Demon Under The Influence

 

(imdb)

THE INCUBUS-1981-After two teens are viciously attacked, the boy dies but the girl who is brutally raped is barely alive. Dr. Sam Cordell (John Cassavetes) operates on her and does an autopsy on the boy. Later, a museum curator is also victim of a rape/murder. A police guy (John Ire-land) investigating butts heads with newspaper editor Laurie Kincaid (Kerrie Keene) who reminds Cordell of his dead wife. Meanwhile, Cor-dell's daughter (Ellen Flannery) is dating a guy who has weird dreams. Many more people are slain violently and the boyfriend reveals that he thinks he is the killer. A demon rapist with red sperm is the culprit. More violence follows with a twist (?) ending. 

Story goes Cassavetes rewrote most of the script which shows as the characters talk endlessly in this dark, sick story directed by John Hough (TWINS OF EVIL (1971), THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE (1973)). He had made THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS for Disney the year before.

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I Spit On Your Remake

I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE-2010-A novelist (Sarah Butler) goes to a secluded cabin to write her new novel. She jogs, smokes pot and drops her cell phone in the toilet bowl. Some white trash rednecks spy on her and eventually break in, humiliate her, beat her, gang rape her and film it. She escapes the assholes before they can kill her. Unlike the original (which I'm not a fan of), her revenge it more detailed and exacting. The director of this (and it's useless sequel) Steven R. Monroe went on to making movies for the Hallmark and Lifetime cable channels and this:

 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2013/11/when-will-it-end-bad-movie-making-i-mean.html

 There was a part 3 that also starred Butler by a different director.

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Dr. Death and Mr. Howard

DOCTOR DEATH, SEEKER OF SOULS-1973-Fred Sanders (Barry Coe) tries to find a way to bring his wife Laura (Jo Morrow) back from the dead. After consulting a phony medium and meeting a bug eyed old man and the society of the dead, he meets a woman named Tana (QUEEN OF BLOOD'S Florence Marley) who takes him to see Dr. Death (John Considine) who she says can bring back the dead. During a demonstration the doctor he and his assistant Thor (Leon Askin) saw a scarred woman in half (like a magic act) then bring her soul back in another body. Sanders remains unconvinced but after seeing his wife’s apparition and hearing her voice, he agrees to have the doctor bring her back. The doctor then relates how he got the power (in sepia flashback) 1,000 years before (I think his voice changes too). He decides to kill Tana and use her soul but when he attempts the soul transfer it doesn't work. Sanders’ wife refuses it and Sanders decides it's better that way but the doctor has other plans. He and Thor go around killing innocent women, trying to transfer their souls into Mrs. Sanders body. To no avail. Meanwhile Sanders romances his secretary Sandy (Cheryl Miller). When the doctor is stabbed his blood gushes out and disintegrates his attacker. After deciding that the secretary has the strong soul he needs, doc decides to bleed her to death!  The predictable ending has the doctor's soul in Mrs. Sanders body and plotting revenge. 

This movie is very boring in spots and very stupid in others. Considine is ok in the over the top main role spouting a lot of platitudes about singular soul transfer but the rest of the cast isn’t very good. The real reason to see this is for the appearance of Moe Howard as a member of the doctor’s audience! He seems to flub one of his lines. 

This was director Eddie Saeta only full length film however he was assistant director on many films going back to the late 1930's. Former actor Sal Ponti wrote the screenplay. Co-star Barry Coe was in lots of TV show episodes and LOVE ME TENDER (with Elvis). A year after this John Considine made another low budget horror film THE THIRSTY DEAD. His father John W. Considine Jr. was a producer in the 1930's and '40's. His most famous was MAD LOVE in 1935.

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Flying Guillotine

THE FLYING GUILLOTINE-1975-During the Manchu dynasty, Xin Kang (Ku Feng) creates the title weapon for his evil emperor Yung Cheng (Yang Chiang). After killing a German Sheppard and a rooster he trains a group of men to operate the weapon and they become assassins who get rid of the emperor's enemies. One soldier, Ma Teng (Kuen Tai Chen) revolts and runs away. He meets a woman and they have a baby. Meanwhile another soldier plots to overthrow his leader. When Ma Teng and the flying guillotine assassins cross paths again he invents an umbrella like defensive against the deadly decapitating machine. This violent and enjoyable craziness was directed by Meng Hua Ho  (THE DRAGON MISSILE) and is based on actual legends of the existence of such a weapon.

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BTK

BTK-2008-A guy named Dennis (Kane Hodder) who calls himself a “compliance officer” is thought to be a nice guy though it's obvious he's nuts. He's actually a serial killer who wants to make a name for himself. It uses the case of a real life killer who used the same initials (it stands for Bind. Torture. Kill) but that's just an excuse to show an excess of violence, torture and gore. “Ain't Nobody's Business” by Mississippi John Hurt is heard over the end credits. 

Director/screenwriter Michael Feifer had made CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK and exploited other real life murderers and their crimes with ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, BUNDY: AN AMERICAN ICON and THE BOSTON STRANGLER:THE UNTOLD STORY.

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Were-Dogs?

BATTLEDOGS-2013-There's a CGI werewolf outbreak in NYC. People infected are quarantined in a place that looks like Grand Central Station overseen by a jerk-ass army general (Dennis Haysbert). Army doctor Hoffman (Greg Sheffer from NIGHTBREED) is brought in and gets too close to the truth (government conspiracy) so the army sends a werewolf to kill him. Later Patient O escapes the camp and heads to a place that's suppose to be Central Park. It seems O is carrying a bone in his arm that contains an antidote. When all the wolves escape and invade Manhattan the bad black mean looking president (Bill Duke) orders air strikes on all the city's bridges. A car chase was actually filmed in Flushing Meadow Park, not too far from where I live! 

Wes Studi is a mean colonel and Ernie Hudson as a security expert gives a better performance than this THE HULK/THE HOWLING inspired nonsense from The Asylum warrants. Director Alexander Yellen was a cinematographer on stuff like MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS so you've been warned.

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DUEL TO DEATH-1983-This crazy violent period piece is essentially about the bad blood between Chinese Kung-Fu and Japanese "sword fighting". The Japanese look down on the "weak" monks and are clearly the aggressors while the Chinese are honorable and would rather live in peace but every ten years a tournament to the death is held between the two countries. Ching Wan (Damian Lau; THE HEROIC TRIO), known as "lord of the sword", is the Chinese contender while his main rival is Hashimoto (Norman Chu also in Tsui Hark's WE'RE GOING TO EAT YOU)), an intense Japanese swordsman who had to kill his own sensei as a final test. The two become friends when a plot to rig the tournament is discovered. This is full of good fights, blood, dismemberment, exploding ninjas and a severed head that talks.

Director Sio-Tung Ching also made A CHINESE GHOST STORY. The remastered DVD is called DUEL TO THE DEATH.

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It's Crazy Alright

THE CRAZIES-2010-Residents of a small Iowa town are acting weird (parts were filmed in Georgia though). Timothy Olyphant (TV's JUSTIFIED) is the town's sheriff who discovers there's something wrong with the drinking water. He's almost cut to pieces by a saw wielding coroner (who had already sewn some victim's mouth shut) and another guy burns down his house with his wife and kid in it. Eventually the government gets involved and rounds up everyone including his wife (Radha Mitchell). There's lots of chaos and killing but not much to distinguish it from any of the other "modern day horror flicks" (like the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake which parts of this resemble). And while the original blurred the lines between who's crazy and who's not, this version makes it clear our evil government is once again to blame. It could also be the only horror where victims are terrorized while going through a car wash!

Director Brett Eisner (SAHARA) has taken the premise of George Romero's paranoid claustrophobic low budget classic and turned into a typical drawn out over emoting disaster movie. The acting is better and of course the budget is bigger but there's just nothing new here. Just a lot of cheap thrills and excessive violence. And as usual it makes me wonder about the mental health of the director, although Romero himself was one of the executive producers! One of the writers Scott Kosar also scripted remakes of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. The other screenwriter Ray Wright wrote CASE 39 (two writers to script a remake??).

Apparently I'm in the minority on this movie as it was both a box office and critical success.

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Curses!

DARK FIELDS-2009-A town called Perseverance has been under a curse from several generations. It started when the farming community dug up an old hat. Now every generation has to sacrifice several of their children based on a lottery they devised. An Indian shaman and a tall bald guy with fangs also figure into it. It tells three stories at the same time but jumps around and tries to be arty (and causes much viewer confusion). The late David Carradine is seen in the 18th century segments and Dee Wallace is in the 1950's plot. Richard Lynch (who died in 2012) is featured in the modern day story as a mean crazy father who wants his cursed daughter (Sasha Higgins) to drown her own brother. Later it's just the brother and sister running around in the dark looking for a cure and useless scenes of gore and torture (some of it against children). It's kind of like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" except it's not good.

Too bad the director (who probably needs mental help) Douglas Schulze (THE HELLMASTER) decided to the three way story line and waste the triple threat of Carradine, Stone and Lynch which is the only acting highlights. The rest of the cast is terrible.

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Rip-Off

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER-1975-Former exotic dancer Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) gives birth to a rather large and strong baby (at least that's what the doctor's say; it looks like any normal baby). Weird things happen almost immediately. Baby scratches mommy and later bites their housekeeper. Her Italian husband Geno (Ralph Bates with an accent) hires a nanny but the baby pushes her into a pond and she dies! Lucy reveals a strange story to her girlfriend (Caroline Munro) about the last time she danced and how a dwarf actor "cursed" her ("You will have a baby as big as I am small! A monster!"). She believes her baby is possessed and even sees the dwarf's face in place of her son's. Their doctor (Donald Pleasance) doesn't believe it but when he visits he's decapitated. Dad winds up dead by hanging and his body is stuffed in a drain pipe. Dad's sister, a nun (Elleen Atkins) suspects no good and eventually performs an exorcism but by then everyone is dead! John Steiner is also in it as a Cockney club owner. Much of it doesn't make sense and there's some unintentional humor and it all seems to be inspired by THE EXORCIST, IT'S ALIVE and ROSEMARY'S BABY. 

Director Peter Sasdy did better with previous efforts like TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, COUNTESS DRACULA and HANDS OF THE RIPPER. For some reason it has recently been re-titled SHARON'S BABY.

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Down Under

DYING BREED-2008-A zoologist and her three friends go to Tasmania to try and find proof of the long extinct Tasmanian tiger. It also has to do with the legend of Alexander Pierce, “The Pie Man”, who was hanged in 1824 for cannibalism. I've read that this isn't exactly true as the film combines the legend of two killers. Anyway, Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) the zoologist is also looking for her sister who disappeared years before while searching for the is extinct tiger. She and her friends (including SAW creator/actor Leigh Whannell) soon make a horrifying discovery: descendants of “the Pie Man” are alive and want to breed to keep the family line going! After this it's just the usual torture nonsense (SAW V was made the same year as this). Jody Dwyer directed this Australian production. Don't know much about him. 

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Yeah, It Reeks...

NO MAN'S LAND:THE RISE OF THE REEKER-2008-Why do people keep making these dumb shit movies? When will it stop? In this one a sheriff (Robert Pine) and his deputy son (Michael Muhney) are after two jackasses who robbed a casino. Apparently some smelly (literally) monster/killer is after anyone in the vicinity. For some reason an invisible barrier keeps him and his intended victims trapped in the desert. One guy walks around with half his head missing. This nonsense is actually a sequel/remake of a movie called REEKER. Both were written and directed by Dave Payne who later directed kids' shows on Nickelodeon (SUPAH NINJAS, THE FRED SHOW). 

In better days Robert Pine starred in TV movies with the likes of Bill Shatner: 

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4609335177952045780#editor/target=post;postID=3862085771477935856

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No Gas in 2012

TOOTH AND NAIL-2007-In this sort of twist on post-apocalyptic zombie cannibal movies, it seems the world ran out of gasoline in 2012 and civilization collapsed. “The American dream became the American nightmare” says Darwin (Robert Carradine), the bearded egghead who leads a small group of survivors with names like Dakota, Ford, Torino and Yukon in a Philadelphia hospital. He seems very optimistic about “creating a new life” but the rest (except for a little girl who doesn't talk) are the usual bickering self obsessed imbeciles. When a new girl Nova (Emily Catherine Young) arrives things seem to deteriorate but she has a secret. 

Later on Michael Madsen shows up as Jackal, the leader of The Rovers, a group of cannibalistic nomads. The twist here I guess is that the flesh eaters are human not zombies. The dialogue is terrible, the action scenes too dark and some of gore effects too phony. Vinnie Jones (X MEN:LAST STAND) has a small role. Director Mark Young made THE KILLING JAR (also with Madsen) after this. I never saw so many producers on one movie! 

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Un-Something

UNDEAD-2003-This gore horror-comedy from Australia reminded a lot of Peter Jackson's BAD TASTE (and SHAUN OF THE DEAD) with it's extreme violent SFX but I didn't care for it. 

In Queensland, a meteorite shower turns residents into human eating zombies. A woman named Rene (Felicity Mason) takes shelter in the cabin of the local weirdo (Mungo McKay) who seems to know a lot about the zombies. They are joined by a few other people (including a pregnant woman) who yell, curse, cry and act like morons.

This was made by twin brothers Michael and Peter Spierig who really think their unoriginal plot, bad acting and dumb comic situations are very clever. They do thrown in a twist ending involving some aliens but by then it's too late. The 90 mins of your life that you wasted watching this crap is gone forever! 

After this The Spierigs made DAYBREAKERS which featured vampires. 

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PS: Wkipedia list of still living silent screen stars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_silent_film_actors

All About...???

ALL ABOUT EVIL-2010-This dumb comedy gore-fest begins with a little girl singing in front of her school when she pees herself and is electrocuted while her dad plays the piano and her mother laughs hysterically. Later a stupid woman named Deborah Tennis (Natasha Lyonne from the AMERICAN PIE films) runs a movie theater she inherited from her father. She rants to a librarian (John Waters' veteran Mink Stole) about her father. When her mother informs Deborah that she is going to sell the theater Deborah kills her. The killing is caught on security cameras and accidentally shown to the horror movie loving audience who of course think it's just a movie. Deborah decides to make more movies and goes around killing innocent people with the help of a moronic old projectionist, a homeless maniac and psychotic twin sisters. A horror film dork named Steven (Thomas Dekker) kind of falls for Deborah but he becomes the chief suspect when Deborah uses his date in one of her movies. His mother is played by Cassandra Peterson (TV's Elvira). 

This crazed and derivative gore film was the creation of Joshua Grannell, an underground drag queen known professionally as Peaches Christ (who appears in the film). It's obviously a take off but I found it rather nasty. Just another excuse to show senseless violence and torture.

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