31 days of Horror part 4: Citizens on Patrol

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Day 2 (thanks insomnia): Blood Freak.

Holy shit, this is some kind of masterpiece. More films should have narration by good old boys hacking up their guts while smoking and turkey headed mutant killers.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I tried to watch The Changeling and just couldn't get into it. So I watched Red Scorpion for the first time instead. They're similar movies if you think about it.

Carry on.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Title-The Amityville Exorcism
Source-Digital Copy

This is a film I didn't know about. Hell I would have never even seen it. But thanks to a friend that I know through a now defunct horror forum I got sent a digital screener.

I knew going in that this is one of the many indie horror films that use the Amityville name to get the film some press and word of mouth. And that the film wasn't part of the official Amityville franchise. So when I started up the file I had my expectations very low.

Then I saw it was released by Wild Eye Releasing. I am sure Wild Eye tries their best with the resources they have...but every film I have seen from them was bad. Like barely a step above a SyFy original movie bad. Then to my horror/amusement I saw the film was directed and produced by Mark Polonia. The now only living member of the infamous DTV film making Polonia brothers. If you look back at previous 31 days of Horror I have covered the first film from the Polonia brothers that got a wide release. A film shot when they were both teens and a film that became a infamous gore film. One of the earliest straight to VHS horror films Splatter Farm.

After seeing Mark Polonia's name I paused the film to look up some info on it. And found out that Amityville Death House,another of the unofficial Amityville sequels and one I have wanted to see for a few years cause of this great poster it has...

Come on after seeing that cover,I couldn't find a good copy of the poster,and seeing that Biloxi Mississippi's own Eric Roberts is in the film I had to see it. So this is Mark Polonia's second Amityville movie. Maybe that means he will make a good movie.

Sadly he didn't make a good movie.A Catholic priest,who's brother died trying to exorcism the Amityville house,now has to help a family deal with demonic possession. I am guessing this brother is suppose to be the priest that shows up in the late 70s Amityville Horror film.

Now the Amityville series became known for how in the later sequels the ways the evil spirits got from the original house to where ever the sequels were set being usually pretty dumb. There is one were a lamp from the original house is the conduit for the evil spirits attacking a new family. And another were it is a possessed mirror,IIRC that is Amityville part 7 and it is one of the better films in the franchise. So who ever wrote the script to Amityville Exorcism took the fad of reclaimed lumber and has this new family being bothered by evil spirits cause the father is a carpenter and he has used reclaimed lumber from the Amityville house in the new home he has built his family. This is a cheesy idea that could actually work well with a good script,good acting and good effects work. Yea this film is missing all three.

Lets talk about the FX. The demon looks like someone in a cheap red cloak that was bought at the Dollar Tree after Halloween sale.And the mask the demon is wearing is barely a step above those horrible Ben Cooper half face plastic mask lots of us Generation X kids wore in the late 70s thru the mid 80s. The prosthetic make up work looks like someone took dollar store playdough and let it harden for weeks.

The film looks like it might have been shot using a crew members 2 year old iPhone. And I was pretty sure that is what they used. Then in one scene I caught the reflection of a camera mounted on a tripod.

The film starts off with Charles in a mental hospital.He is about to be executed for killing his family. And starts telling the priest giving him last rites that Charles was possessed. All because of that damn reclaimed wood from the Amityville house. Damn you all those house flipping shows. Making the general public believe that reclaimed wood isn't evil and a product of Satan. Charles begs the priest to go help out the other families living in homes that also contain some of this Satanic reclaimed lumber.

Yep the movie is as bad as it sounds. Usually when I get screeners,which isn't that often, after watching the film I will either decide to keep it. Or if I don't enjoy the movie just give the copy to one of the members of my friends and family that loves horror. I did neither with Amityville Exorcism. This movie is so bad I was worried if I gave to someone that knew me they might get possessed by that reclaimed lumber and try to come kill me. So once the film was over. And I managed to take my brain ,which had been turned to mush by how bad the film was,and get it back into my head I quickly deleted the file and sent a message to the person that hooked me up with the screener. Asking them what I had ever done to them to deserve such punishment.

Amityville Exorcism gets a F.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Title-The Amityville Haunting
Source-DVRed off one of the movie channels

7 years ago the gang at The Asylum,best known for the popular Sharknado franchise,went where many indy film studios have been. They made an unofficial entry in the long running Amityville series of films. Some of the Asylums films can be fun. With a few of them being actually pretty good. And most horror fans know what to expect from a horror film from The Asylum. You usually get cheesy CGI effects work. At least a few cameos from B,or lower,level celebs. Plus the Asylum tries to get at least one main cast member who is a name. Sure it might be someone like Vanessa "I peaked with Weird Science the TV show" Angel. Or Jerrry O'Connell's brother. This time they got no one. Looking thru the cast at IMDB most of them haven't done jacksquat before or after this film.

It seems that this film was made to ride on the coattails of a film that never got made.At the 2011 Cannes film festival the Weinsteins announced an upcoming found footage Amityville film,The Amityville Horror the Lost Tapes. This film was never made and kinda morphed into 2014s,released finally in 2017 and reviewed here as on the first day of October 2018,Amityville:The Awakening. The Asylum,before Sharknado became a hit,was best known for making so called Mockbusters. Say a new Transformers movie was hitting theaters. The Asylum would make Transmorphers,with a cover and poster that at a quick glance looks like the Transformers poster. Then either a week before ,the week of,or the week after Transformers hit theaters,Transmorphers would hit DVD and air as a SyFy Channel original. Banking on two types of people to watch/rent/buy the film. The first type isn't the brightest and looks at the cover fast and thinks they have just found a movie that is still in theaters ,or in some cases not in theaters yet,for rent. The second type is the film fan that loves watching a shitty movie with friends and cracking jokes about it.

The film feels like whoever wrote the script had not even seen the original Amityville Horror. And besides the name and a ghost named ,in the credits only,after Ronald Defeo jr,there is no connection to the Amityville franchise.What we end up with is a badly done low budget rip off of the Paranormal Activity series of films.

When watching this movie I keep having a nagging feeling I had seen it before. But was wondering where I had seen it. Then it clicked. A light bulb went off over my head and I figured it out. Back in 2011 my cousin had gotten a new TV.It was a smart TV. And she wanted to watch a horror movie using her new subscription to Netflix. Like me she had seen a few of the earlier films in the Amityville franchise. We started the film with her,her husband and two kids watching it with me. After 20 minutes both the kids were bored and wanted to go play video games. At about the 40 minute mark her husband go on his phone and started messing around with his fantasy football team. Her and I were the only ones to really watch it to the end.

Now having seen it two times I can say this isn't the worst Amityville film I have seen. That would be Amityville Exorcism. Which I reviewed earlier this month. But Amityville Haunting is barely better than Amityville Exorcism.

The Amityville Haunting gets a D-

[Ignatius Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ignatius]

Day 3: Lucio Fulci's Murder Rock

On the plus side: some interesting visual ideas and a couple flashes of atmosphere. On the minus side: everything else. This really is quite awful, and while the first half manages to sustain itself for a while on goofy dancing, OTT lighting schemes, and '80s genre absurdity, it quickly wears thin. Fulci's contempt for the material is obvious, and his handling of the story is laughably incompetent. Even among a swamp of red herrings, the film not only manages to telegraph the identity of the murderer early on, but their entire motivation as well! It doesn't help that the twist is a deeply stupid variation on the ending of one of Fulci's best films.

It's not hard to believe that the director of this clunky mess would go on to be responsible for (part of) Zombi 3.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Day 3: The Belko Experiment

That was fun. Seriously glad that I no longer work in an office and that we have tough gun laws here, otherwise I'd be seriously tempted to go postal.

[Alex K. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Alex K.]

I saw Belko Experiment last year. Fun picture.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

On October 1st I watched Deadbeat At Dawn, which isn't really a horror picture.

Last night I watched The Exorcist II, which also isn't really a horror picture.

I think I suck at this.

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

On October 1st I watched Deadbeat At Dawn, which isn't really a horror picture.

Last night I watched The Exorcist II, which also isn't really a horror picture.

I think I suck at this.

I may be even worse at it, the only horror stuf I've watched this month were the Rifftrax versions of Mutant and Doctor X.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Last night I watched The Exorcist II

'Kokumo? Non.... ... ... Kokumo?' Cracks me up every time. My other favourite bit is where James Earl Jones spits out the leopard and the camera zooms into a shot of a leopard's head, complete with visible zoo cage in the background.

[Ignatius Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ignatius]

Day 4: Mark of the Devil

Another one of those films I should have seen years ago, but it's never had any kind of release here in NZ and I never got around to importing one of the uncut US discs. Strangely enough, it's far less gruesome than I expected. The violence is certainly there, and in some detail, but the approach is actually quite restrained. In spite of the way Mark of the Devil has always been advertised, it's clear that Michael Armstrong was trying to make a fairly thoughtful film about the way violence is used to maintain power, and the danger of assuming that righteous ends justify any means. Well, he was certainly trying - unfortunately hasty scripting, a low budget, poor dubbing, and a dysfunctional production result in a rather messy film. The first twenty minutes are dire, though things perk up tremendously once Herbert Lom arrives. Once the torture gets going the film becomes surprisingly effective (the bluntness with which the film states its themes pairs appropriately with the bluntness of the torture scenes) but it all falls apart again at the end. Wanting to have it both ways, the film attempts to give the audience both a rousing revolt against the forces of evil as well as downbeat tragedy and it just doesn't fly.

As mentioned, the casting of Herbert Lom helps to salvage many of the weaker moments, and the presence of great faces like Udo Kier and Reggie Nalder help a lot as well, even though the voice actors dubbing them are godawful. Gaby Fuchs also does a tremendous job transforming into a broken shell of a human being. I love the music as well. It doesn't always match the mood of scenes perfectly, but it's great stuff.

I was thinking of maybe watching Mark of the Devil: Part II, but agent999 has made me wary. I might give it a go later in the month if I'm feeling masochistic.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

was thinking of maybe watching Mark of the Devil: Part II, but agent999 has made me wary. I might give it a go later in the month if I'm feeling masochistic.

I found it really dull compared to the first one, but it does have Reggie Nalder doing his thing (before his head shrunk down to the size of a pin in those Marshak movies).

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

Day 4: Hitcher in the Dark

...or Cosby's RV.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Day 4

Title-Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon
Source-DVD-r recording of the original TV airing.

It was few years ago I finally got to see Svengoolie for the first time. Sven has been a horror host in the Chicago greater area for decades now. And thanks to him getting a slot on MeTV,Saturday nights at 8pm central,Svengoolie is one of the few horror hosts that has nationwide TV. Until earlier this year I didn't MeTV.Dish network wasn't carrying it in my area. And I would have to spend a bit over 100 bucks for an antenna to get the channel. So I had a friend that got the show that would record the episodes to DVDs then mail me boxes of DVDs a few times a year.

Ever since I have been watching Sven on MeTV he shows horror films from the Universal library. Which I do enjoy cause Universal has made some great horror films. I know that before Sven was on MeTV he was airing films from many different studios. But until I was sent this DVD I had no idea he had ever did a Twilight Zone mini marathon.

The show starts off like most episodes of Svengoolie does. We get some info about what we are about to watch. Sven cracks some bad jokes and the movie starts. This time instead of a film we get 4 episodes of from the original run of the science ficiton anthology classic The Twilight Zone.

Growing up my parents would tell me all the time about the Twilight Zone. Even at a young age I was into horror. Not long after Twilight Zone the Movie had come out one of the local UHF channels started airing the classic Twilight Zone episodes every night at 10pm. Even though at the time my bedtime was 10pm,my parents would most nights let me stay up to watch Twilight Zone. It wasn't long after this that the 80s Twilight Zone series started up. And I was so happy. Not only did I get 5 episodes off the classic show each week,but I also got a new episodes each week.

So what episodes is Sven showing us the loyal viewers? The first one is the infamous "Wish you into the cornfield" episode. Starring a young Bill Mumy this one is about a young boy who has God like powers. It is considered one of the best episodes of the original run. And was even remade as part of the previously mentioned Twilight Zone the Movie.

The second episode is one that I don't remember seeing as a kid. I think the first time I saw it was during one of SyFy Channels New Years Twilight Zone marathons. It is titled,I think,Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.Our lead has her head wrapped in bandages. And we find out she has had surgery to "make her no so ugly". Of course near the end of the episode the bandages are removed and we see our lead is played by Ellie May Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies who is far from being an ugly woman. It is after this reveal that we noticed that all through out this episode we never saw anyone's face. They were always in shadow or blocked by something. When the other peoples' faces are revealed we see that everyone has this weird deformed pig like face.

The third episode is another one that is considered a classic. Starring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner it is about a man who has had some mental issues. He is flying and sees what at first he thinks is a man on the airplane wing. But this is no man. It is one of the gremlins some fighter pilots in the big war claimed to have seen. The Shat starts freaking out cause he is sure this creature is damaging the planes wing and engine. Like the first episode in this Sven mini marathon this one was also redone in Twilight Zone the movie. It was the last story in the film. With John Lithgow in the role Shatner played. It is one that I saw the original episode after having seen the film. Which explains why while I get why this episode is considered a classic to me cause of how cheesy the suit the gremlin is wearing I prefer the version from Twilight Zone the Movie.

The final episode is another I didn't see until the Syfy marathons. We got a group of older men that hang out at the local general store. One of whom is Floyd the Barber of Andy Griffith fame. The lead guy is able to weave a fairly entertaining tall tale about his time in the war. He ends up getting kidnapped by some aliens. Then discovers a weakness the aliens have. Lets just say that I get the feeling Tim Burton got the idea for the Martians in the Mars Attacks film's weakness from this episode.

Out of the four episodes included in this Svengoolie Twilight Zone Mini Marathon 3 of them are episodes I would consider some of the best the original Twilight Zone produced. But that final episode is just not that good. It has a decent cast and a good idea. But the execution fails.

Still this was a fun watch. I got to see 3 great episodes of TZ. Plus got to see the ads and stuff from Sven's non-MeTV show. There is even a commercial for the midnight airings of Sven's old shows. If anyone reading this has copies of the pre-MeTV episodes of Svengoolie please leave a comment. I am more than willing to pay you for copies of these episodes.

Svengoolie's Twilight Zone Marathon gets a A-.

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

10 years ago when I first saw 28 DAYS LATER I enjoyed it. It didn't hold up as well as I expected. I love the first 15 minutes. It is unsettling seeing Jim walking around a deserted London. That said the digital look took me a long time to get used to and by then I started losing interest. Once the film gets to the soldiers I'm ready to check out. It's a good film, well worth seeing once, but when you know the outcome the budget limitations or look of the film kept it from having any punch. Not sure I dig any of the endings. Love the soundtrack.

I'm not sure THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR makes a lot of sense but I enjoyed myself quite a bit. Its never boring and ends before it overstays its welcome. Pleasance has some cools moments and I do enjoy the many glimpses Suzanna Love's titties. It's a bit surreal seeing one of "The Bob's" (Office Space) being a total sleaze. Cool film.