Lena Simon (Brittany Lucio) is dealing with her car breaking down on the way to work when she’s surprised by motivational speaker Scotty Sharpe (Newton Mayenge), who offers to take her to work instead of waiting for a tow truck. His offer of dinner turns out to be the perfect relationship until she starts to suspect him of cheating on her. Her friend Toni (Donna Glytch) suggests that she work with MaMa Ti’Mun (Tangie Ambrose) to do a voodoo spell on him, which will keep her in love with him once he eats special herbs inside a bowl of spaghetti. It makes him even more loving but also turns him into a killing machine.

Also: He may be a criminal and not just a motivational speaker. She also has a brother named Meatball (Markice Moore) who is on house arrest.

Director Adam Gierasch has an interesting background. He was one of the writers of movies like the Tobe Hooper remake of Toolbox Murders as well as his movie Mortuary. He also was one of the writers of Argento’s Mother of Tears and the remake of Night of the Demons, which he directed along with Autopsy, Fertile Ground, House by the Lake and the “Trick” part of Tales of Halloween. He’s working from a script by Dempsey Gibson, Markice Moore and Jason Rainwater.

His director’s statement really goes for it: “I was drawn to the unique story of Spaghetti as I was immediately reminded of Brian DePalma movies that I love, and I also loved the idea of a predominantly African-American cast. Lena is haunted by surrealistic nightmares like Carrie is, and then finds out that the man that she’s falling in love with is anything but normal. He has a terrifying set of skills that he can’t even remember, which turn him into a cold-blooded killer. In my approach I utilized the neon color of De Palma’s Body Double and the unmotivated light of Dario Argento’s Suspiria, while adding in as much blood as I could to grind it all together and make the perfect bloody, scary, funny stew. For my score I tapped Slasher Dave, the creative force behind the band Acid Witch, to embark on composing for the film. His unique approach pulls from The Exorcist (especially “Tubular Bells”) and John Carpenter’s Halloween. To make the voodoo elements work I had him put in a lot of tribal drums. Finally, we used a real goat for the voodoo ceremony (although of course it left set unharmed.) It was some of the most fun directing I’ve had in a long time, and probably the nicest, coolest cast I’ve ever worked with.”

I’m a big Acid Witch fan, so I was glad that I read that. It makes sense why the opening — filled with AI generated animated art of women and spaghetti — feels so sinister.

The IMDB reviews for this movie are interesting. Either they’re ten out of ten reviews that claim that it’s “A Savory Fusion of Narrative Brilliance and Visual Delight” or a one out of ten that says, “The uncanny resemblance to Indian cinema becomes evident, particularly in the implausible death scenes.”

People will be stabbed in the face, a woman’s face will explode and yes, that goat shows up. I will say that this movie takes itself seriously — despite being about a woman putting her period blood into a pasta dish for her cheating man — and it looks way better than any other modern horror movie on Tubi, complete with cool gel lighting and some really great gore. It goes hard when it doesn’t have to and for that, you should respect it.

I thought I was about to find another Black Giallo movie and I did, but was also amazed to find out that it was made by someone who actually worked with Argento. You can still be surprised.

I said this so many times during this movie:

You can watch this on Tubi.

Vanessa (Julie Anne Prescott) and Erica (Traci Burr) move into a new apartment, invite over their boyfriends Thomas (Ken May) and Josh (Christopher Bryan Gomez) and find a Ouija board. You know what they should do, right? Throw that thing away. But instead, they use it and unleash three small demonoids who, from the poster, are definitely an even lower budget version of Ghoulies.

That said, this only asks an hour of your time and has some fun looking creatures that, while somewhat cheap also have plenty of heart. There’s even a horror host, Malvolia (Jennifer Nangle) and the chance to see the Valley Relics Museum in another movie by director and co-writer — with Craig Muckler — Dustin Ferguson.

There’s only one other review on IMDB and it says, “Acting is bad and the Demonoids are literal hand puppets that don’t even move their mouths. The voices for them sound like a kid show.”

You have not made it through the films that I have seen, sir.

It’s quite strange that the first part of the movie with the girls and their boyfriends feels like the first movie, the Demonoids going crazy in the streets is a sequel, the breaks with Malvolia and the news programs just take up time and it all has a really long credit sequence and yet is done in an hour. I always wonder why and how you pad a movie that’s done in fifty plus minutes, but then again, I keep watching these, you know?

Credit where credit is due: the title is good and the poster is great. And as you know, sometimes, that’s all you need.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Amityville Zoo, Planet Amityville, Amityville Doorknob, Amityville Lockdown, Amityville Isolation, The Amityville Amityville and Amityville Fridge aren’t real but I would totally watch them if they did.  After all, this is the 53rd Amityville movie I’ve watched and I don’t see stopping any time soon.

Movie Timelines host Josh Spiegel directed, wrote and stars in this as himself. In the middle of a new pandemic, separated from his wife Christie and daughter Stella (played by his real-life wife and daughter), he keeps trying to update his YouTube channel and have online meetings with horror fans in the midst of losing his job and being mailed a cursed doorknob from Amityville that puts him into his own horror movie.

Then everyone he meets has their heads explode and he learns from multiple Amityville director Lars Van Floof that every Amityville movie is cursed by an item sold from the original house. I believe this, as much as I believe that a demon has cursed me to watch every one of these films.

Made on a low budget and a found footage film, this feels made for people like, well, me. People who keep watching Amityville movies and get mad at themselves but then feel a sense of joy when a new one comes out. Josh is from Pittsburgh as well, even though we’ve never met, and therefore I feel some kinship for the terror he endures as he goes deep into the heart of 112 Ocean Avenue.

You can get this from SRS or watch it on Tubi.

Amityville Ripper starts with a news segment of people hating Amityville movies, the original house being burned down, an auction of items that were in the house, multiple UFO abductions, the Spider podcast, a commercial for Alien Mingle and another for Steve Martin’s (not that one) Video Store. At some point, I was wondering if this was using Pond 5 footage like every other Amityville movie and just trying to pad a runtime with all of this footage, but then as the movie went on, surprise, this actually gets why I watch these movies.

Not just because a demon cursed me to watch all of them and would ruin our web traffic if I stopped.

This takes place in 2000 — the Y2K bug is a thing — and Marianne (Kelsey Ann Baker) and her brother — or step-brother — Nichols (Hunter Redfern) wake up to their parents going away on vacation for New Year’s Eve. Marianne — known as M — had something big planned with her best friend Annie (Angel Nichole Bradford). And no, not lesbian stuff, as her brother and his wheelchair bound friend Chapman (Ryan Martel). Instead, she has had the knife of Jack the Ripper sent to her from that auction. And her friend Tony, who is now in Hollywood, said it’s real because “he lived that Ripper lifestyle.”

What is a Ripper lifestyle?

Also, Marianne has dreams of slow jams playing over stock footage of a jet ski, which makes her even more endearing to me and not just because she’s a goth girl with shaved sides of her hair and looks a lot like Rainbow Harvest. She also mentions that she really wanted the clock from the house, but an architect — Jacob Sterling, right? — got it first.

While everyone — including way too nice cheerleader Liz (Anna Clary) — is partying and playing Sugar Ray, Marianne and Annie go up to her room and have a seance with a Ouija board, some tarot cards, Jack the Ripper’s knife and plenty of candles. Also: If M is so goth, why is she wearing an N’Sync shirt when the rest of her room is full of Universal Monsters pillows, a black metal poster and a Killer Klowns poster? At least her closest is all full of black shirts.

Director and writer Bobby Canipe Jr. has obliterated the fourth wall in this movie, as the characters even find the script, not that it keeps all of them alive. Just look at the dialogue:

Annie: Everything that happened in the Amityville house was true. And can you just imagine if this knife of Jack the Ripper’s became imbued with the power of the Amityville house? It’d be like we had some sort of Amityville ripper on our hands.

Marianne: True, but I think that’s kind of the point. I’m pretty sure that the name of this movie is Amityville Ripper.

Then The Ripper (Josh Allman) comes to life, wearing a Dracula costume, and also aliens.

There’s a line that sums up this entire movie, as well as all Amityville sequels.

“Brother, it’s an Amityville sequel. Shit’s different here.”

Not all the humor hits perfectly, but who cares? This is way better than nearly any other Amityville sequel, which isn’t saying much, but it does try. Which is, again, way more than almost every other sequel not made in Canada or by an Italian director.

You can watch this on Tubi.

On April 7, 2021, four men made their way to Travis Rudolph’s house — a former wide receiver for Florida State and the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins — to confront him about a fight he had with his girlfriend Dominique Jones. It got violent, he grabbed an AR-15 and as they ran, Rudolph fired 39 rounds at them, killing Sebastien Jean-Jacques as he made it to the passenger seat of a black Cadillac.

During the trial, Rudolph asked Judge Jeffrey Gillen to dismiss the case last year because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows the use of deadly force to protect someone against death or bodily harm.

Gillen denied his request. It was up to the jury to decide if it was self-defense or murder.

During the trial, Rudolph would not back off the idea that he fired those shots in self-defense. Text messages introduced into evidence by his legal team proved that his ex-girlfriend sent text messages to her brother and the others, telling them to go “shoot up” Rudolph’s home because he had been cheating on her.

This Tubi special tells the entire story and you can see how the jury decided. It’s an interesting case and one everyone needs to consider, especially if they have guns and are ready to use them to defend themselves.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed by David Thies, this TMZ No BS doc gathers their gossip crew to discuss how Cardi B went from Belcalis Marlenis Cephus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, joined a gang, became an exotic dancer, then started to become an early social media influencer before becoming popular on the reality show Love & Hip Hop: New York.

In 2015, she made her musical debut on the remix to Shaggy’s “Boom Boom and then covered British rapper Lady Leshurr’s “Queen’s Speech 4” as the song “Cheap Ass Weave.” Within two years, her song “Bodak Yellow” was certified Diamond and won best song of the year from Pitchfork.

She hasn’t looked back.

I really liked how this show didn’t just show the celebrity side, but how she became politically active, using her fame for the right things. She has called attention to Social Security and asking for transparency in how taxes are spent, as well as endorsing Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, who she refuses to endorse again because of his stance on wars.

Today’s rap isn’t something I know much about, so I use these Tubi shows to get up to date. Sure, I’m still behind because I’m old, but they at least help me to know a little bit about things that are rapidly passing me by.

You can watch this on Tubi.

An international co-production of Australia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates — with all the logos before the movie begins to prove it — Late Night With the Devil takes place on Halloween night 1977 in New York City. Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) has been the host of a show called Night Owls with Jack Delroy for several years and try as he might, he has never come close to the ratings of Johnny Carson, something that numerous people — Joey Bishop, Joan Rivers, Alan Thicke, Les Crane, Bill Dana,  David Brenner, Pat Sajak, Ron Reagan, Dennis Miller, Steve Allen, Arsenio Hall, Merv Griffin, Dick Cavett, David Frost, Jerry Lewis and Regis Philbin — all tried to do. The only night that he came close with on the evening when his wife Madeleine Piper (Georgina Haig) came on the show to discuss her brave fight with cancer.

On this night, the sponsors who want to pull out are there, producer Leo Fiske (Josh Quong Tart) is trying to manage the pressure, Jack’s sidekick Gus McConnell (Rhys Auteri) keeps bugging the host and a guest just might finally tip the ratings Jack’s way when he needs it most.

Lilly D’Abo (Ingrid Torelli) is the last survivor of the mass suicide of the followers of Szandor D’Abo (Steve Mouzakis). D’Abo is based on Anton Szandor LaVey, as we see from a documentary within the movie, La Satanisme aux U.S.A. ’71 which is obviously taken from Angeli Bianchi… Angeli Neri AKA Witchcraft ’70.*

Yet Lily — and the parapsychology helping her, Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) — aren’t the only ones experiencing the occult.

There are rumors that Jack is part of The Grove, a highly influential group of rich and powerful men. It’s based on the Bohemian Grove — a two-week encampment of some of the most prominent men in the world where the first Manhattan Project meetings were held and also where a yearly Cremation of Care ceremony in front of a giant owl representing old god Moloch, complete with the voice of Walter Cronkite — and there are whispers that Jack got his show as the result of his membership.

Along with Lily and June, the other guests are psychic medium Christou (Fayssal Bazzi) — whose name may reference philosopher, metaphysician and composer Ianni Christou and who may be inspired by Doris Stokes, a psychic who regularly appeared on the Australian talk show The Don Lane Show, and the look of Australian hypnotist Reveen) and a former magician turned professional psychic debunker and leader of the International Federation of Scientific Investigation into the Paranormal by the name of Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss, playing a character definitely based on “Amazing” James Randi, who called Stokes a liar on the aforementioned Don lane hosted program, at which point Lane said, “You can piss off,” and kicked him out of the studio). Both of these characters are amazing and so well acted; in fact, Bliss wasn’t even the original actor and had been a reader for the film’s auditions.

Plus, they show Haig investigating Amityville and making fun of the Warrens.

As the show starts — complete with monologue — Christou takes the stage and he’s obviously doing cold reading, where you blast out multiple cues to a large audience, such as “Is there someone who is thinking of a name that starts with R?” and “Someone has lost a family heirloom, where are they?” He’s also obviously using someone that interviews all of the guests before the show, which enables him to do his best psychic reading. This again is very similar to how James Randi figured out how televangelist Peter Popoff was knowing all about people in his audience.

Yet Christou must have some psychic power because he’s suddenly overtaken and brings up someone named Minnie, which is Jack’s wife’s secret nickname. Haig questions everything about his methods and at that point, Christou throws up black bile and soon dies in an ambulance, unknown to the studio audience.

Then, we finally meet Lily, who came from a cult that worshipped Abraxas, the ancient god who Epiphanius said was “the cause and first archetype” of everything. Even when not possessed, Lily is disquieting in the way that she speaks to people. Yes, she’s a teenage girl and awkward, but there is something that doesn’t add up. Her eyes are too wild.

She refers to the demon inside her as Mr. Wriggles. Jack wants to see the demon on his show, something that June doesn’t agree with. After all, Satan was big ratings in the 70s, as seen on one of the magazines shown in the film, saying that a movie of the week was entitled Hail Abraxas. Also, Dr. June’s book, Conversations with the Devil, brings to mind Michelle Remembers, another occult paperback that made the talk show circuit (you can learn all about that book in the doc Satan Wants You). The demon makes her levitate, speak in a strange voice, scars her face and everything else you expect from the decade that gave us The Exorcist (there’s even a black and white photo of Lily floating in the sky above an apartment building, just like another 1977 Satanic moment Exorcist II: The Heretic).

Carmichael claims that Jack set all of this up and to prove it, he hypnotizes Gus and the entire audience sees him pulls worms out of his body, something that doesn’t show up on video. Yet when they watch the footage of Iris, they can see the same demonic events and even Jack’s wife’s ghost on the stage — she shows up multiple times in the movie, if you look** — at which point the prophecies in the film about Gus (make your head spin means he dies with his head turned around, Regan-like, after pulling a cross and saying, “The power of Christ compels you.”) and Carmichael (“He’s all wax no wick,” as he burns from the inside out) brutally happen and even Dr. June is killed as revenge for slapping Iris when she revealed that she and Jack have been sleeping together.

Only Jack remains, now trapped within his show, finding out that he has met the demon before at the Grove and that he lost his wife for the show that made him famous. He finds Madeleine dying in the hospital and she begs him to end her pain. He takes a ritual dagger and stabs her, waking only to find that he has killed Lily. Surrounded by dead bodies, he keeps repeating the phrase that brought the audience and Gus out of a trance: “Dreamer, now awake.”

Directed and written by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, this is a movie almost made to appeal to me. I have a huge affection for the talk show celebrity of the late 1970s, as well as the occult decade that eventually fell to the Satanic Panic. And quite frankly, no matter what you think of the movie, David Dastmalchian is incredible. He got the role based on a Fangoria article about his love of regional horror hosts. That’s why there’s a line to references Berwyn, Illinois, which is a shot out to Svengoolie.

One of the major issues people had with this movie is that three of the title cards used AI. There was almost a boycott fo the film, which led to the directors and writers saying. “In conjunction with our amazing graphics and production design team, all of whom worked tirelessly to give this film the 70s aesthetic we had always imagined, we experimented with AI for three still images which we edited further and ultimately appear as very brief interstitials in the film.”

You won’t notice.

Another issue that many had was that this plays fast and loose with it being found footage with so many camera angles backstage. Forcing the film to fit the constraints that nobody has set down betrays a lack of intelligence and creativity, in my opinion. The ending also upsets some, as they see no need for it, but it makes so much sense. After all, the demon of the grove appears as an owl, which explains where Jack got the name of his show from.

This quote by the Cairnes sums up my fascination with this time: “In the ’70s and ’80s there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience.”

This film captures that feeling.

Sure, it’s a lot of the same ideas that were explored in Ghostwatch and the superior WNUF Halloween Special (and its sequel, Out There Halloween Mixtape).

But any movie that starts with a fake documentary that feels like The Killing of America and has “Forever My Queen” by Pentagram playing is going to be hard for me to hate, after all.

*During a ritual, Szandor says, “So it is done.” Those same words replace “End transmission” as the movie ends.

**According to IMDB, “At the end of the prologue explaining Jack Delroy’s backstory, she can be seen (at around 8 mins) in a TV monitor behind Jack when he is leaning on the doorstep. 2. at 19:18 When the psychic is talking to the mother and her child she appears as a ghostly image near jack after an audio glitch. 3. Early on in the film (at around 24 mins) in a mirror backstage just as the crew is about to go back on the air; and again in Carmichael’s pocket watch as it sits on a table on set. 4. She also appears (at around 1h 17 mins) on the stage in one quick shot after Jack asks the producers to step through the playback frame-by-frame, standing behind him with her hand on his shoulder and one minute later also for a quick shot just after lights turned off.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Confession time: I never listened to rock band Redd Kross until watching director Andrew Reich’s documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story. After watching it, I’m partially baffled as to why, because they are right up my musical alley, and founding-members brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald share similar tastes with me in 1970s pop culture (from Kiss to The Partridge Family to Linda Blair’s Born Innocent tv movie, for example) and crunchy, catchy guitar-driven rock and roll. It must have been a simple case of “So many bands, so little time.” We pretty much all have examples of that. In short, I’m thankful I found Redd Kross through this high-energy documentary.   

From the brothers McDonald’s days growing up in Hawthorne, California — where their band debuted as school kids when they talked Black Flag into playing with them at a private party — through their early punk days to their most popular phases to their still-going-strong present while being married and raising kids, Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story shows that the siblings have lived lives. Reich doesn’t shy away from asking big questions, either, as he brings tough emotions to the McDonald parents regarding Steve’s disappearance as a young teenager, and does the same with the brothers regarding their past drug abuse. Sibling rivalry is on full display, too.

Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story isn’t a mere warts-and-all tell-all, though — far from it. It’s a grand celebration of two brothers and their band — including their revolving door of bandmates — who fought against big record labels before being signed by one, who love 1970s kitsch and went against the norms of what fellow musicians and music lovers expected, helmed wonderfully by a longtime fan. 

The talking heads include a who’s who of musicians from acts whose heyday was in the eighties and nineties, former bandmates, friends and relatives, record label folks, and more. Plus, we get trips down 1970s memory lane with clips from The Brady Bunch, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and much more, along with loads of clips from Redd Kross performances, backstage videos, and interviews throughout the years.

Reich’s Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story does exactly what a great documentary should do: make viewers new to the subject want to learn more about it, and give people familiar with the subject information they hadn’t previously known. Thanks to this film, I’m aiming to make up for lost time by cranking Redd Kross albums.   

Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story screens as part of the 2024 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 18–28. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.

Directed by Victoria Duley and written by Adam Meyer, this Tubi Original tells the story of Freddie Prinze. If you were alive in the 1970s, you saw his rise and fall. Today, he may only be known for being the father of Freddie Prinze Jr. This doc gives you the chance to learn just what he meant to the Latin community and how he made such a major career in such a short time.

As someone who deals with anxiety and puts everything into his work, I was really touched by the fact that Freddie did the same and didn’t have the tools or the help to fix his issues. I wish that more people remembered him and what his career meant. Hopefully, you’ll watch this documentary and learn more about him and take the time to watch some of his comedy routines and maybe an episode of Chico and the Man.

I really enjoyed seeing the pop culture of the 70s in this as well as the meaning of getting to do stand up on Carson. It’s another cultural moment that is lost and I worry will be forgotten. Also: If you feel the same kinds of pressure that Freddie did or any mental issues, get help. You’re worth it.

You can watch this on Tubi.

This Tubi true crime documentary is about a murder in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when Zachariah Anderson killed the current boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend, Rosalio Gutierrez Jr. She had reported to the police that she had not seen him in several days and when she went to his apartment, she could see blood and signs of a fight. Blood samples were taken by the cops and they determined that Rosalio was dead.

He had not been seen for some time and had not seen his two children, who visited every weekend. Anderson was found to have a burn pit that had remnants of clothing that matched the victim. He also showed up on video shopping at Walmart and buying garbage bags, gloves and Clorox wipes.

From the start of the crime — and the stalking — all the way through the court case, this Tubi documentary has you covered. The body has never been found but this story will tell you what happened next.

You can watch this on Tubi.