Tag Archives: 1988

Chattanooga Film Festival 2024 Red Eye #2: Pin (1988)

Posted on by

In Paperbacks from Hell (page 143 to be exact), Grady Hendrix explains what PIN is all about:

“Leon and Ursula have lived together ever since their parents died in a car accident. The kids grew up thinking dad’s anatomical model, PIN, was alive, and now Leon throws his voices unconsciously, keeping PIN talking. PIN eats with them, listens to Leon’s weird recitals, and when Leon and Ursula have incest sex, PIN likes to help. If you’re a completely insane lunatic shut-in with ice waters in your veins and screaming bats inside your skull, this would be paradise. And for Leon, it is.”

PIN was written by Andrew Neiderman, who has written forty-seven novels under his own name, but is perhaps better known for the sixty-eight — and counting — that’s ghostwritten from V.C. Andrews and her Flowers in the Attic series.

1988’s Canadian movie adaption skips most of the incest, but trust me, it’s no less strange.

Directed by Sandor Stern (the writer of the original The Amityville Horror and writer/director of the Patty Duke starring Amityville: The Evil Escapes), PIN starts with Dr. Frank Linden (Terry O’Quinn, forever The Stepfather in our hearts), who keeps a human size, anatomically correct Slim Goodbody-esque medical model in his office that he’s named Pin. He uses Pin — throwing his voice to make him speak — to explain how the body works without it being awkward. The doctor is a cold and distant man; only his interactions through the doll seem warm.

Leon has problems. He probably has some mental illness, which isn’t helped by his domineering mother, who doesn’t allow him to play outside or bring friends home. Pin is his only friend in the entire world. Imagine his shock when he goes to visit Pin one day and a nurse is having sex with the doll. Isn’t it delightful when a movie can just make your jaw hit the floor? Well, keep watching Pin.

The doctor and his wife constantly feel like they could kill one another at any moment. And Leon may not ever want to think about sex, but his sister can’t stop thinking about it. Jump cut ahead in time and she’s literally having sex with most of the football team while her brother is scrubbing graffiti about her off a locker. After Leon angrily fights several boys who are lining up to have their way with her (remember what I said about the surprising strangeness of this one), she agrees to stop having sex. That said, she needs an abortion, an operation that her father coldly does in front of Leon, telling him that he needs to watch this procedure for when he does it himself. They’ll just tell mother she had some cramps.

One night, Dr. Linden and his wife are leaving for a speech. He forgets his notes and runs back to his office, where he finds Leon talking to Pin. Realizing his son has lost his mind, he takes Pin away. However, a car accident caused by his speeding (or is it Pin?) kills the parents off. As Leon investigates the crash, he takes Pin with him.

Leon and Ursula enjoy their freedom from their mother’s strict cleaning habits and menus, but as other people try and enter their lives, like Aunt Dorthy or Stan, Ursula’s love interest, Leon and Pin take them out. At this point, Pin is now dressing in Dr. Linden’s clothes and has latex skin and a wig so he can appear human.

Oh! In the middle of all of this, Leon has a date with a redhead who is all over him. He panics and runs to Pin for help, then uses the frightening doll to chase the girl away from the house.

Leon believes that Stan is only interested in Ursula’s money and to put him away. To be fair, they did discuss how crazy he’s been acting and what they should do. I’ve never had to meet the doll friend of a girlfriend’s brother, somewhat amazingly. Pin tells Leon how to dispose of Stan, but he’s interrupted by Ursula, who is on her way home from her library job.

Upon finding blood on the carpet, Ursula starts to run. Leon blames Pin, who flips out on him, telling him that he has never lied for him or to him. His sister returns with an axe as the screen goes white.

Fast forward: Stan is OK and still with Ursula. She comes home to see Pin, who asks whether or not she’s seen Leon. She answers, “No.” It’s then revealed that Ursula destroyed the doll, but now Pin has become Leon’s full personality. He is now the doll.

Pin is unsettling. It’s relatively bloodless, but that doesn’t stop its power to shock, whether you’re reading it in book form or watching the movie.

Here’s the episode of my podcast about Pin.

You can watch this and so many of the films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. I’ll be posting reviews and articles over the next few days, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

SUPPORTER WEEK: I Saw What You Did (1988)

Posted on by

EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s movie is brought to you by Jason, who made a one-time donation and told me to pick any 70’s TV I wanted. So how about an entire week?

Would you like to have me write about the movies of your choice? It’s simple!

  1. Go to our Ko-Fi site and donate. There’s no set amount and I won’t tell you what to do. In fact, if you just keep reading for free, we can still be friends.
  2. Join as a monthly member for just $1. That makes you a Little B&S’er.
  3. As a Medium B&S’er at just $3 a month, if you pick a movie or a director, I’ll write about them for you. In fact, I’ll do one for each month you subscribe and even dedicate the post to you.
  4. For $5 a month, you basically get some major power. As a Big B&S’er, I’ll write an entire week on any subject you’d like. How awesome would that be? In fact, I’ll do it for every month you’re a member. Do you think any of your other movie sites will do that for you?

This made for TV movie is based on Out of the Dark by Ursula Curtiss but its title comes from the first movie made from it, the 1965 William Castle directed, Joan Crawford starring I Saw What You Did. Director Fred Walton is going back to familiar territory, as he made When a Stranger Calls, one of the movies that took Black Christmas‘ idea that the calls are coming from inside the house. He also directed April Fool’s Day, The Rosary Murders, When a Stranger Calls Back and The Stepford Husbands. This was written by Cynthia Cidre, who was a showrunner for the 2010s Dallas.

Lisa Harris (Tammy Lauren, Wishmaster) might be popular, but she could care less about school. Kim Fielding (Shawnee Smith, The Blob) is a smart kid who never gets to have fun and is always babysitting her sister Julia (Candace Cameron from Full House). When her father goes out for the night, Kim tries to invite over the more popular Lisa, who just wants a place to meet her boyfriend Louis (Patrick O’Bryan, 976-EVIL). While she’s waiting for him, she decides to show Kim and Julia how to be bad and starts prank calling people and talking sexy or saying, “I saw what you did and I know who you are.”

One of the people they call is Adrian Lancer (Robert Carradine), who has already killed his girlfriend Robyn (Jo Anderson) and is about to try and set his brother Stephen (David Carradine) on fire. Kim thinks they’re flirting but he’s trying to find out who she is because he’s sure she knows he’s a killer.  She ends up at his house and things get pretty tense to say the least. And the whole thing ends with Stephen calling Kim and saying,  “Kim, I know who you are. You killed my brother.” And he seemed so normal.

Originally airing on May 20, 1988 on CBS, this isn’t as good as the original — you figured that, right? — and the role that Crawford played is barely in it. But hey, it’s pretty decent for a late 80s TV movie.

LIONSGATE UHD RELEASE: Young Guns (1988)

Posted on by

Believe it or not, historian Paul Hutton called Young Guns the most historically accurate of all Billy the Kid films. I mean, John Tunstall is depicted as an older  man while he was only 24 when he was murdered and younger than the Regulators. But still, despite combining some people, it’s close, or so they say.

Directed by Christopher Cain (The Principal and Dean Cain’s dad) and written by John Fusco (Crossroads), this film number one at the US box office and eventually grossed $56 million against an $11 million budget. It and it’s sequel were big deals — I mean, Bon Jovi did the theme song “Blaze of Glory” — but somehow, I never saw either.

Lincoln County, New Mexico. Cattleman John Tunstall (Terence Stamp) is trying to civilize the young wayward men in his employ who he calls the Regulators. They are Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock (Kiefer Sutherland), Jose Chavez y Chavez (Lou Diamond Phillips), Richard “Dick” Brewer (Charlie Sheen), Dirty” Steve Stephens (Dermot Mulroney), Charlie Bowdre (Casey Siemaszko) and William H. “Billy the Kid” Bonney (Emilio Estevez). He’s in a land war with another rancher, Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance) and makes the mistakes of hiring one of his men, J. McCloskey (Geoffrey Blake), who sets up a trap to kill him. Lawyer Terry O’Quinn (Alexander McSween) deputizes them, except that Billy is too brutal and hot headed, leading them all to be called outlaws for killing plenty of Murphy’s hired guns.

He sends Buckshot Roberts (Brian Keith) after them and he succeeds in killing Doc and splintering the group, as Jose warns them all not to become lost in revenge, which is exactly what Billy goes on to do. It all leads to a huge battle where nearly everyone dies except Chavez, who makes it to California, Doc who marries Murphy’s mistress Yen Sun (Alice Carter), Alex’s widow Susan McSween (Susan Thomas) becomes a famous cattlewoman, Murphy gets arrested and Billy rides away, only to eventually be killed by Pat Garrett (Patrick Wayne, yes, John’s son) years later and buried next to Charlie.

You can see Tom Cruise get shot by Siemaszko at one point as well as Randy Travis shooting a Gatling gun. One of the guys who gets knifed is Jack Palance’s son Cody.

Somehow, Siemaszko never knew that Warren G and Nate Dogg sampled his dialogue for “Regulate.” “Regulators, We regulate any stealin’ of his property. We’re damn good too. But you can’t be any geek off the street. You gotta be handy with the steel, if you know what I mean. Earn your keep. Regulators, mount up.”

The Lionsgate UHD of Wild Guns has audio commentary with Dermot Mulroney, Lou Diamond Phillips and Casey Siemaszko, a making of, a feature on Billy the Kid and trailers. You can get it from Diabolik DVD.

APRIL MOVIE THON 3: Rejuvenatrix (1988)

Posted on by

April 26: Heavy Metal Movies: Pick a movie from Mike McPadden’s great book. RIP. List here.

Also known as The Rejuvenator, this forgotten film was inspired by The Wasp Woman. It was directed and co-written by Brian Thomas Jones, along with Simon Nuchtern (who directed the new sequences for Snuff as well as Savage Dawn and Silent Madness). Steven Mackler, who produced this film, had met Jones after he was impressed with the director’s short movie Overexposed. Mackler had a deal with Sony Video Software to make three movies and sent him the script for a movie called Skin, which was writtem by Nuchtern.

In an interview with Matty Budrewicz, Jones said, “I read the script and, when I finished, I said to myself “I can’t direct this script, but I know how to make this movie. It’s Bride of Frankenstein meets Sunset Boulevard! I pitched the concept to Mackler and he let me rewrite it.”

As for his changes, he stated, I’ve never really been a true fan of blood, guts and gore so when I was writing I tried to weave in all these themes of vanity, addiction, obsession and greed. I really wanted to make it my own movie—something really heartfelt and dramatic.”

Ruth Warren (Jessica Dublin, who was in Trinity Is Still My Name; So Sweet, So Dead; Fragment of Fear; Sex of the Witch; Death Steps In the Dark and much later Troma’s War) is a rich actress who has aged out of leading roles. Dr. Gregory Ashton (John MacKay) has been working for her in an attempt to make her young again. He’s running out of time, as she’s grown frustrated by a lack of results.

His new formula needs testing but she takes it, amazed at the results and becomes a younger woman by the name of Elizabeth Warren (Vivian Lanko). What she didn’t know before she took the formula is that it was based on parts of human brains and she must constantly be given those pieces of mind, so to speak, or she will transform into a monster that is chronically hungry for brains, more brains.

It’s never been released on DVD or blu ray, which is shocking when you think that it’s exactly the kind of movie that Vinegar Syndrome puts out. It’s not just a cheap direct to video film, though. It is filled with heart and characters that you start to care about along with sequences filled with goopy FX that stand up to anything else from the late 80s.

Plus, it has an appearance by the Poison Dollys, an all-female heavy metal band from Long Island. Members Gina Stile, Gail Kenny, Mef Manning and Roulette started as a cover band but added originals as time went on and worked with Kip Winger. One of their songs, “Love Is for Suckers” was recorded by Twisted Sister.

Gina Stile left Poison Dollys to form Envt with her sister Rhonni and was in Vixen from 1997 to 2001. She also played in Ban Animals, a Heart tribute band along with Marco Mendoza, Yngwie Malmsteen drummer John Macaluso and Great White bassist Teddy Cook.

How did I never see Rejuvenatrix until now?

Jones looks back on this movie with some sadness:  “I’ve always been quite disappointed it never got the exposure or recognition I feel it deserved, even though it has developed its fans from those lucky enough to have seen it. The reviews and the fact it did OK on video… I probably should let it go but I’ll always hold a grudge for that SVS guy who didn’t understand the genre or its fandom and realize the potential of what he had.”

You can ready Matty’s interview at his amazing site, The Schlock Pit.

You can watch this on YouTube.

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama 2024 Primer: Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)

Posted on by

April Ghouls Drive-In Monster-Rama is back at The Riverside Drive-In Theatre in Vandergrift, PA on April 26 and 27, 2024. Admission is still only $15 per person each night (children 12 and under free with adult) and overnight camping is available (breakfast included) for an additional $15 per person. You can buy tickets at the show but get there early and learn more here.

The features for Friday, April 26 are The Return of the Living Dead, the new Blue Underground 4K print of Deathdream, Messiah of Evil and The Children.

Saturday, April 27 has Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Escape from New York, Starcrash and Galaxy of Terror.

How did it take so long for this movie to make it to our site? Has there ever been a better high concept — alien clowns coming from space to eat humans? How did this movie even get made? Man, I have questions. Let’s get some answers.

It’s the only movie to be written, produced and directed by the Chiodo Brothers. These insane masters created the puppets and effects for films such as Critters, Ernest Scared Stupid, Team America: World Police, Large Marge for Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and the mouse artwork in Dinner for Schmucks. A sequel to this has been in development forever; if I had my way, these guys would make movies all of the time.

On a lover’s lane in Crescent Cove, Mike Tobacco (Grant Cramer, New Year’s Evil) and his girlfriend Debbie Stone (Suzanne Snyder, Weird Science, Night of the Creeps) are parked when a strange object falls to Earth.

Meanwhile, farmer Gene Green (Royal Dano, Gramps from House II) and his dog — who my wife knows is named Pooh Bear without even needing to look it up — track the comet and discover the crash site looks more like a circus tent.

Mike and Debbie find the same strange tent and discover the farmer trapped in a cotton candy-like cocoon as a Klown appears to shoot popcorn at them. They’re chased away by more Klowns and a balloon animal dog, because this movie is ready to tear out your brain, stomp on it and laugh the entire time.

They make their way to the police station where Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, Deputy Dave Hanson (John Allen Nelson, Deathstalker from the third version of that film, Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell), and mean-spirited Deputy Curtis Mooney (John Vernon!). Seriously, John Vernon should be in every movie, because he’s majestic in this, treating every single person with oodles of contempt.

The Klowns make their way to the town and start blasting people with lasers, punching people’s heads clean off and shrinking people down and putting them into bags of popcorn. There are also scenes of Klowns drinking people with crazy straws and a giant Klownzilla that attacks the town. Obviously, the reality went right of the window with this one. It resembles the Topps Mars Attacks! cards, with episodic encounters of the goofball Klowns running wild.

This movie frightened my wife worse than any of the many, many films that she watched in her childhood. She was already afraid of clowns, so these Klowns ended up infiltrating her dreams. Yet she still watched it all of the time. She also wanted Debbie’s jumper-tastic wardrobe, which makes a lot of sense when you see her fashion sense today.

While the Chiodos were able to get The Dickies for the soundtrack, they couldn’t convince producers to pay the money to have Soupy Sales — the king of getting pies thrown in his face — appear as a security guard.

This is the kind of movie that I’m glad exists. I return to it time and time again whenever life seems meaningless because the fact that a movie about giant Klowns attacking a small town for food makes me feel better, knowing that somehow a studio bought this and allowed it to happen.

APRIL MOVIE THON 3: The Kiss (1988)

Posted on by

April 21: Fashion Day — A movie all about fashion that you will critique.

Pen Densham had a cool path to directing. He left school at fifteen to be a photographer and shoot The Rolling Stones, then moved from England to Canada to direct commercials and documentaries with Marshall McLuhan. He then formed found Insight Productions with John Watson and earned 70 international award for their movies, including two Oscar nominations. One of the movies they made, If Wishes Were Horses, was called “The best film of any length shown on Canadian TV.”

It brought him to the attention of Norman Jewison who got him to Hollywood. He and Watson started  Trilogy Entertainment Group, serving as creative consultants on movies like Footloose and Rocky II before becoming big successes with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. They also produced the new versions of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, as well as Poltergeist: The Legacy in the 1990s and 2000s.

He also directed two movies, The Zoo Gang and what we’re here to talk about today, The Kiss.

Felice Dunbar (former model Joanna Pacula) and her sister Hillary (Pamela Collyer) are totally living the start of The Parent Trap. Felice is to live with her aunt (Céline Lomez) and Hillary with her father. As they take a train away from the Belgian Congo, her aunt — wearing a serpent medallion — attacks the young girl. The lights go out as she kisses her, blood coming from her mouth, and when they come back on, the aunt is a lifeless deformed body and the little girl is alone but has the talisman.

Years later, Hillary lives in America with her husband Jack (Nicholas Kilbertus) and her daughter Amy (Meredith Salenger). Her sister calls her in the hopes of meeting her family, but she refuses. She goes to a gun shop and while looking in the window, a car smashes her into the store, killing her.

Five months later, Felice — who works as a model — shows up in town and moves in. Next door neighbor Brenda Carson (Mimi Kuzyk) reacts to her as if she is a cat and becoming allergic. Amy hates her aunt immediately and after making fun of her with her friend Heather (Sabrina Boudot), her BFF is almost murdered when her necklace gets stuck in an escalator. This is absolutely my childhood trauma, so I’m glad I didn’t see this until now.

Felice starts making moves on her sister’s widower, while Amy confides to her boyfriend Terry O’Connell (Shawn Levy, who directed the Night at the Museum movies) about finding her friend’s bloody sunglasses inside her aunt’s room, as well as a serpent talisman. Terry follows her aunt to a hotel room where he watches her in the midst of a ritual. She transforms into a cat and nearly kills him. He barely gets away, only to be run over and his death made to look like a suicide. Amy then tells a priest who remembers Hillary telling him about her sister and how evil she was. He tries to run when she shows up and spontaneously combusts. How many powers does this werecat have? And how wild it is that when they do a DNA test on her, it shows that she is already dead?

Felice reveals that she must continue living — inside the blood — of Amy, trying to transform her into what she is. It takes Brenda the neighbor, Amy and her father — as well as garden shears, a propane tank and a swimming pool — to stop her.

This was written by Stephen Volk, who also was the writer of Gothic, The Guardian— that makes sense — and Ghostwatch.

You can watch this on YouTube.

APRIL MOVIE THON 3: Slime City (1988)

Posted on by

April 11: Get Slimed! — A movie that has slime in it.

Alex (Robert Sabin) and Lori (Mary Huner) have moved into a scummy New York City apartment where horrible people are all around them, like the neighbors who give Alex food and drink that transforms him into a yellow slime creature who goes by Zachary and Nicole (also Mary Humer) who he cheats on when Lori is away. If he wants to be normal, now Alex must start killing people.

Directed and written by Greg Lamberson, this is Street Trash and Brain Damage by way of The Abomination. Zachary is the cult leader who once ran this building and he is still the master of neighbors like Roman (Dennis Embry). Also, Alex works in a video store right down the street and he can’t get there on time, but man, if I worked at a video store near my house, I’d stop all the murder and just watch everything the store has.

If someone offers you cooked Himalayan yogurt, you know not to eat it.

By the end, Greg’s chest has opened up to eat someone, blood and yellow fluid has sprayed all over the screen and a kitchen battle between our once in love couple goes completely out of control with even more yellow scummy ooze spraying everything, everyone and even the camera. Oh yes — this goes for it, with someone’s head slammed repeatedly into pulp and the reveal of Alex’s dripping yellow face costing a sex worker her life as he messily slices into her throat. Seriously, the end battle is almost ten minutes long and it ends with just pieces being left in large puddles.

This is a down and dirty NYC movie shot in the muck and grime where it belongs. Sabin goes from a complete geek to being a beyond insane Satanist who lives to kill. What a transformation and what a revelation this movie is.

You can watch this on Tubi.

88 FILMS BLU RAY RELEASE: The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)

Posted on by

Released in the U.S. as Top Squad, this Wellson Chin film has a group of women called The Banshee Squad, who are being trained by Madame Wu (Sibelle Hu) to be an unstoppable police force. It’s the same thing Mr. Kan (Stanley Fung) is doing nearby with Tiger Group, an all-male commando squad. Of course, there are going to be hijinks between the two groups.

Wu has issues with her recruits —  May (Kara Hui), Amy (Sandra Kwan), Jean (Ellen Chan) Karen (Ann Bridgewater), Amin (Lee Pooi-Ling) and Betty (Regina Kent) — who just want to get with the men. Well, she does as well, but she’s at least more quiet about it. She has to bring in an American CIA agent — Madame Law (Cynthia Rothrock) — to get the girls combat ready for their first mission.

You know that I’m going to love a Hong Kong action movie that is trying to be Police Academy. If this sounds like something you’d like, well…it’s pretty awesome.

Extras include commentary by Frank Djeng, interviews with Rothrock and Chin, alternate titles, trails and more. Get it from MVD.

FVI WEEK: Lethal Woman (1988)

Posted on by

Colonel Jerry Maxim (James Luisi) has answered magazine ads that promise an island of erotic fun and ends up killed by several women. Retired soldier, spy author and forcibly retired hero Derek Johnson (Robert Lipton) gets the call from the man who told him to quit, General Grant (Larry Taylor), and sent to that island, a place where several military men have already vanished from.

Christine Newhouse (Merete Van Kamp) is the woman who owns the island and she was once in the army before being assaulted by Maxim and it getting covered up by everyone. We should be cheering her on, not the government. And hey — there’s Shannon Tweed as a helicopter pilot, taking the men to an island populated by survivors of sexual abuse who can’t wait to cut their heads off.

There’s a good idea in here but it’s buried in making the man the hero and who needs that? You have women in post-apocalyptic makeup eating human flesh and destroying the men who tried to hurt them. That’s what we want!

FVI WEEK: The Phantom Empire (1988)

Posted on by

The Phantom Empire is a very meta film. Its title refers to the 1935 Gene Autry movie serial — which was kind of remade as part of the show Cliffhangers! — as well as having Robby the Robot in its cast, Jeffrey Combs’ character Andrew Paris saying that he went to Miskatonic University (the same school from Re-Animator) and vehicles from director Fred Olen Ray’s movie Star Slammer and Logan’s Run show up, as well as footage from 1977’s Planet of Dinosaurs. Maybe by referential sometimes I’m also saying cost-effective.

Ray got the idea for this film while filming Commando Squad in a Bronson Canyon cave. He wrote the script over the weekend and then started filming the day after Commando Squad wrapped, using the same cast and crew. That’s impressive but the original inspiration for the 1935 Phantom Empire is wilder. Writer Wallace MacDonald came up with the entire movie — plot, characters, their names, costumes, literally every single moment of the serial — while he was being treated with nitrous oxide by his dentist.

A cave creature with millions in diamonds around his neck emerges from a cave and rips someone’s head off before it’s stopped. A party is made of Cort Eastman (Ross Hagen), Denae Chambers (Susan Stokey), Andrew Paris (Combs), Professor Strock (Robert Quarry) and Eddy Colchilde (Dawn Wildsmith, Ray’s wife) to enter the caves and see what they can salvage.

They soon find a hidden world, Robby the Robot and a queen played by Sybil Danning, which is really why most people rented this. Throw in Michele Bauer as a cave girl and that’s why they definitely rented this.