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!

18) Frozen (2010)

"Ok then, Lynch. What is the worst way to die?"

Director
Adam Green

Cast
Emma Bell - Parker O'Neil
Shawn Ashmore - Joe Lynch
Kevin Zegers - Dan Walker


The 2010 movie Frozen is much too forgotten despite being a fairly recent film. This might be due to that 'other' movie with the same title, released in 2013, from Disney about Disney things. I mean, if you ask anyone "have you seen 'Frozen'?" it's more than likely that person won't think "oh, yeah...that 2010 thriller about skiers trapped on a ski lift overnight."

In Frozen, childhood friends, Dan and Joe, and Dan's girlfriend Parker, spend a Sunday at a ski resort in New England. They agree to take just one last run down the mountain before heading home for the night. As a snow storm is approaching, the ski resort is closing early. However, they bribe the ski lift operator to let them on one last time.

He reluctantly agrees, and as they're taking the lift, the operator is called into his manager's office to deal with a scheduling issue. He remembers to tell his replacement that there are three skiers left. 

The replacement sees three different skiers head down the slope and thinks that's the other three. So, he shuts down the lift and leaves for the night unaware the skiers are still on the lift.

It's unnerving at first when the lift stops, but once those lights along the slopes go out, it becomes real. 

The three are stuck on a ski lift at night with dropping temperatures, and a snow storm is approaching. On top of all that, one of the skiers remembers that the resort is only open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Panic sets in and lingers as they dangle several feet over the snow where it's too high to jump off. The storm finally approaches over head. Dan, Joe, and Parker are hit with freezing rain and snow.
After some time passes through the night, Dan decides he's going to have to jump if they want to be rescued. What follows is the other two on the lift forced to watch the fate of their helpless friend below on the ground.

Their danger intensifies into the next morning with Parker, who's already suffering from frost bite, wakes up and finds her bare hand frozen to the safety bar.

For a simple plot, this movie is a bulls-eye. When it comes to what makes it a scary film is its realism. Such a plot is not a stretch by any means. In fact, just searching for "stuck on a ski lift" on Google brought up a lawsuit involving a teen who back in 2016 was stranded on a lift 30 feet in the air for several hours at a North Carolina mountain resort. The kid actually jumped and survived out of fear of freezing to death.

Scenes are cringe worthy in just the right way forcing the audience to brace themselves at certain

parts of the movie.

According to the behind-the-scenes segments on the DVD, the filmmakers really did their homework to make this movie work. For instance, one of the skiers attempts to climb across the lift cables in an attempt to reach the ladder on the side of the support tower several feet away. Little does he know that even though the cables look like metal rope, it's incredibly durable (I mean, they have to be to be able to support the lifts up the mountain side) and very sharp. This is a small but important detail filmmakers looked into.

Normally movies in the eco-horror genre involve intense natural disasters, ravenous animals out to kill, or something eco-horrific that's right on the border of something perhaps supernatural (i.e. The Mist, The Happening, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.) This movie surely stems from the "man vs. nature" trend common in the mix of reality entertainment. Reality is a scary thing.

Part of the terror is that even though there's a way out of the terrible situation, it isn't an easy way out. No matter what the characters do to try and save themselves (jump, or climb across the cables) these efforts will leave an emotional and physical scar. Stephen King is a master at that "no easy way out" scenario. (i.e. Cujo, Misery) This film reminds me of his way of storytelling.

Though the acting tends to lean towards being forced, especially in the beginning, the movie is still superbly entertaining, perfect in its intensity and keeps the audience interested. It leaves them with discussions on what they would do to survive in a similar situation.
The dialogue also comes across as dull. Once the main characters get on that lift, I was ready for the action to start, and tired of listening to them drone on with stereotypical millennial lingo.

Plus, actor Shawn Ashmore, who plays Joe, also starred as Ice Man in the X-Men films. I guess he just has a knack for playing characters involved with ice.
  
It's too bad Frozen flies under the radar. It's a great story with horrific reality that can be more terrifying than any fictitious monster.

Oh, and speaking of fictitious monsters, Kane Hodder makes a cameo in the movie. He's dawned a few hockey masks during his acting career.

Not Reviews Necessarily: Gateways Into Horror - Personal Favorites from the Genre

There's no one-single answer to the question, "what's your favorite horror movie." Actually, there's no one answer to "What's your favorite movie in general."
I picked out some horror I consider favorites for a variety of reasons. There are too many favorites to include. These one's stand out above the rest. As I base a movie on how much I was entertained (that's the purpose of a movie, after all) these stand above others for a different reasons whether they tell a fantastic story, I find their imagery memorable, or most importantly, they scared me. 

In the Mouth Of Madness (1994) - I first laid eyes on this movie sometime around the mid-nineties when visiting some cousins. They had this movie on, and I caught a few scenes which stayed in mind for years after. This was back in the laser disc era. This tells a dark tale unlike other movies I've seen. Original, with an essence of Stephen King-ness, though he had nothing to do with the movie. Scary, unsettling scenes, with a satisfying, and unsettling ending- just the way a movie should conclude...that things haven't really been resolved the way the audience expected, or hoped for. It's a horror movie after all. Why walk away with a happy ending? 

Freaks (1932) - This is a movie ahead of its time. Directed by Tod Browning, who also directed Bela Lugosi in Dracula, this movie still fits in today's social climate. It tells the story of performers, especially one in particular, in a circus freak show (played by actual freak show performers) who face humiliation by a "normal" performer for the mere fact that they're paraded for their physical differences and abnormalities. The message is simple, yet impactful - people who are different are still people. And a person with evil in their heart will soon turn out to be the real freak. This is a movie that shouldn't become forgotten.

It (2017) - Not too many horror films present their monsters in the daylight. This one did, and it was fantastic. Respectful of the source material. Plus, I really had to include at least one Stephen King film adaptation in this list. Obviously, it's not my only favorite King film - The Shining, The Mist to name a few more. Portraying a clown that's the epitome of all things scary doesn't sound like an easy task. This movie pulled it off well. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw this. But the imagery, the scares, and the acting were great. Not a perfect film, but still very satisfying. And Pennywise the Dancing Clown has officially taken in place among other legendary movie monsters thanks to Director Andy Muschietti and actor Bill Skarsgard.

The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Out of the two Conjuring movies, and those in the
same lineage (The Nun, Annabelle, etc) this sequel film is the one that did it for me in scares and intrigued. I found the imagery memorable and scary, and the story line entertaining. The movie is based on an allegedly true case of supposed poltergeist activity in Enfield, England, also known as the "Enfield Poltergeist." I recommend watching the behind the scenes footage of this movie when it comes to the "crooked man." That actor - WOW!

Frankenstein (1931) - Of all the Universal monster movies, this one is the most captivating for me. It tells a story surrounding the failure behind man playing God. And the one who suffers for that is the creation itself. Frankenstein's creature has always been referred to as his "monster." But, perhaps, the scientist is the real monster. On top of that, it spawned a well known, and successful sequel.  

Nightmare on Elm Street 3 (1987) - As long as a sequel is good, it doesn't have to be "as good as the first."
For a third installment in a series, this movie is good in story, scenes, scares and ending. If only New Line Cinema had stopped there. It was at part four where things really rolled down hill for the Nightmare franchise. This was even better than part two. And it has the most memorable scenes and lines in all the Nightmare movies.






Cujo (1983) - What makes this Stephen King story stand out is both it's originality, and the fact that it's a horror story that could really happen. The story surrounds a mother and son trapped in a stalled car as a rabid St. Bernard keeps them trapped inside. There's a lot of realism in the scenario. That's what makes it terrifying.
It's a story I wish I had thought of. It's a movie that has definitely left it's mark in cinematic pop culture. I wish the people at Funko would hurry up and turn this rabid St. Bernard into a Pop Vinyl figure.

Invasion of Astro Monster (1965) - Sometimes called Godzilla vs. Monster Zero, this is one of my favorite Godzilla movies. It's the sixth film in the Godzilla movie line-up, and has a much more sci-fi twist in the plot than other Godzilla movies.
Aliens come from Planet X to seek the help of Godzilla and Rodan in their battle against "Monster Zero." And who do we discover Monster Zero is none other that Ghidrah (aka King Ghidora) the three-headed monster.
But those same aliens end up playing some mind shenanigans on Godzilla and the crew, and they start their attacks on earth. Aliens! You just can't trust them. For a crazy story line, this movie is very entertaining, and has a smooth flow. It stands out as being the 

17) Mercy (2014) - Obscure Stephen King flick #3

"Even the darkest things in life can be a blessing."

Director
Peter Cornwell

Cast
Shirley Knight - Mercy
Chandler Riggs - George
Frances O'Connor - Rebecca
Joel Courtney - Buddy
Dylan McDermott - Jim Swann

Leave it to Stephen King to take those things we hold precious, such as the family Saint Bernard, or the privacy we treasure despite the vulnerability we endure when going to the bathroom (i.e. King's Dreamcatcher) and turn them into something frightening which may linger in our memory forever. King has a fair number of tropes he's turned into his own proverbial shower scene from Psycho.
In the case of the 2014 movie Mercy, (who's heard of it?) it's the relationship between a grandmother and a grandson.
This is taken from King's short story Gramma found in his anthology book Skeleton Crew. 
I found this title when searching for an episode of The Twilight Zone reboot series that ran from 1985 to 1986. There was an episode titled Gramma from the first season also adapted from King's short story. The episode featured Barret Oliver (Bastian from The Neverending Story) as the main character, George. I had planned to review the episode.
For an obscure title, Mercy is not without some big names - Chandler Riggs (Walking Dead) as the main character, George, and Shirley Knight (As Good as it Gets) as his grandmother, Mercy. It also stars Dylan McDermott and Frances O'Connor.
The movie starts off fairly strong in intrigue and shock - an opening shot of a young woman having a baby inside her home as her husband does himself in with an ax to the head - but it's mixed with what sounds like lighthearted narration from George. It doesn't fit together well.
He has a strong relationship with his grandmother, Mercy. When she becomes sick, Mercy has to live in an old folk's home.
However, after some time passes, the nursing home informs the family they don't want to care for her anymore. She's become to strange for their staff. And Mercy has to come back home. Her daughter, Rebecca (Frances O'Conner) who's a single mom, and her sons, George and Buddy (Joel Courtney) come to live with her as her caregivers.
Despite just how much grandma isn't herself, George tries to really be there for her. The worse her health goes, the darker things become. The situation finally boils over as evil secrets begin to emerge, revealing Mercy's demons, her sinister past, and the hell that's behind her decline.
Riggs portrays his 13-year old (give or take) character taking care of his declining grandma as best he can. His performance is fairly solid. He had a big part to play, and pulled it off well enough. The effort is there. The other performances come across as forced and lacking enthusiasm, especially from grandma herself. 
The tension and turmoil within the family was a well done detail to the story. As evil influences have been at work with grandma for years, the devil's footprints (figuratively speaking) have trekked through the family since their beginnings starting with Mercy, and it shows. It was a small detail that may or may not have been intentional, but it was portrayed and it made sense. Mercy's secrets are slowly revealed at just enough pace to have kept me interested.
But as the final act commences, things became confusing, with elements strung together. George runs around too much in and out of the house. Small plot points come up with little or no explanation as to their purpose in the story.
Throughout the story, George converses with the "girl next door," a young girl roughly the same age, to help him think out his difficult situations. We learn right away she's someone only he can see and hear. At first it seems like a coping mechanism, but the ending reveals who she is, and it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.
Needless, to say, the movie ended on a lackluster note - unsatisfying.
If it just had better writing, it could have been a true hidden gem of a Stephen King movie. It entertained me overall until the end where, sadly, just like grandma, it just gasped its last and fizzled out.
It's laughable that the Twilight Zone episode had a darker ending than the movie, which changed the ending of King's original story altogether. Perhaps if it kept King's original ending, Mercy would have been a better film.

The Twilight Zone season 1 episode 18

Barret Oliver as George in the 1985 Twilight Zone episode Gramma 

Ambiguous King

16) Chopping Mall (1986)

"Absolutely nothing can go wrong."

Director
Jim Wynorski

Cast
Kelli Moroney - Alison Parks
Tony O'Dell - Ferdy Meisel
Russell Todd - Rick Stanton
Karrie Emerson - Linda Stanton
Barbara Crampton - Suzie Lynn
Nick Segal - Greg Williams
Dick Miller -Walter Paisley 

The shopping mall! It was the Facebook for teens of the 1980s and 1990s. Some malls are still alive today. Many others are dying, or dead. And speaking of "dying and dead," this movie is about teenagers dying inside a mall.
Evidently, the script for Chopping Mall took 24-hours to write. With all respect to producer Julie Corman (wife to horror director icon Roger Corman), the story line seems like something a 5th grader would have written during an in-class writing assignment. Somehow, this makes the film a little more fun.

Despite the gore, and exploding heads, and all but innocent teenagers taking over a mattress and furniture store to do their deeds on products that are going to be sold to the public the next day, there is an innocence to the story which adds to the horror of it all.

The powers that be at Park Plaza Mall have bolstered their night time security with robots. These robots are state-of-the-art. And when one of the developers utters the infamous line never be spoken in a horror movie, "nothing can go wrong," the audience knows everything possible will go so, like, totally wrong!

These three robots are equipped with tranquilizer guns, lasers, and other deadly weaponry for the sake of apprehending thieves and whatever riff-raff attempt to lurk the mall after lights out.

Meanwhile, eight teenagers are going to have a party at the furniture store where some of them work. All but two - Alison and Ferdy - have their night of sex, booze, and sex. Little do they know that lightening outside hits to mall, causing damage to the computer that controls the robots. This sends them into kill mode, and the mayhem begins.

First, they kill the technicians, and then they kill a janitor named Walter Paisley, played by the late Dick Miller.

Miller, by the way, passed away over a week ago as I write this. He is well known for playing Murray Futterman in the movie Gremlins which was released two years before Chopping Mall.
He also starred in Roger Corman's famous movie Little Shop of Horrors (1960) so it's no surprise to see him in a cameo as Chopping Mall was produced by Corman's wife. Miller also made appearances in Terminator, The Burbs, and The Howling.

It's worth noting that this isn't the first time Miller played the character Walter Paisley. He did so in other horror/ thriller movies such as the The Twilight Zone: The Movie in the segment It's a Good Life. In the same year as Chopping Mall, Miller was Walter Paisley in Night of the Creeps. And before that, Miller was Walter Paisley, the bookstore owner, in The Howling. He was also Walter Paisley in Gremlins Director Joe Dante's 1976 movie Hollywood Boulevard. And even before all that, he was Paisley in A Bucket of Blood (1959)... SURPRISE! - A Roger Corman flick!

And though Paisley meets his demise (death by robot) in this movie, Miller later played "Officer Paisley" in the 1994 made-for-TV remake Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Paisley had many lives. And he died a lot, too. He should be remembered for one reason above all the rest - he was played by the legendary Dick Miller. Horror fans will surely miss seeing him pop up in the movies.

Back in the mall, one couple (Mike and Leslie) leave the store, and encounter the robots. Mike gets killed, and Leslie tries to outrun it, but can't outrun its laser. Her screams get the attention of her friends in the store, and they all witness her head blow off. Nasty!

Everyone separates after witnessing her demise, and go their own ways. It's them against laser-shooting killer robots. Who will survive?

As I've mentioned in previous posts, the primary purpose of a movie is to entertain. The dialogue in this movie can be silly at times. The acting is below par. And the story line is comedic, and over the top. But this isn't the movie people watch for award winning acting. It's pure, imaginative fun - just what horror/ slasher audiences settle in for with a tub of popcorn.

Barbara Crampton, who starred in the horror film Re-Animator in 1985, plays Suzie. Paul Bartel also has a role in the movie. He's no stranger to the inner-circle working here. Bartel had a role in Joe Dante's movies Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Piranha, and Hollywood Boulevard. He might be more well known for his role in the 1982 black comedy Eating Raoul.

The movie initially had me rolling my eyes. I mean, robots shoot lasers to protect a shopping mall. But I quickly grew into it. Watching these robots chase people around in a mall of all places kept me in suspense. Chopping Mall, with its cast and story line, is like a small, underrated, loving ode to the horror genre.

Maybe there's a lesson to be learned in a story about eight teenagers running through a dark, empty mall, trying to escape doom! Otherwise, it's a great piece of nostalgia. It hits the horror movie spot.

 

  

15) Riding the Bullet (2004) - Obscure Stephen King flick #2

"Fun is fun, and done is done."

Director
Mick Garris

Cast
Jonathan Jackson - Alan Parker
David Arquette - George Staub
Barbara Hershey - Jean Parker
Erika Christensen - Jessica Hadley


I've seen this movie twice before, and still couldn't remember much about it, especially the plot. The third time wasn't the charm I hoped it would be.
Though the story line that deals with death is fairly good, perhaps slightly reminiscent of King's story The Body which went on to become Stand By Me, this movie relies unnecessarily, and way too much, on jump scares-some of them laughable.
This one is based on the novella of the same name. What was also laughable was just how hard this Stephen King movie tried to be a Stephen King movie.

The plot
It's 1969, and a young artist (who wasn't an artist in the sixties?) named Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) - a University of Maine student - has a fascination with death. (Who didn't have a strange obsession with death in the sixties?)
He also thinks his girlfriend, Jessica, is trying to breakup with him - a thought that doesn't seem to be based on anything except his paranoia.
While sitting in his bathtub the day before Halloween, smoking weed, Alan stares intently on a razor blade and plays with the idea of slicing his wrist. And who should walk in right at that moment as he caresses the blade against his skin, but the Grim Reaper himself.
Death encourages Alan to do the permanent deed, while the murals painted on his bathroom wall begin to chant, "cut, cut, cut."
Alan accidentally cuts himself just as his girlfriend and a group of his friends barge into the bathroom with a cake to surprise him on his birthday. (Who wasn't barging into bathrooms with cake in the sixties?)
Alan wakes up in the hospital where Jessica berates him for his attempted suicide. She also scored him tickets to see John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band up in Toronto.
The day after he's released from the hospital, Jessica tells him he has a wall around him, and he again realizes she was going to leave him.
More "good news" comes when Alan gets a call letting him know his mother had a stroke. He has to forego the Lennon concert to visit his mom.
We see flashbacks via hallucinations of his childhood, and just what his relationship with her was like.
Alan starts hitchhiking to Lewiston, Maine. His trip starts off with a lift from a wannabe hippie/ Army deserter, who ends up crashing his VW.
Meanwhile, he sees a billboard advertising "The Bullet" roller coaster at an amusement park called "Thrill Village." He flashes back to a moment when he begged his mom to take him to ride the Bullet, only to chicken out thanks to the screams of the riders, just as they're next in line to get on. His mother slaps him on the head for being a wimp. This unfinished event consistently plays throughout Alan's trip to Lewiston to see his mom.
He then makes his way through a cemetery where finds a grave with the name George Staub. There's a picture George on the headstone.
Alan continues trying to hitch a ride, when someone almost immediately picks him up. He soon realizes that his new driver is actually George Staub (David Arquette) who's grave and picture he just encountered.
Though Alan realizes his driver is a dead guy, he tries hard not to let George catch on to this fact.
But George does know that Alan knows he's dead, because dead people always know everything, and their ride together ultimately boils down to an ultimatum for Alan. He must pick who will live and who will die. Alan, or his mother?

My thoughts
I've seen this movie twice before, and still couldn't recall much of the story line, or what events took place between the beginning and the end.
Mick Garris directed another, more obscure, Stephen King movie 12 years earlier - Sleepwalkers. I'll try to get to that one later. He also directed the Stephen King television movie Quicksilver Highway (1997) which stared Christopher Lloyd - get to that one, too! He's no stranger to comedic horror/ thriller. He was a writer for Disney's film, Hocus Pocus, which has gained a cult following lately. Riding the Bullet was lackluster.
The scary part, in a loose meaning of the word, don't come until Alan's ride with George, and the ultimatum he's left with. There's no way out of this one.
The movie relies on jump scares, and there's too many of them. Some of them occur within seconds of each other. I recall three consecutive jump scares in a row - the most I've seen in a single scene. It becomes a comedic gimmick before it just gets tiresome and stupid.
This movie has that coming of age motif found in a few Stephen King movies. This time around, it's a little saturated with the same flashback of Alan wimping out of riding the Bullet coaster when he was young. I understood that the Bullet was a sort-of premonition to the life or death decision Alan will have to make in the future. But the flashback popped up again and again in case I forgot the symbolism, or the title of the movie?
As he contemplates just how much his mother, who's on the brink of death, did for him growing up, in the midst of his ow fascination with death, he realizes death isn't as glamorous as his mind made it out to be. On top of that, Staub is making him pick a death - himself, or his mom.
This scenario is really a fascinating contemplation on death, and how it's viewed. It's compared to what death really is and how it affects other people. It's another story element King has used before in stories like Pet Sematary.
Alan does develop in this movie. Otherwise, the movie tries way too hard to be scary, doing a poor job of it.
I understand slapping Stephen King's name on the poster gives the audience an expectation to be frightening. But this movie made it comical, and that's not what it really intended to do. This was like watching a Hallmark version of a King movie. It was a good story line, a different take on the reality of death, but a dull and clunky presentation. I haven't read the story, but I would imagine, based on the movie, this must have been a depressed phase for Stephen King.
Watching Alan struggle with his ultimatum, as George Staub starts shouting for him to make a decision "now" or Alan and his mom are both goners, was the highlight of the movie
None of the acting really stands out. Jonathan Jackson doesn't play Alan with any personality, even when he's scared.
Too many cheap tricks and random thoughts distract from the real drama at hand. No wonder I forgot about this movie after watching it twice before.

Ambiguous King