The man, the myth, the legend!
-MonsterZero NJ
themed horrors than ones set on Halloween
. But if there is a gift these holiday horrors bring, it’s a bevy of cuties and foxy final girls to warm our hearts like chestnuts roasting over an open fire. So without further ado, here are some of holiday horror’s hottest heroines!…(Click on the highlighted titles and movie posters to get to our reviews and on the gallery photos to get a better look at the slay belles!)
Black Christmas (1974)Black Christmas is one of the original modern slasher films and graced us with the beautiful Olivia Hussey as final girl Jess and a pre-Superman Margot Kidder as sexy, saucy Barb!
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)Silent Night, Deadly Night is another Christmas horror classic and this film has it’s shares of beauties as well. Sexy blonde Tara Buckman plays killer Billy’s mom Ellie, Toni Nero plays his work crush, Pamela and legendary scream queen Linnea Quigley plays the hot ill-fated babysitter Denise!
Black Christmas (2006)Black Christmas 2006 wins the award for most holiday honies in one movie. Remake of the 1974 classic has a bevy of beautiful sorority sisters to melt any snowman…
SILENT NIGHT (2012)This quasi-remake has a few cuties of its own. It has My Bloody Valentine 2009’s Jaime King as pretty deputy Aubrey Bradimore, Scott Pilgram’s Ellen Wong as adorable police station receptionist Brenda and Zombeaver’s Cortney Palm as ill-fated adult movie actress Maria.
BETTER WATCH OUT (2016)Next up, Olivia DeJonge as embattled, yuletide babysitter, Ashley from the twisted Christmas thriller, Better Watch Out!
Next up, Imogen Poots as Riley Stone in yet another Black Christmas remake!
We finish up this year’s look at festive final girls, Christmas cuties and sexy slay belles with a look at one of the latest to join the holiday fun, Riley Dandy as Santa-bot gone awry battling Tori in Christmas Bloody Christmas!
from MONSTERZERO NJ’S MOVIE MADHOUSE!-MonsterZero NJ
Hardest working actress in horror Jenna Ortega makes a horrifying discovery in Ti West’s X.
(To get to our reviews of these titles use the search engine at the top of the page!)
Technically more sci-fi than horror, but Amber Midthunder did make a strong final girl in the Predator prequel Prey.
********************
-MonsterZero NJ
A combat robot, converted into a toy store Santa, reverts back to its original programming in Christmas Bloody Christmas!
(Type the corresponding film title in the search engine above to get to our reviews!)
Anna (Ella Hunt) battles the undead in the zombie horror Christmas musical Anna and the Apocalypse!
-MonsterZero NJ
-MonsterZero NJ
Cops and cons unite against a vengeful youth gang in John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13!
**************************************************
Tasked by producer J.S. Kaplan to make a low budget film for him, John Carpenter came up with this violent and action filled urban version of one of his favorite Howard Hawks westerns, Rio Bravo. Two years before he hit big with Halloween, Carpenter wrote, directed, edited and composed the score for this cult classic about a remote and soon to close ghetto police station, under siege by a vengeful and well-armed youth gang. Lt. Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) is sent to oversee the closing night of the Anderson ghetto police precinct, an assignment he expects to be routine and dull. But across town a youth gang with a cache of stolen guns and already sworn to avenge the death of some members by a police ambush, roam the streets looking to take their anger out on someone. They pick a poor ice cream vendor (Peter Bruni) and when a little girl (Kim Richards) gets in the way, both vendor and his young customer are brutally murdered. When the little girl’s father (Martin West) follows and kills a gang member, the rest chase him across Anderson where he finds himself at the skeleton crewed police station. Add to that the arrival of a bus carrying prisoners being transported to a state correctional facility who stop at the precinct when one prisoner takes ill and we have a recipe for a night of violence, revenge and a fight to survive. Now Bishop and the meager staff of the precinct must decide if they can trust two hardened criminals as the gang Street Thunder lays siege to the station with intensions of killing everyone inside.
Assault On Precinct 13 is a great little action flick that definitely foreshadows the type of intensity, suspense and style that John Carpenter would become known for. The film is loaded with tense action as the gang tries to get into the station and slaughter all inside and the uneasy alliance of cop and inmate must somehow fend them off with very little arms or ammo. And it works, because not only has Carpenter set up this claustrophobic situation of a remote and small building surrounded by vicious enemies but fills it with great and endearing characters like the noble Bishop, the death row inmate with a sense of honor, Napoleon Wilson (a great Darwin Joston) and resilient and tough secretary, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer).
The acting is top notch with Stoker, Joston and Zimmer really giving intense and well-rounded performances in their respective roles and a good supporting cast including Carpenter familiar faces Charles Cyphers, as the prison bus commanding officer and Nancy Loomis as meek secretary Julie, along with Tony Burton as prison inmate Wells. We never get to personally interact much with the vengeful gang, instead they are presented as a malevolent and deadly force, a faceless wall of death that surrounds and closes in on the station’s occupants and this approach keeps them a dangerous and unpredictable element whom we fear because, like Michael Myers in Halloween, they appear less human and more a force of homicidal rage. It gives them a supernatural quality despite being very much flesh and bone.
The action scenes are very intimate but intense, fast paced and well shot and, as with all Carpenter’s movies, the film has a great visual style that makes good use of its desolate locations and its largely night set scenes. While the film didn’t get much notice upon release, it was a hit in Europe and, as with a lot of Carpenter’s work, is now recognized for the classic film that it is. In my opinion it is one of what I call ‘Carpenter’s Core 5’ which in my opinion are his best films… or at least my favorites… Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York and The Thing. A great low budget action classic!
Available currently from Scream Factory on a collector’s edition Blu-ray!
Rated 4 (out of 5) classic bullets.
**************************************************
-MonsterZero NJ
photo: IMDB
-MonsterZero NJ
(To get to the reviews of the titles below that were covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)
-MonsterZero NJ
Native American actress Amber Midthunder made quite an impression as Comanche warrior Naru in Prey!
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
**************************************************
Versatile and talented Latina actress Jenna Ortega in Ti West’s’s chilling X!
**************************************************
-MonsterZero NJ
John Saxon as Lieutenant Donald Thompson in The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
Photo by New Line – © 1987 New Line Cinema. All rights reserved.
Carmine “John Saxon” Orrico 1936-2020
A talented and versatile actor that returned to the horror genre time and time again for over six decades! Photo: IMDB
**************************************************
(To get to the reviews of the titles listed that were covered here at the Movie Madhouse, just type the title in the search engine to find the corresponding critique!)
-MonsterZero NJ
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 