"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?

"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?

"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)