Horror Queen

Easy to forget.

PLOT

Charles and his mom Mary move to a small town where they keep the secret that they’re sleepwalkers. Charles meets a girl named Tanya and falls “in like”, but also wants to drain her life force and give it to his mom. On their first date he attacks Tanya and she fights him off. A cop shows up and even though Charles kills him, the cop’s cat attacks Charles (because cats can kill sleepwalkers, don’t you know?). Charles gets home just in time to die and his mother decides to avenge his death by killing Tanya’s family and using her life force to save her son.

TRIVIA

Written by Stephen King.

Featured cameos from King, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, John Landis and Joe Dante.

Directed by Mick Garris who also directed several other King adaptations.

THOUGHTS

I had a thought about Sleepwalkers the other day, which is that a lot of people have seen it, but not a lot of people remember it. The one thing I remember is the scene involving corn on the cob used as a murder weapon, which was so completely unique that I never forgot about it. Other than that, I tend to forget about it. I think part of the reason is the insane logic and rules involving the sleepwalkers. It would work great as one of King’s novels, but it doesn’t translate well on screen and it makes things too hard to follow. I own it because it’s a Stephen King adaptation, but I usually forget about it.

Yes I did watch it.

PLOT

Jamie keeps calling her grandma, but the woman never answers and messages disappear. She decides to visit the woman’s apartment, but finds that the whole block is empty and most of the apartments in the building are empty since the residents received an eviction notice. She spends time with a stripper Tiffany and a man Jerry, neighbors of her grandma. When she starts seeing a little boy and girl hanging around and a corn field on the property, she seeks help from a cop. Eventually she learns that the complex was built right on top of property once used by the Children of the Corn.

TRIVIA

The last sequel to Children of the Corn.

Crystal Lowe appeared as Tiffany in the movie before turns in Black Christmas, Wrong Turn 2, Final Destination 3 and the upcoming Case 39.

THOUGHTS

I think with the exception of part 6, I’ve reviewed all the Children of the Corn movies on here so you knew it was just a matter of time until I got to this one. If I remember right, I found a set of the last two sequels for around $10 a few years ago so that must explain why I own them both. Of course I forgot about it until I found this one sitting on the shelf (yes, I do have that many movies). Obviously this movie is bad, but probably not as bad as you might think. My boyfriend and neighbor watched it with me and they rolled their eyes the whole time, but neither got up and walked away. So yeah, it’s not that great, but not that bad either.

Lame, but not too bad.

PLOT

Three drug dealers stop by the Simms’ Funeral Home to buy drugs from Mr. Simms, the owner. He takes the boys inside and tells them stories relating to each of the people inside the coffins on display. One story involves a cop who saw his white cop friends beat and kill a black man and cover up his death. Another story involves a teacher who worries that one of his students is being beaten at home, but learns that the truth is much worse. The next story covers a racist senator who uses the home of a former voodoo witch as his base of operations, only to learn that she left a present behind for him. The last story centers around a gang member who is caught and sent to prison where he gets some unusual therapy.

TRIVIA

The soundtrack for Tales from the Hood reached #1 and #16 on the Billboard charts.

THOUGHTS

I’ve seen Tales from the Hood at least a dozen times over the years, ever since I first found it back in the mid-90s. For some reason the movie has never gotten old and I’ve never got sick of it. The story involving the dolls is a little lame and doesn’t seem to fit with the movie and the ending to the teacher story is more humorous than scary. However the wraparound story is great and I love that it actually has an ending and that they keep returning to it so you remember what’s going on and who the characters are. It’s not a movie that a lot of people have seen, but it’s still pretty good.

Round 2 begins.

PLOT

Earl from Tremors is just kind of trying to live his life and raise his ostriches when a Mexican businessman and his cohort appear on his doorstep. The tremor creatures have returned and are terrorizing an oilfield in Mexico. Grady, the cohort tells him that for every one of the creatures they kill, the guys will get $50,000 so naturally he decides to go. Earl gets even happier when he meets geologist named Kate and more happy when they kill 15 of the tremors. He eventually calls in Burt from the first movie (aka Mr. Keaton) who agrees to help him. Things start to change when the group realizes that these tremors are creating a new breed of animal…

TRIVIA

Tremors 2 was actually better received in some areas than the first movie.

THOUGHTS

I know that I’ve seen this movie before, but when I actually started watching Tremors 2, I realized that I didn’t remember anything about it except that Earl came back. Then I saw Burt and got all excited because he was one of my favorite characters from the first movie. In all honesty, it’s actually not that bad of a movie. Granted it has some truly cheesy moments, but it’s all in good fun. In fact I’ve put off watching the rest of the sequels because I’m afraid that they’ll leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Damn you Wal-Mart!

PLOT

Valentine and Earl are two handymen working in Perfection, Nevada who just want to get out. On their way out of town they find a dead man and then find even more dead bodies. When they try to leave again, a landslide closes off the only exit out. They then discover the dead body of what looks like an oversize snake on their car. Finally they discover the Tremors, though they refer to them as Graboids. Rhonda, a grad student working on unusual findings in the area discovers that there are three more of the tremors in the desert and the whole town of a dozen people (including the dad from Family Ties and Reba MyIntyre) have to band together to battle the creatures.

TRIVIA

Supposedly there is yet another sequel to the movie in the works. This one will be entitled Tremors: The Thunder Down Under.

This is one of the only horror movies to launch its own spin-off television series, known as Tremors: The Series (very original fellas).

THOUGHTS

You’ll probably notice that I don’t do a lot of creature type movies here on the Horror Queen, but Wal-Mart got me again. I went in just planning to buy some groceries and ended up leaving with the Tremors 4-pack, but for only $13, I won’t complain too much. It’s been a long (long) time since I’ve seen the first two movies and I’ve never seen the last two so it’s been an interesting experience. Tremors was actually a fairly good movie and not nearly as cheesy as I remembered. I liked it enough that I plan on picking up another set and stocking it away for Christmas since my dad loves these kind of movies.

Ah, such sorrow.

PLOT

Bill is super excited about his new wife Claire and step-son Jimmy. He moves them into a new house along with his young daughter Jessica and teenage son Todd. He discovers a dollhouse in the garage that just so happens to look exactly like the house from Amityville. After the car “accidentally” runs over the bike they bought for Jessica’s birthday, they decide to give her the dollhouse instead. His sister Marla and husband Tobias show up and immediately decide that there’s something wrong with it. Jessica loves it, but she starts feeling sick that same day. Strange things start happening too, like Jimmy’s mouse turning into a huge animal that Todd accidentally kills and the step mom going after her stepson. Yet no one wants to blame the dollhouse…

TRIVIA

The last straight to DVD/video chapter in the Amityville series.

THOUGHTS

This one was really scrapping the barrel in terms of the Amityville connection. We don’t even get a backstory about how the dollhouse was taken from the house or owned by a former resident, nothing. It just happens to look like the original house so it’s naturally evil. This was also about the time when straight to video horror movies had to have some type of soft core sex, so here we get two of them. The sad thing is that I not only own this on DVD, but I also owned it on video. It’s got some good scenes in it and it’s actually not a terrible movie. Fortunately it was the last time they tried to milk the Amityville name.

My Lifetime obsession rears its ugly head.PLOT

A girl meets with her fiancé and checks out her amazing new ring, but he reminds her that she can’t have it until the rehearsal dinner the next day. After the rehearsal and charming his family, she packs up her paintings and runs off in the middle of the night. She learns that a ticket to New York is more expensive than she can afford so she ends up killing a girl in the bathroom and stuffing her body in the girl’s suitcase. She takes over the girl Brianne’s identity to get her plane ticket to Vermont, but is surprised at the airport by her college roommate Janelle. Forced to go to college, she learns of their amazing art program and decides to steal the girl’s identity. Once she learns about Janelle’s hunky and rich dad, she decides that’s not the only thing she wants to steal. She just doesn’t realize that her ex-fiancé Quinn is on the hunt for her…

TRIVIA

Shawnee Smith who has been in a shitload of horror movies stars here as Janelle, early on in her career.

THOUGHTS

There’s probably a lot of women and gay men around my age who remember and know this movie. Face of Evil is kind of a staple of Lifetime Channel movies in part because it stars Tracey Gold and in part because it involves a murderous woman without actually seeing a lot of murder. Given that it’s a TV movie, are you really surprised at the lack of on screen killing? Yet this movie actually has a few good scenes. The death of the counselor because of acid placed in her eye drops is something that should appear in dozens of other movies because it’s so unique. Face of Evil is a pretty bad TV movie, but it actually surprises you by having some good stuff.

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.

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!