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Monsters: Sleeping Dragon (1988)
B-movie cool beast but super cheap
This was so silly. The "dragon" was B-movie cool, but it (and everything else) was cheap looking. It must have been filmed in a closet because everything is so claustrophobic. Kin Shriner (Merrick) was constantly grabbing and clutching Beth Toussaint (Lisa) even though they couldn't have possibly gotten away from each other in the 12' x 12' room they were shooting the episode in. Russell Johnson is also in this as a professor, same as his Gilligan's Island role, who basically just says "NO!" to Merrick until he gets killed off after about 10 minutes. The way that Lisa exterminates the dragon is hilarious, again not having enough room on set to move more than two feet away from it when she kills it.
The Fog (1980)
Great look and atmosphere
The atmosphere is setup beautifully here by an old man telling a campfire story to a bunch of kids. The demise of the good ship Seagrass is pretty chilling and even though there's not a lot of gore, it is disturbingly violent. The one-night stand between Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Atkins characters feels a little icky at first, but they develop a chemistry very quickly that really gives the movie a center. This is handy because even though Adrienne Barbeau is good and I've always liked her strong and spunky character work, her role as Stevie Wayne is not interesting enough to build around. She's like a play-by-play broadcaster, calling the action but too isolated in her radio station/lighthouse to be an active part of the horror that drifts in from the ocean.
The fog itself and the ghosts within it are cool creations. I watched the credits scroll at the end of the movie and saw that a couple of the supernatural sailors were played by Tommy Lee Wallace and Rob Bottin, two prominent figures in John Carpenter's rise to fame as a director. And speaking of Carpenter, he plays a janitor in the very beginning of the movie. It's a speaking cameo, no less.
John Carpenter is one of my favorite directors and I always find a lot to like, but a few things to roll my eyes about in his films. I consider "The Thing" and "Halloween" to be flawless, and while "The Fog" is just as deadly serious as those two films, it just doesn't have the same impact. Still, it's got a creepy look and feel that are absent from most of today's Horror films.
[Rec] (2007)
An actual scary zombie flick
Intense zombie flick shot in Found Footage style. I usually dislike zombie movies because they are mostly just gory but there are some big scares in this. The ending is about as frightening of a conclusion as I can remember seeing from a movie made in the last couple of decades.
The Other (1972)
Disturbing rural tale of family horrors
I was caught off guard by the many moments of uneasy terror that "The Other" conjured up. It's a story centered on a 1930s family farm and for the first 45 minutes, it seemed like an episode of the Waltons with a couple of unfortunate accidents thrown into the plot. But with the advent of a twist that some may not see coming, it launches into a suspenseful final hour.
Even though there is little to no gore to be found, there are a number of deaths that are unsettling There is one particular shock that is very disturbing and is even more impacting due to the extreme reactions of the family members. It's very realistically portrayed and it hits hard.
The Jerry Goldsmith score was very good (as usual) and it accompanied the film nicely. I did find the farm to be a pretty generic environment. It wasn't appealing but was appropriately bland. This is a film that will likely stay with you for a long time.
Nightmares (1983)
A good enough '80 Horror antholgy
What a bit of nostalgia! I remembered seeing all of the stories contained within this anthology movie. It must have made an impression on me and I probably saw it in the theater during its initial run. Mind you, it's not great, but there's enough of an '80s vibe and wonky effects to make it endearing. It's certainly not scary in the least and I have no idea why it's an 'R' rated Horror film. I can't decide which story is my most or least favorite. But here's a few thoughts...
"Terror in Topanga" is an okay story that's basically a retelling of an urban legend about a madman killer on the loose. I should kick myself for not seeing its twist coming.
"The Bishop of Battle" brought me back to being a kid when arcades were a huge deal. They didn't have any problems recreating that experience because this movie was made when the arcade scene was in its prime. Emilio Estevez was a young punk and his fight with his Dad is so cliched that's it's funny. I thought the video game effects here were better than they should have been given the nearly B-movie quality of the film overall.
"The Benediction" features Lance Henriksen in another reserved role, playing a priest who's lost his faith and leaves his parish, a journey that begins with a long drive through the desert. This story is kind of a take on "Duel" (Steven Spielberg) except with a demon pickup truck. It's got some funny continuity problems like the year of the Chevrolet Chevelle changing during the movie. I also noticed that the truck drops its front bumper on the ground after jumping and diving nose first, but of course it's intact moments later. It's a dark tale that speaks of the struggles one can experience with faith, but it's surface level as you'd expect from a movie like this.
The final story is called "Night of the Rat" and it features two familiar faces for the time, Ricahrd Masur and Veronica Cartwright. Masur ("Steven") is some kind of corporate bigshot who treats his wife the same way he treats his staff, which is poorly. Cartwright's character ("Claire") is so helpless in this that I might have been like Steven and lost my patience with her at times. However, Steven insists he can take care of a rat problem himself, which clearly isn't the case. There's an old exterminator who sees the damage caused by the rat and offers a theory about the rat being a giant god rat of sorts, that can't be killed. The effect of the giant rat is horribly done and watching it on Blu-ray makes it even worse. But in the end the rat brings Steven and Claire closer again, albeit with a house in tatters and a dead pet cat to show for it. The worst thing about this segment is hearing Claire screaming "Steven!!!!" hundreds of times.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
A mix of better Sci-Fi Action movies
A mix of Spielberg's "War of the Worlds", John Carpenter's "The Thing" and "Battle of Los Angeles", plus a time travel element thrown in for good measure.
I hate to say this but it's a turn-off-your-brain kind of movie. There's some good effects, some not so good effects, and a cornball family story. Chris Pratt is good in the lead role. It's very predictable and characters do dumb things that create suspense. The last act features some absurd action and is overloaded by hero moments. All those negative things aside, I did enjoy it for the popcorn movie that it is.
The Twilight Zone: Need to Know/Red Snow (1986)
"Need To Know" is Excellent
"Need To Know" stars William Petersen (CSI) stars as an investigator looking into why people in a rural community are going insane. Francis McDormand, playing a woman whose father is a victim of the "disease", also assists in the investigation. The opening scene sets up the story perfectly and left me asking "what was that all about?". It geared me up for the story to come. When Petersen's character visits McDormand's father in the mental hospital, the room appears to be covered in blood. It's quite shocking, whatever it is. The ending is great and it made me wonder what may have happened to the world as time went on. I especially enjoyed the last scene and shot of Petersen as he breaks the fourth wall and turns toward the viewer almost as if he's compelled to pass along the deadly secret. The silence followed by a distant scream from the farmhouse is very effective, as is Charles Aidman's closing narration. My favorite story of the '80s series.
"Red Snow" is a real yawner about a Russian agent and some Siberian vampires. I don't know how they could have telegraphed the ending any more than they did.