"Looks like you've got some kind of alternate universe in there or something."

House II: The Second Story (1987)
Director: Ethan Wiley
Stars: Arye Gross, Jonathan Stark, Royal Dano, Bill Maher
Plot: Jesse and his girlfriend, Kate, are the new owners of the incredibly haunted house and find themselves on a quest to help a cowboy zombie get ahold of an ancient skull.

House II is another horror movie that is more funny than it is scary. I'm actually more of a House fan, which was scarier, but my boyfriend wanted to watch this one because there's a Halloween party. The new owner of this notoriously haunted house becomes friends with a cowboy zombie, Gramps, and assists him in searching for an Aztec skull (kind of like the crystal skull in the latest Indiana Jones movie, in the sense that it is a crystal skull) that  possesses powers. Of course there is an evil cowboy zombie, Slim Razor, who tries to get to the skull first.

If you haven't seen any of the House movies, I should probably mention that every room in the house is haunted by different things. One room is a jungle, for example, and Gramps also comes from within the house. Even the skull that they're looking for is somewhere in the house. Here's a pic of the skull:

 Apparently there are four movies in this series, but I've only seen the first two. Maybe I'll watch the others; it usually isn't a good thing, though, when no one seems to acknowledge that the other sequels exist.

 I realize I kind of started this review off negatively, but the movie is fun with zombies and monsters and other creatures. I just preferred the creepy haunted house plot of the first over the more humorous, adventure-themed second. Which would you prefer?

"Watch the magic pumpkin!"

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Director: Tommy Lee Wallace
Stars: Tom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O'Herlihy
Plot: Conal Cochran uses his Silver Shamrock mask making company to try to kill children by the masses on Halloween.


The Silver Shamrock Novelties company mass-produces three Halloween masks--a witch, skull, and pumpkin--for children to wear as they watch a special Silver Shamrock show on Halloween. The idea is that, as the show flashes an image of a pumpkin to extremely annoying music, the children are suddenly killed by bugs and snakes coming out of the mask. Here's an example:

This is possible thanks to a piece of rock from Stonehenge that the company has inserted into the mask.

You may be wondering, "Why isn't Michael Myers mentioned here? What does Michael have to do with this story?" Luckily, I can answer these questions. Michael Myers isn't in this film whatsoever. Halloween III was an attempt to spawn a series of movies centered around Halloween--without Michael Myers. The first two Halloween movies were slashers, this one deals with witchcraft, and apparently the fourth one would have involved ghosts. I've heard about many Halloween fans being pretty upset with this, which is understandable; however, if this movie is viewed as its own entity, separate from the famous franchise, it really is a good Halloween movie. Personally, I would have preferred the series take that route over beating the Michael Myers story to death. But, if you're going to miss Michael, good news! I found him for you in this tree:

Hooray!

"Be my witness!"

Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995)
Director: Bill Condon
Stars: Tony Todd, Kelly Rowan, William O'Leary, Veronica Cartwright
Plot: Candyman is back and out to claim lives--and his family--in New Orleans.

Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh is the second movie of the Candyman trilogy. Candyman is summoned by a blood relative in New Orleans around Mardi Gras. Summoning him is similar to the Bloody Mary urban legend in that you look into a mirror and say "Candyman" five times. He doesn't always appear immediately, but he does appear and some slicing and dicing by his hook hand tends to happen.



The Candyman movies are inspired by the short story, "The Forbidden," written by Clive Barker. Barker also had a hand in writing the first two movies. In most cases, when the author of a work that a movie is being based on becomes involved with the movie, it's a good thing. In this case it's a very, very wonderful thing as it is with most other Barker-esque movies (he's my favorite author). This sequel is just as good as the first Candyman with some added New Orleans creepiness. It usually bothers me when the "bad guy" shows his human side, but Candyman is able to maintain his badass personality throughout the film. The fact that he's played by Tony Todd also helps.

I wanted to post a clip of the first few minutes of the film so you can hear Candyman's story, but I guess no one has posted it. Basically, he was a slave who knocked up his master's daughter and the townspeople sawed off his right hand (why he has a hook) and covered him with honey (why he's called Candyman). He was killed by a plethora of bee stings. "Sweets to the sweet!"

"Sometimes dead is better."

Pet Sematary (1989)
Director: Mary LambertStars: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise CrosbyPlot: A family moves to Maine only to find that their new home is near an Indian burial ground.

The Creed family moves from Chicago to a small town in Maine. The new house is gorgeous and on a large lot, but next to a highway that truckers often speed down. Thanks to their next door neighbor, Jud (who is played by the guy who played Herman Munster in the old Munsters TV show!), they find a pet cemetery on their property for past residents' roadkill. Jud also leads Louis Creed, the father of the family, past the cemetery where the ground is "sour"--an Indian burial ground. Anything buried there will come back to life, but as an evil version of themselves. I'll let you guess what happens next.

Pet Sematary is based on the novel by Stephen King. If you're familiar with King's work, then right off the bat you know the film is going to be bloody and that death of some kind is going to happen to at least one person/animal. You know what I like about this movie, though? There's an Indian burial ground involved, but there isn't a house or some other kind of building on top of it; there aren't any angry poltergeists or ghosts of any kind. It's like a zombie-demon type story. I think the presence of an Indian burial ground but lack of ghosts is refreshing, what do you think?

I found this clip from Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments." There are definitely some spoilers here, but Stephen King and Mary Lambert talk about the story so it's two minutes of interesting people saying interesting things. Plus you get to see the most adorable little evil child ever.

"I would just like to say three words: Scary. German. Guy."

The Monster Squad (1987)
Director: Fred Dekker
Stars: Andre Gower, Robby Kiger, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr, Tom Noonan
Plot: A club of misfits tries to stop Dracula and other classic monsters from ruling the world.

Monster Squad is a kid's adventure movie comparable to The Goonies, complete with Count Dracula, Frankenstein, The Creature, The Wolf Man, and The Mummy. Dracula summons the other monsters in order to help him obtain an amulet that would allow him to rule the world. Little do the monsters know that a club, The Monster Squad, made up of six young monster fanatics, is out to foil their plan. Curse you meddling kids! Oh and there is a dog, too, so that Scooby-Doo quote is even more appropriate.

This movie is more fun than it is scary. It's considered to be family friendly; however, a family friendly movie in the 80's still has some cussing and brief nudity. If you have kids, you might want to watch this on your own first to make sure it's OK for your family. I have a six year old son and we waited until he fell asleep to watch it. I've seen this movie a few times before and I still enjoy watching it. Monster Squad is the only movie I'm aware of that has all of the Universal Monsters in one film. The background picture that I have up for this blog is a picture of all the monsters from this movie.

Do you still enjoy watching "scary" movies from your childhood?

AMC Fearfest

The schedule for AMC's Fearfest is up. Check it out: http://www.amctv.com/movie-event/amc-fearfest

It's about the same as it was last year, with the addition of the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the exclusion of Hellraiser. I have no idea why they would play the remake instead of the original, and I don't understand why they're playing Hellraiser III instead of the first one. The first time I saw Hellraiser was on AMC, and I got Doug Bradley (Pinhead) to sign my recorded VHS of it for free, so I have fond memories of watching it during Fearfest.
They also don't always have correct thumbnail pictures to the movies listed next to it (they show an image from the Halloween remake next to Halloween 5, for example). So they're slightly failing this year, in my opinion. But it's still exciting!

Oh, and I found this:

Ha!

"You're looking at vengeance. Cruel, devious, pure as venom. Vengeance."

Pumpkinhead (1988)
Director: Stan Winston
Stars: Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino, Kimberly Ross, Joel Hoffman, Cynthia Bain
Plot: Ed Harley gets a witch to raise the demon Pumpkinhead to wreak vengeance on the "cityfolk" who killed his son.

The plot pretty much says it all. Once Pumpkinhead is called upon, the rest of the movie is just about the people trying to get away from it and the man, Ed, regretting his decision. This all starts when one guy, Joel, accidentally runs over Ed's son with a dirt bike. So if you have issues with children dying in movies, you might want to skip this one. However, if you enjoy revenge movies, watch it and laugh maniacally at the cityfolks' doom. Personally, I just like movies with weird looking monsters, or as they say in this movie:

"It's got her!"
"What's got her?"
"It's a thing!"
"A thing?!"

Try to imagine the alien from Alien (1979) as a twisted root vegetable. Got it? OK so that's basically what Pumpkinhead looks like. Can you see the similarity?

Pumpkinhead (Left) Alien (Right)