In addition to the usual reviews and comments you would find on a horror movie blog, this is also a document of the wonderfully vast horror movie section of the video store I worked at in my youth.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Don't Kill The Messenger 63

It's a beautiful day outside, so I'm gonna get right to it. Ahhh, who am I kidding? I'll no doubt be hopping right back into Red Dead Redemption as soon as this is done. I wonder if I can lug by bigscreen out onto the back patio...

Dennis Hopper Dead At 74.

Iconic actor Dennis Hopper died yesterday of cancer. He was a man who wore many hats, including director, producer and writer over his long film career, which started alongside James Dean in A Rebel Without A Cause. In addition to his celebrated roles in Easy Rider - which he also wrote and directed - Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet, he also starred in several horror flicks, including Land Of The Dead, Witch Hunt and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Hopper leaves behind a long list of work that will be remembered and enjoyed for countless years to come.

A New Slasher On The Block.

While at Serena's last movie night, I met two people who worked on an upcoming slasher called If A Tree Falls. Here below is the trailer.



Though the market is saturated with road-trip-gone-wrong movies these days, I must admit that the Just Before Dawn vibe I got from the trailer does intrigue me. If A Tree Falls will be playing Fantasia in July, so hopefully I'll be able to catch it there.

Adlard Does Romero.

Below, is the one sheet that Magnet commisioned Charlie Adlard, illustrator for Robert Kirkman's super-awesome comic The Walking Dead, to do for George A. Romero's latest film Survival Of The Dead.

Photo courtesy of Dread Central

I know this is a few weeks old, but I wanted to wait until the movie was actually in theatres to put it up here. For my review of Survival Of The Dead from last September, click here.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Low Rent Hijinks


Considering it was released on video this week, I figured it was time to throw out my thoughts on Emil Hyde's The Landlord, a movie that has been in 'the pile' for quite sometime.


Tyler (Derek Dziak) has a problem. He can't seem to keep the pair of demons that live in his building from eating his tenants. Things get even more complicated when he meets Donna (Erin Myers), a young woman with a secret of her own.

As you'd expect from a production that cost twenty grand, The Landlord looked pretty rough, but damned if there wasn't something inherently watchable about it. What was most important to me was there was an original idea that entertained, so I forgave a lot of its low-budget underpinnings, like obvious ADR and laughable CG. While watching The Landlord, I found myself thinking of Greg Lamberson's 1988 effort Slime City, as I remember having a similar reaction to that, as well.


As the movie wore on, I found myself laughing more with The Landlord, than at it. It offers up some pretty funny moments – an almost completely improvised scene in a sleazy motel lobby comes to mind – which is kind of what you want in a horror comedy. The standout characters for me were Det. Lopez, the 'bad' cop played by Kurt Ehrmann and Tyler's sister, Amy, played by Michelle Courvais.


There were some nice special features on the disc, which was a nice bonus. I've worked on a few micro-budget productions and the common thread is the camaraderie that develops between all involved. The behind-the-scenes stuff on The Landlord disc is probably one of the best I've seen that showcases this. The disc also comes with its own drinking game. Genius! Good on Tempe Video for putting this out, as this is definitely one of the better offerings I've seen them distribute.

If you are one of those people who obsess over the bells and whistles, then you should probably look elsewhere, but for those who enjoy grass-roots absurdity in the vein of the aforementioned Slime City, Street Trash and the films of Frank Henenlotter, I would put forth that you give the Landlord a visit.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

It Came From The Archives 4.4

As you may have gleaned, I was somewhat obsessed with the Puppet Master movies in my youth, so that is why the majority of my Full Moon stuff is of that series. Therefore, to wrap up my little nostalgic nod this week, here is the rest of it. Click on any of the images to enlarge.


Here's an article from Fangoria #83, written by Bill Warren.


And here's a story by David Barton from Gorezone #21.


And finally, the pièce de résistance is my 12" resin Blade figure.


I actually just got this back after many years. I had neither the patience nor the dexterity to put this thing together myself, so I passed it off to someone more adept at that kind of thing. My buddy John once built his own Batsuit - complete with kevlar - so I knew he'd be up to the task. He did a fantastic job and it was well worth the wait.

Hopefully, looking at all this stuff brought back as many memories for you, as it did me. I had to dig deep for this latest installment and found even more curiosities that I can't wait to share with you in the coming months.

See you next time, down the rabbit hole.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

It Came From The Archives 4.3

By far the funniest thing I ever got in the mail from Full Moon was a collection of letters from fans all over North America. It took me forever to dig these out, but here below are some of the best ones. Click on any of them for a closer look.

I swear that isn't me above, though my letter was very similar. Killer puppets are cool, how do I sign up and P.S. Charlie Spradling is the shit.


Wait, what the fuck did he just say?!


Nice, another Denise Duff fan!



I find it hilarious that they actually printed the full letters - addresses included! God, what an innocent time we lived in pre-Internet.

My Full Moon edition of It Came From The Archives concludes tomorrow with a look at the Puppet Master series.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

It Came From The Archives 4.2

You may have noticed a common name throughout all those posters yesterday. Charles Band was the mastermind behind Full Moon Entertainment. In addition to the slew of direct-to-video horror titles he released over the years, he was also a pioneer of sorts. In this day and age, I think we take DVD special features for granted. We just expect there to be hours and hours of extras and if there aren't, we may not even pick up the disc! Some value that stuff more than the film itself! When I was growing up in the era of VHS, you were lucky if you got a trailer. However, I believe Band may have been the first to introduce "making-of" featurettes with his titles. Though he had dabbled with this in a few previous releases, his idea truly came to fruition with the release of Puppet Master II. It was called Videozone and below, courtesy of http://www.fullmoondirect.com/, is the inaugural episode. I SO remember watching this!

There was also a section where they plugged the fan club using the beautiful Charlie Spradling (Meridian & PMII) and then later Denise Duff (Subspecies 2,3 & 4). I may have mentioned before that the only fan letter I ever wrote was to Full Moon Entertainment - and indirectly Ms. Spradling - and it was Videozone that let me in on how to do that. I don't remember how much it cost, but they sure sent me a whole lot of swag over the next few years, including the postcards below.
Yes, that IS Helen Hunt above on the left.
Check back tomorrow to see the most 'amusing' thing I ever got in the mail from the good people at Full Moon.

Monday, May 24, 2010

It Came From The Archives 4.1

When I was working at my video store in the early nineties, I discovered a film production company called Full Moon Entertainment. I think the first movie I ever saw of theirs was something called Shadowzone, but my obsession didn't kick into high gear until I saw Puppet Master II. From then on, it seemed like our store had a new release from them every few months and they certainly didn't skimp on the merch. My last trip into the archives, I brought out all of the Full Moon related stuff I accumulated at that time and I'll be throwing it up here all week long. Honesty, between the ages of ten and twenty I seriously don't think I threw a single thing away, so if you're a fan of Full Moon, you've come to the right place.

The first thing I have in abundance are posters. Now that my poster collection is all ready to go, here are some Full Moon releases from back in the day.

Arcade featured a young Seth Green and was written by David S. "Dark Knight" Goyer.

Directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Henriksen, Combs & Oliver Reed. EPIC!

My favourite!


In 1993, Full Moon created two more labels to offer more specialized genre titles. The first was Torchlight, which released soft-core sci-fi and comedies such as;

Take a closer look at that lineup above.


The second company was Moonbeam, which provided lighter fare for kids. You may be shocked to know I don't have a poster for Prehysteria.

Next, there are all the clippings. We would get magazines at the store from distributors hocking their wares, and Full Moon was among them.


I'm not sure where I acquired the cards below, but the Weekend Of Horrors I attended in 1991 would likely be a good guess.


That's it for today, but, like I said, I've got a lot more stuff to show you so check back tomorrow when I talk about Charles Band and joining the Full Moon Fan Club.