Eighties Stew.

Hello all! I am back with another VHS Friday. This next one on the pile was a title I'd been meaning to get to for a while - Bert L. Dragin's 1988 “sort-of” haunted house flick Twice Dead. Even though I had seen Dragin's other two efforts Summer Camp Nightmare & Suburbia in my youth I missed out on this one. It's a hell of a coverbox and not entirely misleading, as that character does bust out of a mirror, just not in the Die Hard way this picture below would insinuate.

A family moves in to an old mansion that happens to be haunted by Depression-era showbiz star.

Twice Dead is kind of a weird title in that it doesn't really refer to a character as much as the two different plots going on in this movie. Initially, the paranormal aspect is front facing, but it keeps taking a back seat to this secondary storyline about the two siblings Scott (Tom Bresnahan, of The Brain!) and Robin (Jill Whitlow who'll always be my Weird Science perfume counter girl) fighting off neighbourhood punks. It's not only until the climax that these two stories fully intersect.

Though both of these plots are fairly standard, this movie is populated with a ton of welcome faces. The aforementioned Bresnahan is as delightfully snarky and happy-go-lucky as he was in The Brain which put a smile on my face. He must have shot these two movies back-to-back and I wonder if he was aware of the similarities, playing a character who doubly likes pranks, is attacked by tentacles/spectral ropes and finds himself in a car chase. Jill Whitlow is lovely in this, and it was no surprise to me find out that her and Bresnahan were dating during filming. They played siblings here, but some of those bedside scenes had a tension that was a négligée photo shoot away from being Amityville 2.

Jill Whitlow and Tom Bresnahan in Twice Dead.

Also in the cast was Brooke Bundy (Kristin's mom from Nightmare 3), Todd Bridges as the doomed friend and much to the elation of my seventeen-year-old self, Charlie Spradling. A much welcome appearance, even if it was only to rock a jean jacket with no shirt, get nude and then promptly die by STE (Sexually Transmitted Electrocution). What an angel! Oh, and completely unrelated, this movie has a cat named Meow - which of course has Robin walking around calling out “Meow?” - that saw an unnecessarily brutal end. :(

J.C. + C.S.

Other than that, it is just filler between altercations with the aforementioned goons. The house is pretty cool and outfitted with some nooks and crannies (the dumbwaiter specifically being built for the movie) for our bodies to aimlessly search. Twice Dead is another one of those movies that seems to have trouble ending itself, not necessarily because they wanted to do another one, but perhaps there were a few cooks in the kitchen.

Anyway, I was glad to knock this one off and the trio of Bresnahan, Whitlow and Spradling kept me entertained throughout.

Nov 27th Horror Trivia Screening Guide

To all those who came here from the event or Storm Crow trivia's FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's the 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.

Noroi: The Curse (2005)

Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Shocker (1989)

Apartment 7A (2024)

Oddity (2024)

Overlord (2018)

Terror in the Aisles (1984)

Vampires (1998)

30 Days of Night (2007)

Last Voyage of Demeter (2023)

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

Let the Right One In (2008)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Anna & The Apocalypse (2017)

Santa's Slay (2005)

Christmas Evil (1980)

Silent Night, Deadly Night 5 (1991)

Blood Beat (1983)

Trick r' Treat (2007)

Remembrance.

R.I.P. Tony Todd 1954-2024

I was gutted to hear about actor Tony Todd's passing on Wednesday. He was 69. Tony was one of the pillars of the horror community, a consummate professional and always approachable.

He visited the Toronto area regularly for convention appearances and I was glad to have met him during his time at Fan Expo and Shock Stock. He was a journeyman of stage and screen; big and small with roles in marquee films like Platoon, Lean on Me and The Crow.

Tony Todd at Fan Expo in 2012.

While he was best known for his iconic role as 1992's Candyman, Todd appeared in countless genre films, including Final Destination, Hatchet and the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.

This is a huge loss. Rest in peace, Tony.

Hap Hap Happy HALLOWEEN!

 

Devil's Night Horror Trivia Screening Guide

To all those who came here from the event or Storm Crow's 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.

Zombie (1979)

Night of the Zombies (1981)

The Dead (2010)

Planet Terror (2007)

The House by the Cemetery (1981)

Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972)

The Long Walk (2025?)

Thanksgiving (2023)

Dahmer (2002)

Blood Rage (1987)

Cuckoo (2024)

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

13 Ghosts (2001)

Ghost Ship (2002)

Night of the Demons (1988)

All Hallow's Eve (2013)

Frankenweenie (2012)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Evil Breed (2013)

Sinister (2012)

On The Fritz.

The next tape off the pile was my recently acquired copy of Dick Maas' 1983 flick The Lift. It's been over thirty years since Chucky told me about it during the 1990 broadcast of the Horror Hall of Fame, and I'm ashamed to say it has taken me this long to get around to it. But here we are.

An elevator repairman (Huub Stapel) finds himself mixed up in an investigation of several deaths involving a new office building lift.

The Lift is a delight. I mean I was expecting something amusing just based on the premise, but boy does this film overcrank on the quirk with just the list of character names alone making me smile - Speckingood, Vink, Speakerman, Ravenstein et al. At the opening credits, the cast list went on and on, most ending up just being meat to feed the elevator. Stapel is your average working class dude with a wife and kids. I don't think I've ever seen an elevator repairman as the lead in a movie. I wonder if he got his diploma from one of those ads you used to see on late night TV in the eighties... 

Hugh Stapel as Felix in The Lift.

This movie has a lot of prophetic things to say about microchips, but we haven't “quite” gotten to synthetic organs yet (we're too busy building AI robots). I found how this all plays out decidedly more interesting than the demonic shinanegans of Poltergeist III. The Lift is also shot really well. For instance take this fucking banger of a transition!

It's been a while since I've watched an old-fashioned dubbed film and it was half the fun. This movie has the best random background conversations this side of Pieces - 

Things like Felix's wife collecting bottle caps to win a trip being rooted in her desire to leave her inattentive husband was pretty wild. Anyway, it all concludes with an extended Man vs Lift sequence that really goes for it. I don't know if 250,000 people actually get stuck in Dutch elevators every year (that's like a lot, like fix your fucking shit - a lot) but it certainly does nothing to alleviate anyone's fear of elevators.

So, The Lift doesn't really have the big city set pieces that Maas' other exports Amsterdamned and Prey feature, but it is still a fun yarn to be sure.