Frightmare(1983) – This Troma Team Release was one of legendary horror actor Jeffrey Combs first films. I’ve been trying to see every horror film Jeffrey Combs has been in and Netflix instant streaming came to the rescue on this one.
Frightmare centers around Conrad Radzoff, an invented horror movie legend perfectly played by actor Ferdy Mayne. Radzoff has a commanding presence, but he’s not the nicest guy. The old actor passes away and is kept in a mausoleum turned shrine complete with large TV screen inside and flashing neon lights on the outside. A group of film students who are huge fans of Radzoff break into the mausoleum and steal his body. Why? They just want to have a memorable evening with the film legend. The students sit Radzoff’s corpse at the dinner table with them while they eat, they dance with him, take photographs with him, one girl even lovingly kisses him on the mouth. In the meantime, the police are looking for the missing body and Radzoff’s widow is freaking out. In hopes of locating the missing body she has a psychic communicate to Radzoff from beyond the grave. Up to this point the film has a pretty interesting storyline, I mean I didn’t really care a lot about any of the characters other than Radzoff but it was still keeping my interest. The film then became a teeny bit sluggish. Radzoff comes back from the grave for revenge and obliterates the students one by one. The kills are not very gory, bloody, or terribly original. My personal favorite involved a coffin floating through the air chasing a girl. The ending of any horror film is huge for me, and I really liked how Frightmare ended.
“He was terrifying in life, but even more so in death.”
Overall, Frightmare is for B movie for horror fans who have not lost their sense of humor. It’s also cool to see a very young Jeffrey Combs, even though his role was pretty small.
Bone Eater (2007) – I’m very surprised at this DVD cover, because nothing remotely that interesting happened in the film. Why did I bother watching this you ask? I was lured in by the title I mean Bone Eater is a very cool title. That and the fact I will watch anything the syfy channel broadcasts. So what can I say about this film? It was extremely forgettable. The Bone Eater itself was kinda sorta cool. It was a giant half human half animal looking skelton that turns people to dust and devoured their bones. When he wanted to catch people on motorcycles the Bone Eater made himself a bone horse to ride so he could catch the people and then eat their bones……………..I might be making this sound much better than it really was and that really isn’t my intention. I like my readers so I won’t bore y0u with a plot summary. In truth, I found both the dialogue and the storyline tiresome. Even Bruce Boxleitner couldn’t bring any life to this film. I’m also not entirely certain how this film wouldn’t be somewhat offensive to Native Americans. You’ve been warned! Save yourselves!
Welcome to Pleasant Valley! 2001 Maniacs (2005), directed by Tim Sullivan, is an extremely entertaining horror comedy with rednecks, cannibalism, gratuitous nudity, many gory yet very imaginitive kills, and the always superb Robert Englund. In other words this movie is awesome! The sequel with Bill Moseley is being released on DVD July 20th so it seemed like an opportune time to revisit this favorite.
Basically, a couple carloads of college kids and a couple on a motorbike take a detour that leads them right to the little town of Pleasant Valley, population 2001. The entire town warmly welcomes them and the visitors are invited to spend the weekend in Pleasant Valley to celebrate the annual Guts and Glory Festival and Barbecue. The town and the townspeople seem like they are from another time period, yet the offer of free lodging and alcohol to a group of college kids is irresistible. Not to mention all of the very flirtatious and scantily clad women walking around. The down home country charm starts to wear off once the visitors realize their friends are disappearing. It’s probably obvious to you what the towns folk plan on cooking at the barbecue. That being said, all of the kills are nicely spaced out with plenty of campy tasteless humor and sex to fill in the gaps. Robert Englund as the friendly but sinister mayor leads a impressive cast that includes Lin Shaye as Granny Boone and Giuseppe Andrews as the seemingly well mannered southern gentlemen Harper Alexander. Also look for cameos by Peter Stormare, Eli Roth, and Kane Hodder. I’m really looking forward to the sequel. With Tim Sullivan directing and the addition of Bill Moseley to the cast 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams has the potential of being another great horror comedy.
I love both Peter Stormare and Jason Flemyng, and I’d been wanting to see Bruiser (2000) for awhile. Not to mention I’ve been trying to see all of George A.Romero‘s films, and Bruiserwas conveniently free to watch on FearNet.
Jason Flemyng plays Henry, a hardworking sweetheart of a guy who is betrayed and lied to on a regular basis. He has brief moments where he imagines himself acting out in violence towards those who mistreat him. In reality, he never sticks up for himself or confronts anyone. Eventually he actually loses his identity. His face transforms into a featureless white mask (it is very creepy to me that you can’t see his eyes). His personality changes, and he eventually exacts revenge on those who have wronged him.
The movie spends plenty of time making certain you feel bad for Henry and at the same time feel complete disdain for Henry’s boss Milo (Peter Stormare). Milo is a wealthy, rude, overindulgent sleaze, who treats everyone badly. The people who work for Milo simply refer to him as “the ass hole”. I’m not the best person to say if Stormare did a good job because I always like him, no matter how over the top or subdued he is in a role. I’m certain some would disagree with me, but I really did not mind the slower pace of the film. In fact I really enjoyed the time spent getting to know the characters, especially Henry and Milo. I did think the death scenes were pretty unoriginal. So much time was spent showing Henry as this weakling, and you think once he becomes anonymous he is going to go completely crazy and finally kick some ass. But not really, only sort of. This only really bothered me the first time I watched it. I still really enjoyed Bruiser and even watched it a second time to see both Flemyng and Stormare. I will probably watch it again, ya know to see Flemyng and Stormare.
I love Mega Snake (2007)! I can’t help it. Think what you will. Over the years I’ve probably seen damn near every Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie ever made and a lot of them are fairly forgettable once they are over (doesn’t stop me from watching though). Mega Snake, on the other hand, is both memorable and fun.
It starts out 20 years ago in a church full of snake handlers. Young Les and his brother Duff watch helplessly as their father dies after a poisonous snake bite. Nobody in the congregation helps even though little Les is screaming “Help him! Call a doctor!” 20 years later Les (Michael Shanks) grows up to be an EMT afraid of snakes, and Duff (John T. Woods) is annoying and buys poisonous snakes for snake wranglers at the Holiest Fire Church of Christ. In search of two deadly carolina pygmies, Duff goes to a shop where you can conveniently get both a tattoo and a deadly snake. The shop is run by Leonard Screamin’ Hawk, a no nonsense Native American that lets Duff know exactly how annoying he is. Leonard has one particular snake that is not for sale, because it is really super deadly and sacred. This snake has a very cool Native American name that I cannot really pronounce or spell, but basically it is a really awesome snake that has rules you must obey. Kind of like a mogwai but different.
Never let the snake out of the jar
Never let the snake eat anything living
Never fear the heart of the snake
So, Duff takes off with the snake, breaks the first rule and a series of events lead to the creation of Mega Snake. There is also an amusing side story with Les and his inability to have a committed relationship with his dream girl Erin (Siri Baruc). Many of the characters are entertaining exagerated sterotypes. My favorites are the hilarious hillbillies who load up a pick-up truck full of make shift weapons then proceed to drive around playing loud rock music in attempt to lure Mega Snake to them. Also good is the chauvinistic know it all park ranger Big Bo (Todd Jensen) who doesn’t believe Mega Snake exists until it eats several of his co-workers. Another highlight of the film is when Mega Snake goes to the county fair and bites the heads off of people while they are riding carnival rides. Timing really is everything.
In the end Mega Snake is as big as a dinosaur. Can a man afraid of snakes have the courage to take on Mega Snake?
Frightmare
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4b046e8d-da9c-4f9c-aec8-2dca0b1bd337)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4fe72764-d756-4125-ad8e-a2a0a4c4082a)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=33522b59-b97f-4926-befd-5a10d17c9f61)
for awhile. Not to mention I’ve been trying to see all of 
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=2d2c8b67-b865-4f01-9150-266677d20c3d)
(2007)! I can’t help it. Think what you will. Over the years I’ve probably seen damn near every 
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e4c3b5fe-d779-4724-b9fc-4a6395eada80)
