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-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
(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
The girls of Theta Pi stalked by a killer in Sorority Row
(To get to our reviews of the titles covered here at the Movie Madhouse just enter that title in the search engine at the top of the page!)
-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
(Click on the titles below the movie poster gallery to get to our reviews!)
Click on the highlighted titles below to go to the review page for the corresponding movie!
1. Halloween
2. Halloween II
3. Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (obviously, you may want to watch 4 thru Resurrection, too!)
6. Halloween RZ
8. Hellions
10. All Hallows Eve
11. The Town That Dreaded Sundown 2014
12. Creepshow
13. Ginger Snaps
14. The Crow
16. May
17. Lady In White
20. The Guest
21. Boo
-MonsterZero NJ
(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to other reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
This is another 80s horror written and directed by Kevin Tenney (Witchboard) and is a predominately silly flick with some the gore and scares sharing time equally with the laughs and goofy humor. While the film has more of a horror movie feel than the soap opera-ish Witchboard, it still is far too goofy to really be scary despite some effective and plentiful gore.
The film takes place on Halloween night at a party being thrown at an abandoned funeral home by high school goth chick and suspected black magic user, Angela (Amelia Kinkade) and her friend Suzanne (Linnea Quigley). An assorted group of party goers arrive including Judy (Cathy Podewell), party animal Stooge (Hal Havins) and nerd Roger (Alvin Alexis). Of course no party in a former mortuary can be complete without a seance and before you can say “not a good idea” Angela and Suzanne are possessed by demons and begin to gorily dispatch the assorted party guests who themselves rise from the dead as vessels for demonic entities.Will anyone escape this Halloween party alive?
I’m not really a big fan of this film. Despite the amusing premise and the plentiful blood and gore, It’s a very slow moving horror/comedy that is not particularly scary and not all that funny either. Tenney seems to want the best of both worlds here from Joe Augustyn’s script and while the set-up was ripe for some Halloween fun, the film is directed very by-the-numbers and is far less clever than it thinks it is. Maybe the reason is that the story is pretty thin and probably would have been better served as an episode of a TV show than stretched out over 90 minutes. Once the girls are possessed the slowly isolate others and dispatch them rather methodically dispensing tired one-liners as they gruesomely off their victims. There is little suspense as our characters wake up to what’s going on and try to find a way out and it’s pretty obvious who are there to become corpses and who are there to be our survivors. It’s just a matter of sitting through the weak comedy and equally weak attempt at scares till it all plays out. There is some heavy 80s nostalgia at this point and at least David Lewis’ cinematography makes this look far more like a horror film than Tenney’s Witchboard. Dennis Michael Tenney once again does the music and it is a bit atmospheric though, not very remarkable.
The cast are all weak. Cathy Podewell tries hard as our final girl/heroine Judy, but the rest of the cast are pretty wooden including Kinkade as Angela and that hurts the film which needed a stronger villain to work better. Havins is just annoying as frat boy-like Stooge though, in his defense, his dialogue is terrible. Quigley is there to show her boobs and when she does speak, her line readings are far flatter than her cleavage and her demonic form is not very threatening. Roger is a stereotypical cowardly nerd who finds his courage and is probably one of the more successful characters in the flick. The rest are generic and unmemorable demon fodder and there is no attempt to really make the characters anything more than the two dimensional cliche’s they are.
In conclusion, I was never all that fond of this flick, though respect that it is a cult classic with a following…I’m just not one of the following. I do appreciate the 80s nostalgia and it is heavy with that, but overall find the film a dull and by-the-numbers horror/comedy that is not all that successful at being either. It’s a silly flick that has the benefit of some well executed gore and make-up FX and otherwise not much else to recommend. It’s almost a mystery as to why it’s premise had so much more potential for a fun time than Witchboard yet, is half as fun. Also a good example of how light and silly horrors got in the later half of the 80s. (For my article on the subject of the tonal change of horror through the 80s, go here!)
2 unimpressive actresses with impressive surgically enhanced racks.
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This 80s horror written and directed by Kevin Tenney (Night Of The Demons) is a silly flick when viewed strictly as a horror movie, but is so delightfully 80s…with it’s feathered hair, heavy metal music, valley girl psychics and, of course, 80s icon Tawny Kitaen as it’s lead…that it’s just a lot of fun to watch even though it is devoid of scares, or much suspense and evokes more laughs than chills.
The film starts out at a party being held by gorgeous Linda Brewster (Tawny Kitaen) and her overly obnoxious boyfriend James (Todd Allen). A former friend of Jim’s and ex-love interest of Linda’s, Brandon (Stephen Nichols) brings a Ouija board and tries to make contact with the spirit of a little boy. Things go awry as Jim’s taunts provoke the spirit and when Brandon leaves in anger, he leaves the Ouija behind. A curious Linda begins to communicate with the spirit of ‘David’, but her sudden shifts in behavior and the strange and sometimes violent occurrences that begin to occur around the couple, indicate that the spirit Linda has evoked is no child and certainly does not want to play. Can Jim save Linda before she is possessed by this malevolent entity, or it kills him and anyone that stands in it’s way?
While presented seriously by writer/director Tenney, this is still a very silly flick, but is a lot of fun as it is just has so much 80s nostalgia. There is little suspense and no real chills or scares, but it is a very good example of the tonal shift 80s horror movies made about midway through the decade, from the dark and somber slashers inspired by Halloween to lighter toned and more colorful flicks such as this and the Elm St. sequels. The attempt seems to be to make a straight horror, but when you introduce characters like Kathleen Wilhoite’s over-the-top, wisecracking, valley girl medium, any attempt to be taken seriously goes out the window just as it does when Whitesnake video girl Kitaen begins to threaten Jim in a husky man’s voice while dressed in men’s clothes. Fun…sure…scary…hell, no. There are a few instances of gory violence, but they are too few to really add impact, though they are well executed by the FX people. The movie is competently made on a small budget and certainly entertains, but it’s too silly to be anything but a light diversion that now packs a heavy dose of 80s era nostalgia…which is fine with me. Roy H. Wagner’s cinematography is a little too bright and colorful to add atmosphere to a horror film, while Dennis Michael Tenney’s score…with it’s theme performed by metal band Steel Breeze…evokes the 80s but not chills.
The cast are all satisfactory enough. Tawny Kitaen was at her hotness prime and while she is a stunner, she is a bit wooden as Linda and not very convincing in the possession scenes despite the dubbed man voice, but considering how silly it all is, it doesn’t really hurt the proceedings. Allen comes across as a jerk and it takes most of the film to warm up to his Jim and believe he really cares about Linda. Stephen Nichols gives us a Brandon who is a pompous elitist at first, but he legitimately seems to want to help and takes responsibility for what’s happening and transforms into a likable character, when all is said in done. As Zarabeth, Kathleen Wilhoite gives us a totally over-the-top, valley girl psychic that really smothers any possible tension made up to this point and while her character’s time on-screen is brief, she is disruptive and it’s hard to believe the arrogant Brandon would take her the least bit seriously…we certainly don’t. I’m sure that is how the character was written and directed to be played, but one has to wonder why Tenney would choose to make a joke out of a pivotal scene with such a flamboyant character.
Overall, I find this movie a lot of fun, but not sure for the reasons intended. It’s story is routine and been done before, there is little tension or suspense and the gore is effective but very minimal. There is, however, fun to be had watching the actors try to play this stuff straight and the film is at least competently made. There is also heaping amounts of 80s nostalgia to be had and that in itself makes this a good time to watch, especially with quintessential 80s babe Tawny Kitaen as our lead. A fun movie whether that was the intention or not and one best enjoyed with a few pints of your favorite poison.
3 possessed video vixens.
and as a bonus Steel Breeze with their biggest hit, You Don’t Want Me Anymore…
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 