About the Author: Jennifer Upton is an American (non-werewolf) writer/editor in London. Her latest book is Japanese Cult Cinema: Best of the Second Golden Age. She runs the podcast Cinema Junction and writes for Horror & Sons and Drive-in Asylum. She regularly appears on the podcasts Japan on Film, Making Tarantino, Making Scorsese, The Rad Revivalhouse and contributes essays to Cinemaforce. For links to her work, please visit https://www.jennuptonwriter.com or follow her on Instagram @jennxlondon. 

There was an intimacy about this film that felt familiar, having volunteered for a few years in a London music charity shop run by a retired punk star. I have witnessed firsthand the conversations about gear and chord progressions between old guys wearing leopard print shirts and eyeliner. I have seen men in their 70s hit on women in their 20s. I have heard the passive-aggressive slights and accusations of events long passed – “I still owe the manager money for a limo ride I took in 1978.” 

I have even been asked for a long rope to tie around an aging guitarist’s waist to “keep him from wandering off before the gig.”  Therefore, everything in Spinal Tap 2 felt real to me, but not real enough. More like a subdued version of reality created by comfortable people living comfortable lives in Los Angeles who have completely lost touch with what it means to be in an aging band that enjoyed only marginal success in their heyday. 

Perhaps if Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer had visited the little shop in Camden, the trio would have had better material for this movie. Nigel’s cheese shop was cute, but none of the three men had turned into the absolute lunatics they probably should have. None of them did a stint in rehab? Really? None of them had a younger trophy wife whose face is pulled taut from too much plastic surgery?  A Jane’s Addiction-style shoving match? Not a single failed reality show between the three? This film was filled with missed opportunities like that. All perfect fodder was ignored in favor of a safer, cozier movie. 

It’s a pleasant 82 minutes, to be sure. But, in no way does this film measure up to the greatness of its predecessor. Anyone who has seen their favorite band in their twilight years will know that the very act of buying a ticket to Spinal Tap 2 perfectly captures what it means to be an aging fan of an aging band. Or to be an aging fan of an aging comedy troupe playing an aging band. It really doesn’t matter what they do, so long as they play the hits. Our love for these characters, along with the film’s charm and warmth, is based on the feelings we all have for the original film. Nothing they can do at this point, short of killing one off, would ruin their legacy. 

The plot revolves around a one-off reunion gig to take place in New Orleans. They find a new drummer and begin rehearsals. The reunion gig ends in disaster, as one would expect, brought about by yet another small technical detail overlooked. That’s pretty much it. The film’s success rests solely on the shoulders of the cast, who slip back into these characters easily, sprinkling in a few new great lines, such as “Is he coming toward us?” following the Blue Man’s drummer audition. 

The celebrity cameos by Lars Ulrich, Chad Smith and Sir Paul McCartney felt wasted, while Sir Elton John brought the film its biggest laugh. He genuinely looked like he was enjoying himself, while it felt like Lars had slotted in his Zoom call between his daily Starbucks run and sending out copyright violations to fans sharing his music online. 

I could never fully accept that Spinal Tap was a Rob Reiner film; instead, I choose to judge that and this film within the canon of Christopher Guest’s mockumentary body of work. Spinal Tap 2 will not be revered in the way Spinal Tap, Best in Show or Waiting For Guffman all are. Those films are classics—the building blocks of just about every television comedy that aired in the 2000s. But Tap 2 is still a lot better than For Your Consideration, a film I found profoundly bitter and unfunny.

Go see Spinal Tap 2 if you are a fan. Otherwise, wait for streaming and watch it while you’re waiting in the online queue for your favorite band’s latest reunion gig to kill the time. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: D.C. Cab was on USA Up All Night on May 30, 1992; January 8, 1994; May 14, 1995; May 4, 1996; November 16, 1997. 

D.C. Cab was one of the first videos I ever rented from Prime Time Video as a kid, and it’s got a great cast, which is probably what got me to grab it. Beyond Mr. T., you have Max Gail from Barney Miller as the owner of the cab company, Adam Baldwin as the son of his best friend who comes to help, Charlie Barnett (who actually won the SNL job over Eddie Murphy but was too nervous to come back for a follow-up; he sadly died of AIDS at the age of 41), Marsha Warfield from Night Court, a pre-Politically Incorrect Bill Maher, Gary Busey (speaking of politically incorrect, little to none of his dialogue could be in a movie made today), DeWayne Jessie (who literally became his Otis Day character and toured with that name), Paul Rodriguez, Whitman Mayo (Grady from Sanford and Son), the Barbarian Brothers (making this one of two Barbarian Brothers movies that Kino Lorber releases this month), Bob Zmuda,  Bloodsport director Newt Arnold, Jill Schoelen (the crush of all teen crushes), Timothy Carey as a maniac who calls himself the Angel of Death and Irene Cara as herself.

It’s directed by Joel Schumacher, who has either made movies that are remembered for the right reasons, like The Lost Boys, or those that are remembered for the wrong reasons, like Batman and Robin.

This is the ultimate hijinks ensue movie, as each character gets a moment and a little story of their own. It’s not a great movie, but it’s certainly a fun one, which sometimes is even better. The story is as simple as the boys of D.C. Cab against the city government and the Emerald Cab Company. Seriously, that’s pretty much as deep as it gets, but these are the kind of movies that you find yourself watching every time they come on cable, right? Do they still come on cable?

I’m happy to have this movie in my collection. It’s a great reminder of the time when you could find something like this movie on the rental shelves.

September Drive-In Super Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre, September 19 and 20, 2025. Two big nights with four feature films each night include:

• Friday, September 19: Mark of the Devil, The Sentinel, The Devil’s Rain and Devil Times Five
• September 20: The Omega Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the Grindhouse Releasing 4K restoration drive-in premiere of S.F. Brownrigg’s Scum of the Earth and Eaten Alive

Admission is $15 per person each night (children 12 and under – accompanied by an adult guardian – are admitted free). Overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $20 a person per night. Advance online tickets (highly recommended) for both movies and camping here: https://www.riversidedrivein.com/shop/

I’ve been obsessed with the trailer and artwork for this movie for years. Throw in the fact that it has ’70s teen idol Leif Garrett amongst its cast of pint-sized psychopaths, and it seems like a recipe for my kind of movie insanity. However, I just never found the time to sit down and watch it. With so many movies on our shelves and streaming online, my to watch list is constantly bulging with films all screaming to be enjoyed.

Five children have survived a van accident on a snowy road, and unbeknownst to everyone they encounter for the rest of the film, they were on their way to a mental institution for criminally insane young folks. They make their way to the secluded mountain home of Papa Doc, awealthyh businessman, who has all manner of guests staying with him, like his sex-starved wife Lovely (Carolyn Stellar, who beyond being Leif Garrett and Dawn Lynn’s mother, would go on to design the costumes for the 1978’s utterly brutal Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band), his daughter and her boyfriend, plus Dr. Harvey Beckman (Sorrell Booke, Boss Hogg from TV’s The Dukes of Hazzard) and his wife, Ruth (Shelley Morrison, Rosario from TV’s Will and Grace). Oh yeah, there’s also the dim-witted handyman, Ralph (original screenwriter John Durren).

Soon, the power is out, the phones are cut, and the kids are killing people left and right. Little actor and budding crossdresser David (Garrett), army lover Brian, Susan the pyro, Moe (Dawn Lynn, who played Dawna in the Walking Tall films) with her plush fish and usage of piranha, and last but not least, albino nun Sister Hannah will find their way into your heart, then cut it out and show it to you. Imagine The Bad Seed times five, with none of the great story or acting.

This movie is also known as Peopletoys, Tantrums and The Horrible House on the Hill. Of course, that last title has a Last House on the Left ripoff poster to go along with the similar title.

Devil Times Five was distributed by Jerry Gross’ Cinemation Industries, which also brought Son of Dracula, Teenage Mother (“She’s nine months of trouble!”), The Black Six and Idaho Transfer to audiences that had to be absolutely bewildered by their level of pure strangeness.

Original director Sean MacGregor was fired from the production after his footage was unusable, and David Sheldon finished the film (you can tell that they switched interior locations because there’s no continuity in the backgrounds). By the time those reshoots happened, Leif Garrett had cut his hair, so he wears a wig that you can easily point out several times.

Even stranger, MacGregor was in a psychiatric ward after leaving this movie and was also dating Gail Smale, who played Sister Hannah. That last bit doesn’t seem all that interesting until you realize that she was underage and was given a nun costume and rose-colored glasses to hide the fact that she was so young and a legitimate albino.

Seriously — how crazy is a movie where Leif Garrett watches as his real-life mom is nude and being murdered by carnivorous fish in the bathtub? This must have been a strange thing for people to watch, as Garrett was already well-known as Oscar’s son on TV’s The Odd Couple, and his sister was on My Three Sons.

If you’re looking for a movie where children annihilate adults, that isn’t The Children, Village of the Damned or Who Can Kill a Child?, then I guess you should watch Devil Times Five. Actually, I kid. This is a goofy little film that is pretty much the horror version of Home Alone. I enjoyed it, but you know, I also have no taste whatsoever.