Urban exploring YouTube content creator Marcus (Quinn Nehr) loves going into abandoned buildings and sharing the history of each lost place before looking around and sharing it with his users. The problem is, he’s losing his views because there are a ton of people who do the exact same videos as him. He’s sunk all his money into making videos, so he’s starting to grow disenchanted. Then, his girlfriend Jessie (Bryn Beveridge) comes up with a big idea: they should explore the Rockland Heights Prison, a frightening spot that’s haunted by not one, but two serial killers.

Before you can say, “I bet one of the YouTube guys gets shocked in the electric chair,” you know that Marcus’ disbelief in the unknown is going to get tested by cannibalistic criminal phantom Martin Clay (Anthony Pape) and the spook who was once Eddie Richards (Gary Soumar), a killing machine who delighted in painting the walls red with the blood of his victims.

The film that emerges is slow going at first, as a variety of YouTube want-to-be superstars converge, whether they’re explorers or ghost hunters, and find themselves as prey. But the end, where the gore starts to spray the screen? Why couldn’t we have gotten to that particular firework factory sooner?

James Patrick Tomasek directed, wrote and produced this. With a bigger budget and ideas, I think he could really make something. As for this, he got great use out of his locations and seems to find his footing by the end.

You can watch this on Tubi.

AJ (Keli Price, the writer of this movie) keeps dreaming of the night his parents died. When his psychiatrist, Dr. Avery (Tobin Bell) recommends that he go to where they were killed — look, this is just bad advice and if the truly terrifying Tobin Bell is your therapist, something is very off — with his brother Max (David Lipper, the director).

But come on. We all know that nothing good comes from looking into the mysterious past of your parents. Leave it be. Stay alive. Or, you know, go to Wolf Mountain.

If you saw a wolf-masked man kill your parents twenty years ago, would you go back to the scene of the horrific crime and bring along your pregnant wife*? Would you let your brother bring his wife**? Her sister***? Her sister’s boyfriend****? Your cousin*****?

No. You would not. You would be smarter than that.

But where is Danny Trejo, you may wonder. Well, he’s a crook named Eddie who has come to Wolf Mountain with his friend Joe (Kenny Yates) to bury some money.

At this point, you might expect this to be a film that has Bell and Trejo have a scene together.

No. It is not.

It is a slasher and it’s not that good and I say that as someone who has watched some of the most bottom of the barrel from the slasher boom years. I know this is a complaint that could go for so many movies, but why are things so dark and hard to see?

I was disappointed because this started with good ideas and I like the look of the killer. Here’s hoping. the next movie that Lipper and Price make is an improvement.

The Curse of Wolf Mountain is available from Uncork’d Entertainment.

*Samantha (Karissa Lee Staples)

**Lexi (Fernanda Romero)

***Emma (Malu Trevejo)

****James (Matt Rife)

*****Ric (Eddie McClintock)

Julie (Eliza Taylor) is mourning the loss of her sister when her tech geek husband Marcus (Bob Morley) goes away for a weekend, leaving her within their gadget-filled high security home. Seeing as how this is a thriller, well, you can imagine that things go wrong.

Julie’s been dealing with guilt ever since she sent her sister Rebecca (Hannah Fierman) to feed her cat and gets her killed by someone hiding inside her place. Months later, her husband and her therapist Dr. Tate (Bryan Batt) have come up with a plan, by moving her out of that place of trauma, and into that aforementioned AI protected house. That said, the security system that Marcus created, Hera, didn’t protect Rebecca all that well.

Yes, it’s everything you expect: a woman being potentially gaslit — Did you take your pills? You know what your doctor said! — while dealing with guilt and a bad marriage. And when someone gets in the house — the same house whose last owner went mysteriously missing — well, you know exactly where this movie is going.

The couple at the heart of this, Taylor and Morely, are an actual married couple and appeared on the show The 100 together. He’s barely in this, watching from afar, but man, I hope their real marriage is better than the one in this movie. I also kind of hope that their marriage is better than this movie.

Director Erik Benard and writers Elisa Manzini and Sara Sometti Michaels don’t really add anything new to gaslit wife genre — is it a genre? — but if you’re looking for a movie where a robot vacuum cleaner hobbles a heroine who may be going hysterical, this is here for you. It looks nice, sounds great and sadly doesn’t seem to go anywhere new until the end of the movie throws in some twists.

Look, my mom has Alexa running her house and it just keeps repeating and answering questions wrong, as well as always turning on the incorrect lights. I’ll stick with light switches. Or maybe candles, I’m becoming a luddite, other than all the time I spend updating this site.

I’ll Be Watching is available now from Uncork’d Entertainment .

It took this long to get an actual Ghoulies sequel.

Jonathan Graves (Peter Liapis) from the first movie was once an occultist and is now a cop. He has a necklace that can bring his evil doppelganger into our world and that evil side is worshipped by Alexandra (Stacie Randall, Puppet Master 4, Trancers 4), who wants that necklace so she can bring him full-time into our reality by sacrificing Graves’ lover Jeannie (Raquel Krelle). Jonathan is helped by his ex, Kate (Barbara Alyn Woods), who is also a cop. And yes, Johnathan used to be with Alexandra as well. No wonder he needs a second version of himself.

For some reason, the ghoulies are now split into dark and light forms — dark is Tony Cox and light is Arturo Gil — and they’re just little people in suits. That said, they get the best line: “See you in the sequel… Ghoulies 4… Part 2!”

Why were they just costumes? Cinetel Films couldn’t afford to use the puppet props of the original Ghoulies. The budget is so tight that the same exact car chase from 976-EVIL II is used. Director Jim Wynorski makes a play for being the American Bruno Mattei here, but for some reason, I see Mattei’s thievery as more pure. He also rewrote the script from Mark Sevi (who also wrote Dream a Little Dream 2 which has Randall in it) with the help of Liapis.

The beginning is great, as Alexandra breaks into a museum and goes full on Ninja 3 on a bunch of security guards. I wish this had more moments like that. It’s cheap and messy, but for some reason, I watched all four Ghoulies movies in one day so I wasn’t bored.

Directed by John Carl Buechler, who did the special effects for the Ghoulies series and also directed Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood and Cellar Dweller, this has the ghoulies being called to a college by Professor Ragnar (Kevin McCarthy, who never ever phones it in; he’s out of control in this) when he uses a Satanic comic book. He’s angry that all his students care about is a prank war and decides to destroy them, even becoming a human-sized ghoulie at the end.

This has Matthew Labyorteaux’s brother Patrick, Kane Hodder, Griffin O’Neal, Eva La Rue (Natalia Boa Vista from CSI: Miami), Hope Marie Carlton (Taryn from the Andy Sidaris movies), Jason Scott Lee and an early role for Matthew Lillard. It feels like when the Toxic Avenger went from absolute insanity to being a cartoon. If you were around for 80s made for video movies, well, you know the ride. Even Freddy got a doll.

I don’t like that the ghoulies can talk. We don’t need that.

Then again, I do like the one with the backward baseball cap and kind of wish that these movies were bigger than they are so I could have an action figure of him.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed and written by Albert Band, this was the last Ghoulies movie to have any involvement from Charles Band, who sold the rights to Vestron Pictures to save Empire Pictures.

The ghoulies hit the road in this one, hiding in a truck that’s carrying a dark ride for a carnival. If Satan’s Den doesn’t start bringing in some cash, the carnival is going to close. So Larry (Damon Martin), his drunken Uncle Ned (Royal Dano) and a Shakespeare quoting smaller man named Sig Nigel (Phil Fondacaro) are going to give it all they’ve got. What they don’t know is that the scares are being created by actual demons. Or ghoulies. You know what I mean.

Shot on a soundstage in Rome’s Empire Studios, this was the only Ghoulies movie to play in theaters. I kind of love that W.A.S.P. has “Scream Until You Like It” on the soundtrack. What was it with W.A.S.P. and Empire Pictures movies? Their song “Tormentor” is also in The Dungeonmaster (and Ghost Warrior, which is not an Empire film).

This movie believes in viewer feedback. After many people complained that no one was killed on a toilet in the first Ghoulies, this was fixed here.

Also: I’m going to start a Letterboxd list of 80s horror and science fictionmovies where Royal Dano plays a drunk.

You can watch this on Tubi.

I remember seeing the cover to Ghoulies at Prime Time Video and like some kind of snobbery moron, I never rented it. What was I thinking? Did I think it was a ripoff of Gremlins and not worth watching? I was half right, because it is, but it’s way better than it has any right to be.

I mean, does this movie know me? It starts with a Satanic ceremony in which Malcolm Graves (Michael Des Barres, once of the band Detective) tries to sacrifice a child. Instead, he kills his mother Anastasia (Victoria Catlin, Maniac Cop) and sends him away with an assistant named Wolfgang (Jack Nance). Twenty-five years later, the child grows up to be Jonathan (Peter Liapis) and he inherits his father’s estate.

He decides to invite his girlfriend Rebecca (Lisa Pelikan, Jennifer) and friends to explore the mansion. They find an entire basement of occult books and supplies, so they decide to perform a ritual. You know, as you do. They leave when nothing happens but as soon as they walk away, a small creature shows up and before you know it, the ghost of Malcolm has taken over Jonathan and he’s unleashing several ghoulies and the dwarves Grizzel and Greedigut (Tamara De Treaux, who played one of the creatures in Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and was one of several actors who played E.T.).

As Malcolm begins to grow in power, all of their friends — Mike (Scott Thompson, Fast Times At Ridgemont High), Donna (Mariska Hargitay), Toad Boy (Ralph Seymour), Dick (Keith Joe Dick) and Eddie (David Dayan) — are all toast. Luckily, the man who saved him once before, Wolfgang, comes back and battles the evil sorcerer, everyone gets revived and they drive into the sunset with a ghoulie in the backseat.

Directed by Luca Bercovici (who also made Rockula for Cannon) and written by Jefery Levy, this was produced by Charles Band. It was actually started before Gremlins but there was a time when the production ran out of money, which is why it came out after. It was shot at the Wattles Mansion, near the park where Jim Wynorski shot The Lost Empire.

The real stars are the ghoulies, which were created by John Carl Buechler, who did effects for some of the coolest looking 80s and 90s horror films, including Prison, Dolls, The Eliminators and more. The ones that show up in this movie are fish ghoulie, cat ghoulie, rat ghoulie, flying ghoulie and clown doll ghoulie.

You can watch this on Tubi.