Halloween Horror Trivia Watchlist

To all those who came here from the event or the Trivia FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's a selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here.

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

The Fog (1980)

Curtains (1983)

MaXXXine (2024)

Daybreakers (2009)

The Convent (2008)

The Babysitter (2017)

Wishmaster (1997)

Death Line (1972)

Skinner (1993)

Blood Rage (1987)

Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)

Death Weekend (1976)

Funeral Home (1980)

Killer Party (1986)

Halloween II (1981)

Halloween II (2009)

Halloween III (1983)

Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

Halloween 6 (1995)

Halloween H20 (1998)

Halloween 8 (2002)

Don't Go in the Attic!

The latest tape in the pile was one I just acquired at Eyesore Cinema during last weekend's Video Store Day celebrations. I spied a tape that said Horror in the Attic, saw that it starred Jeffrey Combs and Seth Green and thought to myself, “that's good enough for me.” Let's see if it was worth it.

A man (Andras Jones) wakes up in an asylum with amnesia and when the patients around him start dying, he begins to question if he might be the killer. 

While paying for it, Eyesore's proprietor Daniel was kind enough to let me know this was an alternate release of a movie called The Attic Expeditions, which did spark a vague memory of a coverbox - a dude's face wrapped in bandages, Dead & Buried style. When I later popped it in my VCR, I was immediately struck by this parade of notable names in the credits. Ted Raimi, Wendy Robie, Tim Heidecker (of Tim & Eric) even Alice Cooper shows up for a scene. It took me a second to recognize the lead was Rick from NOES 4, but I got there eventually. I initially thought his performance was fairly monotone, but later realized it was because everyone around him was so manic that it only seemed that way.

Seth Green & Andras Jones in Horror in the Attic.

It was hilarious to learn that this movie was originally supposed to be a Witchcraft sequel, but director Jeremy Kasten thought the script was too good so he made it a stand alone movie. This is likely correct, but I'd swap out the words “too good” for “too convoluted”, though I admit I am using my hazy drunken thirty-year old memory of watching Witchcraft V as a reference. I only remember bad acting and titties, and Horror in the Attic only has one of those two things. Although, it's certainly edited like an early 2000's movie.

Insert metal music here.

I must admit, I got a little dozey towards the end, but I did notice that Kasten was attempting to do some neat things with perception and consciousness with partial success. However, the main draw was just watching the actors have fun. The scenes with Combs & Raimi riffing off each other is a highlight - I literally could've watched a whole movie of that - but Seth Green is the best part of this movie. He gets to do a lot here, including a lengthy monologue one-er in which he almost dances with the cameraman. His performance reminded me of Brad Pitt's in 12 Monkeys, among other things.

Overall, this movie is quite curious. Horror in the Attic is definitely a few notches above DTV trash, but I can certainly see why it never found an audience, despite the draw of its many co-stars. See you next week for Halloween!

Oct 22nd Hellbar Trivia Watchlist

To all those who came here from the event or FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's a selected list of titles mentioned at the last event, which was a special appearance at Offworld's October pop-up Hellbar. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing.

Jacob's Ladder (1990)

The Ninth Gate (1999)

Immaculate (2024)

The House of the Devil (2009)

Ghostwatch (1992)

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

Nightbreed (1990)

Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)

Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)

Hellraiser: Deader (2005)

Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)

Suspiria (2018)

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Night of the Demon (1957)

The Devil's Candy (2015)

Devil's Mile (2014)

The Devil's Mile (1987)

Evilspeak (1981)

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

The Manitou (1978)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Exorcist: Dominion (2005)

The Exorcist III (1990)

House of Exorcism (1975)

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

When Evil Lurks (2023)

On The Cutting Room Floor.

VHS Fridays continue with the next tape on the pile, the 2000 Aussie meta slasher Cut. The fact that I have done two Australian movies in a row is completely coincidental. I mean seeing Molly Ringwald on the box obviously didn't scream “down under” to me. But let's see if it makes the cut (mugs to camera).

A young director tries to finish a lost horror film called Hot Blooded, after it was shelved after its director was brutally murdered on-set.

Cut starts well enough, giving us a film within a film where Molly Ringwald is stalked ad nauseum. I award early points for using the Split Enz song “I Got You” - NZ represent! When a gore effect malfunctions, the director (Kylie Minogue in a brief cameo) get pissed and is later murdered by Scissorman, I mean, Scarman with some very odd looking shears. This causes the film to be lost and rumoured cursed, until Film Audiovisual Radio & Television School's (FARTS for short!) best and brightest decide to finish it.

This movie doesn't really hide its intentions. Cut was Australia's entry into the nineties slasher cycle and as well as their answer to Scream, with Scarman standing in for Ghostface. Hell, they even managed to get Ringwald, who during the genesis of Scream was tapped to play Sidney Prescott. Here she's more of the Gale Weathers though, with Aussie actress Jessica Napier filling in for Neve. I will at least say they share the same vibe.

Jessica Napier & Molly Ringwald in Cut.

Cut struggles at times to get the ingredients of the meta slasher just right, sometimes leaning into full parody. You also have to ignore the fact that this low-budget horror production seems to be able to chug along even after their department heads start going missing. No boom? No wardrobe? No sound? No problem!

Having said that, the Scarman mask does look cool and was apparently cast to the actor's face for an extra snug fit. During the climax, there are some mask-melting effects that come off well. I assume it was a mix of practical and digital that for the time are kind of impressive. I'll have to ask my buddy Nash if he has seen this film because the only other time I have seen a death-by-wood-slicer scene is In A Violent Nature. I know he used many films as inspiration, but this would be the deepest cut (Oops, I did it again) of all. Oh, and I have to mention that Hot Blooded's shooting location is named the Swiss Chalet. I love that even foreigners can get in on Canadian content every once and a while.

Cut, though it sometimes overindulges in the tropes of the time, is still an entertaining watch that at a brisk eighty-two minutes doesn't overstay. Plus, I have to admit it was nice seeing Molly Ringwald again. That's all for now, let's see what I get up to next week.

Who Killed Cock Robin?

Yes, October VHS Fridays continue here at THS. Since my tape of the 1982 Morgan Fairchild thriller The Seduction snapped on its reels, I had to make a last-minute pivot to the Aussie offering Cassandra from 1987.

Young Cassandra's (Tessa Humprhries) repressed memories have been bubbling to the surface. Her parents tell her it's nothing, but their reluctance to share the skeletons in their family closet may have dire consequences.

Cassandra opened up promisingly enough with a wicked title card, some wild editing that would make even Sam Raimi blush, a sweet piano-driven score and an evil child channeling Emperor Palpatine.

That GIF really doesn't do it justice without sound. I also want to point out that it gives me great joy that even after a half-century on this Earth, most of that watching horror films, I can still encounter clips and sounds that were sampled by the industrial bands I listened to in my youth, this one in particular being TKK. So, five minutes in, I was having a gas.

Cassandra ends up being a servicable flick, but it has a bit of an identity crisis, not uncommon of late eighties horror. Its body count is too low to be a slasher, even though it may have been marketed as such, and its supernatural elements - Cass's visions of past and future - are too sparce for your average paranormal affair so it just spends much of its running time hanging between the two.

Tessa Humphries as Cassandra.

Another puzzling element is how little Cassandra is in this movie. You would assume being the title character, she would be the, you know, MAIN character, but to be honest she almost disappears in the middle act, replaced by her mother-not-mother Helen, who is admittedly bad-ass. She fends off multiple attacks from the killer and surprised me with her resilience. The rest was just looking past the reddest of all red herrings, awaiting the true killer to be revealed that I certainly didn't need Cassie's second sight to figure out.

I've had this tape for quite some time (and one of the few I own with a blue case) so it was good that I finally got down under to watch this piece of Ozploitation. I think I have my Fridays line up locked in for the next few weeks (provided no tape malfunctions) so check back soon.

Oh, To Be A Snake.

It's October time again! And you know what means... my conscience pushing me to post more VHS Fridays leading up to Halloween. Okay, you win. Let's start with the 1994 thriller Dark Tide.

Andi (Brigette Bako) visits her husband Tim (Chris Sarandon) in a remote village where he is fishing for valuable sea snakes. Their relationship strained, Andi enters into an ill-advised tryst with Tim's boat captain Dak (Richard Tyson) and things go south quickly.  

I originally thought this movie was a monster movie – I'm sure you can forgive me for thinking there was a giant snake involved given the above coverbox – but I quickly learned that this movie was more Dead Calm than Anaconda. I guess should've expected this as it was released post Basic Instinct where every third title on video store shelves was an erotic thriller looking to cash in. It might also explain why Tyson and Bako are listed on the coverbox and Chris Sarandon (the largest name in the cast) isn't. This ain't the eighties anymore, kiddies.

Richard Tyson & Brigette Bako in Dark Tide.

Speaking of which, I was initially confused about Sarandon and Bako's relationship. They share a long kiss upon greeting, but then she calls him “Dad” in the next scene, right before she proclaims, “We need to fuck!” I guess I missed the sarcasm, but I'm glad at least Dak later mentions to the age difference because we were all thinking it. 

Dark Tide was directed by Luca Bercovici of Ghoulies fame, only in this one he's switched out the slimy puppets for sexual assault. Seriously, I don't remember these 90's erotic thrillers having so much rape. God bless Brigette Bako because she endured a lot in this one.

This is fairly standard fare, switching back and forth between pretty underwater footage – the opening Jaws homage was not lost on me – and the aforementioned ugliness, but the climax is pretty decent, with our protagonists holed up at their house, using makeshift weapons like snakes, harpoons and a literal boomstick to keep the the seedy townsfolk led by Dak at bay. This is definitely Dark Tide's best section.

That's all I got for now, but be sure to come back soon for that next tape in the stack.

September Horror Trivia Watchlist.

To all those who came here from the event or the Trivia FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's a selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here.

Re-Animator (1985)

From Hell (2001)

Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Session 9 (2002)

Battle Royale (2000)

The Prowler (1981)

The Guest (2014)

Tragedy Girls (2017)

Detention (2011)

Student Bodies (1981)

Ghoulies III (1991)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary  (2005)

The Vault of Horror (1973) 

Dr. Terror's House of Horror (1965)

Tales From The Darkside (1990)

The Running Man (1987)

Salem's Lot (2024)

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

The Mist (2007)