What should I rent?

[SaintMort]

As I've stated before on here I've recently started working at a video store (just to brag I've been moved up to Manager in less than a month but anyway...) I've been going through the Horror Archives Section of old VHS tapes looking for stuff that I can't find on DVD anywhere... This week so far I watched From Beyond, Incredible Melting Man and Parents... here's a list of the other films that we carry that looked interesting can someone let me know if it's worth my time or should I staight up avoid it?

gothic
Student Bodies
Necronomicon
Castle Freak
beyond the door
7 doors of death
Clown Murders
Asphyx
Audrey Rose
Body bags
children shouldn't play with dead things
Creepers
Scarecrows
Revenge of the killer tomatoes
night of the scarecrow
night of the demons 2
killer tongue
grim
ghoulies 4
frightmare
freakshow

[Torgo]

Killer Tongue is a lot of fun. Plus, it's got Melinda Clarke in it!



Castle Freak has a really fun Jeffery Combs performance in it. It's uneven, but if you get the unrated version, it's got some really cool gore in it.

Gothic is one of my favorite Ken Russel movies.

[Derf]

Gothic is interesting in a literary sense; it is a fictionalized account of the night Mary Shelley dreamed up the idea for Frankenstein. It isn't quite as good as it thinks it is, but it is watchable and usually entertaining.

Don't waste your time with the Killer Tomatoes movie; Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a lot of fun. All the sequels are horrible, unfunny and, to me, totally unwatchable.

Night of the Demons 2 could be fun; the first one certainly was.

Student Bodies did nothing for me, but it seems to be entertaining for a lot of others. Malvert is just too freaky to watch; he's a bit disturbing, and the comedy of the movie is silly slapstick stuff. If that's your bag, then it's worth a watch.

[Andrew]

"Night of the Demons 2" is not bad.  Not nearly as good as the first, but I did not lose interest while watching it.

"The Asphyx" is one I have always had a soft spot for.  I mean, this guy figures out how to catch each person's individual death (the entity that causes it), but you have to lure the death first by putting the person in danger of death.  Rather than use a safe way, he seems to build a contraption that looks like Murphy's Law helped to design it.  Of course, something goes wrong.

[Menard]

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is a fun movie. Oddly enough, I didn't like this movie the first time I saw it. I was quite a bit younger then and guess I was looking for something more along the lines of a Fulci or Romero zombie flick. I have come to enjoy this film very much in recent years. It is dialogue heavy with quite a bit of black humor, but it is a lot of fun if you can get into this type of film.

7 Doors of Death (a.k.a. The Beyond) - Another Fulci gorefest which lacks any coherency.

Beyond the Door - The original Nanny (Juliet Mills) shows she ain't angel white no more. Generally poor take on The Exorcist, but there are quite a few people who do like this; I am not one of them.

Necronomicon - The Good: Jeffrey Combs  The Bad: The rest of it;  This could have gone somewhere as there was effort put into it, but they try to put too much flash into this one and end up going astray of the inspiration; but then, what Lovecraft adaptation doesn't.

Body Bags - Uneven effort in an anthology. It's kind of 'eh'. The one thing going for it is cameos, such as Wes Craven.

[AnubisVonMojo]

"Night of the Demons 2" is not bad.  Not nearly as good as the first, but I did not lose interest while watching it.

It's also one of the few movies you'll find a kung-fu nun using her roseary beads as literal NUNchucks... please, please, the peanuts are for eating, not for throwing.

[AnubisVonMojo]

Necronomicon - The first story has some great monster effects and isn't half bad. I also dig Bruce Payne and Richard Lynch, so I'm already playing favorites. The second story's something of a twisted romance tale and stars David Warner, which is always good. The final story also has some good monster effects and some mildly disturbing stuff, but that's pretty much it. I'd definitely give it a rent. I actually wound up buying it.

Castle Freak - Definitely get the unrated edition, because this isn't the type of flick where you settle for the butchered Blockbuster copies. Jeffrey Combs, Barbara Crampton, Stuart Gordon and a naked man-child freak, who can resist? Another purchase on my part.

Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - from the dearly departed director of A Christmas Story... it's slow, I had fun with it, but I know a number of people who were bored with it.

Scarecrows - Cheap '80s style horror, back before you could dig up a new scarecrow-based horror flick every other month. Strictly has fun with itself, so don't expect a classic, just an amusing way to kill some time. I'm actually looking for a copy of this...

Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes - a couple decent gags, but nothing great. If nothing else, you'll be able to bring it up in conversations about George Clooney. Killer Tomatoes Eat France was fun because it had John Astin and some better jokes, but Killer Tomatoes Strike Back was just sucktastic. And it starred Mr. "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire" himself: Rick Rockwell! How does Rick rock? Rick rocks well...

Night of the Scarecrow - think Warlock with a lower budget and if Julian Sands ran around the whole time dressed like a demonic scarecrow while doing evil agricultural magic on people. I enjoyed it. Also looking for a copy...

Grim - sucks on toast and will forever make you cringe at the word(s) "A-Pix", who also brought us a lot of other '90s bags of cinematic ass. Makes Rawhead Rex look like Hellraiser...

Ghoulies 4 - Just don't...

Frightmare - if it's the Jeffrey Combs debut from 1983, definitely give it a rent. If nothing else, you should get a few laughs out of the "neon '80s chic horror movie homage crypt" that becomes a prominent part of the movie. That's what I want to memorialize my life once I'm corpsed up. I also went ahead and bought this one, but mostly because of the Jeffrey Combs debut.

Freakshow - if it's the Phil Fondacaro one from Full Moon, no matter how much I want to reccomend it, I really can't. I love the man (at least what there is of him), but it's from the days when Full Moon started to (really) suck.

[Yaddo 42]

I like Student Bodies, it works for me as a horror spoof, but I see Derf's point. Probably why I don't like the Scary Movie series, it's been done already. If you do like it, seek out Pandemonium! from the early 80s. Not a great or even good film, but some cheap stupid laughs from some familiar faces.

Ghoulies 4 you can safely skip, it has little to do with the other films other than some recycled footage from the first one used in flashbacks. Even the hot bad girl in dominatrix-type gear isn't enough to make this interesting, dull film overall.

I have The Beyond/Seven Doors of Death. If you like the gore, watch it. But Menard is right, the plot barely exists and serves to string together set pieces of gore and shock. Could be fun in the right mood with a group (and perhaps booze) for the collective WTF moments.

[Allhallowsday]

This week so far I watched From Beyond, Incredible Melting Man and Parents... here's a list of the other films that we carry that looked interesting can someone let me know if it's worth my time or should I staight up avoid it?

I seem to remember FROM BEYOND as alot of fun; I saw it in the theatre just before Halloween when it was first released.  Just what the doctor ordered! 

Audrey Rose
children shouldn't play with dead things
Creepers
night of the demons 2

Look at these, you won't forget them. 

[Yaddo 42]

Is Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes the one with George Clooney, I thought it was "Return"?

I liked it as a late night TV staple, probably wouldn't hold up so well now. I bet the gags are very dated. Even the Gary Condit notority has faded. Very self-aware parody, kind of ahead of its time in some eays. The product placement gags were good, and Full Contact America's Cup cracked me up. John Astin is always a hoot playing crazy.

[SaintMort]

Scarecrows - Cheap '80s style horror, back before you could dig up a new scarecrow-based horror flick every other month. Strictly has fun with itself, so don't expect a classic, just an amusing way to kill some time. I'm actually looking for a copy of this...

If you live near DE we're selling all our VHS tapes soon if you want it lol

[DodgingGrunge]

Nobody has mentioned Creepers, and I feel it is my civic duty to warn you *not* to watch it.  Dario Argento is wonderful, and the full Italian version Phenomena has many, many worthwhile moments in it.  But the version your store carries is cut by some 23 minutes and is rendered utterly nonsensical.  Having been a big Suspiria fan, I watched Creepers when it first came out and hated it.  Luckily, at the insistence of a friend of mine, I purchased the uncut Japanese laserdisc version (Phenomena) years later and loved it.  But you're lucky enough to be discovering things during a golden age of completeness, so you can just pick up the Anchor Bay DVD for about $10. 

[AnubisVonMojo]

Nobody has mentioned Creepers, and I feel it is my civic duty to warn you *not* to watch it.  Dario Argento is wonderful, and the full Italian version Phenomena has many, many worthwhile moments in it.  But the version your store carries is cut by some 23 minutes and is rendered utterly nonsensical.  Having been a big Suspiria fan, I watched Creepers when it first came out and hated it.  Luckily, at the insistence of a friend of mine, I purchased the uncut Japanese laserdisc version (Phenomena) years later and loved it.  But you're lucky enough to be discovering things during a golden age of completeness, so you can just pick up the Anchor Bay DVD for about $10. 

See, I knew I'd seen Creepers before, but for some reason I couldn't recall what it was. I kept thinking it was the Full Moon movie about the midget versions of the Universal Classics Monsters (Phil Fondacaro as Dracula! Woooo!) , but that's Creeps. Now I recall why I blocked the damn thing out of my mind after sitting through it so long ago: it sucked! Yeah, go with Grunge; if you're gonna see the movie at all, see it as Phenomena, as that's the only worthwhile cut of the flick you'll find. Donald Pleasance and razor-wielding monkey helper mean nothing when the rest of the movie is the cinematic equivilent to a groin cramp... though I would like to get a print of the UK release poster...