April Horror Trivia Watchlist

To all those who came here from the event or the FB or Instagram 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.

Crawlspace (1986)

Puppet Master (1989)

Parasite (1982)

Tourist Trap (1979)

Mansion of the Doomed (1976)

Cellar Dweller (1987)

Pit & The Pendulum, The (1991)

I Spit on your Grave (1978)

Planet of the Vampires (1965)

Heart Eyes (2025)

Event Horizon (1997)

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Anna and the Apocalypse (2017)

Outpost (2008)

Outpost: Black Sun (2012)

Outpost: Rise of the Spetznaz (2013)

Cannibal Girls (1973)

Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century (1977)

Ninth Gate, The (1999)

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

Funhouse, The (1981)

Shirley (2020)

TV

Forever Knight (1992-1996) 

In The Year Two Thousaaaaand...

It occurred to me last week that I inadvertently took the piss out of Full Moon. So this week I decided to pull one of Charlie Band's offerings off the pile, a very cheap looking cassette containing Danny Draven's (I still can't believe that is an actual IRL name) 2001 sci-fi flick Horrorvision.

A screenwriter turned smut dealer named Dez (Len Cordova) discovers a website that incites visitors to commit random acts of violence. After losing his girlfriend, Dez joins up with a mysterious dude named Bradbury (James Black) to track down the source.

First off, I popped in the tape and this was the first time in my entire life that the preview trailer was for the same movie that I was just about to fucking watch! Anyway, much like how Dr. Giggles recalled memories of the nineties, Horrorvision is so fucking 2000's it hurts. Everything from the music and fx to the references to “Quicktime” & “Powerbooks” to cyberpunk tattoos. And I mean, a tattoo that literally says Cyberpunk. To be honest, this movie would be painful, if it wasn't so delightfully cheesy.

Brinke Stevens' brief appearance at the hop has her talking shop with Dez and I was reminded of what internet porn looked like before the 'Hub. Additionally, before the demise of Dez's squeeze, we got a scene inside LA's Dark Delicacies which was a hoot. I'm clutching at things here because a lot of this movie was montages to use the tunes they paid for, and discount bin versions of better stuff. Bradbury is clearly wish Morpheus, sashaying though sprinklings of Brainscan and Hardware. It often left me wondering...

When Dez turns on the TV in a hotel room, we see snips of Arcade and The Dead Next Door, at which point I kind of wished I was watching either of those two. The latter's appearance made sense because Horrorvision was a joint venture between Full Moon & Tempe, of whom Door's director JR Bookwalter was the big cheese. I do have to admit that the fact he and Band collaborated put a smile on my face. But, it could also be that it was this scene that the robots showed up.

Awww... who's this little guy!

I can't really deny that Horrorvision is low rent trash, but I did appreciate it had - apart from said robot effects - one saving grace in the film's final moments when Bradbury explains that it was all the vitriol and hatred being spewed online that caused the Internet to become sentient. How incredibly prophetic! I mean, not the sentient part - that'll come... if we're lucky - but just the idea of social media sowing our downfall. Remember when we were afraid of technology? 

Gifrific: SMELL YA LATER 2019!

Source: Dollman (1991)

Full Moon Fever 2019

In preparation for an upcoming article for Delirium Magazine and also that I'm working the booth at Fan Expo, I brushed up on nineties Full Moon movies this week. By brushing up, I mean I somehow viddied sixteen titles between Monday to Friday. 

Most of them I watched through Fullmoonfeatures.com, which is their official streaming site. You should check out their 7-day free trial, as it not only has FM titles, but also that of Blue Underground and Wizard. Okay, enough shilling, here's a quick rundown.

My introduction to Full Moon and still one of my faves.

Sherilyn Fenn & Charlie Spradling are so hot in this they almost melted my laptop. I didn't remember it being so rapey when I was sixteen.

This was a lot of fun. Jackie Earle Haley plays the villain. 

Stuart Gordon & Charles Band make a fine pair. This is a high point in Full Moon's catalogue. 

Some cool stop motion and Anders Hove bringing it as the villainous Radu.

The only thing more distracting than all the sci-fi exposition were all the close-up shots!

Hard to describe, definitely more incoherent than I remembered it. The flying hand was still cool, even if it is just ripping off Phantasm.

A Puppet Master redo to be sure, but these new creatures are certainly memorable.

This riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of Full Moon's more pedestrian offerings.

Completely bonkers idea and good move to cross market the soundtrack featuring Blue Oyster Cult.

Can't get the rights to Dr. Strange? No problem, just make your own!

Man, I love nineties computer graphics. It's like Seth Green says; "VR is the wave of the future!" Over twenty-five years later, the future is here!

Overall, this is the best PM film of the series, even though I'm still partial to Part 2.

Even though barely an hour long (when you take out the flashbacks), this is still amusing and a pioneer of the now-ubiquitous cinematic crossover event.

High concept and larger production values than normal. Solid flick.

Gordon is back with another winner. And this time he's brought Jeffrey Combs AND Barbara Crampton. Top notch make-up effects in this one.

So yeah, now my brain is slightly fried. I think I've earned myself some sun, wouldn't you say?

Bouncing... On The Beach!

This week's VHS is David DeCoteau's 1993 alien sex comedy Beach Babes From Beyond.

Three babes from space (Sarah Bellomo, Tamara Landry & Nicole Posey) crash land on Earth and quickly find themselves at a California beach party. Wacky misadventures ensue!

With the Deadly Ten being shot right now, I'd thought I would pull out a Full Moon title I'd never watched, but always wondered about. Beach Babes From Beyond was the first release of Full Moon's off-shoot company Torchlight that specialized in movies of a more erotic nature. It's a little weird to me that Full Moon's other major side project was the kid-friendly Moonbeam. I wonder if they ever mixed up those tapes at the factory. I would have totally switched Prehysteria with Virgin Hunters given the chance.

Anyway, DeCoteau was credited as Ellen Cabot for this movie and I'm sure there is a story behind this. Ten bucks says it's a money thing. I wager that his other job on the movie was way more important.

Beach Babes From Beyond had the distinction (and they let you know this on the poster and the trailer) of featuring four famous relatives in Joe Estevez, Don Swayze, Joey Travolta and Jackie Stallone. You throw in Burt Ward and Linnea Quigley and you've got quite the genre buffet here. Man, without his moustache, it is quite remarkable how much Estevez looks like his brother, Martin.

Space Babes Sarah Bellomo (left) Nicole Posey & Tamara Landry.

As far as movies go, it's your average sex comedy template that gets a LOT of mileage out of its beach party footage. I would guess that half of this movie's seventy-minute running time is musical montages featuring multiple helpings of such hits as “Bouncing on the Beach” and “I've Got a Woody”. I will give it points for having a character named Hymen Hassler though.

Beach Babes delivered on the nudity, but the love scenes are best described as exercises in enthusiastic licking. Overall, it was amusing enough, but even I have to admit it's barely a movie. To be honest, if you want a more entertaining version of this, check out Scott Schrimer's Space Babes From Outer Space. It may not have as many boobs, but it makes up for it in practical creature effects.

Since this was a Full Moon production, you can always count on the Videozone segment, which featured a making of featurette (where the cast talked about doing the aforementioned love scenes on their first day of shooting) and trailers for Trancers 4, Subspecies 3 and Virgin Hunters. Say what you will about Charlie Band's empire, but he basically invented the concept of home video BTS. And he continues to evolve it with the Deadly Ten.

Full Moon Over Niagara.

I worked the Full Moon booth at Niagara Comic Con yesterday and it was a gas. It had been sometime since I'd been to a non-horror con and the cosplayers were out in force. It's always fun to see what those crazy and creative cats come up with every year.

I should take this opportunity to mention The Deadly Ten. Full Moon is making ten features back-to-back all over the world. In fact, Halloweed Night starts shooting in Vegas tomorrow. Now, the really cool thing is that by going to the website you can watch live streams of these films being made.

Even if you're not a fan of the FM catalogue, you gotta admit that is kind of cool and unique. No one knows how this is gonna go, so why not check it out and be a part of history!

Anyhoo, enough shilling. I was chained to the booth most of the day, but I did get to grab a photo with this super soul swallowing re-enactment of the Evil Dead cabin. I asked if I could sit in the chair and read the book and they said, “sure, just not out loud.”

Good times!

Eyesore Haul

There was a VHS swap meet down at the ol' Eyesore Cinema this weekend and here is the resulting booty.

Looking forward to digging into these over the next few months. Been a long time since I watched The Mangler, but my memories of it are quite fond. I mean, you really haven't lived until you've seen Ted Levine get attacked by an icebox.

Looking In.

While this isn't technically a DKTM post, I was awash with so much crazy horror stuff going on around the Web that I couldn't resist throwing some vids up here.

First, Rue Morgue TV launched last week. You can check out the channel here for all things horror, including some Halloween night movie recommendations.

Those in the know maybe aware of Chris LaMartina's brilliant cable access homage WNUF Halloween Special, but you may not know that the director is currently trying to get a sequel off the ground.

If this interests you at all, please give generously. In the meantime, check out this absolutely fantastic compilation of old Halloween commercials, movie trailers and station identifiers. A few favourites of mine were a Fangoria ad featuring Angus Scrimm and an Eyewitness News message rocking the JM Jarre.

Also, did you know that one of my all-time favourite pieces of media is returning this Halloween? Yes, the second season of Limetown drops on the 31st. I can't wait to hear the future!!!

Lastly, do you like to watch women drink beer and talk about Full Moon horror movies? If so, have I got a web series for you... Sin & Tonic's first episode featuring Ali Chappell & Kelly Gredner hit the Web a little bit ago.

Okay, I think that's the majority of it, but definitely check back during Halloween week as I've got a few more things up my blood-soaked sleeve. 

A Full Moon Christmas

In the interest of keeping things festive I checked out Full Moon’s 1994 joint Lurking Fear that just happens to take place during Christmas.

When a recently released convict (Blake Adams) attempts to recover money buried in a cemetery, he runs afoul of the evil creatures living underground. 

I’d never seen this one as it was released after I left my video store and lost touch with the admittedly diminishing returns of the Full Moon machine. However, on resident Laser Blaster Justin Decloux’s recommendation, I decided this was as good as time as any to give it a watch.

It turns out that C. Courtney Joyner’s Lurking Fear was not half bad. Full Moon’s formula for decades has been create a hook or creature and then build your movie around it, but surprisingly that wasn’t the case in Lurking Fear. While it’s true there were creatures, they really didn’t come into play until the third act so what the bulk of it was a crime film more akin to From Dusk Till Dawn, or 1992’s Trespass. I’m not saying this was anywhere near that caliber, but I appreciated the break from tradition.

And while the script was fairly anemic, the actors all brought a lot of personality that kept it from falling in on itself. In addition to genre favourites Jeffrey Combs (who drinks from a king-sized flask like a champ) and Ashley Laurence (inexplicably credited as Ashley Lauren, as perhaps Charles Band was too cheap to spring for the last two letters of her name), you also have the delightful Vincent Schiavelli as a shady undertaker. In the starring role was Adams whom I recall thinking “now that’s the face of a B-movie leading man” when he first came onscreen.

Ashley Laurence & Jeffrey Combs in Lurking Fear.

At a brisk seventy-five minutes, Lurking Fear gets in, gets out and leaves a good looking corpse. It doesn’t serve the H.P. Lovecraft source material as well as some of Band’s previous endeavours, but it was still an entertaining yarn.

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Hey all! I have recovered from TIFF and now have a few more days to relax before the busiest month of the year starts. Here's what I've got for you today.

Stranger Eighties.

With the upcoming second season of Stranger Things approaching, The Duffer Brothers have been releasing one-sheet posters on Twitter to celebrate their influences. I'm sure I don't need to include the originals for you to get where they were coming from.

Stranger Things returns to Netflix on October 27.

Haunted Puppets.

Those who have seen Kevin McTurk's Mill at Calder's End (now available on the Minutes Past Midnight anthology) know his puppetry skills are second-to-none. Currently he is hard at work on his newest opus, The Haunted Swordsman and he needs your help.

This is an all or nothing campaign, so please give if you want to see this project come to fruition.

Toulon's Trunk.

I received an email last week about this upcoming release from Full Moon and I just had to post about it.

It's such a gorgeous set and very hard for me to refuse. When you think of it, twelve discs for two-fitty ain't half bad. Hmmmm. The set will be available for presale here starting October 2nd.   

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Good afternoon. Here's what I've got for you this week.

Niagara Frights.

There is a new horror convention descending on the Golden Horseshoe come this fall. Frightmare in the Falls will be hitting Niagara this November 11-12th.

There have been conventions out this way before, but this one seems to be more horror-centric - like the short-lived ventures of years past like MacabreCon and Dark Carnival - so let's hope this one sticks. They have certainly got some star power involved with the likes of Kane Hodder and Tom Savini, but the real draw for me is the appearance of Christine herself, the 1958 Plymouth Fury.

If you're interested in attending, tickets - that are a fraction of what you'd pay at Fan Expo I might add - are available here.

...Sitting In A Tree

With a new Annabelle movie out this weekend, it looks like Full Moon took it upon themselves to riff on it, using one of their most enduring properties.

I have to admit, I am intrigued. For more Blade though, you can check out Puppet Master: Axis Termination Episode One: War Toys over at Full Moon's Amazon Channel.

Dance of the Dead.

I wanted to end of things with a cool little video created by YouTube user Jarvis City. It's a sharp little ditty compiling some dance sequences from various horror films. Enjoy!

If you liked this, you can check out some of his more long-form vids, including ones about slashers and lady killers.