1988 – Horror Ghouls

Child’s Play (1988)

Posted on October 4, 2026October 9, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Charles Lee Ray aka The Lakeshore Strangler is a serial killer who is fleeing from the police in Chicago. Police Detective Mike Norris is at his heels, and inside a toy store Norris manages to shoot him. Before dying from the gunshot wound, Ray invokes the power of Damballa, a serpent spirit in Haitian Voodoo, and asks to have his soul transferred into the “Good Guy“ doll nearby. A lightning strikes the building, and Ray now lies lifeless next to the doll. Looks like the serial killer’s murder spree has come to an end…unless perhaps the voodoo spell had some merit? Yeah, we know his spirit has been successfully transferred into the doll, of course we do.

Ray certainly chose his toy wisely, as the Good Guy talking dolls are very popular. And of course also expensive. Karen Barclay, a widow with a six year old son named Andy, struggles to save up money for one. Her friend from work suggests that she can buy a doll from a homeless peddler outside, who’s gotten his hands on one and sells it cheaply. Wonder why. Well, Karen decides to put her morals to the side for this little occasion in order to make her son happy. And of course Andy is over to moon, who is totally captivated by the doll who presents itself as Chucky. While all seems fine and well, the little boy Andy understands little about all the things the doll is saying to him. How could a little kid possibly know that his favorite toy is possessed by the soul of a dead serial killer? And Ray, now aka Chucky, isn’t too happy with his plastic body. He wants a new one…one made out of real flesh and blood.

Child’s Play is the 1988 killer doll film which doesn’t really need much presentation. We all know who Chucky is. The film was directed by Tom Holland, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Don Mancini and John Lafia. It was based on an original script by Mancini, which was first titled Batteries Not Included, then changed into Blood Buddy, and it was more a whodunit story which left the ending ambiguous as to whether it was the doll or the kid who killed people. Well, in the new script there’s no doubt from the very start that the doll is a serial killer, and a new horror star was thus born. The film has since spun several sequels, a reboot, a series, and tons of merchandise. Chucky, whether you like him or not, is one of the most iconic and popular horror film characters that just never seem to die.

The “Good Guy“ dolls were inspired by the actual My Buddy dolls by Hasbro, and you can definitely see the resemblance. In fact, Chucky’s name was originally Buddy in the script, which the writers decided to change into Chucky instead so they didn’t have to worry about Hasbro getting their lawyers involved. Better play it safe, buddy! And Chucky definitely is a blast to watch on screen, in all his practical glory. The doll was controlled by a whole team of nine puppeteers, led by Brock Winkless. Chucky’s mouth was moved via radio control, and in some scenes Chucky was also played by child actors. There’s no doubt that Chucky’s character is one filled with personality, a foul-mouthed killer doll who definitely slashed his place into the horror community, made at a perfect time when cheesiness could so easily fit into an otherwise serious story. Because yeah, the premise in Child’s Play is laughable and sounds schlocky as hell, but it all just, you know, works. The music for the film also fits really well with the electronic/orchestral mix. It was composed by Joseph Renzetti, using mostly electronic music with some orchestral elements. Originally Holland had planned for the film to have a fully orchestral score, but Renzetti thought the electronic soundtrack would be best.

Performances are overall pretty good, especially Brad Dourif who is voicing Chucky and delivers the perfect maniacal and sardonic performance. This, combined with the effects of the doll with its various facial expressions ironically makes Chucky looking more alive than many of the flesh ‘n blood slashers villains from other horror movies. Auditions for the film’s roles were held at the Hollywood United Methodist Church in 1987, where Tom Holland were quick to cast Chris Sarandon for the role of Detective Norris, as he had previously worked with him in his first feature film Fright Night (1985). As for Andy’s role, hundreds of kids were considered, and the role was given to Alex Vincent, despite the boy’s lack of acting experience compared to several of the other kids. The reason? Apparently their hearts melted a little when Alex pretended to forget his lines because he didn’t want to say any curse words in front of his mother. Aw. How cute and innocent. That being said, the performance does leave a little to be desired, especially when he’s supposed to be scared.

I think Child’s Play is a fun 80’s slasher psycho doll movie, one with that certain amount of charm that only the 80’s (and 90’s, for that matter) could produce. It’s cheesy and energetic, and Chucky and his foul-mouthed character is always fun to watch. I also liked the somewhat cheesy twist of involving the lesser known Voodoo spirit Damballa, rather than going for the usual satanic twist of making a deal with the devil.

Fun Fact: when the film was released, a crowd of worried people protested at the main entrance of MGM because they thought the film would “incite violence in children“, and wanted it to be banned. And it actually got banned in Finland for “excessive graphic violence“, a ban that was lifted in the early 2000’s.

Director: Tom Holland
Writers: Don Mancini, John Lafia, Tom Holland
Country & year: USA, 1988
Actors: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Dinah Manoff, Tommy Swerdlow, Jack Colvin, Neil Giuntoli, Juan Ramírez, Alan Wilder
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094862/

Sequels:
– Curse of Chucky (2013)
– Seed of Chucky (2004)
– Bride of Chucky (1998)
– Child’s Play 3 (1991)
– Child’s Play 2 (1990)

Remake:
– Child’s Play (2019)

Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)

Posted on October 2, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

In Hellbound: Hellraiser II, we shift our focus more on Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), the daughter we saw in the first film, after she’s been committed to a mental hospital because no one believes her story that her dad and stepmother were killed by a Pinhead and three S&M demons. Happy recovery. Yeah, you wish. Because her doctor, Dr. Channard, is a corrupt sadist (wow, what a shocker) who is interested in this mysterious puzzle box Kirsty is telling about. Warden takes one of the basement patients and places him on the bloody mattress where Julia died and gives him a razor so he can slice himself and the the maggots he sees crawling over his body. As he bleeds all over the mattress, Julia’s skinless body emerges, just like we saw with Frank in the first film, and kills the patient while the doctor is watching. She’s now reborn in full villain-mode. Congratulations.

Channard gets a mute girl, Tiffany, to solve the puzzle box, because she’s obsessed with puzzles. Pinhead and company show up, but instead of taking Tiffany, they take Channard, since he only used Tiffany to open the box for his own desires. Huh. Yes, there are rules here, but who would know. And since he’s already “corrupt” like a mofo, his suffering will be legendary, as Pinhead famously puts it.

Meanwhile, Kirsty sees a vision of a skinless ghoul with the text written in blood behind him on the wall: “please help me, I’m in Hell“. She believes that this is her dad, and when she gets the opportunity, she enters Hell to look for him and save his trapped soul, where she finds herself in an endless labyrinth. From here on, it’s mostly all about the nightmarish and surreal atmosphere that slides in a more what the fuck am I watching kind of movie. Kirsty goes from the one Hell scenario to the next, where she also stumbles upon Uncle Frank who lives through his own personal hell. And no, she never meets the Goblin King, unfortunately.

Hellraiser II is filled with cool ideas and some interesting concepts, such as seeing a quick backstory of Pinhead and how Cenobites are created. And like any birth, it sure looks painful. The one who gets a rebirth is the corrupt doctor, and his monster design is, well, something else. His fingers look like snakes/tentacles with razors and is a way more interesting villain than Uncle Frank ever was. The look of the Hell labyrinth was inspired by the Day and Night woodcut by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher and gives the film a bigger scope than the cramped attic we were stuck in the first film. The gore and prosthetic effects are both first-class and imaginative with even some use of stop-motion. Movie expert Roger Ebert was, of course, not impressed and called out the effect maker (Bob Keen) as a “perverted man“ while giving the film a half-star.

This sequel is not written nor directed by Clive Barker, but instead he worked as a producer and was heavily involved with the story and further concepts that he hadn’t the time or budget to expand in the first film. After Barker got burned-out, the direction job went to Tony Randel, who worked as an editor on the first film while the script was written by Peter Atkins (who later wrote the next two Hellraiser films and Wishmaster). Hellraiser II lands relatively successfully as a direct continuation with some inventive set-pieces, a dose of Lovecraftian, more lore, and of course, more gore.

Director: Tony Randel
Writer: Peter Atkins
Country & year: UK/USA, 1988
Actors: Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Kenneth Cranham, mogen Boorman, Sean Chapman, William Hope, Doug Bradley, Barbie Wilde, Simon Bamford, Nicholas Vince
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095294/

The Spider Labyrinth (1988)

Posted on September 22, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

An American researcher named Alan Whitmore is sent to Budapest in order to check out what has happened to Professor Roth who seems to have gone awol. Once arriving in Budapest, Alan meets the attractive guide Genevieve, who takes him to meet the professor. The professor’s wife leads him inside to what appears to be a paranoid and nervous man, someone who may have found out more than he ought to have. Alan plans for a revisit later, only to find that the professor has now been murdered, hanging from the ceiling in a rope that is…laced with cobwebs? Strange…and creepy as hell. Alan, wants the help of his guide Genevieve who is very eager to offer it (and who is not the least bit suspicious at all, of course). He wanders around the streets of Budapest, and sometimes encounter strange locals who aren’t the most welcoming. And more people keep dying. He’s trapped in a web of murder and strange incidents, all seemingly related to some kind of old spider God and a cult worshipping it.

The Spider Labyrinth (Italian title: Il nido del ragno) is an Italian horror film from 1988, directed by Gianfranco Giagni in his feature film debut. And this obscure little film, which was very hard to come by until the recent years, is an oddball that combines giallo with cosmic horror and creature feature. And spiders, mostly of the fun, jittery stop-motion kind.

The Spider Labyrinth is one of those movies where everything surrounding the protagonist just always feels off. I mean, you do of course have the straight-forward key points in the plot, like the pretty love-interest lady who seems to be overtly friendly and is definitely very, very sus. And the paranoid professor who happens to die before revealing something important, and stuff like that. But it’s also the overall scenery and setting, where the protagonist is walking through suspiciously empty streets. There’s more atmosphere than logic, and this makes the entire movie feel a little dream-like. With the old deity-worshipping cult, the movie definitely goes for a bit of a cosmic horror/Lovecraftian vibe as well.

Many of the filming locations are gorgeous to look at, and the practical effects are fun. The puppet and stop motion effects have the needed charm. I also like the strange witchy spider-like vampire woman, whom we see murdering people every now and then, but most of all I was intrigued by the small, black ball that always appears right before someone gets murdered. It makes an icky squelching sound when hitting the floor, and always adds to the already weird, uncanny atmosphere of the whole film. What’s inside those balls, you might wonder? Well, you can take a guess.

The Spider Labyrinth is a bizarre little Italian occult monster flick, heavily relying on its surreal visual style and building up to a totally crazy ending. As mentioned it was for a long time very hard to find, but a few years ago Severin Films picked it up and released it on Blu-ray and DVD. The movie can also now be found on streaming in some places, including Tubi.

Director: Gianfranco Giagni
Writers: Riccardo Aragno, Tonino Cervi, Cesare Frugoni, Gianfranco Manfredi
Original title: Il nido del ragno
Country & year: Italy, 1988
Actors: Roland Wybenga, Paola Rinaldi, Margareta von Krauss, Claudia Muzii, William Berger, Stéphane Audran, Valeriano Santinelli, Massimiliano Pavone
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095728/

Demonwarp (1988)

Posted on August 21, 2026August 21, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Dad Bill (George Kennedy) and daughter Julie are having a wholesome time in a forest summer house playing board games. Suddenly, they hear some growling outside the front door before a hideous-looking Bigfoot creature storms in and kills Julie. The monster drags her body outside, only with some few lousy scratch marks on her face, while Bill lies knocked out on the floor.

Then we get introduced to our group of teens, played by actors in their mid-twenties, who’s about to spend some summer party time in the house we saw earlier. Bill suddenly shows up with a rifle to warn those damn kids that this place is dangerous! They, of course, don’t believe him, because why should they. But Bill is no bullshitter and sets the record straight as he says:

― There’s a thousand stories about this place… ghosts, and UFO’s, and monsters, and Bigfoot, you name it! They’re all bullshit. I know what’s real. What’s real is what happened to me and Julie, and nobody’s going to tell me any different. Now, if you’ve got any brains between the two of you, you’ll get in that truck and get the hell out of here right now. This place is dangerous!

Oki-doki-mister. Anyway… the first night sets in, we have a cheesy soft-core sex scene, one of the girls is taking a shower, and surprise, surprise: Bigfoot comes in, wreaks some havoc, and kills one of them before he leaves. Next morning the rest of the group head out to the woods to find the main road. Good luck and don’t take any pissing breaks. As schlocky as the film is, I have to give some props to the monster design, made by John Carl Buechler, that is moons apart from the Mick Jagger Bigfoot from Night of the Demon (1980).

But then we also have some side-plots with two young women, Betsy and Tara, who eventually get topless, and a… birdwatcher, only to have some more bodycounts. Fun trivia: One of the topless women, Tara, is Georges Kennedy’s daughter, Shannon Kennedy, who was cast because he wouldn’t be in the film unless his daughter got a small role, and this is the only role she ever played. Better than nothing, as we say. And then zombies, of all things, start to show up. Just what you expected, right? So, where does this thing actually go, you may ask? Oh, it certainly goes somewhere, that I can say for sure, haha…

Look, here’s the thing: the best way to watch Demonwarp is to know little to nothing beforehand. Because as the film progressed, we went into the film’s page on IMDb, scrolled through some of the screenshots, just to be sure if we actually saw the right movie. And, well, haha, we did. The majority of the film is a standard, micro budget almost Z-level monster schlock where the Bigfoot monster is chasing boobs in the local woods, whereas the last thirty minutes is where I’d guess that a drunk and delirious Lucio Fulci came to the set and finished the film. Crazy, retarded fun stuff to watch with pizza and Jack Daniel’s.

Director: Emmett Alston
Writers: John Carl Buechler, Jim Bertges, Bruce Akiyama
Country & year: USA, 1988
Actors: George Kennedy, David Michael O’Neill, Pamela Gilbert, Billy Jayne, Hank Stratton, Colleen McDermott, Michelle Bauer, Shannon Kennedy Sullivan, John Durbin, Jill Marin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094998/

Paganini Horror (1988)

Posted on October 15, 2025August 22, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

The year was somewhere in the late 1980s where the exciting news had spread in Italy that none other than Klaus Kinski was writing, directing and playing the main role in an upcoming biopic of the legendary violinist Niccolò Paganini. Since Klaus Kinski was still a crowd magnet, director Luigi Cozzi, expected Kinski’s film to be such a hit that a horror film based on Paganini could piggyback on its success. Instead, we have a nonsensical and laughable shiny turd of an amateur hour spectacle that could easily have been sharted out by Claudio Fragasso in a short week. Not that Kinski Paganini was a much better film, but that’s a whole other story, in a different genre.

Paganini Horror starts in the city of Venice with a girl who plays her violin through “The Witches Dance“ from a rare sheet of paper. These notes are of course cursed that makes the girl become possessed, then goes into the bathroom where her mother is taking a bath to drop a hair dryer in her water. FZZZZZZT, FZZZZZZT, added with some old-school cheesy hand-drawn electric effects.

Then we jump to our group of protagonists, an all-female rock n’ roll band (except for the drummer) who’s in the studio and recording. And no, the singer is not Peter Burns. The producer isn’t much impressed as she calls it the same old stuff and nothing original. She wants them to make something mind-blowing and sensational. Well, we’re still in the good ole’ 1980s, so that shouldn’t be that hard. The drummer, Daniel, then meets a mysterious man named Mr. Pinkett to exchange a black suitcase that holds the sheet of notes for… Paganini Horror! The combination of the suitcase is of course six, six…six. OoOoh… This Pinkett guy is played by Donald Pleasance where it’s hard to tell whether he’s completely buzzed-out or high as a kite.

Daniel plays the tune on a piano. The producer is finally impressed even though it fits way more in an Elton John ballad. Daniel says that the unpublished notes were written by Niccolo Paganini. Do you mean Paganini, the famous Italian violinist?, she ask like a braindead imbecile. No, Eilerti Paganini Pilarmi, who else? So let’s rock! The legend says that Paganini used these magical notes in a secret ritual while he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for fame and wealth. According to the real legend, Paganini did sell his soul to Dr. Satan but for talent and not for fame and wealth. Maybe not the best choice as he died piss-poor at age 57. Anyway, a light bulb flicks over their airheads as they believe that these tunes can bring the same success to them. The mind-numbingly bad acting as they look as excited and enthusiastic as some broken NPCs mixed with the stiff dubbing, is enough to give this extra cheese-filled spaghetti clown show a watch. And it gets better/worse.

Our girl band rents a remote castle to shoot a horror-themed music video. Meanwhile, we see this Pinkett guy throwing all the money from a tower while he’s mumbling

go, go, go, go all you little demons. Little demons. Yes, fly away, little demons, so that the real ones can take your place, so that what happened to Paganini will repeat itself this time as well. Let the price for fame be extracted by the one to whom it belongs, his majesty, Satan.

OK. So, uhm, the ghost of Paganini rises from the grave, I guess, to stalk and kill our female rockers one by one with a dagger that sticks out from the bottom of his small violin. Here he’s dressed more like a cheap cosplay version of the phantom of the opera, and is not even close to the awesome-looking ghoulish skeleton we see in the poster. There’s full-on nonsensical dream logic from here on where people randomly fall through green neon-lighted sinkholes, and…well, as we say in showbiz: The show must go on. Don’t have a script, you say? Then improvise! What follows is more retarded acting, cheap effects, cheaper costumes, baffling dialogue delivery and so on. You know the drill..

But to be fair though, the director Luigi Cozzi is not all to blame here. Cozzi was in constant fights with producer Fabrizio De Angelis, who always demanded Cozzi to cut as many gory scenes from the script as possible. Which is pretty odd considering that Fabrizio was also producer on the goriest films of Lucio Fulci throughout the 1980s. It sounded more like pure sabotage when Cozzi got this demand just a few days before the shooting started. He also planned an eight-minute long sequence with scenes of planets, galaxies and parallel dimensions that were supposed to give the movie a stronger “science fiction touch“. Paganini in space? Yeah, why not. This animated short film from Gobelins isn’t that far from the idea.

Cozzi picked the script apart until it was nothing more left to shoot, and most of the script had to be rewritten. Daria Nicolodi (the fresh ex-girlfriend of Dario Argento) then came into the picture to help him with the rewrite, and the next is Italian Trash Cinema history. Nicolodi also plays one of the main characters and she looks as brainfarted as the rest. If the original script and the overall technical aspects would be much better if hadn’t it been for the iron fist of De Angelis, we’ll never know. But if the acting was still as amateurish as in the version that got made, I hardly think so. Some fewer laughs, maybe.

Director: Luigi Cozzi
Writers: Luigi Cozzi, Daria Nicolodi, Raimondo Del Balzo
Country & year: Italy, 1988
Actors: Daria Nicolodi, Jasmine Maimone, Pascal Persiano, Maria Cristina Mastrangeli, Michel Klippstein, Pietro Genuardi, Luana Ravegnini, Roberto Giannini, Donald Pleasence
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095812/

Waxwork (1988)

Posted on October 4, 2025October 7, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Two college students, Sarah and China, have a strange encounter with an odd gentleman who owns a mysterious wax museum and invites them to have a look at the exhibit. Later, they bring along with them some of their friends: Mark, Gemma, James, and Tony. The museum has a lot of morbid displays, but nothing suspicious about that, it’s just the perfect ghoulish fun any horror wax museum should have. But of course, there’s something sinister at play…and the college students soon find out that if they get too close to an exhibit, they will end up in a pocket dimension where the scene unfolds in real life. Tony ends up in a werewolf exhibit where he encounters a hunter and his son, who is there to kill the creature. There’s no surprise that this doesn’t end well for Tony. China is sent to a castle where none other than Count Dracula himself turns her into a vampire. Mark and Sarah, however, never gets too close to any of the exhibits, and leave the museum while wondering where the hell their friends are at. Soon, they both realize something is very wrong with the museum, and they even try to make the police intervene. You can probably guess how that goes. Still, the museum has a lot more in store for its visitors…a lot more!

Waxwork is a comedy horror film from 1988, written and directed by Anthony Hickox in his directorial debut. It is partially inspired by Waxworks, a German silent film from 1924.

Waxwork is a very good mix of horror and comedy, where the tone is overall very whimsical but also offers a nice amount of decent gore scenes. It’s quite campy at times, but that only works in the movie’s favor. The practical effects here are pretty good, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise when Bob Keen was brought on board to work on the visuals effects. His special effects can also be seen in other horror movies like Hellraiser (1987), Lifeforce (1985), among several more. Like a typical teen-slasher, though, the movie is set up with a lot of teen characters you couldn’t really give a fiddle about. So don’t expect any great in-depth personalities or anything…most of them are just there to get killed off by the exhibits. There is also a pretty bonkers finale, filled with chaos and absurd fun!

Some familiar faces can be seen here, including Zach Galligan as Mark, who is most known for his role in Gremlins (1984), David Warner as the Waxwork man, known for his roles in many films and series, including Omen (1976), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), Ice Cream Man (1995) and many more. And there’s also Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaros who is most known for a full-body costume role where you’d never recognize him: ALF aka “Gordon Shumway“! Aside from some well-known actors, the movie includes a ton of references to many horror icons among the exhibits “coming to life“: there’s a werewolf, vampires, a Golem, a mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Jack the Ripper, and so much more! Even Marquis de Sade, a real-life french nobleman who was, and still is, notorious for his writings and from where the term Sadism stems from. Whether or not he was just a depraved monster or a misunderstood genius in a whole other debate, though, but in this movie he’s one of the major villains.

Waxwork is one of those 80’s horror movies where you just sit back, and more or less nods to yourself and thinking “yup, this is one of those movies that could only have been made back in the day“. Easily a typical comfort-horror. A nice 80’s horror film filled with nonsense of the fun and ghoulish kind!

Writer and director: Anthony Hickox
Country & year: USA, 1988
Actors: Zach Galligan, Jennifer Bassey, Joe Baker, Deborah Foreman, Michelle Johnson, David Warner, Eric Brown, Buckley Norris, Dana Ashbrook, Micah Grant, Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaros, John Rhys-Davies
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096426/

Phantasm II (1988)

Posted on October 2, 2025October 4, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

BooooOOOOY and GiiiiIIIIRL !

Almost a decade flew away among the cocaine leftover dust during the 1980s before a sequel was made. In the meantime, Don Coscarelli made the sword & sorcerer flick The Beastmaster (1982) and had no desire to make another horror movie. That was until some producer at Universal Studios finally saw Phantasm, lit a fat cigar, poured a glass of whiskey, gave Coscarelli a call, and said: That cliffhanger, bro! I’ll give you a budget of 3 million dollars so you can make a sequel. There was only one demand and that was to either replace A. Michael Baldwin or Reggie Bannister. Coscarelli couldn’t in his wildest imagination picture someone else as Reggie as… Reggie. Who could. It would be like replacing Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, and I bet Coscarelli saw that right on. Don’t touch the ponytail. So the sacrifice went to Baldwin, a decision that made him very bitter for decades to such an extent that he just pretended that the movie didn’t exist. Or maybe he was just mad because he missed the opportunity to make out with Paula Irvine. His replacement went to James Le Gros, who was chosen over Brad Pitt. I’ll admit it was very distracting at first, since he looks eons apart from Baldwin. But hey, that’s just showbiz.

This is the first film Reggie Bannister appeared in since the first Phantasm. In the meantime, he worked at a… funeral home. Of course. He hasn’t changed much during the nine years. He slips into the role and his chill mannerism as if it was yesterday, or I’d just assume that he’s one of those unique actors who can just play themselves. The same goes for Angus Scrimm, who really embraced playing the character of The Tall Man as much he loved the “phans“ of the franchise.

Phantasm II starts right off after the first ended. Mike’s brother Jody is dead after dying in a car crash. Mike is convinced that was because of The Tall Man. Reggie tries to comfort him while the fireplace is lit in the background, saying it was just a car crash and The Tall Man is not real. After losing both his parents and now his big brother, Reggie suggests that they should hit the road and get a fresh start. The Tall Man is suddenly behind Mike and captures him in his bedroom, after his iconic line BooooOOOOY! As the evil Jawa-looking dwarfs, called Lurkers, pop out of everywhere, Reggie turns up the gas stoves, saves Mike at the last second and jumps out a window before we have one of the most epic house explosions in a horror movie.

Then we skip seven years later where Mike has spent his time in a psych ward. He finally gets released after lying to the doctor by saying that everything was in his head. Sarah Connor frowns. Mike then celebrates his new freedom by visiting Disneyland. Just kidding – he goes straight to Morningside Cemetery to find three empty coffins. Reggie pops up, and he’s disappointed that Mike still hasn’t realized that it was all in his head. Yeah, someone is in some deep denial here, or, whatever. Mike also has some telepathy connections with a blonde girl, Liz (Paula Irvine), who also is on a mission to take down The Tall Man. Because her grandpa is on the deathbed and, to quote the boogeyman’s own words, You think that when you die, you go to Heaven. You come to us!, she doesn’t want The Tall Man to claim him. Of course not. That must have been the greatest grandpa.

Mike begs Reggie to help him. But the priorities have changed since last time as he’s gotten married and has a daughter. He drives Mike home to meet his family, only to get met with the sight of his house being blown to pieces. By who? Take a guess. RIP to Reg’s family that we never got to meet. Well, there’s no reason now to not join forces, hit the gas, loot some weapons, and hunt down the prime evil himself.

Along the way, they pick up a young woman, Alchemy (Samantha Phillips). And…she’s a weird bird and Reggie is drooling all over her. Hey, Reg, you’re a good guy, but your wife and daughter just died. Some cope with grief differently, I guess. They have a bizarre sex scene where Reggie does all in his power to not touch her naked breasts. That’s because Reggie’s real-life wife was on the set that day. Ooof. It took six hours to shoot that short scene. Must have been torture. Samantha Phillips didn’t understand the script at all (can’t blame her) and why the hell her character just wanted to have sex with a random bald guy. Coscarelli, the genius that he is, said: You have a fetish for bald heads. Oki-doki then. There’s, of course, something more to her than just being an excuse to shoehorn a sex scene.

We get introduced to Reggie’s iconic signature weapon, the Quadruple-barrel shotgun, as he segways himself to become the wholesome action hero of the franchise. Here, he only uses the shotgun once before he just throws it away. We get more blasting in the next film though.

Phantasm II offers a more action vibe with some road-movie elements in purest Supernatural-style. The plot is more straight-forward, and, of course, more gory. Reggie did all his stunts himself, except in the epic chainsaw fight scene. The bigger budget shows, as we also have bigger scale set-pieces and more technical abilities. The atmosphere is way more ghoulish where we have the most sinister-looking mausoleum that was built for the film where one can smell the eeriness. The spheres have gotten some mods, like a laser beam and a little blade to chop off ears. I bet Robotnik is a bit jealous.

The effects are done by veterans like Greg Nicatero and Robert Kurtzman, where we have a grotesque Tall Man minion-puppet that sure would have caused some serious back pain. A sphere flies through someone’s body and almost through the mouth. Awesome stuff. James Le Gros as Mike took its time to get used to. He does an alright job. Nothing too special. Reggie and Angus Scrimm steals the show. This Liz character, however, seemed pretty pointless, and so did the psychic power elements, which are completely gone in the next films. But again, that’s Phantasm for you. Don’t look much for logic, just enjoy the ride.

Phantasm II is regarded as the best one in the series, like a handful of other second films in a horror franchise. But one particular individual that didn’t like it and gave it a one star, was the one and only, Roger Ebert, who had this interesting take:

―The target audience for “Phantasm II” obviously is teenagers, especially those with abbreviated attention spans, who require a thrill a minute. But why would images of death and decay seem entertaining to them? For the same reason, I imagine, that the horror genre has always been attractive to adolescents. They feel immortal, immune to the processes of aging and death, and so to them these scenes of coffins and corpses represent a psychological weapon against adults. Kids will never die. Only adults will die. ―

It’s fair to assume that Ebert had some serious thanatophobia (fear of death). Nothing wrong with that. We all have our phobias. But maybe that explains why he notoriously hated horror movies so much and despised watching them since it was a part of his job. RIP.

Writer and director: Don Coscarelli
Country & year: USA, 1988
Actors: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, Samantha Phillips, Kenneth Tigar, Ruth C. Engel, Mark Major, Rubin Kushner
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095863/

Prequel:
– Phantasm (1979)

Sequel:
– Phantasm III (1994)

Slugs (1988)

Posted on September 2, 2025September 2, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The summer ain’t over yet, cause here they come – the slugs! Thousands of slugs slime their way up from lakes, sewers, and toilets to eat people in a small American town, all from alcoholics, horny teenagers to rich soap opera snobs. And before you know it, the slugs are everywhere. They slime, they ooze, they kill. Slugs, slugs, slugs! My oh my… The local sheriff must come up with a smart plan to save the day. There you have this cheesy, silly, slimy low-brow Spanish/American-produced creature-feature in a nutshell. Nothing more, nothing less. But are slugs really harmful though? Let’s ask Mr. Google:

– Considering that you are a rational human being who doesn’t put slimy, gross bugs into your mouth, this shouldn’t be a problem. It may, however, be an issue for your pets. Cats and dogs that consume slugs may suffer from excessive drooling and or vomiting. Beyond this, slugs are not harmful, Google says.

Allrighty then. So, what are we gonna do with those damn slugs? And speaking of animals, did you also know that hedgehogs eat slugs as if it was candy? This would be like a buffet heaven for the Sonics. Anyway…

What makes the movie worth a watch are the effects and just the overall silliness. And if you appreciate some funny-bad acting, there are some laughs to be had here. There isn’t much more to say really. It’s pretty straight-forward where NPC’s are getting eaten by slugs, one by one. Some slime their way into garden gloves to chew on someone’s hands, while others hide in the food to get swallowed so they can eat their victims from the inside out. Gnarly. Slugs is directed by the Spanish gore & schlock master Juan Piquer Simón, who’s most known for Pieces (and the bizarre clown show that is Extra Terrestrial Visitors), so that alone should say a few things. The film is also known as Slugs The Movie since it’s based on a book by the splatter-punk horror writer Shaun Hutson. And after he saw the film he had a clear verdict: – Do yourselves a favor a don’t bother watching it, it’s awful! – He has later viewed the film as a guilty pleasure.

Slugs is available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video, and as for now, it slimes around on Tubi.

Director: Juan Piquer Simón
Writers: Ron Gantman, José Antonio Escrivá, Juan Piquer Simón
Also known as: Slugs The Movie
Country & year: USA/Spain, 1988
Actors: Michael Garfield Levine, Kim Terry, Philip MacHale, Alicia Moro, Santiago Álvarez, Concha Cuetos, John Battaglia, Emilio Linder, Kris Mann, Kari Rose, Manuel de Blas, thousands of slugs
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093995/

Robowar (1988)

Posted on July 11, 2025August 14, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

This Italian-produced Predator ripoff starts in the midst of a full-blown bulletstorm mayhem in the jungle of the Philippines, and a group of commandos are sent to the green inferno to see what the hell is going on. We meet the four trigger-happy testosterone-filled walking ballsacks with the colorful code names Killzone, Blood, Papa, Diddy Bop and Quiang. And together they make the team called BAM, which stands for (yeah, you already guessed it) Bad Ass Motherfuckers. Can’t get more 1980s than that. They stumble upon fresh-fried corpses as they explore the territories. They rescue a damsel-in-distress from getting chased by a group of horny guerrillas. She is a young, blond nurse who goes by the name… Virgin. Sounds like she’s in the wrong movie, no?

Anyway – As they go deeper in the jungle, things start to smell more cheesy, as they’re getting hunted by an alien-looking killer robot, called ~~Predator~~ Omega One. He’s a high-tech renegade humanoid who shoots the deadliest lasers through an arm cannon and wears a silly costume where a biker helmet was used to give him the flair of RoboCop, another well-known film you’ve maybe heard of. Instead, we have just another thick layer of cheese. Now it starts to smell. And his appearance is as intimidating as…someone who has dressed up to attend a Halloween party at the local gay bar. To build up some suspense and tension, we see from his POV perspective through his lousy, low-pixelated sensor while he mumbles gibberish like a demented Indian scammer on crack cocaine. So, come get some!

Robowar is directed by schlock maestro of Italian Trash Cinema Bruno Mattei (here under his most used pseudonym as Vincent Dawn), written by the couple Rosetta Drudi and Claudio Fragasso. Fragasso also got the honor of playing the RoboPredator, which made him faint two times during the shoot due to the extreme heat. Claudio Fragasso also did the most Claudio Fragasso thing to shoot a random sequence without zero context to the rest of the film. Of course. Robowar was originally meant to just be a Vietnam-war film, inspired by Apocalypse Now (1979), shot in the hot n’ sticky Philippines and all, but when Mattei saw Predator during a lunch break, he did what he usually did: put in elements of said film to cash in on its current success. And we can only imagine what the film would look like if he had also played Contra. That being said, Mattei had already made the war film Commando Strike the year before, also in the Philippines, where I guess the leftovers of ammo, cheese, testosterone and set pieces to blow up were enough to fill Robowar. Mattei also made Commando Strike 2 the same year, aka Trappola diabolica. So yeah, Signor Mattei sure got to make his epic war films, one of which by coincidence became a Predator ripoff, and one of the mockbuster films I bet that The Asylum wish they had made some 30 years ago. And that alone says it all.

Some quoteworthy (white) lines:

– Fuck it, Diddy. Quit moving around like you’re jerking off, you’re making me seasick.

– Why do they have nicknames?
– You should know what the group is called. “BAM”.
– BAM?
– Big Ass Motherfuckers!

– Drug addicts and fags. I bet they got AIDS too, huh, Quang?

– Technology hasn’t got feelings! (I bet that Jason Blum does not agree on that one, bwhahahahaha…!)

Director: Bruno Mattei
Writers: Claudio Fragasso, Rossella Drudi
Original title: Robot da guerra
Country & year: Italy/Philippines, 1988
Actors: Reb Brown, Catherine Hickland, Massimo Vanni, Romano Puppo, Claudio Fragasso, Luciano Pigozzi, Max Laurel, Jim Gaines, John P. Dulaney, Mel Davidson
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096000/

Paperhouse (1988)

Posted on November 1, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Anna Madden is an 11 year old girl, who one day starts having fainting spells at school and when playing with her friend. She’s suffering from glandular fever, and must stay at home and finds herself bedridden much to her dismay. She draws a house, and when she falls asleep she starts having disturbing dreams about this house. Later she draws a face in the window, and the next time she dreams there’s a boy there. His name is Marc, and he’s suffering from muscular dystrophy and cannot walk. She keeps adding things to the drawing in order to form the house more to her liking, like adding stairs and furniture. She also tries an attempt at fixing Marc’s legs, but this proves futile. Something’s not right in her dreams, however, and in real life Anna’s having troubles with her relationship with both her mother and her absent father who’s struggling with alcoholism and is often away for work at long periods of time. One day when her doctor comes for a visit, Anna finds out that the doctor has another patient whose name is Marc. And now she’s starting to realize that the house in her dreams may not just be a pure fantasy after all.

Paperhouse is a dark fantasy film from 1988, directed by Bernard Rose who later directed Candyman (1992). This movie is based on a novel from 1958, called Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. This novel was also the basis of a British TV series made for children in the early 1970’s, called Escape Into Night. This movie, however…is clearly not a movie suitable for the young’uns, despite being originally marketed as a children’s fantasy film. Sure, the horror elements aren’t very explicit and it takes a while for them to settle in, but there’s a definite ominous atmosphere throughout, and the scene where her blind father appears in her dream (blind because she didn’t draw his eyes properly) and starts hunting her with a hammer, isn’t exactly Saturday morning material.

I have to say that the work they did on the dreamworld is pretty well made, where everything looks like it’s trapped in a closed space where nothing else exists. It’s filmed in a desolate field, where you can see the ocean nearby but it’s all just vast and empty. No other islands to spot, no trees, other buildings, absolutely nothing. The surrealism and weirdness of the place is spot-on, and the strange interior of the already strange and crooked-looking house only adds to the vibe.

Paperhouse is a pretty strange coming of age movie, not outright a horror movie but it certainly has some elements thereof. The surreal tone, the somewhat unconvincing acting (especially by the lead actress, who also never played in any other film after this one) gives the whole film a very weird vibe. Also some nice music from Hans Zimmer which strengthens the incredibly dreamy and outlandish mood. Worth a watch if you want something strange and different.

Director: Bernard Rose
Writer: Matthew Jacobs
Country & year: UK, 1988
Actors: Charlotte Burke, Jane Bertish, Samantha Cahill, Glenne Headly, Sarah Newbold, Gary Bleasdale, Elliott Spiers, Gemma Jones, Steven O’Donnell, Ben Cross, Karen Gledhill, Barbara Keogh
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098061/