EDITOR’S NOTE: The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This film is presented with a brand-new, CFF exclusive commentary — for hybrid VIP and virtual VIP pass holders only — by director Gil Adler and co-writer A L Katz!

After Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis graduated from USC, they wanted to break into movies and decided that an exploitation film was the easiest way in. They pitched this script to John Milius, yet ended up debuting with 1941.

When Tales from the Crypt — the TV series — started becoming a series of movies, instead of mining the old EC Comics, like the show and movies based on it, like Creepshow did, the idea was to make longer stand-alone films that were not adaptions. I could be cynical and say that it was just using the brand name to make movies that no one wanted otherwise, but Demon Knight was so good that I couldn’t think that way.

Bordello of Blood is exactly the kind of junk I figured they’d make. This script was picked instead of others considered, including Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners and Quentin Tarantino’s From Dusk till Dawn.

At a budget of $2.5 million dollars, the film looks cheaper than the TV series that gave it life, which is quite backward. And while Joel Silver was the producer, that led to all manner of questionable decisions, like his idea that supermodel actresses were what would change Hollywood and hiring Dennis Miller, who did not want to be in the movie and said he’d only do it for a million dollars. The studios said no, so Silver played fast and loose with the books and took $750,000 out of the special effects budget. You can really tell. During the holy water gun fight with the evil sex workers, the effects go from really good to beyond horrible, often within the same shot.

Further problems came up when Erika Eleniak — who had left Baywatch because she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress —  allegedly did not want to play the character of Catherine. What a movie! Two actors that had no interest in being in it, a sliced and diced special effects budget and a movie shot in Canada due to Silver’s past union issues, which further had a non-union crew angered by the fact that Miller would rarely show up, working around the schedule of his Dennis Miller Live TV show, keeping them from seeing their families on weekends. Oh yeah — the script supervisor who was Miller’s stand-in — lots of the movie was shot without him — couldn’t remember all of Miller’s dialogue, which he’d frequently ad-lib, so the movie is filled with continuity issues.

The film starts on a great note, as some treasure hunters find the grave of Lilith, the queen of all vampires. They’re all killed by her except for the one who has the key from Demon Knight. Speaking of that film, its hero William Sandler has a cameo as a mummy in the Crypt Keeper segment.

Then, Caleb (Corey Feldman) and his buddy Reggie get attacked by vampires in a house of ill repute, revealing Lilith as Angie Everhart — that supermodel idea — and Tallulah as Juliet Reagh, Penthouse Pet for April 1987. Caleb’s sister — Eleniak — hires Rafe Guttman (Miller) to find her brother, bringing him to the titular bordello of blood.

Hey, the movie at least is good for trivia, as you have two of the stars of the 80’s bigger vampire movies — Feldman from Lost Boys and Chris Sarandon from Fright Night — in the cast. It also has a completely non-sensical ending that ignores all traditions of vampirism. And oh yeah — Reggie is played by Matt Hill, who was the voice of Raphael to Feldman’s Donatello in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.

This is the only movie Gilbert Adler would direct, although he produced Constantine and wrote Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice.

As for this being a heavy metal movie, it does have a soundtrack with Anthrax doing the theme song, Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz” — everyone used that in their movies at one point — and Redd Kross covering Kiss’ “Deuce.” Honestly, this movie could have an entire soundtrack by Black Sabbath and I’d still hate it.

There’s nothing better than a portmanteau and there was no studio better at making them than Amicus. This is a monument to that studio, their main director Freddie Francis and British horror royalty Peter Cushing all in one film. And with one of the stories centered on Christmas, it’s perfect to watch right now.

Five people are part of a tour of old catacombs, yet get separated from everyone else. They find themselves in the company of the Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson, Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?), who looks nothing like the character from the E.C. Comics or the later HBO series. He begins to tell each of them how they came to be in his chambers.

…And All Through the House (based on Vault of Horror #35)

Joanne Clayton (Joan Collins, Empire of the Ants, I Don’t Want to Be Born) has murdered her husband on Christmas Eve. Yet even as she hides the body — scrubbing impossibly crimson blood from her immaculate white fur carpet — a killer dressed as Santa Claus is stalking her. If she calls the police, they’ll discover her crime. If she doesn’t, she’s dead.

Her daughter (Chloe Franks, who is wonderful in another Amicus anthology, The House That Dripped Blood, which we covered on one of our first podcasts) thinks that the killer is Santa and lets him in. Not the best of ideas, as he’s soon chasing Joanna all over the house.

Reflection of Death (based on Tales from the Crypt #23)

Carl Maitland (Ian Hendry, Theater of Blood) has left his family to be with his lover, Susan. That said, as they drive away, they are in an accident and no one will stop to help him after he awakens. His wife is already with another man. Susan is blind and claims he died two years ago. And by the time he figures out the truth, it’s too late.

Poetic Justice (The Haunt of Fear #12)

Edward and James Elliott hate their neighbor Arthur Grimsdyke (Peter Cushing is absolutely perfect in this role and if you don’t know who he is, I recommend that you shut down your computer and weep), who has plenty of dogs and loves to entertain the neighborhood’s children. They take his dogs from him, they get him fired from his job and finally convince the parents that he’s a child molester. A widower who speaks to his wife even after death, Grimsdyke can take no more after James sends his mean-spirited Valentines, signing the name of every neighbor. But one year later, Grimsdyke rises from the dead and sends Edward a very personal Valentine’s Day card with the help of his son’s still beating heart.

This part is perfect. From the scorn of the rich toward the poor to Cushing’s emotional pain (he was reeling from the death of his beloved wife Violet Helene Beck and had even tried to give himself a heart attack by repeatedly running stairs in his home, hoping to find a way back to her) and his rise from the earth, this is everything horror movies should be.

Wish You Were Here (The Haunt of Fear #22)

A retelling of The Monkey’s Paw, this story finds businessman Ralph Jason (near bankruptcy when his wife Enid finds a Chinese figure that will give three wishes. The first, for money, comes true when she gets Ralph’s insurance money after he dies in a car crash. Her second is to bring him back exactly as he was before the accident, but she learns that he had a heart attack upon seeing a skeletal motorcycle rider. Finally, she wishes for him to come back alive and to live forever, but as he’s already been embalmed, he awakens to horrifying pain. Even after she chops him up, he remains alive.

Blind Alleys (Tales from the Crypt #46)

Major William Rogers is the new director of the home for the blind, but he immediately cuts the budget. The men must now deal with the constant cold and a lack of food while he lives the high life with his German shepherd. The blind men rise up and turn the tables, putting Rogers in a maze where he is blinded, bloodied and finally murdered by his own dog.

The Crypt Keeper then reveals that this isn’t what may happen. It has already happened and he is there to send them all to Hell. He looks directly at the viewer, breaking the fourth wall and asks, “And now… who is next? Perhaps you?” This ending would be recycled for several Amicus films but gets me every single time.

The band CANT — that I sang for — recorded a song entitled “Tales from the Crypt” that was released on our 2015 demo. Its opening lyrics, “Like a stain you can’t erase, you left without a trace. Ruining lives, burning inside, left in the cold, going blind” echo the evil of each character in the stories, while the chorus, “Strangled, crushed, torn, burning, blind — you are gonna die” reveals the ending to each story.

Like I said — I really love this movie. The track was originally called “The Strange Bruises You Find on Joan Collins’ Throat,” but it seemed too long and it felt better to tip my hat toward the movie.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In 2021, director James Rich made Follower, an hour-long film in which three friends on a backpacking trip found themselves stalked by a mysterious individual recording their every move.

A year after surviving this brutal attack, Heather (Revell Carpenter) and Riley (Molly Leach) have survived and once again find themselves struggling to survive as a dark web cult has descended upon them and wants to destroy them live and streaming for the whole world — or at least those that follow influencers — to see.

Over the last few years, movies where young adults return home to settle the affairs of their dead parents have seemed to dominate streaming movies. This year, it seems like influencers being stalked and killed is the new idea that creatives are tackling.

This has definite tones of You’re Next with the animal-masked home invaders bringing weapons into the home filled with people that you pretty much can’t wait to get wiped out. I dig the papier-mache-looking visages that they wear, however, and obviously, creatives like Rich are attracted to this influencer slasher sub-genre because not only is it such a part of our daily online life, but like I said above, you don’t want to admit just how much you’d like to some of these people deal with events like this movie. You just don’t want to say that out loud because, well, it makes you a horrible person. A more horrible person whose entire life is spent in front of a camera creating a false reality that no normal person can live up to and which causes people to unfairly judge themselves? That debate would take longer than this movie and some words about it can figure out.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Directed by Fernando González Gómez and Raúl Cerezo, who wrote the script with Rubén Sánchez Trigos and Javier Trigales, The Elderly starts with an older woman falling off a balcony to her death and then deals with dementia, aging and the elderly telling their children that they plan on killing them.

Yeah. Get ready.

Manuel (Zorion Eguileor) is the grandfather who faces life without his wife of fifty years. His son Mario (Gustavo Salmerón) would rather his father stay with him than a home, no matter what his wife  Lena (Irene Anula) wants. Meanwhile, his teenage daughter Naia (Paula Gallego) starts to see the spirit of her grandmother. It starts slow, but by the time things increase in tension and the temperate increases in Madrid, every old person could be a threat.

What is it with everyone doing the Ari Aster thing where old people get naked and we’re supposed to be creeped out by it? Let me screw your head up. Your once supple skin and gorgeous looks will one day face aging and if you’re turned off now, you’ll be turned off then. Get over it. We are our souls, not this whole fiction suit we wear in this reality.

That said — this movie is gorgeous and freaked me out with its ever-rising tides of fascism and high temperatures. It hits a lot close to home, as my father dealt with early dementia before he died last year, at times thinking he was sixteen and wondering how he had a son so old.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This is not the 1991 Campfire Tales and the 2020 non-sequel remix/remake/ripoff Tales from the Campfire 3, there’s also the 1997 movie with the same title.

Instead, this is a film that comes on the heels of Scream and, perhaps more to the point, the Urban Legend series. It was the passion project of writer and co-director Martin Kunert (who would make the MTV horror anthology series Fear) and producer Eric Manes (who wrote and produced 3000 Miles to Graceland; he also produced Phat Beach in case you cared). In fact, this was originally called either Fear or All American Campfire Horror Stories. The other directors of segments include Matt Cooper and David Semel, whose career has mainly been in TV (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Watchmen, Heroes).

Released by New Line Cinema in 1997, this movie inspired the Bollywood film Darna Mana Hai and while it’s been released on DVD, it’s never made the leap to blu ray.

It starts with the story of the Hook, which has been used in a multitude of movies (it shows up in everything from Meatballs and He Knows You’re Alone to Lovers Lane and Final Exam, but its message of teenage sex equals death is pretty much the engine that powers every slasher ever made). James Marsden and Amy Smart are in this opening, which is something that you’ll notice about Campfire Tales: it’s packed with talent that would have great careers after it was made.

This leads us to the connective story which is — did you guess? — a campfire tale, as Cliff (Jay R. Ferguson, who is now on The Conners) wrecks a van on the way home from a concert, leading his friends Lauren (Christine Taylor, who is probably best known from the Brady Bunch movies), Eric (Christopher Masterson, Malcolm in the Middle) and Alex (Kim Murphy, Houseguest) to light a fire until help passes by. They start telling the stories that form the rest of the movie.

“The Honeymoon” has Ron Livingston (Office Space) and Jennifer Macdonald as a married couple being stalked on their RV wedding vacation. “People Can Lick Too,” which is one of my favorite urban legends, is updated  (well, to 1997) to have internet chat rooms. And the final story, “The Locket,” is less friend of a friend story and more time travel slasher with another Roseanne-related actor (the late Glenn Quinn, who was Mark) romancing a mute woman (The Real World star Jacinda Barrett, who is also in Urban Legends: Final Cut) and being chased by her ax-carrying monster of a father.

The film ends dark Wizard of Oz style, as everyone except for Cliff disappears as paramedics attempt to save him. As the camera pulls away from the accident, everyone from the stories plays the roles of the emergency crew members and, you guessed it, a hook is on the door of the car, the real cause of the crash.

Starting with Carrie, Stephen King was adapted by more than fifty directors and eighty or more films and series were filmed. The beauty of King On Screen is that it brings together nearly every living director who worked on these films, including Tom Holland (The Langoliers, Thinner), Mick Garris (The Stand, Sleepwalkers), Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist), Taylor Hackford (Dolores Claiborne), Mike Flanagan (Dr. Sleep, Gerald’s Game), Mark Lester (Firestarter), Mikael Håfström (1408), Josh Boone (The Stand), Tom McLoughlin (Sometimes They Come Back), Lewis Teague (Cujo, Cat’s Eye), Fraser C. Heston (Needful Things), Craig R. Baxley (Storm of the Century, Rose Red, Kingdom Hospital), Mikael Salomon (Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King), Scott Hicks (Hearts In Atlantis), David Carson (Carrie 2002), John Harrison (Creepshow, Creepshow 2), Zak Hilditch (1922), Greg Nicotero (Shudder’s Creepshow), Vincenzo Natali (In the Tall Grass), Tod Williams (Cell) and so many more.

At the height of sheer Q-Anon craziness — I think probably when a shaman in red, white and blue facepaint led an army of people into government buildings, and people defecated on the walls, maybe — people were grasping for straws and pearls and wondering, “How could this happen?”

I’m here to tell you that this has always been here.

In the 1980s, high school me was the same as old me. I was always in black, with long hair, and I only cared about music, movies and studying weird things. As such, I was brought into the Core Group, a team of teachers led by an occult expert cop who studied which students could be worshipping Satan. This group was led by my godmother.

The Satanic Panic wasn’t started by Michelle Remembers, but it felt like it was. The union of Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient (and eventual wife, but we’ll get to that) Michelle Smith. In the mid-70s, while treating Michelle for depression due to a miscarriage, she confessed to him that she knew that something horrible had happened to her and could not recall what it was. Using hypnosis, Michelle was soon screaming for 25 minutes non-stop and speaking in the voice she had as a child. 14 months and 600 hours later, a conspiracy was found: Michelle’s mother and other citizens in Victoria were members of a worldwide Church of Satan.

At one point, Michelle was part of a ritual that lasted 81 days that Satan himself showed up for, and during that time, she was tortured, raped, witnessed others get killed and was covered with the blood of murdered babies until St. Michael the Archangel, Mary and Jesus appeared, healing all of her scars and blocking all of her memories of the years of Satanic desecration of her body and soul.

None of these stories were challenged, even a decade after, when Michelle and Laurel Rose Willson, who wrote Satan’s Underground about being a breeder for Satanists and having two of her children killed in snuff films, were on Oprah Winfrey and at no moment did Oprah challenge either of them, in 1989. The year, I was repeatedly questioned and challenged and told that I was giving my soul to Satan.

I was a white kid from a small town, and in no way have I ever dealt with racism, sexism, transism or any isms in any other way again. This experience, however, showed me a small, tiny glimpse into what it’s like to know you’re right and everyone is sure you’re wrong based on no facts at all.

By the 80s, Pazder was an occult expert, consulting in the McMartin preschool trial and appearing on a 20/20 segment called “The Devil Worshippers” that stoked the flames of the Satanic Panic. That report claimed that movies like The Godsend, The Incubus, Amityville II: The Possession, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist, The Omen and Omen 2 allowed people to visualize and be inspired by the devil. This aired in prime time on ABC, a major cable network. They also refer to The Satanic Witch as a book filled with evil rites. And then, of course, heavy metal. As Anton LaVey was in his era of not speaking to the media, this also has footage taken from Satanis.

As part of the Cult Crime Impact Network, Pazder got into business working with police groups and consulting on Satanic ritual abuse, while lawyers used his book while doing cases, and social workers used Michelle Remembers as their training manual.

According to NPR host Ari Shapiro, “One reason these fictions were so appealing was that they gave people a sense of purpose. They had a mission – to defend the innocent.”

This is what’s happening today. It’s why trans people are grooming children, why Democrats are eating babies, and why elections are being seen as conspiracies. Because the truth — the idea that things happen randomly for no reason — is less frightening than Satanism or Q-Anon.

Man, did I digress?

In Satan Wants You, filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams explore the history of Michelle Remembers and what most people don’t know, such as how Pazder and Smith left their families to be together and how the book was debunked. It would be one thing if their sessions led to a book and some press, but it would be another if they kicked off an entire movement.

The directors have stated: ““This is the first time that Michelle’s sister, Larry’s ex-wife, and Larry’s daughter have gone on the record to tell their side of this story. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine all these stories together to reveal the true origins of the Satanic Panic and show how they connect to the Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracies of today.”

This movie must be seen, even if we’ve entered a time when feelings matter more than facts. But did facts ever matter?

This film also found an anonymous source sending Michelle’s actual tapes, which have never been heard until now.

I don’t discount that she went through some trauma. Yet, how many lives were destroyed along the way?

The sad fact is that no one has learned anything. That same refrain of “protecting the children” exists today. And yes, that’s a noble endeavor. But as someone who grew up in a town of 7,500 people that had more than one Catholic priest abusing children in the last fifteen years of my life, Often, the abuser is someone the abuser has known and trusts.

Just like a worldwide Satanic network — paging Maury Terry and The Family, a book that lost a court case to the Process Church over false claims — and a public ritual lasting 81 days seems complicated to swallow, so do all the claims of the far right today.

Back when I was a kid getting grilled over my slasher movie magazines and love of Danzig, I figured, “Well, someday soon, all of these close-minded people will die off, and we can get past racism, and we can learn how to be more open-minded together.” But now, everyone is close-minded. No one seemingly wants to learn. And this movie is a great teaching tool — it’s a must-see, an intense documentary worthy of rewatching — because it happened before, and yes, it’s going on all over again. The message may have shifted, but it’s still the message.

And it’s still wrong.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You may have seen Andrew Bowser play Onyx before in viral videos. As Onyx the Fortuitous, he’s also been listed as “Weird Satanic Guy” and his distinct speech pattern will definitely stick with you.

Now, Onyx is part of his own film, Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls, directed, written and edited by Bowser. Yet Onyx does not live the dream life. He makes burgers for a living at Marty’s Meat Hut and gets abused at every turn. He’s barely tolerated by his parents (Barbara Crampton is his mom!). Yet he has one thing that he loves. Or a person, really. Bartok the Great (Jeffrey Combs) is an occultist who has created several learn-at-home programs — Letting a Little Devil In — that Onyx has studied in his pursuit of Satanism and now, he has a chance to be the magician’s assistant as he raises a demon from Hell. He’s one of the many followers lured into this ritual by Bartok’s assistant Farrah (Olivia Taylor Dudley, Paranormal Acivity: The Ghost Dimension), along with Bartok’s wife in a past life Jesminder (Melanie Chandra), magical scholar Mr. Duke (TC Carson, the voice of Mace Windu and Kratos in God of War), the tough, understanding and non-binary Mack (Rivkah Reyes, who was once Katie in School of Rock) and the prim and proper former church lady Marsha (Donna Pieroni).

However, Bartok has no interest in teaching any of these would-be dark lords. Instead, he is stealing their souls and transforming them into zombies, all to increase his power. However, the Fortuitous One is among them and it just might be Onyx.

Your enjoyment will be determined by how much you like the strange-voiced, virginal cartoon-loving loser at the heart of it. I thought Onyx was relatively funny and I didn’t have any issues, but some reviewers seem to in no way be able to get past him. But when a movie has gigantic puppet demons and an entire sequence that’s taken from the Meat Loaf video for “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That),” I think that feels like people who have no idea how to have fun.

I mean, more movies should have demon puppets in them. That’s a sword that I will definitely fall on.

The Chattanooga Film Festival is happening now through June 29. To get your in-person or virtual badge to see any of these movies, click here. For more information, visit chattfilmfest.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.