile, Dr. Brewster's investigation into Count Alucard reveals some sinister details about Katherine's new husband. Son of Dracula plays like an Abbott and Costello movie without Abbott and Costello. It's more of a melodrama than a horror movie. At times it's racist, sexist, jingoistic and goofy. And, perhaps most glaringly, Lon Chaney Jr. is seriously miscast as Alucard/Dracula. The characters keep referring to Alucard as being Hungarian and having just come to the US from Hungary and yet Lon Chaney Jr. makes no attempt to sound Hungarian in the slightest. It should be said that there are some things to like in the movie. Some of the camera work and effects are very well done. The name Alucard, which would become part of the bigger Dracula lore, came from this movie. And, maybe most importantly, a number of scenes in Son of Dracula get referenced in The Monster Squad.

Rating: 61%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Frankenstein Created Woman

In Frankenstein Created Woman, Baron Frankenstein's efforts to cheat death have taken a new direction. Rather than merely reanimating dead flesh, the Baron attempts to preserve and transfer the human soul. After the Baron's assistant Hans is executed for a murder he did not commit, his soul is transferred into the body of Christina, a young woman who committed suicide after witnessing the execution. Christina, having no memory of her old life, begins to hear the voice of Hans, urging her to seek out and kill the people who framed him for murder. The rest of the movie has some great slasher vibes, with hints of Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. Frankenstein Created Woman is a fun departure from Hammer's other Frankenstein films. There's no attempt to connect it to the previous entries in the series and it even skips over some of the sequences you would expect to see in a Frankenstein film, like the creature's creation.

Rating: 69%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Children of the Corn (2020)

I don't mean to wax philosophical about the original Children of the Corn movie, but it seems to me like the makers of that film were trying to suggest that fervent puritanical dogma could be just as scary and destructive as any monster lurking out in the darkness. Whereas, the maker's of 2020's Children of the Corn seem to have been thinking, "what if there was a scary monster made out of corn stalks that could rip a lady in half? That'd be cool, right?" Children of the Corn (2020) is a slightly modernized take on the Children of the Corn story. In this version, the children are led by a young girl named Eden, the sole survivor of an incident wherein the town's elders massacred a bunch of orphans. Early in the film, our lead character Bo is warned that by trying to fix any of the problems in her town, she would only end up making them worse. And then that's exactly what happens. Her efforts ultimately lead to the death of all her friends and family. At the end of the day, all of the Children of the Corn movies are kinda dumb and this one is no exception.

Rating: 55%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Freddy vs. Jason

An experimental dream suppressing drug robs Freddy Krueger of his ability to reach children in their dreams. Hoping to revitalize his powers, Freddy uses Jason Voorhees to stir up fear by thinning out the local teenage population. But, once he gets started, Jason proves impossible to control. From there, it's up to a group of plucky teens to pit the two deadly powerhouses against one another in the ultimate battle for slasher supremacy. Seeing this movie in the theatre, twenty years ago, is probably in my top five movie theatre experiences. It was on the last night of the movie's theatrical run. The college town crowd was just rowdy enough without being obnoxious. People laughed and cheered and yelled things at the screen. It was a great time. Watching the movie this time, twenty years later, on my couch, I was struck by how specifically dated it is. The preppy bullies, the nu metal soundtrack, and the noticeable absence of cellphones. It's very early aughts. It's also not very good, but there's really no way it could have been. It's an IP mashup designed to cash in on two existing fanbases. It's full of unlikeable characters and absurd leaps in logic. That said, it's easily the best Friday the 13th film from the New Line era and it's a fun finale for Robert Englund's tenure as Freddy Krueger.

Rating: 69%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

For those keeping score, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later takes place, appropriately, 20 years after the events of the original Halloween and Halloween II. H20 ignores the events of Halloween III, 4, 5 and The Curse of Michael Myers. H20 suggests that Michael and Loomis survived the hospital explosion in Halloween II, with Michael going MIA after the explosion and Loomis dying sometime in the years that followed. Laurie Strode, having faked her own death, has assumed the name Keri Tate. With Laurie/Keri now living with her 17 year old son in California, where she is the headmistress of a boarding school. In this continuity, Laurie and Michael are still siblings. H20 begins with Michael tracking Laurie down in California right before everybody leaves the boarding school for a big camping trip. Halloween H20 is kinda slow. It takes almost half the movie's running time for Michael to make it to California. The movie's body count is also pretty low. H20's portrayal of Laurie is pretty interesting though. She's wounded but a lot more proactive than we've seen her in the past. It's almost a precursor to the version of Laurie seen in the David Gordon Green Halloween trilogy. H20 has a pretty impressive cast, along with Jamie Lee Curtis there's Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Janet Leigh and LL Cool J. There's a Creed song given prominent placement in the film, which seems appropriate for a movie released in 1998. And even though this little pocket of Halloween continuity will be dropped after Halloween: Resurrection, H20 manages to be a decent entry in the series.

 

Rating: 69%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: At one point, Scream 2 is seen playing on a TV in a dorm room.

Scream VI

Arriving in theatres a little more than a year after Scream (2022), Scream VI changes things up by moving the Ghostface action to New York City. The film is also set around Halloween, which allows for countless references to other horror movie characters and franchises. The characters that survived Scream (2022) are a little less likeable this time around, as almost every one of them takes some time in the film to acknowledge the trauma that they've been through. The legacy characters feel fairly unnecessary this time around. Fans might lament the absence of Sidney Prescott, but it's hard to say if she would have really added much to the story. The new setting allows for some variety in the kills and set pieces, which keeps the movie from feeling stale. But it also feels like the filmmakers played it safe this time around. It's possible that the quick turnaround between films didn't leave them enough time to really flesh out the plot. Maybe they're just holding back for the next movie. It feels pretty safe to assume that there'll be a Scream VII at some point.

Rating: 65%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Fun Fact: Early on in the film, one of the characters is seen watching Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan.

Prom Night (2008)

An obsessed teacher murders Donna's whole family. Three years later, he breaks out of jail and comes back to town looking for her... on Prom Night. In true Prom Night fashion, the 2008 reboot has nothing to do with the original Prom Night film or any of its sequels. It features a new cast of characters in a new location and makes no mention of Hamilton High or Mary Lou Maloney. It's a pretty toothless slasher with boring kills, but it does have one thing going for it: Idris Elba. That's right, Idris freakin' Elba can be found slumming it in 2008's Prom Night as Detective Winn. But, don't worry, he doesn't phone it in. The man is a consummate professional. He's probably the best part of the movie.

Rating: 59%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Leprechaun 4: In Space

You know how there's an alien in Alien? What if, instead of that alien being an alien, it was a leprechaun instead? That would be good, right? It turns out, not so much. The fourth entry in the continuity-averse Leprechaun series finds the titular Leprechaun running afoul of some space marines and a mad scientist, sometime in the vaguely defined future. There's no point in describing the plot in any greater detail but it needs to be said that for most of the movie the mad scientist character, Dr. Mittenhand (yup), looks like a cross between a Dalek and Captain Pike from "The Menagerie." Allow me to reiterate, Leprechaun 4 is not a good movie. It's just as horny and corny as all of the other Leprechaun movies, but it's dumber and even more tasteless than the films it follows. I did enjoy seeing the Leprechaun get into multiple gun fights though.

Rating: 52%

(Image from IMDB)

Fun Fact: Miguel A. Núñez Jr., who played Private Sticks, was also in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning and The Return of the Living Dead.

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection

After killing shriekers in South America, Burt Gummer returns to his old stomping grounds in Perfection, Nevada. Not long after, a trio of graboids are spotted in the area. Burt's efforts to eradicate the graboids are stymied by government interference. This leaves enough time for the graboids to reach their third stage of evolution, a flying variation that come to be known as ass blasters. Tremors 3 is a cheap looking movie, even cheaper looking than Tremors 2. It doesn't help that the movie's bad CGI is paired up with recycled graboid footage from the first movie. There's also no tension in Tremors 3. The score makes everything feel flat. The run time is also padded out with a number of plotlines for the new characters. Because, instead of seeing graboids hunting people, you're watching Tremors 3 to see Jodi, who took over her uncle Walter's market, bicker with Jack, who gives fake graboid tours to gullible tourists, right?

Rating: 55%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End

The cast and crew of a survivalist reality show are set upon by a clan of inbred cannibals. I'll begin by saying that the special effects in Wrong Turn 2: Dead End are well done. Most of the movie takes place during daytime and we get to see a lot of the deformed cannibal killers. The movie's script might not be anything spectacular but there are at least a couple of twists and turns that I didn't see coming. The acting, however, is hit or miss. The final girl does a great job. Henry Rollins delivers exactly the type of performance you would expect of him. And beloved Canadian character actor Wayne Robson has a fun little part as "Old Timer." The rest of the supporting cast's work is a little spotty. Most notably, the "comic relief" character Jonesy who never stops spewing lazy jokes and desperately horny come-ons.

Rating: 61%

(Image from Wikipedia)

Skinamarink

 

The creepiest movie about ceiling corners you’ll ever see! The fake grain did get a little headache inducing after a while though.

RATING: 67%

Ginger Snaps

Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are the weird girls at school and that's how they like it. But things only get weirder for them after Ginger gets attacked by a large dog-like creature on the night of her first period. After the attack, Ginger starts to change. Everyone keeps saying that she's becoming a woman but Brigitte is convinced that her is sister is actually turning into a werewolf. Using puberty as an analogue for lycanthropy isn't exactly a new idea but Ginger Snaps does it well by combining it with a number of additional themes. The movie is just as much about family, sexuality, addiction, bullying, peer pressure and the boredom of growing up in a small town. The practical special effects and creative camerawork elevate the movie above its meager budget. Occasionally, the seams will show but overall Ginger Snaps is captivating from beginning to end.

Rating: 73%

(Image from Wikipedia)