Directed by Daniel Benedict (Bunni), who co-wrote the script with Casi Clark (they also worked on a short called Fall of Grayskull), The Bloody Man is an attempt to bring back the warm and gushy feelings of 80s horror. It stars Tuesday Knight (Kristen Parker in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) and Lisa Wilcox (Alice Johnson in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child) to help you make that connection.

After the death of his mother, Sam (David Daniel) is having issues with his family, his friends, the bullies at his school, and most of all, the horrific Bloody Man, the comic book character that sustains him through bullying. In fact, his mother (Wilcox) gave him a Bloody Man action figure the very day she died in a car accident.

He also has to deal with Kim (Knight), his new stepmother, who he believes is slowly becoming possessed by his comic book antihero, an event that brings together his fractured family.

Between lengthy comic book animatics and plotting that keeps reminding us that Sam is being bullied at home and in school more than several times, the film drags at times. The closing — where the Bloody Man begins to imitate others — has some good tension, but it takes around two hours (!) to get there. That said, it’s fun seeing all the 80s toys and AEW/ROH wrestler Brian Cage as a copyright skirting He-Man character in a brief cameo (probably pulled from the aforementioned Fall of Grayskull short).

The Hold Steady may have sung, “I’ve survived the 80’s one time already and I don’t recall it all that fondly,” but it seems that so many films want to live in the past — trust me, I get it, slashers after 1983 are really hard for me to hold in any regard — versus moving toward the future. And the more you make a teen horror film with synth and blue/red gel lighting — well, at least on the poster — the more you’re going to get compared to Stranger Things than The Monster Squad.

That said — I did like The Lost Boys reference by calling the brothers Sam and Michael. With some pruning toward how much is in here, this would be a fine feature. As it is now, it’s not bad, but it does drag a bit before redeeming itself with a fun conclusion.

The Bloody Man is available on digital and VOD platforms as well as on DVD and blu ray — which comes with director’s commentary, bloopers, behind the scenes, trailers and promo videos and collector’s edition packaging with illustrated slipcover and a folded poster. You can get those from MVD.

Thanks to Wild Eye for featuring our review on the back of the box!

My brother and I used to have a ritual where we’d go to K-Mart, the only place open around our small town, and buy a game on Thanksgiving day. But now, so much is open on the holiday, it’s not fun. It’s kind of rough on the people who miss out on their family. I think a lot about restaurants that stay open over the big turkey day and well, this movie has a diner that remains open only to be attacked by cannibals.

Directed and written by Erick Lorinc, this is a movie that revels in blood and gore, as the cannibals punish those that don’t celebrate that first Thanksgiving in the proper way, showing up like The Strangers and killing everyone in their way.

Much like how cranberries add to the seasonal meal, this film delivers that most perfect of slasher desserts: Linnea Quigley.

This holiday, don’t go shopping until at least the next morning. Stay out of bistros. And just hide out with your family. Maybe show them this.

You can watch this on Tubi.

A fascinating look at the art of filmmaking, including stories and clips from the making of some of the greatest films of the 70’s and 80’s, Cinematographer focuses on Donald M. Morgan (Se7en, Starman), who has worked with Robert Zemeckis, John Carpenter and Joseph Sargent. It also has an appearance by Owen Roizman, the man who helped shoot The French Connection, The Exorcist and Tootsie.

For a film geek, this is a near-perfect movie to just sit back and savor. Directed by Dan Asma, I came out of this really interested in the life of Morgan, a man who overcame addiction to become someone so important to the way that we see movies. His personal stories are so great as well, including a brutal tale about Carpenter. It was really emotional to hear the way that he spoke of working with some of the greats of Hollywood, as well as others explaining how they felt about him.

You can get this movie from MVD.

We’re back to the Axis universe of these movies and psychic war journalist Elisa (Tania Fox) builds a telepathic link to Blade and together, they fight to stop the Germans from developing a Nazi death ray.

Directed by John Lechago and written by Brockton McKinney and Neal Marshall Stevens, this continues the ESP angle of the last three films while also getting in some walking dead Nazis. It was filmed live on the web so you could watch it as it was created.

I liked this, but at this point I’ve seen every single film in the series, so I’m going to keep watching them. The Axis universe has led to some halfway decent stories and I may have said several times already that I prefer the puppets to be on the right side of the war.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally was on the site on October 23, 2021. It’s on the site again because now you can find it on your choice of digital and cable platforms, including iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, iNDemand and DISH, beginning October 11 from Red Water Entertainment.

Mia (Nora Merivoo) and Kevin (Harri Merivoo) — yes, the children of the director Rasmus Merivoo, but they do quite well — are staying with Grandma (Mari Lili) at her home in the country as their parents attend a retreat. Stuck without access to the web, the kids are entertained by their grandmother’s story of the kratt, a demonic creature that will do anything asked. And hey, if they find the instructions and decide to make their own, nothing will go wrong, right?

Rasmus Merivoo, the director and writer, said that “Kratt is a bloody story with no bad characters. A comedy that encourages you to worry less. A lesson on fear and what happens if you listen to it. A film for grownups and kids. A film not for the
faint-hearted, but part of a full-fledged life for the brave.”

Yep, pretty much.

I haven’t seen many — if any — films from Estonia, but hey this is pretty wild.

So what is a kratt? A part of Estonian folklore, the kratt is a creature made from hay or old household implements and then given life by giving three drops of blood to the devil. The flying demon must constantly be kept working, stealing and doing or it will turn on its master. The only way to stop a kratt is to give it an impossible task which will frustrate it to the point that it will burn itself up.

There are moments of sheer whimsy and fun here, as well as some moments that may not translate to American audiences all that well, but who cares? Don’t we watch foreign films to delight in the alien, the different and the strange?

Yes, somehow this remake of the 1962 original totally got past me until I got an ad for it on Instagram. I wondered, why would someone make this movie again, but now that I’ve watched it, I think I have my answer.

The filmmakers say right on their site that this “is a surprisingly loving and faithful adaptation, utilizing much of the original film’s characters, scenes and dialogue.” That’s true — it’s incredibly close with some additional scenes that add plenty of humor to the film.

Bill (Patrick D. Green) is working in the lab with his father William (David Withers) and fiancee Jan (Rachael Perrell Fosket) when a patient dies on the table. Bill demands to work on the body and brings the man back to life.

Meanwhile, at the family cabin, Bill has been experimenting with his assistant Kurt (Jason Reynolds) on a variety of test subjects. Jan dies on the way there and soon, her head has been removed and kept alive, all while Bill remembers that he was once a man about town and uses his lothatio ways to seduce exotic dancers and use their bodies to give his fiancee hers back.

While bring a shot-for-shot remake of the original, this adds in scenes of Bill being overpowered by one of the sex workers he tries to knock out, lesbians sitting with him watching exotic dancers and commenting on how they have a better chance than him to get one of the girls and a revised ending — that uses the original titles — that shows us what happens after the lab burns.

Directed by Derek Carl and written by Hank Huffman from the original script by Joseph Green and Rex Carlton, this even has a music scene inspired by The Man With Two Brains.

Man — Joseph Green! He owned Joseph Green Pictures, a company so small that it was just him answering the phones and distributing a wild mix of movies which included everything from Jess Franco’s Kiss Me Monster and Two Undercover Angels to Claude Chabrol’s Pleasure Party, the kung fu movie From Bangkok with Orders to Kill, Something Creeping in the Dark, Death Knocks Twice, The Sicilian Connection, Luciano Ercoli’s Killer Cop and his own film, The Perils of P.K. What a crazy list of movies!

But anyways — this is a fun restaging of a public domain movie that you’ve probably watched more than once and probably on Mystery Science Theater 3000. I’ve always disliked that so many people make fun of it, because it has such a dark story at its heart of a man who causes a woman to lose her entire body yet she uses everything she has to get her revenge once he removes any physical agency that she had. There’s definitely so much subtext that it becomes text there. This flew by and entertained me. Isn’t that what movies are for?

You can watch this for free on Plex. You can learn more on the official webpage and Facebook page.

Chandler (Hunter Bolton) has left Columbia, South Carolina to move to Charleston, but he hasn’t left his friendship with Jules (Brian Forbes) and Ty (Ty Rowe) behind nor his past mistakes, like Lauren (Giulia Marie Dalbec), the ex he can’t get over. The only thing to do is go home, drink as much as possible and perhaps find new love with Lily (Amy Brower).

Directed by William Nicholas Clay and written by Stephen T. Canada, the majority of this movie takes place in bars along with plenty of opportunity to hear from local bands. Your willingness to enjoy this film will depend on how much you enjoy movies that are literally in your face — the camera always feels way too close — and how much you love bar hopping. Perhaps I’m too old, but it all feels rather loud and exhausting and the conversations that ensue never feel meaningful. I started having that feeling of ennui as this film reached the halfway point, like I wanted to make a quick exit and text people later that I wasn’t feeling well when all I wanted to do was go home and drink my already paid for and therefore much cheaper liquor alone and away from the senseless din.

That said, this is a document in the time and life of a city and the people making it. And it was made for $6,000, so that’s a testiment to their already burgeoning skill. Maybe they’re not out for a night on the town that I want to be part of but I can’t deny their abilities and I’d love to see what they plan on doing next.

You can watch this on Tubi.