96) Frightmare, AKA Horror Star (1983) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

 "A star in life is a star in death."

Director

Norman Thaddeus Vane

Cast

Ferdy Mayne - Conrad Radzoff

Jennifer Starrett - Meg

Alan Stock - Oscar

Carlene Olson - Eve

Luca Bercovici - Saint

Scott Thomson - Bobo

Donna McDaniel - Donna

Jeffrey Combs - Stu

Leon Askin - Wolfgang

Barbara Pilavin - Mrs. Radzoff

 

When it comes to VHS tapes once hidden amidst the old shelves of the video rental stores of yore, the 1983 supernatural slasher Frightmare definitely fits among them - hidden and overlooked. 

That's kind of how I found this movie. I came across a VHS copy, plastic clamshell and all, in a bin of movies someone donated to my local library. It's a clean copy, and I grabbed it for free. 

Not to be confused with the 1974 British horror comedy also called Frightmare, the 1983 Frightmare is also known as Horror Star.

Various sources on-line give different release dates for this flick. Wikipedia says 1981. Others say 1982. I'm going with the online horror database allhorror.com which says Frightmare was released Sept. 9, 1983. 

Just for kicks, I also checked whether this movie has any DVD releases. It does. 

The weirdos over at Troma Entertainment released Frightmare on DVD in 2005. I also found a double feature copy of Frightmare from East West Entertainment packaged with Vault of Horror (1973), based on the EC Comic of the same name, and which stars the fourth incarnation of Dr. Who himself, Tom Baker. Stay tuned for that!

Before now, I had never seen nor heard of Frightmare so I really went into this blind. I didn't even so much as read the synopsis on the back cover. I went solely on the title and cover art alone. The cover art, by the way, is completely different from the poster I uploaded to this post. The picture on the clamshell can be found here. -----> *CLICK ME* 

So, basically this movie centers on some pesky college drama students, all of whom are huge fans of horror icon Conrad Razkoff (Ferdy Mayne), and then they die. Spoiler warning, by the way!
Actually the plot is a little more detailed than that. 

It starts with Razkoff playing a vampire in a denture commercial. During a shoot, he gets reamed by the director for giving a supposedly bad performance in his little denture ad. 

Razkoff later spots the director sitting on the edge of an outdoor balcony on the second floor going over some notes. Since the director hurt his feelings earlier, and probably gave him a tummy ache as a result, he sneaks up on him and pushes him off with his cane. 

The director dies when he hits the pavement below. 

Afterwards, Razkoff visits the school where these same drama students are enrolled to discuss his past performances in horror films. During his lecture, he passes out from the excitement around him. Or, perhaps he collapses because his feelings are still hurt. I don't know.

Meg (Jennifer Starrett), one of Razkoff's fans, is able to revive him.    

As he's sitting at home in bed recovering from the bad feels and collapsing, one of his former directors, the obese and sweaty Wolfgang (Leon Askin) pays him a visit.

Ferdy Mayne as Conrad Razkoff in Frightmare.

They discuss what will happen after Razkoff dies. In an attempt to fool the director, he closes his eyes and feigns death. And he does it rather well. 

Wolfgang is dumbfounded that Razkoff actually died right in front of him while they were discussing Razkoff dying. So, he takes the opportunity to speak his mind and ridicule the actor for making life difficult for so many years. 

Suddenly, Razkoff lunges at him, smothers him with a pillow, and kills him. 

And soon after, Razkoff dies, too! This time, he really dies. 

After his body is placed inside a mausoleum, those same drama students - Meg, Saint, Bobo, Eve, Donna, Oscar, and Stu - sneak into the cemetery at night and steal Razkoff's body, coffin and all.

They bring it back to their student house where they hold a horror party which includes wearing masks of their favorite horror monsters during dinner, and dancing with the cadaver of Conrad Razkoff. 

Meanwhile, Mrs. Razkoff (Barbara Pilavin) is desperate to find the body of her husband. She consults a medium in order to channel his spirit so he can tell her where he is. 

And this actually works. Meanwhile, the body of Razkoff rises from the dead in a literal explosion, and he seeks vengeance on the students, one by one, who stole and desecrated his body. He even has telepathic powers that he uses to terrify and kill his victims. Once, he uses his telekinesis to set one of the girls on fire. At another time, he makes his coffin float down some stairs and ram another victim to death.  

There's not much to the story. It's very cut and dry.

I'm grateful for the apparent effort within the movie to create something thrilling. Perhaps, time hasn't been friendly to Frightmare causing the frightening aspects, such as the overuse of fog, several close-ups with colored lighting, and awkward low angles when the story grows tense, to come across as unintentionally laughable. 

Mayne deserves applause, though, for pulling off a convincing cadaver amid all the stuff the other actors do to him, such as placing a live raven on his head. Mayne doesn't flinch, breath, smirk, move or blink. That's talent!
The rest of the acting is like watching community playhouse. For many of the actors, they're just getting through their lines and movements. 
There are some inconsistent cutaways which make me wonder who the hell was editing this movie. A few scenes manage to be a little unsettling and gruesome such as one where Razkoff pulls Oscar's tongue out because, evidently, Razkoff doesn't mess around! 

But despite the effort, Frightmare tries too hard to be a bone-chilling flick, using cliché horror elements to do so.
It's truly a standard horror movie offering all the day to day scares that would work just as well inside a haunted house attraction at Halloween. 
The plot could easily be accidental. There are a few scenes where the actors on screen just run around in a panic in the sloppiest way possible as though the director told everyone "just chase each other around the scene in a scary way. We'll provide the fog and constant close-ups, and just see what we get. Ok? Go team!" It's pretty messy.
Frightmare is the quintessential Friday night Creature Feature that used to air on random local stations. Fans of gore might enjoy it slightly more as there's just enough in there to classify it as a slasher. Heads are lobbed off in slow motion. Guilty parties are set ablaze. Others are bludgeoned to death with floating coffins. Movies like this are entertaining enough for a late night thrill, only to be reduced to "that one movie with that guy...what was it called again?" later on.

I don't really know what this movie is trying to be. A horror comedy? A gory macabre chiller?

Despite its low-budget appearance, Frightmare does have a few notable things going for it. 

Actors in Frightmare acting really, really hard! Hot sticky acting
everywhere...on the walls...in the cracks. Everywhere!

It stars a young Jeffrey Combs in his first horror movie debut. Combs since went on to appear in many other, and better, horror movies including well-known titles such as Re-Animator (1985), Bride of Re-Animator (1990), Frighteners (1996) and Would You Rather (2012). 

On top of that, Scott Thomson also stars in this flick. Thomson has appeared in a lot of movies, horror and otherwise, such as Police Academy 1,3, and 4, Ghoulies (1984) Twister (1996), and Jack Frost (1998). 

And Ferdinand "Ferdy" Mayne strikes me as a poor man's Christopher Lee. At least in this movie, he does. 

In fact, Lee and Mayne appear together in the horror sequel, Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985).

But I certainly don't want to dishonor this veteran German-British stage and film actor who has appeared in a lot of films between 1943 to 1995. 

Mayne has shared the screen with many noteworthy actors such as Peter Sellers in The Bobo (1967), Roman Polanski in The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967), Ringo Starr in The Magic Christian (1969) Ryan O' Neal in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Conan the Destroyer (1984).
Mayne sadly passed away in 1998 at the age of 81. 

The passage of time as turned Frightmare into more of a museum piece as it's Jeffrey Combs' horror debut. And it's a quaint little nostalgic piece of VHS history that surely once warmed the shelf of the horror aisle at any given rental store back in the day. I bet it was often overlooked. In these regards, it's fun to watch.  As a story, I'm not sure what it's trying to be. Despite its best efforts, I was left with a mundane sloppy mess.

95) Waxwork (1988) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

"They'll make a movie about anything nowadays."

Director

Anthony Hickox

Cast

Zach Galligan - Mark

Deborah Foreman - Sarah

Michelle Johnson - China

Dana Ashbrook - Tony

Clare Carey - Gemma

David Warner - David Lincoln

Patrick Macnee - Sir Wilfred

Mihaly Meszaros - Hans

John Rhys-Davis - Wolfman

The prime reason the 1988 film Waxwork stands out in my head above other horror movies on the decade is because it stars Zach Galligan. It's the only other movie I associate with him outside of his character, Billy Peltzer, in Gremlins (1984) and Gremlins II: The New Batch (1990). 

Incidentally, I've seen him in the Tales from the Crypt episode "Strung Along" as well as his cameo in Warlock: The Armageddon. 

That's no surprise because Waxwork director, Anthony Hickox, also directed Warlock: The Armageddon. He also directed Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1993). 

Galligan is also in the slasher sequel Hatchet III (2013). I'm certainly not trying to water down Galligan as an actor. Listening to him in interviews, he seems very passionate about being an actor. Galligan certainly stands by the work he's done, and he's fun to watch on screen. Also, I hope to see him return as Billy Peltzer in a third Gremlins movie. He briefly return as Billy, much to the joy of fans like myself, in a Mountain Dew commercial that aired earlier this year. Maybe that's a precursor of things to come. Galligan certainly Tweets often about "Gremlins 3."

With Waxwork, Galligan isn't the only actor in the movie to have appeared in other classic (more or less) horror films. It's loaded with several names that are worth dropping. 

Deborah Foreman who appears in the 1986 slasher film April Fool's Day - a movie I plan on reviewing - is in this. She's also in 1989's Lobster Man from Mars also directed by Hickox.

Waxwork also stars Michelle Johnson who also appears in the English speaking Mexican horror flick Beaks: The Movie (1987), as well as Dr. Giggles (1992), and Death Becomes Her (1992). 

Most notably, the film stars English actors David Warner and Patrick Macnee. 

Macnee is well-known  for playing John Steed in the 1960s espionage series The Avengers. He can also be seen in the other 80s horror flick The Howling which I'll review shortly. I have a copy of it sitting on my desk as I write this. 

And I can't fail to mention that in Waxwork, actor John Rhys-Davis plays a character who transforms to a werewolf. Who doesn't want to see that?

Waxwork certainly isn't the first, nor the last horror movie that takes place in a wax museum. There's quite a list of such films. Vincent Price's 1953 classic House of Wax comes to mind right away along with its loose 2005 remake of the same name starring Paris Hilton. Terror in the Wax Museum (1973) and The House That Dripped Blood (1971) are a few others as well. Wax museums are a perfect setting for terror because they're simply terrifying places. The realism behind the blank motionless stares of wax figures can be unsettling.  

Zach Galligan in Waxwork.

So, the story begins with a disturbing scene of a guy getting his head shoved into a fireplace. This sets the macabre tone.

We then cut away to a suburb where rich boy Mark Loftmore (Zach Galligan) is eager to get away from his babying mother who won't even let him have a cup of coffee lest the caffeine hinder him somehow. 

Loftmore meets up with his college buddies. Two of them, Sarah (Deborah Foreman) and China (Michelle Johnson) tell Mark and the others about a strange encounter they had with the reticent proprietor of a wax museum, David Lincoln (David Warner), which is oddly located in the middle of a residential neighborhood. 

Lincoln invited the girls and their friends on a special viewing at midnight. 

The crew decide to go see this place, and find themselves to be the only visitors at the waxwork's midnight tour. 

Inside, the displays are all grim depictions of horror scenes with standard horror characters - werewolves, vampires, executioners, etc.

As the friends separate and meander through the museum, one of the college kids, Tony (Dana Ashbrook - Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!, Return of the Living Dead II) crosses the barrier of a display and finds himself suddenly in the middle of a dark forest. 

Rather than collapse with fear at being in a different location all of a sudden, he thinks his friends are pulling a joke on him, or spiked his drink. It's a horror cliché at its worst. 

Tony finds a secluded cabin, and walks on in still thinking it's all one big joke. There's a man inside clearly in distress, yelling at Tony to get out. Of course, Tony sticks around.

This stranger, played by John Rhys-Davis, turns into a werewolf right before Tony's eyes and attacks him. 

In no time, Tony also starts turning into a werewolf just as two hunters with rifles and silver bullets barge in. 

Soon after, the others begin crossing the barriers of various wax displays and find themselves in the horrific scenes. To them, those scenes are now reality.

Loftmore quickly realizes what's going on as he escapes one of the displays.  

When he goes to the police, who of course don't believe him (useless cops...another standard horror cliché) he turns to a family friend, Sir Wilfred (Patrick Macnee) who explains the true nature and intent of the wax museum, the proprietor, and why so many of people around town have gone missing. 

Fans of gore will surely get something out of this movie. It's like a Halloween walk-through attraction on film. 

Waxwork is a product of its day in style and special effects. That's not necessarily a criticism. What is a criticism, however, is the film's use of banal elements that were tiresome, even in the 1980s - bully cops who serve little to no purpose, insanely clueless teenagers, laughably bad decisions, and ancient evils wanting to take over the earth. 

Michelle Johnson as "China."

This is supposed to be a comedy horror, but the comedy is just lame.  

Aside from that, the scene transitions are too quick. And the fighting scene in the film's climax is cringe and embarrassing to watch. Maybe that's where the comedy was hiding this whole time?

There is a small reference to my favorite musical horror Little Shop of Horrors. That part was fun.

This movie feels loose at the seems. There's little to nothing for the audience to become invested in as the plot is rushed through and the characters are pretty much throw-away characters. I just sat and waited for token character after token character to get picked off, one by one.

It seems all effort went into the movie sets, make-up effects, and the salary for those high-end actors. 

A sequel was released in 1992 - Waxwork II: Lost in Time with Hickox back in the director's chair. Galligan returns in part two and is joined by the legendary Bruce Campbell as well as David Carradine and Patrick Macnee once again. I'm willing to give it a try.

I think all Waxwork has going for it is the nostalgia behind it, the ride from one horror scene to another, and watching John Rhys-Davis's performance of a man turning into a werewolf. Everything else is flat and unimaginative.

94) Rent-A-Pal (2020)

"There's nothing like a little friendly competition, right pal?"

Director

Jon Stevenson

Cast

Brian Landis Folkins - David Brower

Wil Wheaton - Andy

Kathleen Brady - Lucille Brower

Amy Rutledge - Lisa

 

The 2020 movie Rent-A-Pal is as fitting a movie to watch among the "Nostalgic Horror Rental" reviews I've been posting recently as I approach review number 100. It's not necessarily a rental for me. But it's a thriller surrounding a VHS tape, so it fits just as well.

Rent-A-Pal takes place in the 1990s sometime, and centers on lonely bachelor David Brower (Brian Landis Folins). 

He has been consulting a video dating service called "Video Rendezvous" for several months with no success in being matched with someone else.

Brower lives with this 70+ year old mother, Lucille (Kathleen Brady) who suffers from dementia. His father was a jazz musician and composer who killed himself 10 years before. This leaves David, the only child, unemployed as caring for his mom is a full-time duty. 

While stopping in to Video Rendezvous to make an updated video - an experience that goes poorly for David - he finds a copy of a video labeled "Rent-A-Friend" hidden in a display of VHS tapes near the front counter.  

He purchases it, and takes it home. 

The video immediately starts with his new "pal", dressed like he just walked off a family portrait, sitting in an easy chair amidst a solid white background. The set is a poorly dressed living room setting.
"Hi!" the guy in the video says. 
His name is Andy (Wil Wheaton) and the video progresses like a conversation between two people meeting each other for the first time. Andy pauses to allow the viewer to answer his questions.

This initial viewing is too awkward for David, so he turns it off.

The receptionist at Video Rendezvous calls him the next morning letting him know a girl named Lisa wants to match with him after watching his updated tape. 

He goes there right away, and when he gets to the reception desk, David realizes he forgot his wallet. He rushes back to the house, grabs it, and hurries back. But when he returns, it turns out Lisa has already matched with someone else. 

Heavy hearted, David checks out her tape anyways to see what he lost out on. It turns out they have a lot in common. Lisa would certainly have been an ideal match. 

So, he turns on Rent-A-Pal and begins confiding in Andy. He shares how his attempts to find romance seem to lead to nowhere. David also talks about how abusive his mother was. And Andy shares a story about a disatrous date to a prom. Andy then convinces David to be his friend. 

David keeps returning to the tape for the sake of social interaction, night after night, drinking, talking, playing cards, and sharing personal stories. 

After some time goes by, Video Rendezvous calls David to tell him Lisa's match didn't work out, and that she would like to match with him.

They connect for a date at an arcade roller rink, and the two couldn't have it off any better.

David and Lisa end the night setting up a date for the next day.

Wil Wheaton as "Andy" in Rent-A-Pal.

Nearly beside himself with joy, David rushes home and plays his Rent-A-Pal video to tell Andy about his night.

Andy, however, appears to be jealous and angry, convincing him to call off the date. Evidently,  they were going to play cards the same night.

Things take a dark turn from there to the point where David mixes reality with the rented buddy on his low-budget friendship tape. 

There's a fair amount of movies involving a main character with a social life that's dependent on something inanimate rather than someone real. 

The 2013 movie Her with Joaquin Phoenix is one such movie. Also, the 2011 Mel Gibson film Beaver is another. 

And perhaps Peter Sellers' classic movie Being There (1979) - a film about a man whose knowledge of the outside world is solely from what he's watched on TV - might fall into that sub-genre.. Well, perhaps the Sellers film is a bit of a stretch.

Anyhow, Rent-A-Pal is the first of such films I think I've seen with such a dark and tragic tone, making it the thriller it is. It pulled me in and kept me thinking about it after.

As drawing as Rent-A-Pal is, there's room for more. It felt a little lacking. I was really invested in the character David. While watching, part of me wanted to see David attempt to locate Andy in person. I honestly thought that's where the movie would go, but it didn't even come close to that. There's a lot a movie can do with that scenario. It certainly wasn't a predictable story. I walked away surpised.

On the flip side, keeping Wil Wheaton's character in the confines of the TV screen with only the script his character is given within the movie's story maintains the mystifying, almost inexplicable nature of the video cassette.   

Or is Andy and the video what David makes them? 

The movie still works as a thriller, but left me baffled. My mind couldn't come to grips around David's dependence on Andy once he found a female match through Video Rendezvous. Who's more baffling? David, or the tape? 

The special features on the DVD includes Wheaton's complete video cassette performance which I felt compelled to watch. I noticed that it progresses through all the general experiences friends normally go through - introduction, comradery, intimacy through divulging personal secrets and experiences, humiliation, jealousy, forgiveness, and parting. All this in about 20 minutes of footage.

Brian Landis Folkins in Rent-A-Pal.

To think Wil Wheaton's acting is just him talking to a camera rather than David is impressive. Yet, the movie makes it work perfectly, and convingly. Wheaton manages to be creepy enough in the confines of a TV screen. He's well cast, and has the best voice to really pull off a character like Andy.

Folkins plays a truly sympathetic character. It's easy to feel sorry for David. His performance is fantastic.

Rent-A-Pal is still a movie that works as a thriller, and I found it entertaining, intense at times, tragic, and well made over all. With the neverending surge of eighties and nineties nostalgia being today's trend, this movie gives a seemingly original twist on the thriller genre centering on VHS tapes. 

93) Tourist Trap (1979) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

"Mr. Slausen, can I use your phone?"

Director

David Schmoeller

Cast

Chuck Conners - Mr. Slausen

Jocelyn Jones - Molly

Jon Van Ness - Jerry

Robin Sherwood -Eileen

Tanya Roberts- Becky

Seldom does a horror film from any decade cross my field of vision, and leave me truly creeped out even several days later. The 2018 movie Hereditary managed to pull it off. So did the insanity that is Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects. I had to pause that one just to pull my sanity together.

I first heard about director David Schmoeller's (Puppet Master) 1979 low-budget slasher flick Tourist Trap on one of horror critic James Rolfe's "Cinemassacre's Monster Madness" segments. What I saw on Rolfe's review was compelling enough for me to keep it in my mental list of films to watch.

Recently, I managed to stumble upon a copy on DVD. Score! 

Seldom do I purchase movies that I haven't seen before. But this one I just had to see. I bought it and waited for a quiet evening to watch. 

The movie begins with a young couple (as slashers so often do), Eileen (Robin Lyn Sherwood) and Woody (Keith McDermott) who get a flat tire while driving along a desert road. Obviously no flat tire ever leads to a good outcome in a horror movie. 

Their friends Molly (Jocelyn Jones), Jerry (Jon Van Ness), and Becky (Tanya Roberts - Charlie's Angels) are traveling with them but in another vehicle.

Woody goes looking for help and comes across a rusty ol' gas station that looks like it hasn't conducted  business in years. He walks in anyway, only to find the place deserted. 

Still, he keeps shouting "hello?" just in case someone who hasn't given up on their life in the gas station business is still lingering around. 

Woody hears a moan coming from a back room. So, he goes to see who's back there. Again, in horror movies, a moan or any kind of noise coming from a back room certainly won't lead to any worthwhile discovery. Only hell and regrets lie in the back rooms of empty horror movie gas stations.

When he walks in, he sees what he thinks is a woman lying in bed. So like the good potential customer he is, Woody (a strange man in a woman's bedroom) tries to wake her up.

Suddenly the woman lunges forward, revealing that it's a mannequin. Other mannequins start popping out of various spaces, laughing hysterically at him. The door shuts and locks by itself. Supernatural forces hurl random objects at him. 

He punches a hole through the door, but when he sticks his arm through to unlock it, something takes hold of him and won't let go. Pretty soon, Woody realizes he's trapped.

This scene starts the movie off with a simple but incredibly terrifying tone that continues throughout. It certainly doesn't stray. 

As the others continue driving, they come across a roadside tourist attraction and assume Woody is inside. 

When they pull in, their car mysteriously breaks down. 

As Jerry tries to fix his car, claiming how it has never given him any trouble before, the girls go skinny dipping in a nearby secluded lake. What more vulnerable a position could these young girls put themselves in?

Suddenly they spot a creepy old behemoth of a man in overalls sitting in the grass, holding a rifle, and staring at them.
He comes across as polite as he informs them that they're trespassing, but is willing to let it go. 

As he chats with the girls, who are clearly uncomfortable, he also seems perturb as he mentions his roadside attraction "Mr. Slausen's Tourist Trap" hasn't seen foot traffic in a long time. 

Mr. Slausen (Chuck Conners) offers to help fix their car, but insists the girls come back to his house while he gathers his tools. Of course!

They agree, and wait inside his tourist attraction, which is filled with animatronic mannequins Slausen uses for his attraction. He also has a shrine to his late wife made up of a mannequin in a wig that resembles his wife.

He leaves them inside while he goes to fix their car. Slausen also instructs them that for their own safety. they shouldn't wander outside in the dark.

The phone in the house doesn't work, so Eileen goes out to find one in the house nearby.

She makes her way inside to room around, and finds rooms full of mannequins. Eileen then hears someone call her name. 

She thinks it's a joke, until a stranger in a hideous mannequin mask attacks her. 

When Slausen comes back to his tourist shop where Molly and Becky are still waiting, he tells them 

Jerry was able to drive his car back into town. 

But when he notices Eileen is missing, he suddenly becomes very concerned about her safety and goes out to look for her.

Still waiting inside, Becky and Molly become frustrated and conduct a search party of their own. It doesn't take long before they encounter horrors beyond their expectations, and the truth behind the word "trap."

This is a movie that did it for me as a horror fan. Tourist Trap, despite how schlocky, cliché and predictable it is, is the rarity that comes by every 100 or so films which makes me remember why I keep a blog like this in the first place. It's the kind of horror you stay up late on a Friday night to watch. This is one of the most quintessential of quintessential popcorn horror flicks I have seen in a while.

All the common tropes are there. The movie begins with young attractive girls and a couple beefy guys getting a flat tire in the middle of a deserted highway. 

It has the old, dusty abandoned locations that doesn't seem to dissuade needy intruders from barging in.

Then que the creepy, yet friendly old local offering the naïve group a ride. 

After that, these young attractive girls willingly put themselves in extremely vulnerable situations. Yeah...we know only the worst will happen. 

It's all mixed with unsettling music from Italian composer Pino Donaggio, who was working on director Joe Dante's horror movie Piranha in Los Angeles at the time of filming. His eerie soundtrack is mixed with drones that comes from the mannequins who seem to move under supernatural powers. 

It still has a true and classic horror feel to it that fits well with the movie. It sets the mood perfectly, and adds to the already dreadful look of these mannequins. 

While watching Tourist Trap, movies such as House of Wax (1953) and House of 1000 Corpses (2003) came to mind. The off-putting atmosphere reminded me of these other films.

I mention House of Wax because of the similarities between the use of unsettling likenesses in the haunting figures. Both are absolutely nightmare fuel. 

As for House of 1000 Corpses, its the twisted or darkly satirical imagery of an innocent homestead utilized by completely evil people looking to trap innocent folks.

These movies share an eldritch tone in their otherwise seemingly innocent settings, like a tourist attraction or wax museum, both of which can be unintentionally unsettling. Old places, whether a palace or an abandoned gas station, seem to develop a tingling, haunted atmosphere on their own accord that grows in and around them like the weeds that also take over. A tourist trap is exactly what its name implies. A trap!  

Tourist Trap captures that needed dark tone rather well. Escape is not as easy as it looks. 

Tanya Roberts (left) and Jocelyn Jones in Tourist Trap.

I have to give credit to Jocelyn Jones. She puts in so much effort and energy, pulling off a convincing performance that her character Molly is legitimately terrified.

Tourist Trap plays the mannequins into the story well in both imagery, atmosphere and even soundtrack. 

Tourist Trap deserves recognition for how scary it is alone. Sure, the acting is rough, and it's saturated with all the typical horror stuff audiences have seen over and over, but it's the fear that audiences want. And it doesn't disappoint when it comes to that. It finds a way to succeed in delivering what's expected. Why? Because mannequins are friggin' terrifying. Gimmicky, but scary as hell. 

This movie is so loaded with psychological turmoil, it's hard to tell who's the crazy one by the end of the movie. Otherwise, it's just another slasher flick with naive girls screaming for help, a pervy old man, and a lot of blatantly stupid decisions.

92) In the Mouth of Madness (1995) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

"Reality is not what it used to be."

Director

John Carpenter

Cast

Sam Neill - John Trent

Julie Carmen - Linda Styles

John Glover - Saperstein

Jurgen Prochnow - Sutter Cane

David Warner - Dr. Wrenn

Francis Bay - Mrs. Pickman

I'm very familiar with the John Carpenter film In the Mouth of Madness probably more than I am with John Carpenter. I enjoy his movies for the most part. I did a podcast review of his classic film The Fog. And a good portion of my horror movie favorites, or just favorite movies in general, are John Carpenter films - Halloween, The Thing, Escape from New York, and of course Big Trouble in Little China to name a handful.

In the Mouth of Madness is no obscure film. The titles I just mentioned may came up first if you ask someone what Carpenter they've seen, or asked them to name some of his films off the top of their head. Anyways, I've mentioned Carpenter several times on this blog, but haven't reviewed any of his movies. It's thanks to him that the term "slasher" is a word and a horror sub-genre.  

This movie is a rental I stumbled upon during a visit to my cousin's house (well, my great-aunt's son and grandkids, whatever relation they would be to me? Cousins once removed? Twice removed? I don't know - I'll consult my sanguinity chart later.)

Not only is In the Mouth of Madness another rental title from my past, it's the first movie I watched on a laser disc format. I must have been 14 at the time. My cousins rented it from their respective rental store somewhere in San Jose.

Three things stood out to me when I first watched it. 

First, it has Wilhelm von Homburg whom I immediately recognized as Vigo the Carpathian in Ghostbusters II. I even remember declaring, "Hey, it's Vigo" when he came on screen. It's the only other movie I have ever seen him in.

In the Mouth of Madness also stars John Glover, whom I recognized from Gremlins 2: The New Batch where he plays Trump-esque business mogul, Daniel Clamp. 

But above Glover and von Homburg, what I remember most of all is the unsettling horror images from the movie. They're truly memorable in a movie that's unforgettable thanks to its very unique horror style. They've stayed in my memory all these years.

Fifteen years ago, I went looking for the movie I saw at my cousin's house. I didn't know the name, and had some difficulty finding it, even online. I found it through searching for von Homburg movies. So, I found it and bought it.

I've intentionally waited until now to review In the Mouth of Madness. I've wanted to give a suitable review. I also have it on my list for potential films for my 100th review. I still haven't narrowed one down, by the way. Evidently, now it won't be this one. 

Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) plays insurance investigator John Trent. An insurance buddy of his asks Trent to work with a client who's looking into a claim filed by a New York company called Arcane Publishing while the two are out having lunch together.

During the lunch meeting, a maniac with an axe breaks through the front window of the restaurant and attacks Trent.

"Do you read Sutter Cane?" he asks, his split pupils looking right into Trent's eyes.

Cane is a popular horror writer in the film, who just released his latest novel. The release incidentally led to huge riots outside bookstores. 

Police shoot the axe guy dead. And it turns out he was Sutter Cane's agent who went insane after reading that new novel, and then killing his family. 

Sam Neill as John Trent in In the Mouth of Madness.

Trent later has a meeting with Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston), the director of Arcane Publishing which publishes Cane's books.

Harglow tells him the claim involves Cane who has mysteriously disappeared. 

Harglow also wants Trent to obtain the manuscript for Cane's last and final novel, In the Mouth of Madness. 

Trent thinks this disappearance is one ginormous publicity stunt. Still, he agrees to investigate regardless. 

While doing some thinking about the case, he notices how the covers of Cane's novels all contain red lines. 

Trent takes the covers and lines up the red lines discovering that they form the shape of New Hampshire when put together. A location is indicated, too, within the shape of the state. Trent takes this location to be Hobb's End, a town used in the novels. He's certain that's were Cane is.

Harglow sends the company's editor, Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), who edits Cane's novels, to accompany him to Maine.

Styles fills Trent in on how Cane's stories have caused paranoia and delusion among some of his readers.

When they find the town, the atmosphere seems off. In fact, Hobb's End isn't suppose to exist. It's not on any real map. 

They find specific locations in town referenced in Cane's works. All the while Trent is still skeptical about the whole debacle.

Among the locations in town is a lone Eastern style church painted black. Styles is certain Cane is hiding within. 

She goes inside to find Cane, which she does, only to be driven mad when he gives her the manuscript to his final novel. 

As Trent explores Hobb's End, he comes across many unsettling things. He goes into a bar where a local named Simon (Wilhelm Von Homburg) warns Trent to leave.   

Trent runs out, only to be approached by a mob of hideous looking people. 

He jumps into his car and tries to drive away, but keeps finding himself right back where he was. 

He crashes and wakes up inside the church confessional with Cane on the other side of the screen. 

Cane tells him that the belief in his works among those who read his books set loose an ancient evil hell-bent on reclaiming the Earth. 

"That's the point - believe," Cane says. "When people begin to lose their ability to know he difference between fantasy and reality, the old ones begin their journey back. The more people who believe, the faster the journey." It's like a dark, twisted version of The NeverEnding Story as far as premise goes.

Cane also says Trent is just another character in one of his stories, forced to follow his plot by returning the manuscript to Arcane Publishing which will ultimately end the human race.

The plot of this movie is an insane one - literally. And like true insanity, it gradually increases with the story. 

Insanity is portrayed in various ways either through the atmosphere of Hobb's End, or in Trent's grasp on reality as it slips away. 

Some say doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. 

This came to mind during the scene where Trent tries to escape the angry, devilish looking mob and drive out of town only to return to keep returning to the same street with the mob waiting for him. 

This movie takes a ton of inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Even the title plays off of Lovecraft's story At the Mountains of Madness. And as the film opens with the main character held within an insane asylum, the story is told as a flashback. It's a method of story telling common with Lovecraft. A little bit of Stephen King is thrown in the mix, not just with mention, but it the movie's New England setting. 

The imagery and insanity is what makes In the Mouth of Madness a memorable John Carpenter horror film.

Uh...nope!

One thing I found clever is the exposition after Trent wakes up in the church confessional, and Cane begins telling him his plans. Placing the scene inside a confessional adds a certain sense of fear that wouldn't exist if Cane and Trent stood looking at each other. 

As Cane is attempting to set evil loose on the world, such a profanation as admitting his evil intentions to Trent inside a place where sinners go to repent is certainly not out of place. 

This movie tries to bring the insanity from the characters to the audience, which is why some critics, such as Fred Topel at About.com, think this movie is "too confusing."

Film critic Roger Ebert said "One wonders how In the Mouth of Madness might have turned out if the script had contained even just a little more wit and ambition."

It may be a more memorable movie if such was the case. But my guess is it would have much more points to pay attention to and think about, which may have limited its audience by the end. 

This is a horror movie that wants its audience to really be engaged, not miss a thing, and keep thinking about they saw long after the credits roll. 

It's ambitious which is why I consider it one of my personal favorites in horror. 

If picking my top 50, maybe even top 10, horror movies, In the Mouth of Madness would be among those titles based on its story line, horror/ thriller element, cast, film atmosphere, and depiction of insanity.

In the Mouth of Madness lives up to its namesake as it's a great depiction of insanity on film.

91) House 2: The Second Story (1987) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

"I'm a 170-year old fart." 

Director 

Ethan Wiley

Cast

Arye Gross - Jesse McLaughlin

Jonathan Stark - Charlie Coriell

Royal Dano - Gramps

Bill Maher - John Statmen

John Ratzenberger - Bill Towner

Lar Park Lincolc - Kate

Dean Cleverdon - Slim

Even before sitting through the somewhat decent, but not really, horror comedy House, I had plans to watch its sequel House II: The Second Story. 

I remember seeing this film probably shortly after its video release back in 1987 or 1988 thanks to my brother renting it. 

Though the title is the same as part one, the rest is different. There's a different house. There's a different director. There's all different characters. And there's a different plot that's unrelated to the first movie. I guess that makes sense since the title is "The Second Story." 

House II is another horror comedy, this time centering on Jesse McLaughlin (Arye Gross) and his girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln - Friday the 13th part VII: The New Blood) as they move into an old house that has been in Jesse's family for several generations. 

On the day they move in, Jesse's dorky pal Charlie (Jonathan Stark - Fright Night) and his forgettable girlfriend, Lana (Amy Yasbeck - Problem Child) - I'm surprised the writers bothered giving her a name at all - drop in completely unexpectedly. 

Kate works for a record company, so their true purpose for stopping in is for Kate to discover Lana as a pop singer. 

Anyways, Jesse's parents were murdered in the house while he was in his infancy. Now that he has finally returned, he starts searching through family documents and pictures looking into his family's history. 

While doing so, he finds a picture of his great-great grandfather Jesse, from whom he gets his name, in front of an Aztec pyramid, holding a crystal skull with jeweled eyes. Also pictured is a more ominous looking character Jesse learns is his great-great grandfather's former partner turned adversary, "Slim." 

Evidently, when Grandpa Jesse found the crystal skull, he and Slim had a bitter disagreement as to who would keep it. 

Young Jesse sets out with sidekick Charlie to grandpa Jesse's grave, assuming the skull is buried with him.

When they dig up the coffin and find the skull, grandpa Jesse's corpse (Royal Dano - The Dark Half, Ghoulies II, Killer Klowns from Outer Space) attacks him. 

While being nearly strangled to death by the 170-year old corpse, Jesse manages to choke out that he's his great-great grandson.

Grandpa Jesse is surprised by this revelation and lets him go. Soon, young Jesse and Charlie take a quick liking to grandpa Jesse, whom they start calling "Gramps."  

They take Gramps and his crystal skull home. Much to Gramps's dismay, the skull hasn't kept him from aging as he thought it would. 

This is where one of the funniest lines I heard in a movie as a kid is uttered by gramps - a line that I never forgot. It's a line I searched for when I tried to find this movie years later, but couldn't remember the title. 

"I'm a 170-year old fart," Gramps says when he sees his reflection for the first time since he was buried.

I remember finding this line so hilarious, either I or my brother rewound the scene in a few times to really let the phrase set in.  

'Slim' (Dean Cleverdon) faces off with Gramps (Royal Dano) in House 2.

Anyways, now that the skull is in the home, Gramps tells them that stones from the Aztec temple were used in the house's construction which gives the house power over time and space.

Rooms act as portals to the past. 

During a Halloween party, which gives old Gramps enough cover to roam about the house without standing out to the guests, Kate's creepy boss John Statman (Bill Maher) shows up. 

He spots Jesse chatting with an old fling, and assumes the two are flirting. 

Kate finds out, and ends up leaving.

While all this is taking place, Jesse and Charlie enter one of the upstairs rooms which becomes a portal to the Jurassic era. 

Inside, they come across a baby pterodactyl and a creature that's part caterpillar and part adorable puppy. They call it a "cater-puppy." 

The pterodactyl, along with a caveman intent on stealing the skull, gets loose the house. The expectation is that hilarity will ensue. They take the cater-puppy in as a new pet.

But the last person they want showing up, however, is Slim. 

When horror movies have throw-away characters, as this one does, the audience knows those characters are going to fall victim to a monster or killer in some way or another. That's especially true in slasher flicks. While House II is classified as a horror, it certainly is no slasher.

Rather than die, the throw-away characters in House II just leave. They literally get in a car, and drive away, never to be seen or heard from again. In fact, no one dies in this movie except for 170-year old Gramps who finally dies after 170 years of being buried. Oh, sorry...spoiler alert!

Compared to the first, which didn't have much in the way of "horror" except for a few monsters, part 2's horror is much more watered down.

Watching House II made me realize how William Katt's performance in the first film is what holds that movie together. 

The actors in part two try to pull off something worthwhile with the material they're given. But much of it sounds scripted and forced. Still, I just can't blame the actors too much.

The strange scenarios feel like the movie is being written as it progresses along. 

I shouldn't be too harsh as director Ethan Wiley only had two weeks to write the movie's screenplay. 

Such is the case in the scenes where the baby pterodactyl gets loose in the house, and Jesse and Charlie chase it around while trying to keep it all a secret from Kate, John, and whoever that other girl was. And then the cater-puppy is thrown in for marketability. Sadly, the movie fails even in that regard.

In another scene, an electrician (John Ratzenberger) stops by fix the wiring. While working, he finds another portal to a different time period.  

"One of those time portal things... you see these all the time in these old houses," he tells Jesse when he stumbles upon it after punching a large hole in a wall. 

It turns out the electrician doubles as an adventurer as he pulls out a sword from his tool box, and the three of them go in. 

They walk in on an ancient cult about to sacrifice a virgin. 

They attack the cult members, save the virgin, and they bring her into their own time where she just hangs out with them, and serves absolutely no purpose other than add a little sex appeal.  

This sequel is a mess of randomness.

Ratzenberger is the most entertaining part of the film thanks to his humor and humdrum attitude, uttering lines that begin with "ehh, uuhh..." His character is the only part of the movie that made me laugh.

In the first film, George Wendt (Norm from Cheers) plays the neighbor, Harold. And

Royal Dano as 'Gramps' in House 2.

 Ratzenberger, plays Cliff on Cheers. I wonder if producers tried to get any more stars from Cheers to be in the subsequent House films.

There is one returning actor from part one. Dwier Brown, who plays the Lieutenant in William Katt's Vietnam flashbacks, plays Clarence in part two. As you might have guessed, Brown's return doesn't sell part two.

If part one has a comedic tone similar to Gremlins, part two maintains only some of that. The rest resembles something like a lesser known, haphazard episode of The Twilight Zone. 

And that random haphazard tone is embodied in the thing that's part puppy and part caterpillar

I have not seen the next two sequels, House 3: Horror Show and House IV. I'm undecided at this point if I'll make any attempt to find and watch them.

House 2 is a movie to experience for those who watched part one. But should anyone forego this sequel, they're only missing out on a weak film that seems to have forgotten the horror when it was so quickly put together. 

90) House (1986) - A Nostalgic Horror Rental

"It won, Roger. It tricked me. I didn't think it could, but it did. It's going to trick you too, Roger.  This house knows everything about you." 

Director

Steve Miner

Cast

William Katt - Roger Cobb

Richard Moll - Big Ben

George Wendt - Harold Gorton

Mary Stavin - Tanya

Susan French - Aunt Elizabeth

Michael Ensign - Chet Parker

The 1986 comedy horror film House isn't too off-the-radar, even among non-horror fans. Yet it maintains some amount of obscurity while still being considered quite the nostalgic flick - just enough for me to throw it among titles I've been calling "Nostalgic Horror Rentals."

Like all the rest of them I've posted about, I first came across this movie in the video rental aisle back in my video rental days of the early 1990s.

But what really stands out about this film is the VHS cover art. Of course, it's the main reason I'm writing a review on it. 

It depicts a severed zombified hand floating in mid air, ringing a doorbell, attempting to intrude for the worst on what my young mind presumed was a normal house with the same sort of loving, innocent family just as mine was. The fear that image incited in me at a young age was my mind's insinuation of my family's household in such a terrifying situation. What if a zombie hand rang our doorbell in the same way? My sense of peace would be forever destroyed.

And the movie's tagline "Ding, dong. You're dead," printed on the VHS cover, is a phrase I've always remembered. Why are "they" dead? And why do monsters of any form terrorize random houses? 

I never watched this movie until about 10 years ago, along with its even more ridiculous sequel House II: The Second Story starring a young Bill Maher. I'll get to that one next. 

As far as the actual movie goes, there was little I remembered about it, save for "Big Ben," as I watched it for the second time a week ago.

The movie centers on author Roger Cobb (William Katt -The Greatest American Hero) who recently divorced from his wife after his young son, Jimmy, mysteriously disappears. On top of this, his Aunt Elizabeth commits suicide by hanging inside her home.

As he deals with these tragedies, his publisher is pressing him to write another book just after the release of his latest thriller novel. 

Cobb prefers to write a book based on his own horrific experiences in the Vietnam war, to the dismay of his publisher. Evidently, his fans aren't up for historical fiction.

After burying his Aunt Elizabeth, Cobb decides to take over her beautiful home though his Aunt's attorney, Chet Parker (Michael Ensign- Ghostbusters). Parker prefer he sell the home but Cobb wants to stay so he can start his next book.

No sooner does Cobb move in, he begins having terrible nightmares about his Vietnam experiences. A fellow soldier named "Big Ben," who died during the war keeps popping into his dreams and flashbacks. 
As these dreams keep waking him up at night, monsters and creatures begin tormenting Cobb as they spring from random parts of the house.

Soon, the monsters begin physically attacking him. 

Roger Cobb (William Katt) tackles a monster in his closet, 
in the movie House (1986).

His next door neighbor, Harold (George Wendt), is the only person he can relate the strange happenings to. 

Of course Harold is skeptical and thinks Cobb is more of a danger to himself considering the extremely difficult time he's going through. 

Rather than run in fear, Roger is determined to tackle these entities head-on, combat style if necessary, and hopefully figure out what happened to his son. 

The comedic tone of House reminds me a bit of the movie Gremlins which was released in 1984.

The comedy is in Roger's tactical force against the supernatural monsters intruding the home.  The monsters aim to scare and end up being used for laughs. 

It does try to build up trepidation in the beginning, especially when Cobb has a vision of his aunt's ghost hanging herself all over again. 

When Cobb encounters his first monster after it unexpectedly appears and lunges at him after he opens a closet door, the movie shifts in a different, more comedic direction with hideous, drooling, fanged monsters. 

The comedy is in Cobb's tactical force against the supernatural that's intruding on home. He sets up an arsenal of video cameras, and a shot gun, pointing at the closet where he saw the monster. He practices opening the door and running like he's back in basic training.

Other scenes feel completely forced, pointless, or both just to try to gain some more laughs.
One such terribly written scene takes place when Harold calls the cops after hearing a gunshot from Cobb's house. Harold thinks Cobb might have shot himself, but doesn't realize that the shot was taken at another monster who takes the form of Cobb's ex-wife after its shot and lying dead on the front porch.

The cops come, and Cobb lies stating the gun went off accidentally while he was cleaning it.

What the cops don't know is that Cobb thinks he shot his ex-wife accidentally, and hid the body in a crawlspace under the stair case.

He invites them in for coffee, and no sooner begins to sweat with worries as the cops are close to stumbling upon the body he thinks is his ex-wife's as one officer searches for the bathroom, and the other simply looks around. 

The character Tanya (Mary Stavin) is also pointless character.

She's introduced after Cobb catches her swimming in his aunt's pool. Tanya says his aunt often let her help herself to the pool.

She later stops by to ask Cobb to babysit her son, though she barely knows him. The scene plays out with Cobb unable to get a word in edgewise, not even enough for him to say "I can't." Tanya just assumes he'll do it and piles on the stuff, and instructions, he'll need to watch her son while she's out.

Regardless, House has some talented individuals behind the scenes.

Director Steve Miner has his name in several other horror titles as he directed Friday the 13th parts two and three, Warlock, Halloween H20, Lake Placid, and the 2008 film Day of the Dead. 

For the most part, those films are fair to decent enough. The same goes for this movie.

Film writer Fred Dekker also worked on a few favorited horror films and programs including Night of the Creeps (1986), The Monsters Squad (co-written with Shane Black), and four episodes of Tales from the Crypt. He also wrote the first draft to 1983's unproduced American film Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 3D which had Steve Miner set to direct.

Also, Dekker was a writer for House 2: The Second Story the same year he worked on Monster Squad. 

One scene that gave me a chuckle has Cobb sweeping up monster parts after he kills it. 

I wonder if other movies such as Army of Darkness (1992) and Shaun of the Dead (2004) took inspiration from House as far as their tones of comedic horror/ thriller go. 

Underneath the corny, slightly slapstick humor is a decent and almost original take on the haunted house genre of horror. 

Richard Moll as "Big Ben" in House.

The most notable and iconic part of the movie is Richard Moll (Bull from Night Court) in the role of Big Ben. The role earned him a Saturn Award. 

My problem with this movie is how disjointed it is at times. It's as though the movie is unsure which direction it wants to go. It starts off on a more sinister and serious tone, and switches instantly into a shlocky horror.

House has potential with stronger writing in the humor department and as well as with its the frightful tone. This is the kind of movie that could use a remake with stronger composition, peril, emotion, and comedy. 

It's not a completely bad movie as it fits well enough among other comedy horrors of its decade. It just needs the weak parts strengthened. 

One thing is for sure. I bet it's nightmare fuel for kids of the 1980s, especially the plot point of Cobb's child being separated from his dad in a realm of complete darkness and uncertainty. If the severed hand on the video cover creeped out my imagination, that plot point of the movie would have scared me as a child. even more so than the monster in Cobb's closet.