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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Deadly Dolls

 

 (wikipedia)

DOLLS-1986-After she has a daydream about her teddy bear growing and killing her parents, a young girl named Judy (Carrie Lorraine), her dumb father David (Ian Patrick Williams) and her horrible stepmother Rosemary (Carolyn Purdy-Gordon) seek shelter from a storm at the home of doll maker Gabriel Hartwicke (Guy Rolfe) and his wife Hilary (Hilary Mason). During dinner they are joined by another traveler, the nice but naive Ralph (Steven Lee) and two idiotic punks. Everyone stays the night. After a while it turns out Hartwicke's dolls are alive and into killing not nice people. The dolls are pretty vicious, using knives, hammers and saws on their victims. They make Rosemary jump out a window and pull out the eyes of one of the punks. The other punk puts up a good fight but is shot by some toy soldiers. Some more dolls almost kill Ralph, but Judy convinces them to stop. David thinks Ralph killed his wife, so when he tries to kill Ralph, Hartwicke turns him into a “Mr. Punch” doll! The next day Ralph and Judy leave for Boston where her real mother lives. Mr. Punch bids them goodbye. Everyone else is now a puppet and a new couple arrives. 

This imaginative little movie from Charles Band's Empire pictures was the brainchild of writer Ed Naha (who later wrote the screenplay for HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS) and director Stuart Gordon (REANIMATOR). The funny violent dolls were created by David Allen.

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Laserblast

 

 (wkipedia)

LASERBLAST-1978-Two lizard like (Dave Allen animated) aliens chase a green faced guy in the California desert. He has some kind of ray gun device on his arm that they want. After the credits, Billy (Kim Milford) is harassed by some hick pot smoking cops. Then he tries to visit his girlfriend Kathy (Cheryl Smith) but has an argument with her senile shell shocked grandpa The Colonel (Keenan Wynn). Worse of all, he's insulted by Eddie Deezen! Riding in the desert he finds the ray gun the aliens were after. A guy named Craig (Gianni Rossi) snoops around. A doctor (Roddy McDowall) examines Billy and is later killed. The lizard aliens get reprimanded by their boss. There's a dumb sheriff (Ron Masak) too. Billy turns into a green faced maniac and destroys a plane, a car, a hippie and some buildings. Before he can really do any destruction the aliens kill him and take the weapon leaving Kathy to mourn his passing. 

This low budget Charles Band Sci-Fi romp was directed by Michael Rae who did various work on other movies and may have directed one other movie (2005's ALIENS GONE WILD). 

LASERBLAST has become somewhat of a cult film, known for one scene where Billy blasts a STAR WARS billboard. Star Kim Milford was “Rocky” in the original stage production of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. He made other stage and film appearances but tragically died at age 37 after heart surgery in 1988. Lead actress Cheryl Smith, who died in 2007 at the age of 47 also appear in Cheech & Chong's UP IN SMOKE the same year.

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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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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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The Wacky '80's

GHOULIES-1985-A young man named Jonathan (overacting Peter Liapis) who as a baby was saved from being a demonic sacrifice inherits an old mansion and moves there with his girlfriend (Lisa Pelikan). During a party with his drunken stupid friends (one is Mariska Hargity in her movie debut) he begins to practice the black arts eventually conjuring up the little nasty demons of the title. His eyes glow green and he gets help from two little people Grizzel and Greedigut (who provide comedy relief). He throws another party and during another ritual makes his ghoul faced father (Michael Des Barres) rise from the grave. The ghoulies then kill his friends (one pops out of a toilet bowl like in the poster) and Jonathan must fight his demon dad.

Jack Nance (ERASERHEAD) plays a good guy sorcerer/caretaker who saves the day. Bobbi Bresee (MAUSOLEUM) has one scene.

This possession-sorcery nonsense was obviously inspired by Joe Dante's GREMLINS (made the year before) but I've read it went through several plot and script changes before being filmed. In a way the little monsters do seem like an afterthought. But it spawned 4 sequels!

Charles Band was the executive producer. It was the first movie directed by actor Luca Bercovici who later made ROCKULA and THE GRANNY.

Lead Liapis later played the same character in Part 4. England born Des Barres fronted the '70's rock band Detective and did a lot of American television. As a teen in his native England he'd already been in TO SIR WITH LOVE and I MONSTER.

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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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