Found

 

 (imdb)

VHS 99-2022-Another in the found footage anthology series. First: “Shredding” directed by Maggie Levin. Some punk band pranksters go to an abandoned rock club now destroyed by fire where a band called "Bitch Cat" were in an audience stampede. The dead band members come back to life, take over filming and kill the living band members, then reanimate the band and make them play. 

2: “Suicide Bid” by Johannes Roberts. As a sorority initiation, a girl agrees to spend some time buried in a coffin recreating the urban legend of Guiltine, another girl who was buried underground 20 years before and was never seen again. 

3: “Ozzy Dungeon” by Flying Lotus. A demented kids show Ozzy's Dungeon, is hosted by an obnoxious, self-serving host. When a contestant named Donna is injured, her fat equally obnoxious mother kidnaps the host. Eventually they are all killed by a strange demon that emerges from the mysterious Ozzy in a cave. 

4: “The Gawkers” by Tyler MacIntyre. Some asshole teenagers spy on a woman across the street who turns out to be Medusa. 

5: “Two Hell and Back” by Vanessa & Joseph Winter. Two guys are filming a witch's coven while they summon a demon. The dudes are sucked into hell and run around with a woman named Mabel trying to find an exit portal. This is by far the most imaginative segment but it's once again marred by characters arguing and screaming.

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Nun From Hell

  (IMDB)

THE NUN-2018-A priest, Father Burke (Damian Birchir) and a young nun Irene (Taissa Farmiga) go to Romania to investigate the suicide of a nun at an abbey there. Local yokel Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) who found the body takes them there. They meet the abbess (Gabrielle Downy) who seems evil and tells them to come back tomorrow. Later the priest relates a tale of an exorcism he did years before. Then after he sees a figure vomiting a snake he's buried alive. Irene finds him and in a scene reminiscent of Fuchi's THE GATES OF HELL,  digs him out. Meanwhile Frenchie survives a demon attack and learns that many horrible things are happening in town including the suicide of a 12 yr old girl. Later Irene meets Sister Ouana (Ingrid Bisu) who relates how a duke opened up a gateway to hell. Fortunately The Church interceded and using the blood of Christ sealed the gate. Later crazy things happen and Irene has lots of visions. A decrepit nun attacks them. When Frenchie rejoins them, the trio must close the gate to Hell using some more of Christ's blood. Irene becomes possessed for a while and several demonic nuns attack. 

The three succeed in their quest but 20 years later The Warrens (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) from THE CONJURING “universe” are telling about the demonic possession case of Maurice aka Frenchie. Besides Fuchi, parts of this also reminded me of THE SENTINEL.There's lots of false scares and some scenes and dialogue make no sense. Director Corin Hardy made videos and shorts earlier and one other horror movie THE HALLOW.

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Anime

 

JUDGE-1991-Supernatural Japanese anime with a timid office worker Ohma who's really a demon that judges mankind's crimes. In "The Court of Ten Kings" he faces a "metaphysical" defense attorney when a weaselly corporate executive is accused of killing his rival. It's based on a manga and it seems like the first episode of a series that was never made. Director Hiroshi Negishi later made several “Tenchi Muyo” full length movies. 

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The Original

THE EVIL DEAD-1981-Ash (Bruce Campbell) and 4 jerky friends (1 guy, 3 girls) go to a secluded cabin. There's a lot of strange noises and there seems to be something in the woods. In the basement (where there's a THE HILLS HAVE EYES poster) they find some ancient books, artifacts and a tape recorder. The tape has a doctor talking about Sumeria, The Book of The Dead and resurrecting the deceased. The taped chanting of the doctor seems to bring up some force and a tree crashes through a window. At night one of the women Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) is attacked by tree branches then chased through the forest by an unseen force. On the tape the doctor says his wife is possessed. Cheryl becomes a ghoul and threatens the rest, stabbing Ash's girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker) with a pencil. They lock her in the basement. The third girl Shelly (Sarah York) becomes possessed and attacks Scott (Richard Manincor), the other guy. Shelly gets partially burned, has her hand cut off, then dies after being dismembered in a very gory scene. Then Linda becomes a giggling demon. Ash yells: “You bastards! Why are you torturing me like this?!”. When Scotty dies, Ash is left alone to fight the demons. 

There's a lot of bloody effects, decapitation, demon attacks and of course poor Ash is beaten, stabbed and generally terrorized but manages to destroy the demon and survive....or does he? 

This was director Sam Raimi's first feature film (he'd only made short films before this) and seems to be influenced the low budget horror film EQUINOX (1970). It still packs a wallop today. Followed by two sequels and a cable TV show many years later.

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Demon Anime

DEMON CITY SHINJUKU-1988-The demon possessed Rebi Ra defeats the hero Genichirou and turns a portion of Tokyo, Shinjuku into a demon infested city. 10 years later the president of the world visits Tokyo and is attacked by a monster sent by Rebi Ra. The president's daughter Sayaka asks Genichirou's son Kyoka (a master in the art of Nempo) to accompany her to the demon city and stop Ra. At first he refuses but relents in time to save her from some would be rapists when she goes to the city alone. After tangling with two headed dog, some monsters and demons and getting help from Chibi, a street smart ass they meet Mephisto who seems to be against Ra although may have an ulterior motive. Later Kyoka takes on Rebi Ra and doesn't flare so well. Meanwhile Sayaka and Chibi search the haunted city for him and encounter demon kids. 

This weird supernatural anime was directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (NINJA SCROLL, VAMPIRE HUNTER D) and based on the manga by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Kawajiri had previously done WICKED CITY also from a comic by Kikuchi.

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Equinox

EQUINOX-1970-After an explosion, a man runs through the forest (after finding a dead woman). He makes it to the highway but is hit by a car that has no driver. A couple in another car stop to help him. A year later, the man, named David (Edward Connell), is in a mental institution ranting about good and evil and obsessed with a cross he has. A reporter named Sloan tries to interview him (“nutty stuff”). When Sloan shows David a picture of the missing Dr. Waterman (fantasy/horror writer Fritz Lieber), it triggers a flashback and he attacks Sloan. Through a tape recording he made earlier David relates how he and three friends (Susan, Vicki & Tim) go to visit Waterman in his secluded cabin. They find the cabin a wreck. They also meets a weird acting sheriff named Asmodeus (co-director Jack Woods)! Later they discover a castle in the distance and decide to check it out. After hearing eerie laughter and finding non-human tracks, they make torches and enter a dark cave. They meet a crazy old man who gives them an ancient book. They leave the cave and Dr. Waterman suddenly shows up and steals the book. Giving chase, David tackles him and he dies but his body disappears. Meanwhile, Susan (Barbara Hewitt), left alone is terrorized by Asmodeus who puts on a strange ring, turns rather evil looking, slobbers on her and tries to molest her but her cross drives him away. When David reads the professor's notes he learns that Waterman used the ancient book (“a bible of evil”) to open up a demon portal (very weird flashbacks accompany the narration). The castle disappears, the guys go to investigate and Asmodeus sends a (stop motion clay) monster to kill the old man from the cave. Somehow David kills the monster using only a sharpened tree branch. Susan becomes possessed and attacks Vicki (Robin Christopher). Later Asmodeus tries to convince Jim (Frank Boers) to give him the book, then sets a giant green caveman on the group. David goes after Jim when he enters another dimension where Asmodeus kills Jim and impersonates him. They have a fight and Asmodeus-Jim turns into a winged demon and kills Vicki. David and Susan run (with the book in tow). The winged demon is destroyed by a cross on a grave but Susan also dies. A mysteriously shrouded creature tells David in a year and one day he will be dead. The scene of David being hit by the driver-less car is shown and the tape ends. It happens to be a year and a day later and David is strapped into a straitjacket yelling for his cross he lost in his tussle with Sloan. On his way out the reporter eyes a pretty woman as he leaves: Susan, now obviously a demonic assassin.....

EQUINOX was originally filmed in 1967 by Dennis Muren on a budget said to be around 6000 dollars! The interesting stop animation was done by Jim Danforth (who'd created similar creatures for the X-rated FLESH GORDON) and Dave Allen (he later animated “The Pillsbury Doughboy”). Producer Jack H. Harris picked it up and had sound editor Jack Woods direct new scenes (leading to several continuity lapses). Despite those errors, the small budget and some bad acting E is a lot of fun (and a little frightening at times) and obviously inspired Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD.  

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Frankenstupid

I, FRANKENSTEIN-2004-The Frankenstein monster (Aaron Eckhardt;THE BATTLE OF LOS ANGELES) finds his creator at the North Pole frozen to death. While burying Victor he's attacked by some demons but saved by some gargoyles when they come to life. He's later take prisoner by other demons led by Lenore, queen of the gargoyles (Miranda Otto). The Monster renamed Adam gets caught in between an ages long demon war. In modern times Adam comes up against Naberious (Bill Nighy), a mad scientist-demon who wants to create an army of monsters using Victor's journal. Yvonne Strahovski is a scientist who wants to examine Adam.

This box office bomb written and directed by Stuart Beattie (screenwriter of 30 DAYS OF NIGHT) seems like it wanted to start a series of movies but it's mostly talk wrapped around the usual CGI SFX that dominate most horror and fantasy films.

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Case 39

CASE 39-2009-This supernatural thriller isn't anything exceptional but it wouldn't be that bad except for the presence of lead actress Renee Zellweger who's squeaky voice and obnoxious facial expressions ruin the whole thing.

 She plays Emily Jenkins a social worker trying to help abused kids. She gets involved with Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) a young girl who seems to have strange abusive parents. When they try to burn her in an oven Emily and detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) save her. The parents are put away and Emily fights to get custody of Lilith. She succeeds and all seems well until it's discovered that Lilith is no ordinary little girl. In fact she's a demon who makes a young boy kill both his parents and then kills Emily's boyfriend (Bradley Cooper) by sending a swarm of hornets to sting him. Later Emily finds herself in much the same situation as Lilith's former parents: fighting for her life and sanity from her little adopted monster. There's not much new here though.

Case 39 was made in Vancouver by German director Christian Alvart. I'm told the DVD features an alternate darker ending. Though made in 2008 it didn't get a US release till 2010 and did badly in theaters.

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Evil Remake

EVIL DEAD-2013-Sam Raimi's classic low budget horror masterpiece is given the big budgeted Hollywood treatment. Some stupid young people decide to take their drug addicted friend Mia (Jane Levy) to an isolated cabin in the woods to cure her. Bad idea. No really, it's idiotic even if one of them is a nurse. After one dork reads some passages from The Book of The Dead, Mia starts acting real weird. She sees dead people, spits blood, levitates and talks in a Linda Blair/Exorcist. It sorts of copies the original in some respects but as usual with so many modern horror stories you don't about the characters, the SFX are more disgusting than horrifying and the acting sucks.  

It was the first feature made by Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez (who also co-scripted). He had previously made a Sci-Fi short ATAQUE DE PANICOL (PANIC ATTACK) which debuted on You Tube. You can see it here and decide whether it was a good enough to warrant him a debut film costing 30 million dollars:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dadPWhEhVk .


But the movie did well so I guess it doesn't matter.

Original director Sam Raimi and original producer Robert Tapert were to of the producers for this remake as well as original star Bruce Campbell (who has a cameo).

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Nightmare, man

NIGHTMARE MAN-2006-Ellen (Blythe Metz) sends away for a fertility mask because she and her husband (Luciano Szafir, he kind of talks like THE ROOM's Tommy Wiseau) are having “intimacy” problems. She has a reoccurring dream about the Nightmare Man, a devilish looking guy with horns. While they are on their way to “a clinic” their car runs out of gas. Hubby decides to go back to a gas station for help, leaving Ellen alone. After a false scare or two she is terrorized by a hooded killer with a knife who looks a lot like her worst nightmare. 

While she is being pursued in the woods (she has a couple of narrow escapes), two couples play Truth or Dare. When Ellen finally reaches the cabin, they call her husband who tells them she's crazy and there is no killer. It's all in her mind. This proves to be the wrong info. The killer quickly dispatches three of the young people leaving the fourth named Mia (Tiffany Shepis) to fend for herself. Of course it's all a plot by her husband who's hired a guy to kill her. 

Surprisingly Ellen turns into an EXORCIST inspired demon and takes revenge. 

When it seems like she's killed the demon Mia is raped by the evil spirit and tells the late arriving police “it's inside of me”. 

Writer/Director Rolf Kanefsky made his film debut in 1991 with THERE'S NOTHING OUT THERE, a horror-comedy which part of this resembles (except this isn't suppose to be funny) but takes a lot from EVIL DEAD. 

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Possession from the '80's

POSSESSION-1981-This is a crazy kind of horror movie that starts out like a Bergman film with lots of soul searching dialogue and over acting. 

Sam Neill (talking like James Mason; it might be his real voice) is Mark, a businessman who returns early from a trip and learns that his wife Anna (Isabelle Adjani, who was in Herzoz's NOSFERATU remake 2 years before) is having an affair. At first Mark seems to be the only one who is unable to cope. He rants and attacks Anna in a restaurant where 2 waiters and 2 cooks have to subdue him. Later he grows a beard and has convulsions. He visits their son and acts weird while rocking in a rocking chair. He very aggressively tries to make her stay with him but that fails. 

When he drops his son off at school he meets the teacher Helen who resembles Anna (Adjani in a dual role). He later confronts her German lover Heinrich (Heinz Bennent, also in films by Truffaut and Bergman), a touchy-feely oddball who won't button up his shirt but he bloodily beats up Mark. Later Anna cracks up, screams, laughs and Mark beats her up! 

She runs out in the street with blood dripping from her mouth and causes an accident. After Anna's dopey friend Margit (Margit Carstensen) shows up and says things like “I love seeing you miserable”, Mark visits a private investigator. It's obvious something is going on with Anna that doesn't involve Mark or her lover. Anna and Mark have a weird discussion in the kitchen while Anna is grinding meat. 

Meanwhile the detective trails Anna to a seemingly abandoned building but Anna kills him when he discovers something strange in the bathroom. Amid more talking, soul searching and fighting it seems Anna is the possessed lover of a slimy tentacled demon (created by Carlo Rambaldi). 

Some might call POSSESSION an art house horror film and go crazy for the over the top acting and Bergman like close-ups and dialogue (I've also read it's an allegory for divorce) but personally I think the director Andrezj Zulawski was having fun with the “art house crowd” and this is a horror parody. The characters act too strange to be taken seriously (especially Adjani's stand-out freak out scene in the subway where she vomits and menstruates and the scene where a demon actually screws her) and most of the killings are comical. 

Neill was the grown up Damien in OMEN lll: THE FINAL CONFLICT the same year. The Polish born Zulawski's next film THE DEVILS (not a horror film) was banned in his homeland. On the commentary for the DVD of POSSESSION he claims Adjani (who won France's equivalent of an Academy Award for her performance) tried to commit suicide after watching the film (I couldn't blame her actually...).

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It's A Drag!

DRAG ME TO HELL-2009-After the commercial success of the Spider-Man series director Sam Raimi returns to EVIL DEAD territory. It was a big hit. 


Christine Brown, a loan officer at a bank (Alison Lohman) denies a  decrepit old woman an extension on the house she is going to be evicted from. The woman puts a curse on her. She spends the rest of the film trying to figure it out. There's a lot of slamming doors, 
laughing, a crazy nosebleed and even a talking goat. Lohman's character gets thrown around a lot but always gets up unharmed. A demon called a "lamia" is coming for her soul. She offers her pet 
kitten as a sacrifice but it doesn't seem to work. The ending is ridiculous. Also with David Paymer, Justin Long and Ted Raimi.


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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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I Saw Insidious

INSIDIOUS-2010-This is just a POLTERGEIST/THE EXORCIST/AMITYVILLE HORROR rip-off that critics made a big about because the director of SAW, James Wan made it.

A family seems to be terrorized in their house by some unknown force after their young son goes into a coma He's really possessed by a demon in a place called "the further" and the further I go with this review the further I can think of bad things to say about this derivative nonsense. I've read comments calling it the scariest horror movie ever but it's just talky shit with some loud noises thrown in. Parts of it, especially when 3 psychic researchers appear seem unintentionally funny.

I will give director Wan credit though. He tries using suspense and shock rather than the usual blood and gore associated with most modern horror films. Maybe I'm just a jaded old foggie but for me it didn’t live up to it’s hype!

Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are the parents and Barbara Hershey (apparently with a new face) is his mother. Lin Shaye is the main psychic and screenwriter Leigh Whannell has a role.

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Don't Be Fooled By The DVD Photo!

UNREST-2009-Stupid meandering talky movie about pre-med students dissecting cadavers. One student, who everyone refers to as doctor (Corri English) believes the cadaver she’s working on is possessed. And she’s right. For some reason the corpse is from Brazil but is possessed by an Aztec demon. Director Jason Todd Ipson leaves a lot of plot holes during the boredom.

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There Are Several Movies By This Name. Here's One of Them...

SUPERSTITION-1982-This is a very weird low budget movie about a witch condemned to death in the 1700’s who seems to return to the present day to extract revenge on the descendents of the town where it happened. A police inspector (Albert Salmi) and a priest in street clothes (James Houghton) investigate. Many people are killed including a young kid and an older priest (Stacey Keach Sr.). An old woman who may be a witch keeps warning the priest about performing a ritual. In the end the priest must fight a clawed demon with a cross and everyone dies.

Director James W. Roberson was a cinematographer on many films and also made THE LEGEND OF ALFRED PACKER and THE GIANT OF THUNDER MOUNTAIN.
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ELVIS! (not really)

BUBBA HO-TEP-2002-Disregarding the jokes about a boil on a penis and senile senior citizens this is a pretty clever and funny horror spoof.

In an old age home Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell), who may actually be a Elvis impersonator or the real Elvis who traded identities with an Elvis impersonator teams up with John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis!). He says that after he was “assassinated” they dyed his body and filled his head with sand! They battle an Egyptian mummy dressed like a cowboy who steals souls.

Director/screenwriter Don Coscarelli (who made the PHANTASM series) adapted it from a short story by S.F. writer Jon Lansdale. PHANTASM regular Reggie Bannister runs the old age home. There may be a sequel in the works.

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