Demon In The Celler

 

 

 (themoviedb.org)

CELLAR DWELLER-1988-A comic artist Colin Childress (Jeffery Coombs), using a Necronomicon like book for inspiration, brings to life one of his creations. (Typical '80's Empire Pictures demon) He destroys it by burning the page but kills himself in the process. 

30 years later, Whitney Taylor (Deborah Mullowney) visits the Throckmorton art Institute run by Mrs. Briggs (Yvonne DeCarlo). Whitney's a horror comic book artist who wants to make a new version of the horror comic Cellar Dweller created by Childress. Others in "the colony" include Amanda (Pamela Bellwood), Phillip (Brian Robbins), Lisa (Cheryl Ann Williams) and Norman (Vince Edwards), an ex-PI/would be writer. When Amanda tries to frame Whitney for plagiarism, the demon kills her. Then when Norman is snooping around, the demon kills him. It seems someone else is also drawing her story. Poor Lisa who didn't do any except walk around nude after taking a shower, is the next victim. Whitney is kind of responsible for the deaths but manages to make up for it before screwing up one final time. 

Filmed in Italy by John Carl Buechler who also worked on the special effects. Charles Band was a co-producer.

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Lovecraftian

 

 (themoviedb.org)

FROM BEYOND-1986-Dr. Tillingast (Jeffery Combs) is accused of killing his superior Dr. Pretorius (Ted Sorel) who's found decapitated. He says something bit off Pretorius' head. They were working on a machine dubbed “the Pretorius resonator”) that stimulates the pineal gland. A notorious psychiatrist Katherine McMichaels (Barbra Crampton) doesn't believe Tillingast is insane and takes him back to where they were experimenting. Police Sgt. Brownlee (Ken Foree) accompanies them. They turn on the machine and meet the nude reanimated body of Dr. P. He turns into a whatziz and almost eats them but Tillingast turns the machine off. McMichael becomes obsessed with learning more. After almost being eaten again, she escapes and after doing her famous s & m scene has to fight the bizarrely transformed Pretorius. Later everyone thinks she's insane. A crazed female doctor wants her to have shock therapy. She escapes and Tillingast runs around the hospital killing people. When she returns to destroy the resonator, Tillingast kidnaps her. Pretorius somehow returns and terrorizes her. She defeats him and goes insane. 

A lot of disgusting SFX (by a huge crew) made this a cult film but Crampton helped too. She was later on the TV soap operas “The Guiding Light” and “The Bold and The Beautiful”. Conceptual art by Neal Adams. An Empire Pictures release, filmed in Italy, Charles Band was one of the producers. 

Director Stuart Gordon had already become a cult like director after making RE-ANIMATOR (1985), also with Crampton & Combs. Producer Brian Yuzna co-wrote the screenplay with Dennis Paoli based on the HP Lovecraft short story “From Beyond”. A more recent adaptation of the same story is BANSHEE CHAPTER (2013).

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7 For One

 

RAGE WAR-(aka THE DUNGEON-MASTER)-1984-In this low budget anthology from Empire Pictures, a running guy Paul (Jeffery Byron) is obsessed with his talking computer Cal. His fiance Gwen (Leslie Wing) doesn't like it. After a weird dream, Paul is transported to some kind of cave where Gwen is chained to a rock with fire all around. A strange wizard/sorcerer Mestema (Richard Moll) likes Paul's "magic" (his computer is on his watch) and says he will make a worthy opponent. 

Later Paul and Gwen find a cave full of frozen people from the past including Einstein and Bloody Mary. They are attacked by Jack the Ripper, a mummy, a wolf man & some other creatures but an ice crystal destroys the bad guys. After Gwen disappears Paul meets the troll Ratspit (John Carl Buechler) then some cartoon dragons fight. When Mestema plays some of his music Paul counters with his own (the movie's theme). Paul is then transported to a heavy metal concert where a comical Ozzy clone sings. Gwen is a victim of their S & M show but Cal destroys them.

 In another land some dwarfs steal his computer watch. Then a giant stone statue comes to life and shoots a laser from its head. Paul destroys it and winds up in an alley with a dead woman, victim of a serial killer. Gwen is his next victim and Paul has to save her. Two dumb cops arrest him but he escapes. They elude the killer and are then menaced by a flaming devil head. Next in another cave a monster throws exploding rocks at Paul. Before it dies it turns into an angel like woman. In a graveyard of airplanes the pair are threatened by some hooded soldiers and a little guy who talks like Cousin Itt. At the end Paul and Mestema fight it out and somehow Paul wins. They are freed. 

Like most Empire junk it's imaginative but makes no sense, the acting (especially by Byron as Paul) is bad, the sfx so so and the script is dumb. It's in seven parts with each directed by a different person (including Buechler, David Allen, Charles Band, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou).

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The Original Harry Potter

TROLL-1986-An ugly troll (Phil Fontacaro) pretends to be a little girl and terrorizes her dysfunctional family (Michael Moriarty and Shelly Hack) and the idiot tenants in their apartment building. After turning Pete (Sonny Bono) into a plant, the troll turns the apartment into a breeding ground for other trolls. He turns a dwarf professor (also Fontacaro) into an elf and wants to rule the world. The landlady (June Lockhart) has a singing mushroom and knows magic. She becomes young (Junes's real life daughter Anne) but is turned into a tree sump. A kid named Harry Potter (Noah Hathaway from THE NEVER ENDING STORY) must fight a giant bat creature to save his sister and everyone else. 

Typical Empire production for the time, part fantasy, part horror film. Special effects artist John Carl Buechler also made CELLER DWELLER and FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE NEW BLOOD soon after this. It was followed by TROLL 2 and TROLL 3 which aren't sequels. 

Because of the name of the lead character and the fantasy elements some think this is where JK Rowling got her idea for her Harry Potter series.

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Puppetmaster

PUPPETMASTER-1989-A prologue set in Nazi Germany reveals that an old puppet maker named Toulon (William Hickey) hides some interesting looking puppets (one walks around in a trench coat with a hook and knife for hands) from The Gestapo and kills himself. 

Years later, group of psychics investigate the death of a guy named Neil Gallagher (Jimmie Skaggs) who killed himself. His wife Meghan seems to think he's dead but not so “dream psychic” Alex (Paul LeMat) who has dreams of Gallagher acting nutty. The group is terrorized by the resurrected puppets including the hook hand trench coat guy and his pals: one with a very small head but huge human hands, one with a drill for a head, a female that upchucks leeches, a kind of jester with a spinning face). After three of the psychics are killed Alex and Meghan discover the truth. It turns out Gallagher did kill himself but came back to life by using Toulon's secret Egyptian rites of the afterlife and wants to live forever. But after he's mean to the puppets they revolt and kill him good. 

This fun (although a little slow story wise) low budget horror movie from Charles Band's Empire Pictures spawned several sequels and even a crossover with another series (DEMONIC TOYS) but I like this one the best. 

Director David Schmoeller had already made two whacked out features: TOURIST TRAP (with Chuck Connors as a psycho) and CRAWLSPACE (with Klaus Kinski as a psycho).

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Band Junk

TERRORVISION-1986-This is a stupid sci-fi/horror/comedy from the now defunct Empire Pictures who’s owner Charles Band flooded the video shelves with his direct to video projects.

An idiotic television obsessed family’s satellite dish is invaded by alien space junk. A blob like monster (that seems to have one eye attached to it’s penis) crushes heads and vaporizes its victims. They can also reanimate them so no one suspects expect the young son (Chad Allen). The victims include disco clad swinger parents (Gerrit Graham and Mary Woronov), their annoying grandfather (Bert Remsen) and two other “swingers” (Alejandro Rey and Randi Brooks). Their daughter (Diane Franklin) and her metal head boyfriend (Jonathan Gries) try teach the monster about Earth (“This is music. It’s almost as important as food”).

Director Ted Nicolaou made the SUBSPECIES series and other stuff for Band who’s brother Richard wrote the music. TV clips include scenes for ROBOT MONSTER and EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS.

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