23) Warlock (1989)

All witches keep grimoires, yet one is indestructible, one is the bible of black magic - the Grand Grimoire.

Director
Steve Miner

Cast
Julian Sands - The Warlock
Lori Singer - Kassandra
Richard Grant - Giles Redferne

Warlock may not be as obscure as other movies as it seems well known among horror movie fans. Though it's no B-movie, it doesn't seem too well known among the general population.
I saw this movie probably 30 years ago and some scenes have stuck with me all this time since because of its shock value.
The last time I watched this was two nights ago after I found a VHS copy at a horror movie convention in St. Joseph, Mo., last weekend.
What makes Warlock stand out are scenes that really drive home the evil of the main antagonist, the Warlock (Julian Sands).
In the movie, the Grand Grimoire - an ancient book which has been separated into three parts and hidden in different locations - will reveal to him the true name of God. The devil himself has commanded the Warlock to reassemble to book and read aloud God's name backwards which will result in the destruction of all creation. Wow- what a low blow! I mean ALL OF CREATION. Not just someone's dog, or someone's grandma, or maybe a section in New York, or a few neighborhoods out in the burbs getting destroyed. Everything!
The movie starts out in 1691 Massachusetts where a witch-hunter named Giles Redferne (Richard Grant) has arrested the Warlock and sentenced him to death for all sorts of evil deeds, including the death of Redferne's wife.
Just before execution is to be carried out, the devil sends the Warlock into the future - 20th century Los Angeles to be exact. And what crazy shenanigans will this bad 17th century guy-witch get into out there in L.A.? Stay tuned to find out! In the meantime, the Grimoire has been hidden by monks in three separate places, which the Warlock now needs to go find.
He crash lands through the front room window of Kassandra (Lori Singer) and her gay roommate, Chas. Rather than have the police take this unconscious stranger out of their home, they lay him on a bed to care for him (Because L.A. folk are known for being that caring!)
Kassandra goes off to work the next morning while Chas stays home alone with the Warlock - oblivious to the fact that he is a Warlock, of course.
He attacks Chas by cutting off his finger to steal a ring, and then biting off his tongue, throwing it in a frying pan, and leaving him to die from the shock. Now we know who we're dealing with!
Somehow, the police are notified, pick Kassandra up while she's at work, and question her.
She then runs into Redferne who followed the Warlock into 1989s version of L.A. and insists she help him track down and destroy the Warlock before he finds all three pieces of the Grimoire and destroys creation.

Unfortunately, Sands's performance seems bored. He's playing a 17th Century dude-witch hellbent on evil. And though he does a great job at conveying the evil that's in him - that makes him who he is - unhindered by any boundary, he's stoic with very little emotion. Evil doesn't mean bland.  
Richard Grant, however, is the opposite as he's all gung-ho on capturing and destroying the Warlock.
He's pretty animated, yet really serious, in his role.
The comic relief comes in the form of these 17th century folks not understanding 20th Century culture, yet they don't overdue it, which would otherwise be a distraction. Instead, Redferne just goes along with all the strangeness he's witnessing, keeping focused on the task at hand. He asks a few questions here and there, but doesn't allow himself to get so immersed in the strange new world he's entered. Meanwhile, the Warlock focuses on finding the Grand Grimoire, as he blah-blahs and stuff through the movie.
But the horror is what makes this an entertaining movie. It's imaginative. Granted the special effects are dated, but the effort is certainly there.
The producers pulled no punches in making sure the audience knew how evil the Warlock is.
His evil nature centers around Warlock folklore, based on a hatred for creation - obviously, since his goal is to destroy all of it.
In one scene, the Warlock puts a curse on Kassandra, causing her to age continually until the curse can be broken. The aging makeup is laughable, even in late 1980s movie makeup standards. It looks terrible, and ridiculous, even down to her red shoulder-length hair suddenly growing long and white.
Otherwise, it brings in the sinister and unsettling vibes of the supernatural well enough. The movie is a hidden gem overall among horror movies.
I have to mention one factual error I noticed. In one scene, while Kassandra is talking to Redferne, she references Glinda as the "Good Witch of the West" from The Wizard of Oz. Wrong, Kassandra...with a "K!" In the 1939 movie, Glinda was the Good Witch of the North. The Wicked Witch was from the West. C'mon!  
I didn't realize it at first, but famous voice actor Rob Paulsen makes a cameo as a gas station attendant. Paulsen has voice acted in well-know animated programs such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Animaniacs, and The Tick.
Director Steve Miner has other notable horror titles under his directing belt including Friday The 13th Parts 2 and 3,  House, and Halloween; H20. And Warlock definitely has enough good stuff to have become a bigger franchise! 
Julian Sands reprised the role in the sequel Warlock: The Armageddon (1993). Bruce Payne took on the role in 1999's Warlock III: The End of Innocence. I'll review those soon!

Another year, another Horror Convention

Some horrific dreams came true this year as I made my way again to St. Joseph, Mo., for Cyrpticon 2019.
I  was privileged to meet some notable names in the horror/thriller genre - Dee Wallace (Cujo, E.T.), Tsutomu Kitagawa (Godzilla 2000, Godzilla: Final Wars), Bin Furuya (Ghidorah; The Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ultraman), and Tom Savini - actor, director, and make-up artist (Creepshow 1 and 2, Dawn of the Dead). All where just awesome to chat with, and I appreciated the opportunity to have them sign items for me.
I had hoped to meet Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street 1 and 3, Wes Craven's New Nightmare) but I just didn't get the opportunity.
This was my second Crypticon-my second horror convention...ever. I was like a kid in a candy store...in a parallel universe...with monsters and stuff roaming around...and a random wrestling match taking place...some creepy old guy dressed as a creepy Santa Claus walking around...and LEGOs. A good number of vendors were selling horror movies, some of which were hard to find elsewhere. I guess if you go to a movie convention, you're going to want to buy movies.
I wish I picked out a few more titles than I did. Being nostalgic for VHS tapes, I picked up a copy of Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943), Warlock (1989), and a one of those DVD collections of 50 B-horror movies in one package. I have plans for that!
My next review will be the movie Warlock. In the mean time, Pictures!

Dee Wallace

Bin Furuya

Midland Empire Ghostbusters

Tsutomu Kitagawa

Crypticon 2018 highlights

22) Hellfest (2018)

The more scared you seem, the more they're gonna come after you

Director
Gregory Plotkin

Cast
Stephen Conroy - The Unknown Killer
Amy Forsyth - Natalie
Bex Taylor-Klaus - Taylor
Reign Edwards - Brooke
Christian James - Quinn

I came across Hellfest as I was putting DVDs on the shelf at my library job.
Its title and cover seemed like all the other commonly looked-over horror titles found on Netflix or Hulu. Just check out the horror titles on these streaming services. Who ever heard of these titles?
Picking one title to watch on a Friday night in those streaming line-ups is more difficult than it needs to be. So, when this title crossed my path with no other horror titles trying to grab my attention, I was set. I was determined to watch this.
I don't remember Hellfest's release in the theater. I doubt it played at a theater near me.
It's really a movie that should be judged on its entertainment factor and not much else.
The Candyman himself, Tony Todd, makes a cameo in this movie. Chalk one up for Hellfest. I always love a good nod to a horror classic, especially by means of an honorary cameo.
Hellfest is a travelling Halloween scare park. The mood is set as the movie starts with a girl wandering through a haunted maze where she's confronted by a person in a mask she immediately recognizes as the same person whose been following her all night. You see where this is going?
This unknown person stabs and hangs her, leaving her corpse among the haunted house props where other visitors think she's just part of the décor. This first scare sets the tone of the movie.
Next, the audience is introduced to Natalie (Amy Forsyth) as she arrives at her friend Brooke's (Reign Edwards), apartment. The two engage in typical initial exposition disguised as college girl jibberish. The two make plans to hook up with some other ditzy friends for a night of scares as Hellfest has come to town.
While they're at the fest, Natalie comes across the masked person inside one of the haunted mazes as he's about to stab another girl. Thinking it's part of the act, she lags behind to watch it play out as her friends move on. As she stands their, the masked man stairs at her, while his victim begs for help. She asks him what he's waiting for, and tells him to "do it." He does.
And as she watches, it seems as though she's concerned with just how real it all looks. The girl's scream. The knife entering the flesh, and the blood that leaks out looks too real. The masked killer starts following her throughout the night, making her more and more terrified. He doesn't speak. He just stares through the eye holes of his emotionless dirty white mask. Where does that sound familiar?

The typical horror movie tropes come with this package deal - the "don't go in there" scenes, the security that doesn't believe a word anyone is saying, the villain more elusive than a leprechaun. Some of it plays out sensibly. I mean, a group claiming they're being chased by someone in a mask...at a Halloween attraction... who may have killed someone when that very scenario is being re-enacted in every attraction at the park. The security's disbelief is not unreasonable.
The suspense grows through the movie.
This is a typical slasher film-the bad man chasing the helpless teens.
But the setting inside a Halloween horror attraction makes the peril and helplessness a little more believable, and fantastic.
Other than the setting, it's really a cookie cutter horror movie. That didn't stop it from being intriguing, keeping me invested from beginning to end.
Hellfest offers little originality to the old story of the boogie man chasing the clueless, helpless teens. There were more shots of this mystery villain staring at Natalie from a distance (just as Michael Myers stared at Laurie Strode in Halloween. I'm sure the similarity there was no coincidence) than there was horror.
One particular scene had one of the friends taking part in a mock execution scene by guillotine. After the performance, the curtains close and we find the villain is dressed as the executioner. He locks her into the guillotine and attempts to really slice her head off. After it doesn't work, she manages to escape. It's a pivotal scene that plays out fairly well, taking the intrigue into a more serious realm. It's the segue to what I call the "now what" act. Ok- things just got real. Now what?
The movie is a  Friday night popcorn picture, boiling it down to how the bad guy will get the good guys. The movie needs more, though. It lacks in horror and effort, focusing too much on the suspense. It's a movie that either could or couldn't catch on. I don't think it caught on.
Director Gregory Plotkin has his name in a few notable movies in the genre. He worked as an editor for Jordan Peele's fantastic movie Get Out. He also worked on Happy Death Day and directed Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension.
The acting is scripted. The plot is as predictable as can be. But this isn't a movie where audiences would watch for a deep Kubrick-esque story line, or acting that's The Godfather quality. This movie somehow managed to satisfy my thirst for a good scare. And what's more, it left me with really wanting to know just who this masked killer was. The ending did that for me. I'd watch a sequel.

21) Quicksilver Highway (1997) - Obscure Stephen King flick #5

"Do you have time for a story?."

Director
Mick Garris

Cast
Christopher Lloyd - Aaron Quicksilver
Matt Frewer- Charlie/ Dr. Charles George
Raphael Sbarge - Kerry Parker/Bill Hogan
Missy Crider - Olivia Parker/Lita Hogan

During a lecture I watched on YouTube sometime ago, I recall Stephen King saying to an auditorium of listeners that while the world considers him to be a deep, prolific, perhaps enigmatic writer, he on the other hand considers himself to be a casual guy who just writes for fun. With some of his short stories like You Know They Have a Hell of a Band (a story about a town inhabited by famous dead rock legends), or The Mangler (a story about a possessed laundry press), or Chattery Teeth (a story about a pair of novelty wind-up teeth that seeks revenge), it's easy to see that...yeah...King writes often for the fun of it. And he does it well.
Anyhow, Quicksilver Highway is a made-for-TV anthology movie based on King's short story Chattery Teeth published in his short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes. The second story in the film is based on Clive Barker's story The Body Politic found in his book collection Books of Blood. 
I think this movie title got lost in the mix of many other made-for-TV King movies aired the same decade.
The star of the movie is Aaron Quicksilver (Christopher Lloyd.)
When it comes to Christopher Lloyd, I get a strong impression he is an actor that just loves to act and take on different personas. Aside from his more notable roles in Back to the Future I, II, and III, The Addams Family, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Lloyd has taken on less notable roles in movies like, well... Quicksilver Highway, Dennis the Menace, Piranha 3DD, and Santa Buddies.
It seems that as long as he gets to act, he'll take a role for the fun of it. If this is the case - I'd be willing to be money it is - that's admirable. And no matter the role he's taken in his acting history, none of them have hurt his long-successful career.
There's a contrast between his on-screen performances and his personality during interviews and public appearances. He's generally soft spoken and reserved, and comes across as shy. He's just the opposite of his eccentric Back to the Future character Dr. Brown who's loquacious and animated.
So, like all other movies I've seen where Lloyd pops into frame, I was happy to see him appear in this movie. "Oh, right on...Christopher Lloyd is in this!" That's my customary reaction in his glorious screen presence. He's enjoyable and fun to watch.
The movie starts with a bride and groom, Kerry and Olivia (Raphael Sbarge and Missy Crider), stranded on the highway in the middle of a desert. Since traffic is nearly non-existent along this stretch of road, the groom decides he's going to have to hitchhike to find a gas station.
Olivia, meanwhile, has to wait..and wait.
Night falls, and finally headlights appear. It's a Silverline trailer-what else? Aaron Quicksilver gets out to assist, with his gentle yet strange mannerisms and clothing that looks like he shops at a geriatric Hot Topic. He invites her into his trailer so she can eat. Oddly, his trailer is more lavish, roomy, and luxurious than the outside would indicate.
He then starts to tell her a "true story" about a hitchhiker and some chattery teeth. I haven't yet read King's short story this segment is based on. I was told the TV version (as is customary with 90s horror television) is tamer. This part of the movie leans a little too much into the boring and completely predictable realm.

Chattery Teeth involves salesman Bill Hogan (Raphael Sbarge-again) who finds a pair of novelty wind-up teeth in a roadside gas station. The owner tells him they're broken, and lets him take the teeth free as it's Bill's son's birthday.
As he's getting back in his van, Bill reluctantly picks up a hitchhiker who, in the middle of their travels, decides to rob him. That's when Bill realizes there's more to those broken teeth than he realized.
The second story takes the audience to an amusement park where we witness Charlie (Matt Frewer) pickpocketing as many folks as he can.
This isn't the first time Frewer appeared in a made-for-TV King adaptation. He played the role of  "Trashcan Man" in The Stand - one of the best TV adaptations of a King novel, by the way!
I remember Frewer from Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. He's most well known for playing the iconic 80s character Max Headroom.
Charlie is the next person to run into Aaron. This time, it's inside a sideshow of unusual objects. Aaron shows Charlie his "hand of glory" - a candle made from a human hand, burning on each fingertip.
This takes the audience into the next story, The Body Politic. This tale, which plays out as silly when it probably isn't supposed to be, is much more fascinating to watch.
Frewer plays Dr. Charles George, who finds that both his hands have developed a mind of their own, and are plotting to rebel against him. They literally communicate to each other while he sleeps. It's hilarious to watch this "hand acting." Am I supposed to take this more seriously - watching two hands sign and speak in high pitched voices to each other.
He chops one off, and it runs away. Eventually, his missing hand convinces other hands inside a hospital to "be free" and leave the bodies they're attached to. And, they do. "Hands, everywhere- UNITE!"

It's a crazy idea for a story, in a nice way I mean. There's surely some underlying statement being made - the hand rebelling against the body. It's an interesting take on what if the hand did actually rebel!
The entire movie is what I call "made for TV scary." It's tame. Very tame, making the scare factor more laughable than anything. I can't really blame the movie for that though. Television censors where what they were in 1997. But despite all that, the second act of the movie was much more enjoyable than the King portion. The story was much more interesting. It was like watching a fan film for Thing from the Addam's Family.
Outside of Lloyd's presence in the film, The Body Politic is the only other memorable thing about Quicksilver Highway. Haunted wind-up teeth just didn't do anything for me.
All in all, this Stephen King movie funny in parts where I'm sure it's not supposed to be. I could easily see these stories played out on a Friday night thriller program on 90s Nickelodeon like Are you Afraid of the Dark - yeah, remember that show?
King really hit a high peak in the 90s with TV movie adaptations. A large number of series based on his material aired back in this decade- It, The Langoliers, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, The Shining, Sometimes They Come Back, Trucks. All this on top of the 12 theatrical releases between 1990 and 1999 that were based on his work.
But these prime-time movies were either hit, or miss - wide miss (cough, cough, Langoliers). I just don't think prime time television, with its censors and what not, was ready to, or capable of, really making a solid King TV movie. Quicksilver Highway seems like proof to me. There were a few exceptions (i.e. It and The Stand).
Director Mick Garris had previously directed another Stephen King adaptation in 1992 - Sleepwalkers (I might get to this one later). His name as a writer can also be found in the credits of Critters 2, Batteries Not Included, and Hocus Pocus.
Quicksilver Highway is worth watching for audiences who are fans of King. Otherwise, it leans a little too far in the ridiculous category to be taken as a serious thriller. If it's not meant to be taken as ridiculous, then bravo!

Why this?

20) Metalface (2015)

"The work starts now."

Director
Rene Perez

Cast
Natasha Blasick - Cindy
Richard Tyson - The Watcher
David Lockhart - Burnett
Charlie Glackin - The Killer (Metalface)

There's a nice rogues gallery of horror icons out there in HorrorMovie Land - Freddy Kreuger, Jason Vorhees, Chucky the Doll, Candyman, Pennywise... again, and Michael Myers for the bajillionth time. And then there's Metalface.
I never heard of "Metalface" until perusing the Suspense/Thriller section of DVDs at my local public library and finding a movie called "Metalface." The cover showed a maniac that looked like a poor man's Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, dawning some kind of mask made from a sack or human skin (I don't know) and wrapped in barbed wire. He sported some tattered clothes and a bloody hand print on his chest. Not a lot of metal in the face area per his namesake, but nevertheless, I've been officially introduced to Metalface. (Dun, dun, duuun).
Across the top of the cover was the claim this monster is "the world's most ruthless serial killer." Wow! I mean, the world's most! That's covering a lot of territory. And there have been a lot...A  LOT...of ruthless serial killers in film history. So, for this unheard of guy to be the most ruthless? This must really be full of blood and guts and ruthless...maniacal...scary...ummm...carnage - the kind only a man with barely a metal face can wreak.
To be fair, he does look pretty knarly and crazy on the cover. Actually, he looks absolutely maniacal. So, initially I was sold on that much. Plus, this blog is dedicated to the obscure in the genre. If I'm supposed to know who the world's most ruthless serial killer is in the horror genre, thank God I'm discovering that character at the public library where it won't cost me any cash.
This is an independent movie from a company called Uncork'd Entertainment whom I found out gave the horror movie world such titles as Pet Graveyard, The Amityville Murders, Krampus Origins, Dawning of the Dead, Gremlin, The 13th Friday and other titles that may or may not be milking off other, more successful and popular movie franchises.
Again, to be fair, they do have a nice library of original titles. One of their movies, Room for Rent stars actress and horror icon Lin Shaye who starred in A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Insidious movies.
Right off the spikey blood-stained bat, Metalface isn't a completely terrible movie. It has some redeeming qualities, such as its storyline.
It also goes by the title Playing With Dolls with sequels working off that title. In the UK, it was released as Leatherface (again...certainly not milking off popular franchises - *end sarcasm.)
It's a unique take on the slasher genre, but it really comes across as being an independent movie. It has that feel to it with the often bad acting, weird pacing, and abrupt beginning and ending.
The movie begins with a young girl not dressed for winter weather running through a snow-covered forest as prisoner AYO-886 (also known as Metalface) pursues. At the same time, we see a cop in the middle of a shootout with some group somewhere else in the forest.
Metalface catches up with the girl, and she wakes up tied to a tree. It's not long before we see what kind of maniac Metalface is.
Next, we meet a gorgeous girl named Cindy (Natasha Blasick) who just lost her job. On top of that, her roommate moved out without warning, leaving her with an empty apartment and a pervert of a landlord demanding overdue rent, or "something else" (wink, wink; nudge, nudge) as compensation.
Trying desperately to come up with a plan, Cindy gets a call from a woman who offers her a job Cindy applied for.
When Cindy accepts, she's given instructions to get into an SUV parked outside her apartment and drive to a location specified on a GPS system. That location is a secluded, well-furnished and fully stocked cabin. The job, as Cindy understands it, is a caretaker position for the cabin. However, she'll be there completely by herself. She'll also have no access to a phone, her cell phone service will be non-existent out there in the wilderness, and she'll be far from civilization (save for the cabins next to hers, which we don't know if they're occupied or not.)
Obviously, being in seclusion with no outside contact, we pretty much know Metalface is going to be paying her a visit...or two.

The interesting take in all this is, is that Metalface is being told what to do and what not to do from Cindy's "boss" who's watching all this through surveillance cameras placed all around the house for his own sick pleasure. It's a different, and welcomed, take on the slasher genre. Normally the monsters are acting on their own accord.
What's funny about the cameras is that despite how blatant they are-visible in plain sight (some even at eye level) Cindy is either completely oblivious to them, or just ignores them. It's not made clear. But in the middle of the movie, she finally looks at one as though she's noticing it for the first time. It was right there, were she could see it - a big black camera with a blinking red light, right there looking at her. Yet she notices it only in the middle of the movie. And after that, doesn't seem much to worry about being surveillance.
So, the production quality is rather poor and not very well thought through.

At various points in the movie, the audience can see Metalface walking behind Cindy who doesn't realize he's there.
In one scene, we see Cindy hesitantly checking the house late at night as she thinks she heard something. She checks the front door, which is locked, and then turns to check the living room. There's nothing out of the ordinary, so she turns back around towards the camera - the front door is right next to her. Metalface then walks behind her coming from the front door and heading into the house. That means he would have had to open the locked front door, or forced it open somehow. This obviously would have gotten Cindy's attention because SHE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR! But no...he just suddenly appears behind her, walks through the frame, and Cindy doesn't notice or react. Meanwhile, the door remains locked.
It does drag a bit. We see a lot of Cindy in this movie. And I mean we see *a lot of Cindy. We see her day to day routines while she's secluded. We see her making dinner, getting ready for a shower, sleeping, making coffee, checking stuff out, trying on outfits-list goes on. Metalface's appearances and jump scares build toward a climactic scene of sorts. It would have been great, I'm sure, if the movie's budget (I'm guessing) didn't run out.
The ending comes across as being a victim of the film's depleted budget. The movie finishes abruptly. Once Roll credits. We're done here. I literally shouted "That's it? What happened next?" at the TV. Yeah...literally. That makes my disappointment serious.
Sadly, I didn't get a response. I even Googled the synopsis for the second movie to see if I could get an answer to what happened next. I guess the resolution will remain in production hell forever, and ever...and ever.
Despite the sometimes laughable production quality, the movie's story pulled me in right away with it's originality - something new for the slasher genre.
It was entertaining, and the effort (again, despite the production value and sometimes poor delivery of lines) to make something different and scary was apparent. That's what this whole blog is dedicated to - starting a project and finishing it. Metalface is a fantastic example of that mindset. It's a good watch for a Friday night of horror movies.

19) Dolan's Cadillac (2009) - Obscure Stephen King flick #4

"The view from hell is clear and bright. The sun is black. The night is radiant. Good is evil, evil is good. Sweet insanity understood."

Director
Jeff Beesley

Cast
Christian Slater - Jimmy Dolan
Wes Bentley - Tom Robinson
Emmanuella Vaugier - Elizabeth Robinson

Stephen King's short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes is my favorite of his collections. In fact, what I consider to be his scariest short story, The Moving Finger, can be found inside.
The book also seems to be the basis of a handful of obscure film and television adaptations. Dolan's Cadillac is one of them.
I had no idea this movie existed until I searched for "Obscure Stephen King movies."
It was a direct-to-video release, which is probably why this movie has been under the radar.
But it's certainly no small production, as it features Christian Slater and Wes Bentley.
During a horse riding trip through the desert near Las Vegas, Tom Robinson's (Wes Bentley) wife, Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier) witnesses a human trafficking deal that ends up with three people murdered.
Little does Elizabeth know, notorious thug - a nightmare among nightmares - Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater) is in charge of this crime. It's Dolan she sees shoot and kill two coyotes (human traffickers) and one trafficking victim.
As she rides away, while being shot at, she loses her cell phone. One of  Dolan's people finds it, resolved to "take care of the problem" on Dolan's command.
She and Tom go to the authorities, but tell them nothing the police haven't heard before. The police fill them in on their pursuit of Dolan, and what kind of person he is, especially towards people willing to testify against him.
The couple are later admitted into witness protection after they find the dead body of a human trafficking victim, with her lips sewn shut, in their bed - a message from Dolan telling the Robinson's to keep quiet.
All the while, Elizabeth has been having dreams of becoming pregnant.
While in the protection program, she wakes up during the night vomiting - a sure sign she's finally expecting a child with Tom. So, she rushes out to buy a pregnancy test.
Tom rushes after her as she gets in the car. When she starts it, the car explodes.
Tom takes her death really hard, resorting to drinking, and succumbing to despair. He breaks down and purchases a hand gun.
He also starts following Dolan around, learning his routines and trying to find a perfect opportunity to gain revenge.
During an attempt to shoot Dolan, he discovers his Cadillac is bullet proof. This leads Tom to exact another, even more terrifying kind of revenge. One that will make Dolan surely pay for his crimes, especially Elizabeth's murder.
It's not necessarily an intense film that'll blow audiences away. It is entertaining, and captivates just enough.
Some lines, especially from Wes Bentley, seem very scripted, but Christian Slater's role as Jimmy Dolan is fantastic. Slater seems to take his role seriously, putting what he can into his portrayal. He's a character worthy of hatred, and Slater makes the audience do just that. It's a role for Slater that shouldn't be forgotten.
Wes Bentley seemed to just roll through his portrayal of Tom Robinson. Some lines seemed too scripted at first, but improved slightly towards the third act. For a character who's life changed for the worst in nearly a wink of an eye, I wasn't convinced by his portrayal at just how much turmoil he was in. It was hard to tell where his effort was- in seeking his revenge, or just getting through the movie?
Nevertheless, the movie is overall truly entertaining, with the right amount of intrigue to keep interested until the end.
Though the movie is more of a crime thriller than a horror movie, it carries just enough "horror," Stephen King style, to be included on my blog. All in all, Dolan's Cadillac deserves a little more attention as it's definitely good enough for a Friday night movie.


Ambiguous King

Not Reviews Necessarily: Scariest Scenes from non-horror movies and television

"Come here, chicken!" - Return to Oz
For anyone who doesn't know, Disney made a sequel to the 1939 MGM classic, The Wizard of Oz. Unlike the original movie everyone (it's safe to assume) is familiar with, this sequel from 1985 is void of singing and dancing, and just the general jovial spirit found in the original. Instead, audiences are treated to a dark journey involving a witch (kind of) named Mombi and her room full of interchangeable heads, a gnome king who's scarier than the Wicked Witch of the West, and Wheelers. These latter characters are what really scared me in my youth. They're people who ride on wheels that take the place of their hands and feet. They, like the Wicked Witch of the West, appear on screen from out of nowhere. They dawn masks that look like an amateur kitsch painter's rendition of Freddy Krueger. And the first thing we hear one say in a guttural shout is "Come here, chicken!" referring the Dorothy's hen, Belina she's carrying with her. Images and scenes in this Oz sequel where memorable, maybe in the wrong way. It was a dark trip brought to us from our pals at Disney. 

Thetis's head - Clash of the Titans
My dad had a copy of Clash of the Titans (1981) recorded off the television. In my youth, I enjoyed the movie more for its effects than its portrayal of Greek mythology. I pretty much didn't care about Greek mythology back then.
Though there were a few frightening scenes in the movie, one scene in particular scared me more than the rest.
During a wedding scene inside the temple to Thetis (goddess of water), Queen Cassiopeia publicly declares her daughter Andromeda's beauty as being greater than Thetis's. Bold move in my opinion to critique the beauty of a goddess inside her own temple! 

Anyhow, an earthquake occurs just as she says this, which causes a huge statue of the goddess to crumble. The head of the statue falls clean off and lands in front of Cassiopeia. 

Just as onlookers start to gather around it, the eyes of the severed statue head open, glaring intently, and seriously peeved at the queen. For the insult, she demands Andromeda be sacrificed to the Kraken within 30 days, or their town of Joppa will be destroyed.
The image of a severed statue head popping its eyes open and making threats was scarier to me than the Kraken itself.

"Ready? Ready? Get her!" - Ghostbusters
Back in my childhood days, whenever Ghostbusters was on at our house, I used to run out of the room at the library scene when the guys encounter their first ghost. Id wait within earshot for this scene to pass. Actually watching it through was an effort in endurance. Sometimes, I made it through. Other times, I was hiding.
The scene in question takes place in the first part of the movie, with the entire beginning of the film building up to it.
The founding three members of the Ghostbusters are investigating a paranormal incident inside the New York Public Library. 

After interviewing a traumatized librarian who witnessed a paranormal event, they stumble upon an apparition of an elderly librarian, calmly leafing through the pages of a book. 

There's not much the three can do accept try to communicate which fails miserably. The only thing they have left is to literally attempt to capture it, and that leads to the scare in question. The scene was intended to be funny. But for my kid-self, it wasn't

Large Marge - Pee Wee's Big Adventure
This scene pops up in just about every list of "scary scenes from non-horror movies." It scared me so it goes on this list as well.
This frightening scene Pee-Wee Herman's movie from 1985 exists pretty much because Tim Burton directed it.
Pee-Wee is left in the middle of nowhere after his first ride he hitchhiked kicked him out of the car. After a short while, a semi-truck comes driving down the highway. Pee-Wee thumbs for a ride, and the driver stops.
That driver is a hefty, stoic lady we learn later to be "Large" Marge.
As Pee-Wee tries to make small talk, Marge starts in on a story about "the worst accident she'd ever seen."
When she gets to the part of her story where the driver's body is pulled from the "twisted, burning wreck," she shows Pee-Wee what it looked like...

"To me, you are belonging!" - Pinocchio
If you haven't seen Disney's 1940 classic Pinocchio, you need to broaden your horizons.
The scene that frightened me most occurs when the gypsy Stromboli kidnaps Pinocchio, locks him in a cage, and attempts to keep the talking puppet for profit.
Watching Pinocchio state he was going to head back home to his father, get snatched up by an uncaring and unsympathetic monster of a man (Stromboli) with a thick black beard and red eyes, get thrown and locked in a cage made my child-self think of someone actually doing that to me. It was my first introduction to the possibility of being kidnapped, forcibly separated from my parents before I even knew such a thing was possible. That's an incredibly frightening thought for any child.

The Perils of Punky - Punky Brewster

God only knows what the writers at NBC were thinking when they wrote this second season episode of the once popular sitcom Punky Brewster in 1985. 

The sitcom itself centered around a foster child named (see title), played by Soleil Moon Frye. She's raised by foster father, Henry, played by the late George Gaynes - that old guy from the Police Academy movies. 

In this two-part episode, Punky and her gang of kid pals (Cherie and her grandma, Betty, Allen, and Margaux) head to Lake Waxahatchie for a camping trip. By the end of the first part episode, they discover a cave which is all but abandoned.

It was in the second part where things get creepy as hell. They discover an evil spirit named Owa Tagoo Siam, and see for themselves just what he can do.

And what can this evil spirit do? It makes Allen disappear, and then reappear as a face protruding from the cave wall. It also turns Cherie's face into a demon with burning red eyes. Her demonic face launches forward from a black void in the cave wall. And it turns Margaux into a dancing skeleton. 

It's just one visually creepy episode of an otherwise innocent  80's sitcom. It was that child-face with its nasty teeth and blond hair, protruding from the wall and screaming "Punky" that scare me most. Wow, eighties NBC! You're sick!

But fun fact, though! It has a guest appearance by legendary character actor Vincent Schiavelli - the subway ghost from the movie Ghost.

Ghost's head - Unsolved Mysteries
In a Halloween special episode of Unsolved Mysteries from 1988, Robert Stack took America to the "haunted" General Wayne Inn located in Merlon, Pennsylvania. 

I watched a lot of Unsolved Mysteries, always hoping the episode I was about to see would include a paranormal or unexplained mystery. I loved those.

During this segment, where paranormal encounters at the Gen. Wayne Inn were re-enacted, an Inn staff member said he witnessed a paranormal apparition of a disembodied head while he was doing some work in the kitchen. And that appearance of the severed ghost head was portrayed for TV audiences.

What got me was the interviewee stating he saw it, and just ignored it. How does one ignore a ghostly head in your hotel's kitchen? My young self believed Unsolved Mysteries was always true, and that's made this story real. 

The thought that ghost heads could materialize anywhere, like a hotel kitchen, without any warning scared the hell out of me. Good God, why?

And what was worse, the camera stayed on the face for several seconds, making sure I got a good look at it before I went to bed. Again, you're sick, eighties NBC!