Recent viewings

[Jack]

The Rig (2010) - repeat viewing. A big storm is headed towards an oil rig so all the non-essential personnel are evacuated, leaving only a skeleton crew to deal with the nasty little sea beastie that shows up. And you've basically got Alien on an oil rig. This is a minor favorite of mine. The characters are likable and pretty well developed, and the oil rig makes a great environment with plenty of dark places for our folks to walk around and hope the monster isn't going to jump out at them. The creature isn't much, sort of looks like a more vicious version of a sleestack, but it serves its purpose. Just some cheesy B-movie fun. 4/5.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Moontrap" (1989)

Obscure, low-budget sci-fi cheez with Walter "Star Trek" Koenig and Bruce "Evil Dead" Campbell as a pair of lunar astronauts who discover an ancient race of killer robot something-or-others hiding on the dark side of the moon. Obviously this isn't Shakespeare by any means, but it's a fun "B" movie with some decent old-school FX.

That's always been a favorite of mine.  Something about it just works for me 

I'd never seen it before, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's charmingly cheesy. 

[alandhopewell]

     HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtXtSGRV0xc

A pleasant throwback / hommage to late 70's / early 80's pre-FRIDAY THE 13TH horror films; done in the period, , same photography and look as then. The characters are not cliche', some gore but not tons of it, no nudity, smart story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_the_Devil

[JaseSF]

Back to the Future (1985): 1980s teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) finds himself unexpectedly thrust backwards in time to the year 1955 courtesy of his friend, Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), and Brown's plutonium powered DeLorean which the seemingly semi-crazed scientist has transformed into a souped-up time machine. Along the way, he bumps into his parents (played by Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover) when they were teenagers and even has to play matchmaker if he has any hope of ever being born?!

This movie holds up incredibly well after all these years. It's such a clever, well-written film that pays attention to so much detail it proves rather impressive. The story, characters, the fun and the anticipation, it all delivers in spades. All in all, this is very much an iconic film of the 1980s and deservedly so. It also happens to be one of the best science fiction films of all time not to mention a likable comedy/drama/adventure.  ****1/2 out of ***** stars.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Santa's Slay" (2005)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o57v1nhBS54

In this campy-on-purpose holiday horror comedy, we learn that Santa (played by wrestler Bill Goldberg) is actually the son of Satan, and that he's only been "nice" for the past millennium because he lost a bet with an archangel. Well, the thousand years is now up and he's free to go back to his old murderous ways unless a couple of teenagers (one of whom is played by a young Emilie De Raven of "Lost") can figure out how to stop him. Cheap, tasteless, black humored fun.

I know this one isn't exactly "in season" yet but I unexpectedly stumbled across it on YouTube tonight and figured I'd better watch it now before it gets taken down...

[Jack]

House of Death (1982) - some kids in a small town hang out. That's...pretty much it. They talk to their parents quite a bit, they go to a carnival and spend half the movie going on the rides and walking around, and then after some more conversations with parents they go to a campfire party. A couple of people get killed at the beginning, but it was so dark I couldn't even tell what happened to them. Then one girl gets murdered around the midpoint of the movie - she gets shot in the shoulder with an arrow so she runs about 100 yards, climbs up on a horse on a carousel and...decides to take a nap there? Surprisingly enough the killer catches up with her and finishes the job. All the real action is saved for the last 10 minutes of the movie. The dramatic theme music finally kicks in and it's so overblown it's positively comical. Most of the kills are lame, we see a machete blade swing through the air, cut to the next scene. There was one good one though where the killer chops a guy's hands off and the fingers are still wiggling afterwards Hate to admit it but when we finally learn the identity of the killer, I didn't even recognize the person. We probably saw them back at the beginning of the movie or something, but I can't remember them at all.

The kids were a decent bunch though. The girls were cute and had some modicum of personality. The guys were just sort of there. So it was at least moderately entertaining watching them hang out at the carnival I guess. I'll be nice and give it a 3/5.

[claws]

Skatetown, U.S.A. (1979)

Two friends from the Valley want to win the big prize at a Roller Disco dance contest, but rival and Roller Boogie King Ace (Patrick Swayze) and his gang ain't having none of that.

Another big studio attempt to cash in on a short lived fad. This is basically Thank God it's Friday on wheels, but surprisingly less entertaining because of lack of plot. However, the most unintentional funniest scene was showing the rather athletic Valley dude dancing on skates to Village People's Macho Man.
Anyway, those who like disco music will get a kick out of Skatetown, U.S.A. as it features much more music (Anita Ward - Ring my Bell,  Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me) than usually listed, including a live performance by G.Q. singing their smash hit Disco Nights (Rock Freak). Film: 2/5 Music: 4.5/5

[indianasmith]

Last night I watched THE CRYING DEAD, which was another direct-to-video ripoff of GRAVE ENCOUNTERS.  A team of reality-show wannabes invades an abandoned mental hospital to "document" a haunting there (with the full intention of faking everything) and run afoul of the vengeful spirits of the children who died there.  Lots of running around empty halls yelling at each other, remote cam shots of nothing happening, and occasional glimpses of the ghostly spirits of the three little girls.  No humor or anything else to liven it up, and too much wasted time between the moderately scary scenes.  This one just didn't work for me.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Return to Savage Beach" (1998)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMWX48hs1H8

Twelfth and final film in Andy Sidaris' immortal "L.E.T.H.A.L. Ladies" softcore action-movie series pits the usual gang of generously endowed female secret agents against a terrorist group searching for buried treasure on a tropical island... or something like that. The girls lose their tops frequently and stuff blows up on a regular basis so I doubt anybody's worrying about following a plot.

Make no mistake: all of the Sidaris films pretty much suck, but no red blooded heterosexual male will be able to look away!!

[voltron]

House of Death (1982) - some kids in a small town hang out. That's...pretty much it. They talk to their parents quite a bit, they go to a carnival and spend half the movie going on the rides and walking around, and then after some more conversations with parents they go to a campfire party. A couple of people get killed at the beginning, but it was so dark I couldn't even tell what happened to them. Then one girl gets murdered around the midpoint of the movie - she gets shot in the shoulder with an arrow so she runs about 100 yards, climbs up on a horse on a carousel and...decides to take a nap there? Surprisingly enough the killer catches up with her and finishes the job. All the real action is saved for the last 10 minutes of the movie. The dramatic theme music finally kicks in and it's so overblown it's positively comical. Most of the kills are lame, we see a machete blade swing through the air, cut to the next scene. There was one good one though where the killer chops a guy's hands off and the fingers are still wiggling afterwards Hate to admit it but when we finally learn the identity of the killer, I didn't even recognize the person. We probably saw them back at the beginning of the movie or something, but I can't remember them at all.

The kids were a decent bunch though. The girls were cute and had some modicum of personality. The guys were just sort of there. So it was at least moderately entertaining watching them hang out at the carnival I guess. I'll be nice and give it a 3/5.

Hey Jack, Iv'e been dying to get this one. Was yours a VHS copy or dvd?

[claws]

Hey Jack, Iv'e been dying to get this one. Was yours a VHS copy or dvd?
[/quote]

All DVD releases are sourced from more or less poor quality VHS prints.

[Jack]

I watched it in fabulous 360p on Youtube  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27qAqZi7PCI

There's a lot of cool '80s horror over there:

Blood Lake
Blood Song
Superstition
Drive In Massacre
The Final Terror
Deadly Intruder
Silent Madness
Hide And Go Shriek
Sweet 16
Fatal Games
Burial Ground

At least I hope they're cool, I haven't watched most of them yet 

[voltron]

I watched it in fabulous 360p on Youtube  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27qAqZi7PCI

There's a lot of cool '80s horror over there:

Blood Lake
Blood Song
Superstition
Drive In Massacre
The Final Terror
Deadly Intruder
Silent Madness
Hide And Go Shriek
Sweet 16
Fatal Games
Burial Ground

At least I hope they're cool, I haven't watched most of them yet 

My personal faves  would be : The Final Terror, Hide and Go Shriek and Burial Ground.  Haven't seen Blood Song, Drive In Massacre, Deadly Intruder, Silent Madness or Fatal Games.

[Jack]

Fatal Games (1984) - some kids are training to be in the Olympics, and in keeping with the sports theme, a mysterious killer is offing them with a javelin. The first hour is pretty slow despite a few skewerings - one of which is kind of realistic and another which genuinely made me laugh. The main problem is that the acting's so bad I never felt like I was watching characters interact with each other, but just actors saying their lines. It picks up in the last 20 minutes with some fairly suspenseful scenes, and much like House of Death the dramatic theme music just made me say "Turn it down man...turn it down." There's a neat twist at the end.  It didn't make any sense really, but in a movie like this the fact that it existed at all made it the best part. Lots of nudity in this, some of which was really nice and some which left me thankful that the scene was too dark to see anything. Being a child of the '80s I'll give it a probably inflated 3/5.

[Rev. Powell]

UPSIDE DOWN (2012): Two planets, one rich and one poor, are situated so that they are stacked one above the other, with opposite gravities; a boy from the poor world "falls" for a girl from the rich one. Lame Romeo and Juliet rehash built around a visual gimmick that gets old fast. 1.5/5.