wasted a few more hours last week with...
Scanners - 1981 (R). (VHS) Written and directed by David Cronenberg. Telepathic people called scanners painfully read folks' thoughts, in some cases causing their victims' heads to explode. A secret drug-manufacturing underground agency is trying to harness scanner power for the evil purposes of world-domination. This is not a horror film and the effects are tame and scarce compared to other Cronenberg flicks; however, a common Cronenberg theme---the relationship between flesh and technology---is explored. Athough only one head explodes in this movie, it is perhaps the most famous head explosion ever filmed. RECOMMENDED.
and...
Fright Show - 1985 (NR). Directed by Damon Santostefano and Linda Laias. This bargain-basement horror/sci-fi anthology presents four brief shorts hosted by two cornball bozos. The first story features a girl who sees an evil taxidermist everywhere a la the old Tootsie Roll commercials. The second is a weird-enough-to-be-amusing Alien spoof seemingly envisioned by funhouse-reject mushroom-addicts. (Check out the LEGO adorned spaceship.) In the third, a kid discovers a monster under his bed but no one believes him. And my favorite, the fourth, includes a space alien that crashes a poker game (literally). SEMI-RECOMMENDED 58 minutes of torture for fans of horror/sci-fi anthologies.
-mr. henry
Andrew has reviewed this one. Check it out here.......http://www.badmovies.org/movies/frightshow/index.html