BIOHAZARD (1985) The incomparable Fred Olen Ray—who has, as of this writing, directed over 100 movies—returned to the Ridley Scott inspirations he so brazenly tackled in The Alien Dead (1980) with this charming tale of a psychic and her alien monster. The world’s foremost medium (Angelique Pettyjohn) is used in a series of government-funded experiments to try and find intelligent life outside our solar system. Pettyjohn makes contact with an otherworldly creature that, along with its tentacled baby, finds its way to our planet and immediately starts killing people with its sharp claws. The Army wants to destroy the beast, but Pettyjohn senses the alien is scared and wishes to help it. The men tinker with guns, Pettyjohn slips out of her bra, and the gore flows freely as most of the cast have their faces sliced off. Cut rate by any standards, and lacking the inept charm of some of Ray’s other titles. The best scene has the alien tearing down and stomping on a poster of Spielberg’s E.T.
THE HOUSE OF USHER (1989) Newlywed Molly (Romy Windsor) becomes entangled in the lurid activities of the Usher clan after her husband is waylaid in a car accident. Trapped in the Usher estate, Molly must endure the sadistic nature of patriarch Roderick (Oliver Reed), who wants Molly for himself in order to carry on the family bloodline. Roderick later buries Molly’s husband alive, but not before tying down a man naked and forcing a rat to eat the guy’s dick off. There are also ghost children running around, disembodied hands that rip out of a wall, and a decrepit old fart (Donald Pleasance) who wears a glove with a power drill attached, which he uses on the maid’s face. A decapitated head, a body that gushes blood, and a hand found in a bassinet rounds out the gore in this not-so-subtle (and less accurate) adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story. A movie that’s high on stupidity, and low on sense.
PLAY DEAD (1983) Middle-aged spinster Hester (Yvonne De Carlo) turns to the dark arts for revenge years after a lover dumped her for Hester’s sister. After both sis and the lover die under mysterious circumstances, Hester unveils her Satanic plot by casting a spell on her pet Rottweiler, Greta, to kill her sister’s offspring. Greta pushes Hester’s nephew into traffic and splits his head wide open. The police question the niece (Stephanie Dunnam) about her brother’s death, while Hester frolics around her mansion sacrificing small animals for the Dark Lord. Once her plan has ceased—and Dunnam is driven insane and carried off to a mental hospital—Hester tries to dispose of the evidence only to get her throat ripped open by Greta, who runs off into the night to continue Satan’s work. Also released as Satan’s Dog, Play Dead is a forgettable entry in the short-lived killer mongrel subgenre of when-animals-attack pics.
