Category Archives: Movie reviews

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 9: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

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9. MASTER OF DISASTER: Watch any Irwin Allen offering.

The crew of the tugboat Jenny — Captain Mike Turner (Michael Caine), First Mate Wilbur Hubbard (Walter Matthau) and passenger Celeste Whitman (Sally Field) — spot the rescue helicopter saving the Poseidon passengers from the first movie, just in time to claim salvage rights.

They’re soon joined by Dr. Stefan Svevo (Tally Savalas), a Greek Orthodox missionary here to save anyone on board. Poor Stella Stevens, we see her dead body from the first movie as the teams cut through the hull. Somehow, more people have survived than the first movie, as we have ship nurse Gina Rowe (Shirley Jones), wine steward Dewey “Tex” Hopkins (Slim Pickens), elevator operator Larry Simpson (Mark Harmon), Frank and Theresa Mazzetti (Peter Boyle and Angela Cartwright), Harold and Hannah Meredith (Jack Warden and Shirley Knight), and Suzanne Constantine (Veronica Hamel).

The truth is that Stevo is on board to take plutonium and he soon kills one of his own employees, Suzanne, when she tries to reveal the plan. As you can imagine, hardly anyone survives, seeing how this is an Irwin Allen movie.

Soon after the first film came out, Allen said there would be a sequel in which the survivors would take part in a hearing on the disaster in Austria. While on a train to the hearing, a miles-long mountain tunnel would collapse, leaving the survivors of the train trapped inside. Could people have worse luck?

Roger Ebert said, “But what did we really, sincerely, expect anyway, from a movie in which Karl Malden plays a character named Wilbur, and Slim Pickens plays a character named Tex? If you can think of a single line of dialogue that Slim Pickens, as Tex, wouldn’t say in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, please do not miss this movie, which will be filled with amazements and startling revelations.”

It’s mostly Michael Caine shouting at Sally Field, who loves him anyway.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Face of Evil (1996)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Made for TV Movie

Ah man, Tracy Gold was always a good girl until this movie. She plays Darcy Palmer, an artist who loses her mind, leaves her man at the altar, takes all his money, heads to New York City and kills a college student named Brianne Dwyer (Mireille Enos). Then, she starts life all over again as a college student in New Hampshire.

She soon becomes friends with Jeanelle Polk (Shawnee Smith) and goes home to meet her father, Russell (Perry King). Before you know it, she has him fooled, and she’s cutting his ponytail off in the shower.

Directed by Mary Lambert and written by Gregory Goodell (lots of TV movies, but also the director and writer of the video nasty Human Experiments), this has the lovely daughter of TV’s Growing Pains stuffing dead bodies into her suitcase, ruining eyes with acid eyedrops and even trying to stab our good girl with scissors. She’s killed ten people in six cities and keeps changing who she is, somehow staying ahead of cops. If this were a Giallo, they’d be amongst the dumbest of all movie police, as a festering suitcase filled with a dead body can stay in a dorm for days and then at a construction site for months and no one notices.

Perry King also wears a jaunty scarf for the scene where Gold bites him and screams, “I’m an artist!”

Also: Total square up reel of all her crimes while Perry King is like, “I guess we were lucky.” And yet, he slept with her. I’m sure it was amazing.

You can watch this on Tubi.

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Zombies of Mora Tau (1957)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Zombies of Mora Tau was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, August 26, 1967 at 11:20 p.m. and Saturday, August 8, 1970 at 11:30 p.m.

You have to feel for the deep-sea divers in this movie. Sure, they have to deal with their boss, wealthy businessman George Harrison, but now to get the diamonds out of the wreck of a ship that sank sixty years ago, they have to deal with not only a curse, but the ship’s undead zombie crew, who must remain there until the curse is removed or the diamonds are destroyed. This is getting into some Return of the Curse of the Creature’s Ghost-like shenanigans, right?

Somehow, fate has decreed that I have watched multiple Alison Hayes films lately. Between Gunslinger, The Unearthly, The Crawling Hand, and this movie, I have really come to enjoy seeing her show up. Marjorie Eaton — who was the physical actress who played Emperor Palpatine in the non-special editions — is also on hand.

The prologue to this movie says, ‘In the darkness of an ancient world — on a shore that time has forgotten – there is a twilight zone between life and death. Here dwell those nameless creatures who are condemned to prowl the land eternally — the Walking Dead.” That’s right, this movie used Twilight Zone two years before Rod Serling and 46 years before the comic book. And wow, zombies sure got different a decade or so later.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: When a Stranger Calls Back (1993)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Today’s theme: Made for TV Movie!

“And maybe for the college boys, the truest mirror is the toilet bowl staring back at them in the morning after a toga party.”

This insightful line of dialogue is “uttered” by a faceless ventriloquist’s dummy during a set at a strip club in When a Stranger Calls Back, a copy/paste sequel produced by Showtime in 1993.

Starting with a revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1984, Showtime produced many original films during a run that lasted until around 2007. Never reaching the acclaim of HBO Films, and never reaching the depths of Cinemax Friday After Dark programming, Showtime was able to carve out an interesting middle ground, particularly in the horror genre. The first film that comes to my mind when I think about Showtime is John Carpenter’s Body Bags. But Showtime was also the home of films such as Psycho IV: The Beginning, The Birds II: Land’s End, as well as Jim Wynorski’s remake of The Wasp Woman. Pursuing the list of films now, I feel the need to find some of these potential hidden gems. Once this month is over, I might have to seek out The Tiger Woods Story, a 1998 film directed by LeVar Burton, starring Keith David as Tiger Woods’ dad. 

When a Stranger Calls Back gets the gang from the first film back together. Carol Kane as Jill, the babysitter who was tormented in the original movie, but she has since turned her trauma into a career as a counselor, while finding time to take self-defense classes on the side. Charles Durning as Detective John Clifford, using his skills to track down men who harass babysitters (a very niche skill set). And director Fred Walton. Not much to say about Walton other than he also directed April Fool’s Day, followed by a string of made-for-TV films, including a remake of William Castle’s I Saw What You Did.

Not only did the director and main stars come back, but the basic template from the first film returns. The most often heard complaint about When a Stranger Calls is that the film loses steam after that iconic opening sequence. But what film could possibly match the energy and suspense crafted in that first 20 minutes? People rarely talk about how great the last 15 minutes are as well. Truly scary.

While the bookends of When a Stranger Calls Back does not match the intensity of the original, it makes a decent effort. We get a legendary scream queen as the tormented babysitter (Jill Schoeien), and a killer who is creepier than the one in the first film. Kind of a Francis Dolarhyde meets Peeta from The Hunger Games. And I think that the second act here is more interesting than the one in the first film. Of course having more Carol Kane is always a good idea in my book. Watching Carol Kane’s stunt double do a jumping scissors kick against her attacker? Peak cinema. 

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, February 28 at 1:00 a.m. and  October 31, 1970 at 11:30 p.m.

Roger Corman originally made this movie about a scientist, but that was “too obvious” so he changed the lead to be “a jazz musician who had taken too much drugs, and I get into about four or five pages, and I thought, “You know, I don’t like this idea”, and so I threw the whole thing out, and started back and went back with the scientist, which was the original idea.”

Shot in three weeks on a budget of approximately $300,000 — that seems luxurious for Corman — and played a double feature with Dementia 13.

It stars Ray Milland as Dr. James Xavier, who is trying to expand the range of vision, allowing humans to see ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths, and even beyond. Being a somewhat mad scientist, he tests the eyedrops on himself and soon can see more than just through clothes; he can discern shapes, colors, and forms even when his eyes are closed, as his eyelids cannot block the visions.

After a friend is killed by accident, he heads for Vegas, where he wins money at casinos and becomes part of a sideshow. The problem is that by this point, his eyes are entirely black, and he can’t shut off the visions that allow him to see into the heart of the universe.

Finally, a revival church tells him that if his eyes offend him, he should pluck them out. So he does! What an ending!

I’m not going to spoil it for you by telling you how awesome Roger Corman is.

In Danse Macabre, Stephen King claimed that there was an unshot ending with Milland screaming “I can still see” after gouging out his eyes. Corman replied by saying, “Now it’s interesting. Stephen King saw the picture and wrote a different ending, and I thought, “His ending is better than mine.”

With significantly minor roles for Don Rickles and Dick Miller, this movie moves so fast and packs in so much that it’s nearly perfect. The effects may be dated, but who cares? They work. The whole movie just works.

You can watch this on Tubi.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Blue Sunshine (1977)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

Today’s theme: Physical Media

We want Dr. Pepper! We want Dr. Pepper! We want Dr. Pepper!

Obnoxious, relentless children are enough to make you literally snatch your wig, grab the longest knife you can find, and chase them around the room. Whether you are feeling some very delayed side effects from some LSD you dropped 10 years ago or not.

Blue Sunshine has been floating around on my watchlist for a while now. I really had no idea what the plot of this film was though. I only knew the film from the poster—the bald-headed lady standing in front of what appears to be a blue moon. Really no clues are given as to what happens in the film. 

As it turns out, Blue Sunshine is closer to a political paranoia conspiracy thriller like Three Days of the Condor than a traditional horror film. A small group of seemingly unrelated people are experiencing hair loss followed by severe homicidal tendencies. Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King—we’ll circle back to him) witnesses an attack by a friend inflicted with this seemingly acute psychosis, but becoming the accused murderer in the process. Out to solve the mystery and prove his own innocence, Jerry discovers that the cause may be linked to an LSD variant named Blue Sunshine that was distributed at Stanford a decade prior.

I cannot say that I’ve ever seen a Zalman King performance before. I definitely know the name for the Red Shoe Diaries series on Showtime back in the 1990s. I cannot say that I watched much of that show (or at least you won’t get me to admit it), but when I saw King’s name appear during the opening credit sequence of Blue Sunshine, I immediately checked my phone to make sure this was the same person. 

King has a cinematic presence. He most definitely has cinematic hair. But I cannot think of anyone else like him. Well, I actually did read someone’s review on Letterboxd that compared him to the recurring Red Shoe Diaries actor David Duchovny. That tracks. 

Again, Blue Sunshine is not your typical horror film, although there are some horrific things that happen. It feels political due to a main character who is running for Congress, but I did not make any connection to Edward Flemming’s (Mark Goddard) ambitions and his past of LSD hippie. I kind of expected more of a link to his past, but I don’t think he knew what was going on. Honestly, that lack of awareness would suit him well for politics. 

There are a couple of aspects of the film that I could not help but comment upon. There is a low-speed car chase involving a Ford Bronco. And, at the end of the film, Flemming is making a campaign speech promising to “Make America Good Again”. He’s going to need to up his game to greatness if he is going to truly succeed. Or maybe just put that Blue Sunshine in the water supply and see what happens.

I watched this one on the Synapse 4K release. Synapse always does a spectacular job in their restorations and releases. They do not release films very often these days, but when they do, I almost always pick them up.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 8: Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2010)

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October 8. A Horror Film That Mostly Takes Place in a Library

Decades ago, inside Blackwood Manor, wildlife painter Lord Emerson Blackwood took the teeth of his maid and those of the creatures who lived within the fireplace and tried to reason with them. They turn him down and kill him, as they only want the teeth of children. This scene got me — teeth smashing is that one taboo even I can’t get over.

Sally Hurst (Bailee Madison) has come to live with her father (Guy Pierce) and his girlfriend (Katie Holmes), as her mother is too depressed and he’s renovating the manor. She awakens the creatures, and fortunately, Kim, her father’s girlfriend, believes her. They visit a library and discover Lord Blackwood’s unpublished artwork, which depicts these tooth fairies. The librarian is even aware of them, saying they sometimes transform humans. One of them is Blackwood, who wasn’t killed but has become the leader. Sally is trapped in the library but manages to escape, even killing a creature with a bookshelf.

Co-writer and producer Guillermo del Toro chose comic-book artist Troy Nixey to direct and art direct this. Obviously, it comes from the TV movie of the same name. This even has an ending that is so close to the first film. It’s good, but it can’t be compared. That’s fine — the original is such a big deal to me. But this is still a good film.

2025 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge 8: The Devil Conspiracy (2022)

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8. HOLY WEDNESDAY: …And on the 8th day the Physical Media God watches a Christploitation flick.

Directed by Nathan Frankowski, written by Ed Alan, and filmed in Prague, The Devil Conspiracy is wild because it attempts to be both an action movie and a religious film, but ultimately becomes over-the-top with CGI, leaving the viewer blown away, as it’s unclear who this is for.

It’s for me.

Back in the days when angels fought in Heaven, St. Michael chained Lucifer in Hell. Now, a biotech company steals the Shroud of Turin in order to clone Lucifer. Their army kills Father Marconi (Joe Doyle), whose body is soon taken over by St. Michael in order to stop the end of the world from happening. Their plan is to find fallen women and use them to have a baby that the devil will possess, all while fallen angels teach St. Michael how to stop this, all while protecting Laura (Alice Orr-Ewing), the mother of the soon-to-be devil baby.

The main bad girl’s name?

Liz (Eveline Hall).

Yes, this movie is absolutely ridiculous in all the best of ways, and I wish they’d make so many more in a series of these films. Get this: Only the infant Christ could stand to be possessed by Lucifer, unlike weak humans who burn out when filled with the dark one. They’ve also created clones of Vivaldi and Michelangelo, which they auction off, and we simply ignore that this is happening because, in the grand scheme of this plot, it’s such a small thing in the face of the end times of all that is.

Also: Laura drinks an entire jug of bleach and lives.

Common Sense Media said: “Parents need to know that The Devil Conspiracy is a graphic fantasy/horror/thriller about a plot by devil worshippers to create a new baby Jesus and bring hell to Earth. Violence is intense and often bloody. There’s lots of fighting, shooting, beheading, slicing, stabbing, bloody wounds, jump scares, demons, other scary stuff, and more. Sporadic strong language includes uses of “f–k,” “motherf—-r,” “s–t,” “bitch,” “goddamn,” “whore,” etc. There’s some brief, inappropriate flirting, a woman wears fishnet stockings, and a childbirth scene is depicted. It’s preposterous and poorly made, but some viewers may be entertained in a “so bad it’s good” kind of way.”

Their review reads like a Joe Bob Drive-In Total: “Women are kidnapped and roughly handled; they’re shown panicking and terrified. One woman is physically violated (a fertilized egg is forcibly inserted into her uterus). Brief, strong images of children in peril. Severed head, beheadings. The head is split in half. Lots of dead bodies. Someone is stabbed. Guns and shooting; one person is shot in the head, with blood spatter. Bloody wounds. Choking, gasping. Character shoots a bird in a tree. Fighting. Head-slamming. Body-slamming. Head-butting. Face-stomping, with strong gore. Vomiting on someone’s face. People are attacking guards with homemade weapons. Demon chained by the neck. Jump-scares. Brief scary/creepy stuff. Scary dream about a demon baby. Character drinks bleach, with screaming, vomiting. Explosions. Violence depicted in paintings, artworks. Mention of rape.”

You can watch this on Tubi.

UNSUNG HORRORS HORROR GIVES BACK 2025: Weird Visions Society (2024)

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Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: Physical Media

I know, I know, microbudget anthology films are all over microbudget films and streaming horror. But what if someone did it right?

Director Ryan Petrillo and his co-writer Dan Lisowski got it right.

This is a movie made by people who actually care more than just to tell people that they’re filmmakers. The colors are intentional. The music and sound design absorb you. And there are wild colors, ooze, and so much strangeness, as well as bottles of J&B and post-dubbed sound.

What’s it about?

“Each autumnal equinox, a group of humanoids meets at the nexus of dreams and reality to celebrate the strangest mysteries of the universe: monsters, ghosts, the inexplicable, the outrageous. As they slurp their ceremonial slime and join their minds, they share these stories of horror and fantasy. This is the Weird Visions Society! A post-dubbed, micro-budget, horror-sci-fi anthology consisting of five tales woven together by the hallucinatory mind-melding of ceremonial slime-drinking humanoids from another dimension.”

Those humanoids meet in a room with a gold curtain and what appears to be a picture frame that opens into the universe from The Astrologer. In this sanctum, they pour ooze into bowls and lap it up before tripping out into these stories, then, you know, destroying one of their number. Each story may not have the best pacing, but when does an anthology ever all add up? Instead, the sum is way greater than the whole of the parts, and you’ll be left loving the drone, the neon, the moments that make this feel a lot more like an Italian 80s direct-to-VHS wallow in scuzz than something on Blu-ray from 2024, and that’s the highest compliment I can give.

Also: The ambient extras on the Blu-ray will totally be my new writing meditation soundtrack.

You can get the movie, merch and slime here.

 

CHILLER THEATER MONTH: The Living Coffin (1959)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Living Coffin was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, June 17, 1966, at 11:20 p.m., Saturday, December 7, 1968, at 11:20 p.m. and Saturday, August 28, 1971, at 1:00 a.m.

The Screaming Death was directed by Fernando Méndez, who also made El Vampiro, The Black Pit of Dr. M and Ladrón de Cadáveres. It was written by Ramón Obón, the screenwriter of the first Mil Mascaras movies, as well as the director and writer of Cien Gritos de Terror.

The American version — The Living Coffin — was remixed for U.S. audiences by K. Gordon Murray, who did a lot of that and really didn’t ever bother consulting the source material.

Gastón (Gastón Santos, a former bullfighter who played himself in many of his movies) and his sidekick Coyote Loco (Pedro de Aguillón) arrive in a town haunted by La Llorona, the crying woman. Maria (María Duval) believes that the red idol that Gastón is carrying was carved by her deceased aunt Clotilde. And the locals think that that woman is, in fact, the crying woman killing the townsfolk.

The film looks great and mixes Gothic horror with Western action, but never really gets going. However, it’s an excellent idea, and I’ll keep looking out for the perfect horror in the West.