Black Christmas/ Terror Train

The Hole (2009)

 The Hole

Release Date: 2009

Rating: * * *

By John Engell December 5, 2012
  

If horror had a recognized hall of fame, Joe Dante would unarguably have the honor of being one of its inaugural inductees. The man is horror royalty. His resume boasts no less than three genre classics, "Piranha," "The Howling," and his crowning achievement, "Gremlins." My personal favorite of his films is the 1985 sci-fi family adventure "Explorers" starring a pre-"Stand By Me" River Phoenix, God rest his soul. But just because Dante already made his mark and his millions, didn't mean the man was content to walk away from the medium. After a five year span of infrequent activity, discounting his directing the wraparound story of the abysmal anthology "Trapped Ashes" and two episodes of the superb, but short-lived Showtime series "Masters of Horror," Dante made his return. Well sort of... Although "The Hole" was filmed in 2009, it didn't see the light of day domestically until this October. Something to do with distribution and after it did finally find a deal in the states, fans were dumped on with a disappointing release. Despite being filmed in 3-D, unknown Big Air Studios' wretched DVD is presented in only two dimensions and doesn't even include a commentary track for cripes sake.

But I digress, back to the movie. Single mother Susan (Teri Polo of "Meet the Parents") relocates her boys Dane and Lucas (Nathan Gamble of "The Mist") from the city to the burbs for a fresh start. Enter sexy next door neighbor girl Julie (PG-13 horror alum Haley Bennett, "The Haunting of Molly Hartley"). In the movies you move and a cute and curious coed shows up to help you unpack. In real life your new neighbors call the cops on you because your dog is barking too loud. But that is neither here nor there. It quick order, the unsupervised brothers and Julie begin to explore the house, where they happen upon a hole in the basement. Hidden beneath a heavily padlocked trapdoor, it's no ordinary hole. It's as dark as death and it seemingly has no bottom.

The premise of "The Hole" is an age old one. The hole is a Pandora's box of sorts. The unseen evil that resides in its blackness, feeds on its unwitting victim's fears. For Julie that dread surrounds the tragic and emotionally unresolved death of a childhood friend (Quinn Lord of the aforementioned "Trick 'r Treat" plays the deceased girl). Lucas has a much simpler fear, clowns, and Dane, he is scared their abusive father, who is responsible for their constant carousel of changing addresses, and who is freshly out of prison , may find the family. All their nightmares manifest themselves in different and disturbing ways. But when Dane's worst fear is realized and his brother is dragged down into the dark depths of the hole, he must decide to continue to run, or to finally stay and fight.

"The Hole" is a return to form from a true vet. Like Carpenter with "The Ward," Dante decided to direct a simple, but solid story with a marginal yet manageable amount of money. The result? A mostly positive supernatural tale, aided by slick photography, and a man familiar with his craft. Now if only we could get a proper release the way Dante intended the film to be seen. Here's hoping...

Deadly Friend (1986)

Deadly Friend

Release Date: 1986

Rating: * * *

By John Engell November 28, 2012
   
There have been more than a few famous robots featured prominently in film. There was R2-D2, Johnny Five, Optimus Prime…
One mechanical man you may not be familiar with is DD (voiced by Charles Fleischer, who is also responsible for giving life to Roger Rabbit), the brainchild of boy genius Paul Conway in Wes Craven’s little seen dramatic horror movie “Deadly Friend.”

Paul (Matthew Labyorteaux), his single mother, and his yellow marvel of artificial intelligence, move to small town USA so Paul can study at the local college.

Paul befriends the paperboy Tom (Michael Sharrett) and falls for Samantha (Kristy Swanson), the pretty, repressed girl next door who is abused by her alcoholic, sexually predatory father Harry.
On the night of October thirty-first, the trio with BB in tow, decide to pull an ill-fated prank on the shotgun carrying crazy across the street (played by Anne Ramsey of “The Goonies”). And after the lamest attempt at mischief in Halloween night history, (Samantha shaving cremes a car in the deserted street and the three juvenile delinquents trespass on said neighbor’s property apparently just to trick or treat), BB is blown to bits by the angry, bullish woman.

As grief stricken Paul attempts to cope with the loss of his best friend, Sam’s dear dad kills her in a drunken, jealous, fit of rage.
Catastrophes come in threes and Paul uses that big brain of his and resolves to steal Sam’s body from the hospital in hopes of reanimating it. After smuggling his love’s lifeless corpse to his garage, he goes all Frankenstein and implants the dead girl with the central computing chip from his destroyed robot. Sam is indeed resurrected, but she has become an abomination, an unnatural hybrid of woman and machine, intent on getting revenge on any who have wronged her or her metallic alter ego.

Long time Craven collaborator Tony Cecere coordinated the film’s stunts, which include a particularly gruesome, if not altogether impossible decapitation (or more appropriately, full on cranial explosion) by basketball. Charles Bernstein reunited with Craven to compose the film’s score.

“Deadly Friend,” like “Deadly Blessing” (see review here on Favorite Scary Movie Reviews) released five years prior, has an over-the-top “shock” ending that characterizes Craven’s early work. By all accounts, Craven loathed the ending of ANOES that the studio allegedly forced upon him, so I would be curious to know whether “Deadly Friend’s” ending was his work or some big-wig’s back-seat directing. 

In 2007 Warner Brothers released a handful of cult classics to dvd for the first time, and packaged them as part of their ‘Twister Terror Collection.’ The set included amongst other titles, “Eyes of a Stranger” featuring the special effects of a young Tom Savini, “Someone’s Watching Me,” John Carpenter’s segue to “Halloween,” and Wes Craven’s “Deadly Friend.”
 
A must see and own for all Craven completists, "Deadly Friend" is a fun and campy example of the master’s low-to-no budget brand of film-making that began with “Last House On the Left” and died with “New Nightmare.”    

Journey for Jamie Lee

By John Engell

The last two weeks I have neglected this blog and you followers, as I have concentrated all my energies on planning an important road trip. I apologize, sincerely, but I am back after the completion of a long journey, that I hope you enjoy reading about as much as I enjoyed making...

Earlier this year HorrorHound (my preferred horror magazine and the mid-west's premier horror con) announced that the original Scream Queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis, would be making her first and only convention appearance at a special HorrorHound Weekend celebrating her contribution to the genre. Previously the horror community was largely resigned to never meeting the "Halloween" star, as it was held that the actress-turned-children's-book-author, had denounced her horror roots and distanced herself from the films that made her famous. But thanks to HH, and Sean Clark and his company Convention All-Stars, an impossibility became a reality for thousands of horror fans this weekend in Indianapolis.
And I had the thrill of being in attendance.

My journey began on November the eleventh when I stopped procrastinating and purchased my ticket to this once-in-a-lifetime event. Due to demand, HorrorHound offered JLC autograph vouchers and photo ops pre-sale, online only. Unbeknownst to me, I secured mine mere hours before they went off sale. I then made the necessary arrangements. I rented a car (I was given a black 2012 Mazda 6 that drove like a dream), and reserved a room at a property adjacent to the host hotel, which was unsurprisingly sold out. After a light breakfast, I got on the road at noon on Saturday the sixteenth and began the trek to Indiana- an 11 hour drive from Upstate New York. I arrived at the Inn at half past ten. The room was basic, but serviceable and after a quick soak to ease the aching bones, I hit the sack with a couple of Wendy's hamburgers for linner and some ESPN college football on TV.

I Woke up at 8:30 Sunday morning, showered, snagged a breakfast bar, checked out, and walked across the parking lot to the con. There was very little traffic when I entered. Some people were milling around including Charles Cyphers, who had mistakenly showed an hour early, and several groups had already congregated. Got in line to redeem my tickets at around 9:30 AM. Waited till nearly 11 before I had that golden ticket in my hand, at which time the line behind me had ballooned to a hundred people deep or more. By now the main hallway was crowded and there was a general confusion as to what lines were for what and for whom. The staff admirably attempted to direct the mob, but ultimately is was HorrorHound's own Editor-In-Chief Nathan Hanneman, who announced that JLC would be signing in order of the number on each patron's ticket. There was a dry erase board outside the entrance to the conference room where Jamie was signing that Nathan updated regularly to reflect the latest ticket holders to be allowed in. My particular number was halfway down the list, so I had my photo-op first.

Got herded into her auditorium at noonish and had my pic taken with Jamie at approximately quarter after one.The photo-ops were held in a separate room right down the hall. When I approached her she said "Hey, I remember you!" which I got a kick out of because I had obviously never met her before. The photo-op company did an excellent job keeping things moving and everyone seemed pleased with the final product, myself included. Did manage do add one more guest to my collection- Will Sandin AKA the first Michael Myers, who barely said a word to me and seemed annoyed when the first photo a gentleman graciously took for me of Will and I came out blurry and I asked to snap another. The second one also came out bad, but I said forget it and walked away. Spent the next several hours waiting to get my autograph. Had JLC sign a pricey piece of hand made paper I picked up at the craft store. I didn't want her signature to get lost on a large poster or have to compete with a background image. I couldn't be happier with the result. 

Jamie was amicable, although she was agitated at the mass of people still waiting in line with less than 2 hours till the designated end time of the convention (I would estimate 300 patient faces). When I told her I believed people were still entering the aud, she admonished the staff and demanded to know how many tickets had been sold for Sunday because she was "busting my ass" to get through the line in order to finish (presumably to catch a flight). She said she would soon only be signing her name to speed proceedings up. Fortunately my autograph was made out to me and she even included her character's name "Laurie Strode."

But there in lies the problem with attending any convention on its last day. You pay the same price as the previous day's ticket holders, but you surely don't get the same experience. According to numerous accounts, and Facebook posts by the event organizers themselves, Saturday JLC was dedicating several minutes with each attendee, and even personalizing their items with movie quotes (A similar situation occurred to me when I met Robert Englund, who went from taking posed photos with people at the start of the day to not taking photos with people at all by the day's end). Not to sound ungrateful, it it just a shame that despite knowing the exact number of tickets sold, and the amount of time that JLC would be signing each day, that the convention couldn't have determined an average amount of time that she could spend with each attendee to insure everyone got what they paid for as well as have the opportunity to share a moment with her. After all "it's not their first rodeo." But I digress. It may seem crazy to some people, hell most people, to spend all that money and time driving, and waiting in lengthy lines, for literally only seconds, but I have no regrets. This was truly a piece of horror history and I am honored to have had a small part in it. 

I walked off JLC's stage at 3:30 in the afternoon and immediately exited the building with a smile on my face. Got gas and purchased provisions- Gatorade, a couple Five Hour Energy Shots (New Pink Lemonade flavor) and a bag of beef jerky, and got back on the open road. Pulled in my driveway, exhausted, just shy of 2:30 AM Monday morning.

Jamie Lee Curtis donated all the proceeds from the show to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. And she revealed during her panel that she had even purchased her own airfare. Sean Clark recently addressed rumors regarding his cut of the profits on social media, where he has clarified that he too has donated his share to the hospital. Both are class acts and I am thankful for their efforts. It was truly a special time.
Other conventions take notice. The bar has been raised...

Happy Halloween!

...Or All Hallows Eve. October Thirty-first. One of my favorite days on the calendar.

Next year will mark the 35th anniversary of John Carpenter's immortal "Halloween"; The definitive film on the holiday. Aside from being recognized as one of the most successful independent films ever made, "Halloween" has the honor and distinction of birthing the slasher. Hardcore horror buffs will debate that "Halloween" is not the first in its family tree, but a descendent of other genre pictures such as "Peeping Tom," "Psycho," "Black Christmas," and any number of Italian Giallos. But if "Halloween" didn't invent the formula, it certainty did perfect it.

As has been extensively and exhaustively documented, "Halloween" facilitated filmmaker's attack on every other holiday from April Fool's Day to Valentines. "Halloween" itself spawned 7 sequels and 2 remakes. Yet despite the holiday's seemingly infinite profit potential, few have ventured outside the confines of that franchise to explore it, and even fewer of those have succeeded.

Well it took nearly 30 years, but in 2007 someone finally made a movie worthy of being a companion to "Halloween" on this night of scary movie viewing. That someone is Michael Dougherty (whose previous credits include scripting several superhero flicks) and the movie is "Trick 'r Treat."

In five short years "Trick 'r Treat" has already achieved cult status. In spite of its lack of a formal theatrical release, it has found a home in most horror geek's libraries with its DVD and Blu-ray releases (I double-dipped and bought both). But on the off chance you haven't been introduced to this beauty...
Scary movie lovers, I give to you...

Trick 'r Treat

Release Date: 2007

Rating: * * * *

By John Engell October 31, 2012

 I'm going to keep this short and sweeter than a pillowcase of Halloween candy. "Trick 'r Treat" is an anthology film, in the tradition of "Creepshow." Four interwoven tales with a wraparound story. The chronicles concern a school principal who takes his love for the holiday too far, a lonely young lady looking for the right man, a clique of adolescent pranksters whose latest stunt results in tragedy, and an old man whose checkered past has finally come back to haunt him. The tales all take place on Halloween night and are brilliantly atmospheric. The animations, the cinematography, the music, are all tops and the talented Anna Paquin ("True Blood" and "Scream 4") is featured prominently in one of the story arcs. It is hard to review a film you consider a masterpiece and it would be a disservice to anyone who hasn't yet had the pleasure of seeing "Trick 'r Treat" to reveal anymore. So suffice to say "Trick 'r Treat" should be on your short list of essential holiday viewing. After watching it countless times myself, my only complaint... at only 82 minutes long, it's over too soon.

Waxwork (1988)

Waxwork

Release Date: 1988

Rating: * * *

By John Engell October 24, 2012

7 more days till Halloween, Halloween, Halloween...Yours truly has been busy carving pumpkins and gorging myself on candy, and writing reviews of course. This treat I've been saving for just the right time.

                              (My 2012 pumpkin- Sam from "Trick 'r Treat")

A precursor to and perhaps a prototype of “Scream” and the savvy self-aware horror film, “Waxwork” (1988) stars Zach Galligan of “Gremlins” fame, in his second most recognized role. Galligan hams it up as Mark Loftmore, a wealthy prima donna who agrees to accompany his friends to the premiere of a new wax museum. David Warner (“The Omen”) lends some credibility to this budget production with his performance as the proprietor of the exhibit.

The waxwork features 18 scenes depicting the genre’s most storied characters. Incidentally each display has the ability to teleport any patron who ventures past its velvet ropes, to the place and time it illustrates. Two of the visitors quickly disappear including Tony, (Dana Ashbrook from tv’s “Twin Peaks”) who enters one of the sets in an attempt to retrieve his lost lighter and ends up in a dark wood, mauled by a werewolf, played by John Rhys-Davies AKA Gimli from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

The surviving pair, Mark (Galligan) and Sarah (Deborah Foreman who starred as Muffy/Buffy in the slasher parody “April Fool’s Day”) search for their friends to no avail and hesitantly leave the waxwork without them. They become increasingly concerned the following day when they fail to reach them. Mark swears he recognizes the waxwork man and decides to dig up his family’s dusty newspaper collection that details his grandfather’s death. The clippings lead the pair to the old man’s former friend, a crippled codger named Sir Wilfred, who spins a yarn about helping Mark’s relation collect pieces from the evilest people who have ever lived; artifacts that were long ago stolen by a man named Lincoln AKA the museum man. He apparently plans to use them in conjunction with the souls of his hapless victims, to bring his creations to life. Hope that wasn’t as convoluted to read as it was to watch and write.

Regardless “Waxwork’s” plot serves only as a means to an end, which in this case is a monster brawl in the museum between the resurrected villains and a geriatric army intent to stop them.
Kane “Jason” Hodder was responsible for stunts on "Waxwork" and apparently the film’s original script made numerous references to the Friday the 13th franchise and other horror mainstays, which were ultimately cut for legal reasons.

Still “Waxwork” was a pleasant surprise and thanks to Lionsgate it is now readily available. The company released the film as part of its infamous Horror Collection 8 Movie Pack earlier this year. More on that set next week!

31 Days of Halloween

I've been so preoccupied with this month's festivities that I forgot to publish last week's Wednesday post. Halloween truly is the "holiday season" for horror fans. Now is the time to shop for your collection.
Best Buy, FYE, and one of my personal favorites Big Lots!, are all stocked with horror DVDs and blu-rays, from new mainstream fare to the downright obscure, but all at deeply discounted prices!
Today alone I snagged some serious swag- a couple Craven flicks, "Deadly Friend" and "The People Under the Stairs," and an old out-of-print release of "Pumkinhead," all for under $20.

I have such a large library of movies that I frequently find I'm too indecisive to choose something to watch, particularly this time of year! That is why I determined to collaborate with my father and create my very own
"31 Days of Halloween." A spinoff of what's on TV, only featuring the films I actually wanted to see.
A movie every night for the entire month of October.

And for my inaugural lineup...

1.) "Friday the 13th Part 3D"
2.) "Cabin Fever"
3.) "Poltergeist"
4.) "Salem's Lot"
5.) "Child's Play"
6.) "Halloween Town" (A childhood favorite)
7.) "Urban Legend"
8.) "An American Werewolf In London"
9.) "Night of the Living Dead"
10.) "Pet Sematary"
11.) "Hostel"
12.) "Friday the 13th Part 4"
13.) "The Strangers"
14.) "Hocus Pocus"
15.) "Saw"
16.) "Halloween Town 2"
17.) R.Z. "Halloween"
18.) "Mulberry Street"
19.) "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch"
20.) "A Nightmare on Elm Street"
21.) "Sleepy Hallow"
22.) "Scream 4"
23.) "John Carpenter's Halloween"
24.) "Terror Train"
25.) "The Fog"
26.) "Dawn of the Dead"
27.) R.Z. "Halloween 2"
28.) "Trick 'R Treat"
29.) "A Nightmare On Elm Street 2"
30.) "Halloween 2"
31.) "Halloween H20"

 What are your Halloween traditions?
And I suppose there's no better time to ask...What's your favorite scary movie?