The Sensorites

Our intrepid band of time/space travellers turn up inside a spacecraft being held captive by the Sensorites, a race of aliens with highly advanced psychic abilities. Though they appear to pose no physical threat, the Sensorites steal the TARDIS's locking mechanism and take our heros captive alongside the spacecraft's weary crew. Susan reveals an aptitude for telepathy, pretty much everyone except for Barbara gets brought down to the home planet of the Sensorites, Ian gets poisoned, the Doctor gets attacked in an aqueduct, a murderous plot is revealed, and a member of the Sensorites high elders is killed. Sounds interesting and yet The Sensorites is generally regarded as overall boring serial. This is probably because of the basic design of the Sensorites themselves. Despite their aforementioned psychic abilities, the Sensorites are easily harmed by loud noises and are effectively blind in low light. The TARDIS's crew are pretty much immune to the Sensorites psychic powers for some reason so their captivity doesn't really come with life or death stakes. The Sensorites prove to be the most benign of the alien threats so far encountered by the Doctor and his companions. Also, the Sensorites look like Admiral Ackbar with a chinstrap toupee.

Rating: It all started out as a mild curiosity in a junk yard%

(Image from theruedmorgue.blogspot.ca)

Hellraiser: Inferno

This is the fifth installment in the ever-worsening Hellraiser series, so you know what that means: I have less than half to go! In this movie, a corrupt detective who likes prostitutes or what-have-you tries to track down some missing child after he finds and opens the Lament Configuration. I fell asleep during the movie's climax to be honest, but at least Pinhead's not bent on world domination anymore, just pain and suffering (but not pleasure anymore? booo). Anyway, one interesting fact is that this is the first of the Hellraiser movies to go straight-to-video, which means that Hellraiser IV was released in the theaters for actual human beings to sit in and supposedly enjoy if you can believe it. I know I can't!

RATING: 28%

Lake Placid 2

The Syfy channel is in the business of making garbage. For the most part this means combining various predatory animals with really bad CGI special effects and D grade actors. In the case of Lake Placid 2, Syfy shuttled Bo Duke and a handful of other actors off to Bulgaria in order to put together what is essentially a remake of the original Lake Placid, a process they would repeat at least twice more. Every aspect of the movie's production (ie: acting, directing, special effects, story, etc.) has been dialed back. It's as though someone at Syfy said: "You know that Lake Placid movie was really good. How can we piggyback off their success, but for a lot less money?"

Rating: 36%

(Image from ablogofhorror.com)

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College

Mixing comedy and horror is not an easy task, it’s a delicate balancing act that requires a fundamental understanding of what makes each one work on their own and how to shift from one to the other. There are countless movies that have attempted to combine horror and comedy only to wind up failing on both fronts, Ghoulies III is one of those movies. The humor is, at best, at the Troma level with only the most obvious jokes being delivered at the most obvious times. Most of the jokes come from the Ghoulies themselves, since they’ve been given the gift of speech in this installment of the franchise. When they first started to speak I thought, “Oh, they’re kind of referencing the Three Stooges here.” Then the slapstick came into play and I realized, “Oh, they’re just ripping off the Three Stooges here.” If you’ve ever seen Animal House, Revenge of the Nerds or UHF, you’ve pretty much already seen all of the best parts of this movie.

Rating: 42%

(Image from imdb.com)

Hellraiser IV: Bloodline

This is a convoluted and horrible entry in the Hellraiser series that takes place in the modern (1996) day, Victorian times, and the future (spaceship). Directed by everybody's favorite pseudonym, Alan Smithee, the movie features a super young Adam Scott of Parks and Recreation fame. The plot is that something happened in one time and continues in the next time and gets resolved in the last time with a big space explosion, the hallmark of the Hellraiser series. I think maybe Pinhead wants to take over the world, but really, nobody cares.

RATING: 21%

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth

Whelp, things really went downhill fast. In this movie, released in 1992 as evidenced by the "dangerous youth" dressed in jean jackets, a "goth" club owner (but all they play is Motorhead???) gets the puzzle box and then Pinhead comes out oh no! Now he is more of a Freddy Kreuger comedy type mass murderer saying jokes when he kills people and also turning a DJ into a Cenobite that shoots CDs into people's faces. Cop cars explode on ill-lit city streets with all the cinematic quality of a Darkman sequel, and I can't believe I've committed to watching six more of these shits.

RATING: 31%

Lake Placid

The first Lake Placid movie reminds me a lot of Joe Dante's 1978 movie Piranha. They're both unabashedly Jaws ripoffs, but they have sense enough to throw in some colorful characters and humor to offset all the people getting eaten. Having been made by a legit movie studio means that Lake Placid has some decent actors in it, including Betty White (kids love Betty White). The special effects from Stan Winston Studios hold up well considering they came about during the early CGI era. It's a better movie than the string of SyFy sequels would have you believe.

Rating: 60%

(Image from impawards.com)

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

This is one of those rare sequels that is if you ask me way better than the original. The color palette and cinematography are still kinda bland, but we frequently are treated to bizarre and terrifying imagery as we enter the Cenobite's dimension, like a clown juggling his own eyeballs par example. The plot is some people want to get to this horrible pain dimension because WHY NOT? Again Pinhead and his pallies show up to save the day after they're convinced that it's a good idea to feel feelings. Speaking of feelings, I have one that the series is all downhill from here, but we shall see!

RATING: 68%

Hellraiser

This movie is about a magical box that whisks its users away to a fanciful dimension where pleasure is pain and pain is pleasure and gumdrops are, like, scarabs I guess and rainbows are the screams of a thousand dying soldiers. A girl's uncle gets the box and then these painlovers, cenobites, rip him apart with some chains but he manages to escape and needs fresh blood to get his body to not just be guts or whathaveyou so he gets his lover/brother's wife to kill people for him. Eventually (practically the whole movie later) the cover dude, Pinhead, and his cenobite pals show up and save the day. I had this movie as a kid on one of those bargain cassettes where the movie would be recorded in EP to save the company money so I always thought it was bland and boring as a result of the tape quality, but to be honest it was kind of bland and boring even in hi-def. A+ for mythos building, D+ for execution.

RATING: 58%

The ABC's of Death

Ok, well, why not take the horror anthology to the extreme? This movie of 26 short films made by directors from around the world, each one (as you can probably guess) taking a letter of the alphabet and figuring out how somebody can die with that letter is a good example of why not to do that thing I asked in the first sentence. There are only three that are any good - A, Q, and R - which is not a terrific percentage IMO, IMHO even. Stick around to the end if you want to see a giant severed penis ejaculating rice as a symbol for Western nuclear imposition on Japan I guess.

RATING: 20%

Ghoulies II

Ghoulies II is not a very good movie. It is, however, better than the first Ghoulies movie. The puppet demons look a lot better this time around and they're aided by some passable stop motion animation. Black magic is only a minor part of the movie, leaving room for a great deal more Gremlins style puppety mayhem. Once again there are no Ghoulies wearing suspenders featured in the film, but at least they had the decency to reflect that in the poster art.

Rating: 46%

(Image from impawards.com)

Ghoulies

The best part of Ghoulies would have to be the poster art. If you haven't seen the movie, you might think it was a creature feature à la Gremlins. It's actually a very boring movie about a guy who inherits a creepy old house and gets really into black magic. Sure, there are some gloppy puppet creatures roaming about but they're pretty lame. Also, none of them wear suspenders in the movie.

Rating: 38%

(Image from impawards.com)

V/H/S

I love anthology horror movies, from the classic Creepshow to the classic Creepshow 2. Um, maybe I only love these movies in theory? I mean, there was a good segment in Tales from the Darkside and Hood. Anyway, the premise in this movie is some crime dudes have to watch a bunch of snuff monster tapes but they aren't very scary or believable. Coming up with one scenario in which a complete narrative is delivered from found footage is hard enough, much less five.

RATING: 45%

The Aztecs

Following its departure from the glassy beaches of Marinus, the TARDIS materializes inside a tomb in an Aztec temple. Barbara is mistaken for the reincarnation of a high priest and attempts to use her new position of power to put an end to the Aztec tradition of human sacrifice. This puts her at odds with the Doctor who is adamant that he and his companions should not attempt to alter the course of history. Barbara’s actions put everyone’s lives at risk as they attempt to discover the secrets of the tomb and return to the TARDIS. Though the logistics and repercussions of the Doctor’s time traveling antics would change throughout the show’s run, The Aztecs marks the show’s first attempt to address these issues. Also, while I get the impression that the early Doctors tend to be somewhat chaste, there is a great plot thread wherein the Doctor makes some cocoa for a woman and ends up engaged to her.

Rating: But you can’t rewrite history! Not one line! Believe me, I know!%

(Image from chrisbaer.net)

Summit Extra Pale Ale

A Beer For Every State #16 - Minnesota

Once I went to the biggest mall in the country, The Mall of America, and I was like "Mall of America, that's redundant, amirite?" Then I bought some super spicy ghost chili peanuts I really liked from the spice store, and also they had two Orange Juliuses. This is the kind of beer you could probably enjoy while eating a wine glass full of fried shrimp from the Mall of America Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. I suppose.

RATING: 55%

The Keys of Marinus

The TARDIS materializes on the glassy beach of a small island surrounded by a vast sea of acid. Inside an enormous tower, the only structure on the island, is Arbitan and the giant mind control machine he is sworn to protect. Arbitan puts a force field around the TARDIS and forces the Doctor and his companions to search the planet (that being the planet they are currently on, Marinus) for the four missing keys needed to upgrade his machine. Despite all of his actions, Arbitan is one of the least evil people on the planet compared to everyone else the group encounters on their mission to recover the keys to Arbitan's machine. Each key is located in a different region of Marinus with its own corresponding danger: a city controlled by hypnotic brain creatures, a jungle full of traps and predatory plants, ice caves guarded by robot soldiers, and a vaguely fascist state where Ian is framed for murder. Oh yeah, and there's these aliens in wet suits with big, crazy helmets. Needless to say, the group have a lot on their plates.

Rating: It's a pity you don't have color television%

(Image from joe.siegler.net)

Marco Polo

After finding themselves in the Himalayas in the 13th Century, our weary travellers are ever so politely taken captive by Marco Polo. Polo confiscates the TARDIS with intention of giving it to Kublai Khan as a gift. The Mongol Warlord Tegana, Marco Polo's travelling companion, launches a series of schemes in an attempt to steal the Doctor's "flying caravan" for himself. Along the way to see Kublai Khan the group encounter sand storms, sabotage, bandits, creepy caves, thieves and assassins.

Once upon a time (in this case the 1960s and 70s), broadcasters like the BBC used to erase, reuse and/or destroy audio and video materials after their initial use. Because of this, there are currently no known copies of any of the episodes that make up the Marco Polo serial. Most of the production audio still exists along with some stills from the episodes, which have allowed for various recaps and reconstructions of the serial. Though missing episodes are occasionally found and restored, a considerable number of the early serials are still lost.

Rating: __% (Rating Missing)

(Image from joe.siegler.net)

Sweetgrass APA

A Beer For Every State #15 - Idaho

American pale ales are kind of boring, and I'd say the same thing about Idaho because of Mormons, Boise, etc., but Idaho is actually really beautiful. This beer is not beautiful. But what is beauty! Well I'll tell you it's at least not this array of mild hops that has a distinct aftertaste of dirty copper.

RATING: 35%

The Edge of Destruction

After departing the Daleks home planet, the Doctor and his companions are knocked unconscious by an explosion. It doesn't get much better after they wake up. A series of unexplained events, blackouts, violent outbursts and mechanical malfunctions follow. Things start to get squirrelly on the TARDIS after the crew begin to turn on each other. With the ticking clock of total annihilation hanging over their heads, the Doctor and his companions must unravel a series of clues to find their way to safety. The Edge of Destruction is essentially a bottle episode put together to fill out the show's original production order. It's not entirely inessential though, the relationship of the main characters sees some development and more details about the TARDIS itself are fleshed out.

Rating: A machine that can think for itself?%

(Image from wondersandparodies.blogspot.ca)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

Bravo Rankin/Bass, bravo. I thought I had plumbed the depths of your Christmassy madness, but that was before I saw Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey. The Nestor Special takes a few cues from Rankin/Bass's Rudolph Special, wherin our protagonist is an outcast because of his physical abnormalities. After being thrown out of the stable where he grew up and the death of his mother, Nestor meets up with a cherub named Tilly who tells him that he has a greater purpose, one that will bring him to Bethlehem. Along the way he hooks up with Mary and Joseph and uses his long ass ears to help guide them to Bethlehem through a sandstorm, much as Rudolph used his freaky nose to help Santa through all that Christmas fog. The Special is narrated by Roger Miller (who sounds an awful lot like Bruce Campbell) and is somewhat based on a song written by Gene Autry, which makes about as much sense as anything else in this Special.

Rating: 72%

(Image from texastailwind.wordpress.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Mr. Bill's Christmas Special

I'm not sure what to say about Mr. Bill's Christmas Special. A third of the Special was filled up with some lame schtick from Father Guido Sarducci (Remember him kids? No? Ask your parents). Another good chunk of the special was filled with a weird retelling of A Christmas Carol featuring some of the worst first generation CGI you have ever seen. There were also a few fake TV commercials thrown in the mix as well. There was actually very little of Mr. Bill in Mr. Bill's Christmas Special, which makes me wonder why the heck they made the dang thing in the first place.

Rating: 51%

(Image from worldwonders.net)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: The Smurfs Christmas Special

Though Gargamel and Azrael were present, I'm pretty sure the main antagonist of the Smurfs Christmas Special was the devil. Referred to only as "the stranger," the villian was a mysterious cloaked figure capable of powerful magic who tried to transport some kidnapped children via a ring of fire. Once defeated, the stranger simply disappeared. That's some heavy shit for a cartoon about little blue people.

Rating: 61%

(Image from humordistrict.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: The Little Drummer Boy

The Little Drummer Boy is pretty typical of Rankin/Bass's Christmas Specials, it takes a well known Christmas type figure and tells an origin story of sorts. The Little Drummer Boy is probably also one of the more straightforward Rankin/Bass Specials, since it doesn't feature warlocks, abominable snow men or anthropomorphic depictions of weather. The Special is kind of a sidequel to the Gift of the Magi, as the little drummer boy crosses paths with the three wise men and eventually follows them to Bethlehem. Aaron, the little drummer boy, spends most of the Special pissed off, he's sworn to hate all people after his parents were killed by desert bandits. By the end of the special Aaron makes it to Bethlehem, is reunited with his dancing animals and swears off hatred after playing his drum for the newborn Jesus.

Rating: 63%

(Image from christmas-specials.wikia.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: The Christmas Raccoons

This one is probably a bit obscure for any of my non-Canadian brethren out there. The Raccoons was a cartoon series that ran from 1985 to 1991 on the CBC. The series was preceeded by a number of television specials, the first being The Christmas Raccoons. The show and the Special had a bit of an evironmentalist agenda, every week the Raccoons faced off against Cyril Sneer, an aardvark industrialist bent on maximizing profits whilst destroying the Evergreen Forest. Since the Christmas Special was the first ever adventure for the Raccoons it mostly just introduces the main cast of characters. The Raccoons bump heads with Sneer for the first time after the aardvark cuts down their home for lumber. And when I say they bumped heads, it's pretty much what actually happened. The Raccoons are only able to stop Sneer from clear cutting the forest after they beat him up. And who says all Canadians are friendly?

Rating: 75%

(Image from gilsinan.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Ah Rankin-Bass, you can always be counted on to bring me some yuletide absurdity. I probably hadn't sat through 1970's Santa Claus is Comin' to Town is some 20+ years, so it was nice to essentially see it again for the first time. The Special (which includes voice work from Mickey Rooney, Fred Astaire and Keenan Wynn) tells the story of how Kris Kringle came to be Santa Claus and how many Christmas traditions got their start. You see, Santa began as an abandoned orphan, raised by toy making elves, who really wanted to bring toys to the children of a vaguely Germanic village called Sombertown. The town was under the thumb of Burgermeister Meisterburger who outlawed toys and made Santa and his associates outlaws. Herr Meisterburger even went so far as to burn a pile of toys in the middle of the town square in front of the children as a warning. In the end, Santa and his friends (which include a warlock and a penguin) succeed, mostly by outliving the Burgermeister, and Christmas is saved.

Rating: 68%

(Image from theotherjournal.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales

Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales probably isn't on too many "Must See Christmas Specials" lists, but the Special deserves at least some credit for the amount of material that they're able to cram into 23 minutes. The Special is a compilation of three original cartoon shorts with a bit of a wrap around story to tie them all together. The first short is the obligatory adaptation of A Christmas Carol, featuring Yosemite Sam as Scrooge and Bugs Bunny filling in for the spiritual motivators. The second short is a Road Runner cartoon that has virtually no connection to the holidays. The last short finds the Tazmanian Devil accidentally assuming the role of Santa Claus and bumping heads with Bugs. There's nothing terribly special about the Special but I appreciated it for it's lack of somber themes.

Rating: 70%

(Image from jeffco.ca)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas

I managed to get in my annual viewing of my favorite Christmas Special with some friends last night, that special being A Muppet Family Christmas of course, so I thought I'd follow it up with some more of Jim Henson's Christmassy goodness. I'd heard of Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas before, but I'm not sure if I'd ever actually seen it. The special tells the story of Emmet Otter and his widowed mother, two down on their luck otters trying to make ends meet. A local talent contest promising big time prize money offers them a chance to finally have a proper Christmas, but in order to enter they'll have to put their last few meager possessions in hock. They'll also have to compete with the likes of the Riverbottom Nightmare Band, a rock group made up of degenerates who sound an awful lot like Deep Purple. I was convinced that the special was going to be a serious downer, but it thankfully steers clear of cliche endings and overly maudlin moments.

Rating: 73%

(Image from muppetcentral.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: The Fat Albert Christmas Special

Most Christmas Specials do little more than insert their sitcom/cartoon characters into variations on A Christmas Carol. The Fat Albert Christmas Special does that too, but it also mixes in a little bit from the Christmas pageant. The Special starts out with Fat Albert and the gang rehearsing a Nativity play when they're interrupted by Mr. Tyrone, the heartless owner of the junkyard where the gang have made their clubhouse. Mr. Tyrone threatens to bulldoze the clubhouse because he's a jerk and that's what jerks do around the holiday season. After he leaves, the gang are interrupted by a family in distress. Their car has broken down, they've got nowhere to stay and the mother is due to give birth any minute (sound familiar?). From there it's a madcap dash to save the clubhouse and help the struggling family. The special is short, entertaining and has a visual stlye that depicts urban environments in a stylized yet somewhat realistic manner that marks it as being very much from the 1970s.

Rating: 72%

(Image from charlesprogers.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: It's a SpongeBob Christmas!

I've only ever seen a handful of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes before but, as far as I can tell, the stop motion animation special It's a SpongeBob Christmas! only differs from a normal SpongeBob episode in that everything is made of felt and clay rather than being traditionally animated. The plot of the Special finds Bikini Bottom's resident evil genius, Plankton, plotting to get everyone put on the naughty list by feeding them fruitcakes contaminated with jerktonium, thus turning them all into jerks. SpongeBob himself is immune to jerktonium due to his innocent heart and overwhelming capacity for Christmas Spirit. I have to give the makers of the Special props for having John Goodman do the voice of Santa (because everything is better with a little Goodman in it) as well as climaxing the special with a song called "Don't Be a Jerk (It's Christmas)." All in all, it's a bit more absurd and manic than what I usually look for in a Christmas Special, but it's still miles away from some of the treacly, depressing crap I've sat through in the past.

Rating: 68%

(Image from strangekidsclub.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Christmas Comes to Pac-Land

I wasn’t surprised to find out that there was a cartoon series based on Pac-Man but I was surprised to learn that it somehow lasted for two seasons and had its own prime time Christmas Special. It couldn’t have been easy for the people at Hanna-Barbera to adapt Pac-Man into a Saturday morning cartoon series. It’s not like the original video game contained an abundance of backstory or character development. But they forged ahead and made a show out of the property anyway and, 30 years later, I watched their Christmas Special. The plot of the Special is pretty standard for a cartoon that doesn’t feature humans and doesn’t exactly take place in our world. An unfortunate mishap leaves Santa stranded in Pac-Land on Christmas Eve and it’s up to Pac-Man and his friends to save Christmas. I don’t recommend watching the Special unless you are overly fond of the words “Pac” and “chomp,” as they featured in every other line of dialogue.

Rating: 56%

(Image from christmas-specials.wikia.com)

12 More Days of Christmas Specials: Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice

I wanted to kick off the holidays on a positive note this year, which is why I decided to lead off my annual Christmas Special binge with Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice. I really enjoyed watching the original Prep & Landing special last year and I can happily say that the sequel does not disappoint. Everybody’s favourite elves Lanny and Wayne are joined by Noel, Wayne’s charismatic younger brother (voiced by Rob Riggle).The trio are on a mission from Santa to recover some North Pole technology stolen by a young hacker known only as jinglesmell1337 (yes, you are old and internet lingo has become the domain of children). Will Wayne be able to put aside his emotional issues (again) and effectively lead his team, thus saving Christmas? Spoiler alert: yes, he will.

Rating: 70%

(Image from movieposterdb.com)