Don’t Answer the Phone while Going into the House in the Woods…
Don’t Answer the Phone – 1980, US, 94m. Director: Robert Hammer. Streaming: N/A Don’t Go in the House – 1980, US, 82m, 92m (integral cut). Director: Joseph Ellison. Streaming: Roku Channel, Tubi Don’t Go in the Woods – 1981, US,…
The Curse, The Dead Pit, Ghoulies, and Prom Night
The Curse – 1987, Italy/US, 92m. Director: David Keith. Streaming: Tubi The Dead Pit – 1989, US, 95m. Director: Brett Leonard. Streaming: AMC/Prime, Shudder Ghoulies – 1985, US, 81m. Director: Luca Bercovici. Streaming: Tubi Prom Night – 1980, Canada/US, 92m.…
Luther the Geek, Maximum Overdrive, and Phenomena
LUTHER THE GEEK (1989) After 25 years inside, convicted murderer—and obvious psychopath—Luther Watts (Edward Terry), who uses homemade dentures to chomp his victims, is released for being a model prisoner. Minutes later, Luther viciously kills an elderly woman and then…
Parents, Puppet Master, Rabid Grannies, and Rawhead Rex
PARENTS (1989) Committing to neither the horror nor comedy aspects of horror-comedy, Parents is a curious movie that skates the border of its genres by being consistently weird. In the 1950s, a morose kid, Michael (Bryan Madorsky), moves into a…
Ghostwatch, The Vampire’s Ghost, and White Zombie
GHOSTWATCH (1992) Before The Blair Witch Project came this superlative journey into home video horror, in which the crew of a BBC television series airs a live show from a reportedly haunted house in North London. Real-life TV personality, Sarah…
Evil Dead Rise, First Man into Space, and Uncle Sam
EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) Another Evil Dead reboot to emerge after the 2013 remake failed to reignite the franchise, this appropriately gnarly reimagining of the original 1981 horror classic moves the action to Los Angeles, where the teens of a…
The Pope’s Exorcist, Scream VI, and Son of Frankenstein
THE POPE’S EXORCIST (2023) Taking a stab at the “based on real case files” scenario The Conjuring made popular ten years earlier, The Pope’s Exorcist delivers a “true” chapter out of Father Gabriel Amorth’s (Russell Crowe) book of paranormal activity.…
Antibirth, Doom Asylum, and Nightwish
DOOM ASYLUM (1988) Friday the 13th by way of John Waters, this garish—but quite funny—comedy-horror centers on young Kiki (future Frankenhooker Patty Mullens) and her quartet of cartoonish friends who take a day trip to an abandoned hospital where the…
The Blood-Spattered Bride, Don’t Torture a Duckling, and Nomads
NOMADS (1986) An interesting, if not fully successful, tale of a French anthropology professor (Pierce Brosnan) who passes his life force (I think) to a medical doctor (Lesley-Anne Down) right before he dies in an L.A. hospital. Soon after, the…