Horror Queen

See what happens when we fight?

PLOT

Blizz was a nuclear attack weapon created by terrorists who somehow managed to incorporate it with the rain patterns all across the US. When it touches living skin or tissue, it instantly kills the person and poor little Peggy sees her entire seventh birthday party guests wiped out by it. It then jumps ten years down the road where we learn that 9 million have died and Los Angeles and other larger cities are completely gone. Peggy now lives in her mother Kate’s diner where she acts like a nine year old. She meets a few junkies traveling in a group and goes with them to the Doom Room, a kind of underground bar/strip club/junkie haven. She learns that the MC of the club has found victims of Blizz, filled them with blood and made them dance. She knows this because her presumed dead sister Anna is one of the dancers. As she struggles to save her sister, she learns just how she became a dancer…

TRIVIA

Directed by Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame and based on a short story by legendary author Richard Matheson. His son actually wrote the screenplay.

Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger) has a major role in this episode.

The third episode in the first season of Masters of Horror.

THOUGHTS

I’m actually not a big fan of Dance of the Dead, despite the fact that I really love Tobe Hooper and I liked many of the Masters of Horror episodes from the first season. This one though was just kind of boring. Given the plot of the movie, it really should have been a lot better and I think it could have been better. There were some great scenes in the movie and it has a nice little twist ending (which you’ll probably see coming a mile away), but it just wasn’t enough for me. Even Robert Englund couldn’t get me interested in the movie.

The way it should be seen.

PLOT

Jack Torrance (Steven Webber) loses his Vermont teaching job due to his alcoholism, which caused him to attack a student. We also learn that he once attacked his son Danny and his wife Wendy (Rebecca De Mornay) is only giving him one more chance. He accepts the job of a winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, which closes in the winter because no one can reach the place. Danny’s imaginary friend Tony warns him about the trip and the dangers that lay ahead. Danny also meets Dick Hallorann, the chef at the hotel who sees that the boy has the shining and tells him to call if he needs help. Things start off slowly, but the whole family realizes that there’s something wrong with the hotel. As the ghosts draw closer, Wendy becomes the savior as she attempts to keep herself and her child safe until the spring.

TRIVIA

Shawnee Smith from the Saw franchise has a bit part in this movie. She also had a role in the Stephen King TV miniseries The Stand.

Frank Darabont had a cameo role in the movie; he directed both The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, two other Stephen King movies.

King himself played Gage Creed, Creed being the little boy from Pet Semetery who killed a helluvalot of people.

Tim Daly was originally approached to play the role of Jack. When he turned it down, he suggested his friend and former co-star Steven Webber.

King has always stated that he was unhappy with the original version produced by Kubrick, which he claimed left out too much material and made too many changes. He served as a producer, actor and writer on this production to ensure everything was satisfactory.

THOUGHTS

I know that a lot (a lot) of people have love for Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining, but I have a lot of love for this version. If you’ve ever read the book, you know just how long and drawn out it is and it’s impossible to get the whole version crammed into two hours. If you have 4-5 hours to kill, you should really watch this one. I’ll admit that there are parts of the movie that moves a little too slow and things I could really do without, but it’s still pretty damn good. Given that it’s a TV movie you won’t see a lot of violence or big scares, but it still manages to be interesting.

Mama’s got nothing to say…she’s dead.

PLOT

Seth and Ritchie are two outlaws on the run from the law and looking hot while they do it. After a run in with the local law at the beginning of the movie, they end up hiding out in a hotel. There they meet Jacob and his kids Scott and Kate. They force the family to get in their motor home and drive them across the border to Mexico, where they promise they’ll let them go. They make it to the strip bar Titty Twister and Seth makes the family stick around. They quickly learn that the bar is run by vampires and find themselves stuck with a few other patrons just trying to make it through the night.

TRIVIA

Danny Trejo is the only actor who appeared in both the original movie and the two direct to video sequels.

THOUGHTS

Every time I watch this movie, I find something that I missed before. Given that I’ve probably seen it a dozen times, that’s really saying something. From Dusk Till Dawn is fairly gory at times, which is great for us horror movie fans yet there’s something about it that makes me not want to classify it as a horror movie. There’s just way too much humor in the movie for me to see it as a straight horror flick. I also love me some George Clooney, who looks so great with the neck tattoo that I want him to get one in real life. Sue me, sometimes I’m still a girl! Anyway it’s a great movie and I’m glad I decided to watch it, even though I actually hadn’t seen it in a few years.

Trading off the name.

PLOT

Jacob heads off to Amityville for a business trip and returns to California lugging behind an old watch that he found. The movie hints that he found it in the ruins of the hold haunted house, which doesn’t make sense in the context of the films. Anyway, he comes back to see his ex-girlfriend watching over his kids Rusty and Lisa. The clock starts to do weird things by attaching itself to the house, though no one seems to realize it. Rusty sees the image of a torture chamber and Jacob gets attacked by what he thinks is a neighborhood dog, only to discover that it was something darker. Their older neighbor tells Rusty that there’s an evil force and that it has to find a new home, realizing that it’s the clock.

TRIVIA

Originally known as Amityville 1992: It’s About Time, which was also listed on the video versions of the movie. When it was released on DVD, they changed the name to Amityville: It’s About Time, ditching the dated reference.

THOUGHTS

I remember the first time I watched this movie because there’s a scene involving Lisa, “taking advantage” of herself in front of the mirror. That was the first time I ever saw anything like that and even though I was only 12 or so, I was shocked that my parents let me watch the movie. The movie itself doesn’t seem to follow the rules of continuity. Andrea sleeps with Jacob and spends days in his house without mentioning anyone else. Then halfway through the movie she suddenly develops a boyfriend who misses her desperately and even comes for a visit. Plus it ignores the other Amityville movies. The films switched over to a plot involving items from the house that were sold at auction by the owners from the earlier movies. In this one, Jacob finds the abandoned Amityville house and brings home an elaborate antique clock. Uh, wouldn’t someone sell something that expensive. Of course this could just be another example of me nitpicking a horror movie. Oddly enough I really like this franchise, just not this movie in particular.

Awesome!

PLOT

Ellen is calmly driving down the middle of a quiet mountain road late one night when she accidentally hit’s a car. The car’s empty, but she sees a blood trail and decides to see where it leaves. That leads her to Moonface, who just happens to be carrying off the body of another woman. She runs off and starts having flashbacks about her husband Bruce. He was a psycho of sorts, convinced that the world was going to end. We see them having sex and dating during the good times and the not so good times when he hit her, almost raped her and taught her to fire a gun. Moonface thinks he has her caught, but through her flashbacks we see what Ellen actually knows and see her hidden secret.

TRIVIA

Based on the short story by Joe R. Landsdale.

Directed by Don Coscarelli who also did the Phantasm movies and (my personal fave) Bubba Ho-Tep.

Was the very first episode ever to air of the Masters of Horror series.

THOUGHTS

Incident On and Off a Mountain Road is my favorite episode of the entire Masters of Horror series. A lot of people seemed to like Cigarette Burns and Chocolate, but this one ranks as my top. Ever since I first saw it, I’ve been recommending it to people like crazy. I love seeing Ethan Embry as the whack job husband in flashbacks (especially since I still harbor a love of the cancelled show Freaky Links) and Ellen is the kind of character that you can actually root for and still like at the end. Plus it has a fairly interesting little twist that you might not see coming. If you haven’t seen it yet, see it now.

Chucky’s back.

PLOT

Child’s Play 2 picks up right after the first movie ended, which is actually fairly unique in terms of horror movies. Andy’s mom was sent away because she told everyone the doll was the killer and he’s sent off to a foster home. The mother seems nice enough, the dad’s a dick and he has a cool foster sister by the name of Kyle. He finds a Good Guy doll in his room, but decides to embrace it since he thinks it will make the dad like him better. Of course then Chucky turns up and starts bringing mayhem, but no one believes Andy when he claims the doll is responsible.

TRIVIA

Had a total of 8 deaths in the entire movie, including Chucky at the end.

THOUGHTS

Sometimes you don’t see a movie for awhile and in your head you start to think about how horrible it was. That’s kind of what happens to me with Child’s Play 2. I’ll watch it once, forget about it, start thinking it’s really terrible and then when I see it again, I realize that it’s actually not that bad. This was the first movie where Chucky actually seemed like a real character, where you could kind of start to believe that he was evil, but at the same time he makes you laugh. Some of the death scenes are incredibly lame, but that’s really because they don’t show you what happens. They’ll cut to the death only after it happens, which feels a little like a cheat. A lot of people really hate the ending, but I think it kind of fits with the rest of the movie. I guess I should just give it up and admit that I dig Chucky!

I’m currently in the process of re-watching my old Buffy and Angel discs so every couple of weeks I’ll be posting a new review of whatever season I just finished. Unfortunately I’m missing season one because it was ruined in a fire, so I’ll start with season two.

Season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer picks up with Buffy coming back to town after a summer with her dad. She killed The Master at the end of the first season, died and came back to life so she isn’t feeling to chipper. She throws herself into the slaying, ignoring her friends and Angel. She finally gets her mojo back, just in time to sleep with Angel on her 17^th birthday and have him turn into the evil Angelus.

The season also introduces Oz, who goes crazy for Willow. He wants her to want him, not because she wants to make her friend Xander jealous. Xander falls for the snobby Cordelia and eventually casts a love spell on her, which backfires and makes all women in town go after him.

The real thread to the season is the relationship between Buffy and Angel/Angelus. He torments her friends, kills Jenny Calendar and kidnaps Giles. By the end she’s feeling completely alone, but she learns that she’s the only person she actually needs to survive. She manages to trap Angelus just as Willow completes the spell to turn him back into Angel and yet she still has to kill him to save the world. At the end of the season Buffy takes off, knowing that she can’t face anyone knowing what she had to do.

I actually started watching Buffy regularly during the second season. Prior to that, the Dayton area didn’t have a regular WB station, but aired shows at random times of the day. I remember watching episodes at three am sometimes. The second season was when the WB finally appeared and the show drew me right in. The second season might just be the best place to start on the show.

Not the best name…

PLOT

Ida is your typical lesbian scientist who’s obsessed with the bugs she works with on a daily basis. After getting dumped by yet another woman who thinks bugs are creepy, her co-scientist Max convinces her to go after the creepy woman who sits downstairs in the lobby. Ida talks to the girl and discovers that Misty is a little crazy and talks to fast, but she’s also “adorable” so she decides to ask her out. That same night she gets a strange package in the mail that contains a bug she can’t identify, one that sings to her at night, acts aggressive and doesn’t like her other bugs. On their first date they end up back at Ida’s place, Misty makes herself comfortable and then it appears as though she’s never going to leave, especially after she gets bit by that mysterious bug…

TRIVIA

Part of the first season of Masters of Horror.

Lucky McKee of The Woods and May directed Sick Girl and co-wrote the screenplay.

THOUGHTS

Maybe it’s different for lesbians, but man did that relationship move fast. After one date, Misty’s moving into Ida’s apartment. If I went on a first date and the guy never left, I’d be more than a little concerned. Of course that might say something about me and my views on relationships more than anything!

Sick Girl is a quirky little addition to the Masters of Horror series. A good portion of the movie has absolutely nothing to do with horror movies. You have Ida being a dork, talking about her bad luck in relationships, meeting a girl and then their new relationship. There’s little hints that some type of horror is going on behind the scenes, but it’s not nearly enough. It takes far too long for the horror to start and then it’s fairly lame. Sorry about the poor little doggy, but I could really care less about him. The last 10 minutes or so really get going and then Sick Girl turns into a horror movie, but by then it’s too late.

Bad title, not too bad of a movie.

PLOT

Angie is a good little Catholic girl who leaves behind her preachy mom to go to community college in the big city, where she promptly moves in with a stoner girl. She keeps seeing posters for a missing girl up on campus, but doesn’t pay it much mind. When she sees an ad for a babysitter, her roommate points out that it’s out in the country and far from campus, but Angie doesn’t mind because she has a car. She ends up taking the job to watch Sam, the son of Jim and Violet. She also keeps running into Rick, a nice Catholic boy who gives her a ride to work when her car dies and then goes back to fix it. When she starts babysitting, things seem weird. The kid eats raw (rare) meat for dinner and she keeps getting weird phone calls from someone, plus she can’t find anything in the house because it’s being remodeled. When Rick calls to tell her he’s on his way, she’s happy. That is until someone weird starts following Rick and someone even weirder forces his way inside the house…

TRIVIA

Matt Dallas as Rick and Bruce Thomas as Jim both appeared on “Kyle XY”.

Kristen Dalton (Violet) had a major role on “The Dead Zone”.

Sarah Thompson as Angie has her own television horror history, with a starring role on the last season of “Angel”.

THOUGHTS

When will babysitters learn that if they don’t have a working car, they shouldn’t take a job? Seriously, it only took me one horror movie to learn that. If the bad buy/killer/rapist shows up, I’m getting in my car and leaving, forget the poor little kid. Babysitter Wanted though is a little weird. It goes one way and then flips everything around. You think it’s going to be another basic girl trapped in a house babysitting/psycho outside kind of story and then *boom*, it goes in a completely different way. Surprisingly enough when it gets to that twist, it actually gets a lot more interesting. I thought Babysitter Wanted was going to such pretty hardcore, but it surprised me by being pretty good. I was in the mood for a bad horror movie and I was surprised when I ended up with a fairly good straight to DVD movie.

Christina Ricci as a werewolf?

PLOT

Ellie works for a late night talk show host, while also trying to raise her geeky teenage brother Jimmy after their parents die. Shannon Elizabeth (no clue if her character has a name) goes to a psychic who sees blood, but she blows the lady off. Later that night, she’s attacked by a wolf and when Ellie and Jimmy attempts to help her, they’re both bitten too. Jimmy realizes right away that they’re now werewolves, but Ellie thinks he’s crazy. Instead she focuses on her boyfriend Jake who seems to be pulling away instead of the fact that she craves blood, has an enhanced sense of smell, their dog won’t come near them and her brother wakes up naked in the woods. She also has to contend with Joanie, the publicist for Scott Baio who just won’t leave her alone.

TRIVIA

The original movie was rated R, but Wes Craven was forced to cut it down to a PG-13 rating.

Actors who were originally cast and dropped out because of script problems and filming delays included Corey Feldman, Mandy More, Omar Epps, Skeet Ulrich and Illeana Douglas.

THOUGHTS

Sue me, but I actually kind of like this movie. I saw it a long time ago when I went on a trip with my then boyfriend and he had to attend a business meeting, leaving me with free HBO and little else. I actually only saw the ending, but then caught it later that night and made my horror movie hating other half sit through the whole thing. He drooled over Ricci the whole time, but I was drooling over Josh Jackson so it all evened out.

The movie actually has a few good scenes such as Ricci sucking Craig Kilbourne’s finger and the look he gives her is excellent. Plus you have Judy Greer who is great as the uptight blonde bitch who once slept with Ellie’s boyfriend and now just wants to get Baio on television. “Do you know who I had to blow to get you in here?” she asks Baio when he complains about being stuck at the party. His response, “Who do I have to blow to get out of here?” is just as funny. This movie may not go down in history as one of Craven’s best, but I still like it for some reason.