american horror movies – Horror Ghouls

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Posted on October 8, 2026October 8, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

After the wild ride in the previous film, Bride of Chucky, we are now in for something even more wacky. The child of Chucky and Tiffany has been captured and help captive by a mean ventriloquist called Psychs, who has named the doll “Shitface“. Nice. This doll, however, could definitely be considered a true Good Guy as it’s got a peaceful and kind nature. As if this wasn’t already weird enough, the story continues with how the doll finds out that Chucky and Tiffany are its parents, then manages to escape from Stromboli, er, I mean Psychs, and tracks down the dolls from a prop room in Hollywood. Yeah, because this movie also goes all semi-meta and Chucky movies are a thing here. Voodoo is once again used to resurrect Chucky, and also Tiffany this time. While Chucky is horrified to find out he’s got a child, Tiffany is all over the moon. Then they have to name their child…which becomes somewhat of a problem when Tiffany notices that their child are without genitals (like most normal dolls are). So…is it a boy or a girl..? Not even their child seems to know the answer to that question, the poor thing, who is now stuck in a struggle between mom and dad where Chucky names their child Glen, while Tiffany names it Glenda. And if you didn’t get the reference, it’s to Ed Wood’s cross-dressing cult film Glen or Glenda (1953).

Anyway, Chucky and Tiffany quickly start a new killing spree while Glen/Glenda is confused and just wants them to stop so they can all live as a happy doll family. Aw. And while Tiffany does have an inkling of parental responsibility inside her plastic body, that’s not so much the case with Chucky. And all the stuff that happens from here on is…weird.

Seed of Chucky is the fifth film in the Chucky/Child’s Play franchise, and a direct sequel to the fourth film, Bride of Chucky. And ohh boy…did they decide to go batshit with this one. While Bride had a good balance between the black comedy and the horror elements, always fun, energetic and slightly goofy, this one takes it all several steps further.

It is once again written by Don Mancini, and he’s also directing this time in his directorial debut. And this was the last film from the original continuity to be released in the theaters. Don Mancini, who is gay, wanted to explore some LGBT themes for this film and was in fact inspired by Ed Wood’s Glen or Glenda when writing the script including a doll suffering from gender dysphoria. Universal Pictures didn’t want any of this though, and rejected the script with the simple note “This is too gay“. Alright, well fuck them then. The project was later approved by Focus Features and released through Rogue Pictures. It was shot almost entirely in Romania in Castel Studios to keep the costs down, and this time the animatronic and makeup effects were made by Tony Gardner who also had a small cameo in the film.

I’m going to be honest: I get why many Chucky lovers hate this film. Everything has been changed from what was originally a possessed slasher doll into a comedic self-parody. Then again, at this point it was absolutely no surprise. While Bride started it, then Seed definitely took it and ran the entire mile with it. The entire movie is a joke, but it’s supposed to be. I mean, the previous film ended with a crazy doll-birth scene. No need for any clairvoyance to foresee that this would get even weirder and even more over-the-top. It could easily have become a bit too much, but I found the “family issues“ between the dolls somewhat amusing and slightly charming actually. The chemistry between Chucky and Tiffany, now having become parents, is sweet in a kind of messed up way. And the duo killing both while working together and while going solo adds for a lot of fun death scenes and scenarios.

Personally, while I enjoyed Bride of Chucky more, I actually liked Seed of Chucky more than I expected to. It’s cheesy, filled with gore and sick jokes, the kill scenes are as fun as ever, and it’s even got frickin’ John Waters, the “Pope of Trash“ himself. This movie knows exactly what it is. It’s fun and silly, just don’t expect it to be anything else and you just might have a good time. And it kinda has a happy ending too…kinda.

Writer and director: Don Mancini
Country & year: USA, 2004
Actors: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Billy Boyd, Redman, Hannah Spearritt, John Waters, Keith-Lee Castle, Steve West, Tony Gardner, Jason Flemyng, Nicholas Rowe
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387575/

Bride of Chucky (1998)

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

In the previous film, Child’s Play 3, Chucky died for the third time. Well, we all know that slasher villains never truly stay dead, they are always resurrected in some way or other. This time, his ex-girlfriend Tiffany Valentine bribes a police officer so she can get her hands on the Chucky doll’s remains. She of course murders this guy afterwards. In her trailer (because where else would she live) she stitches the doll up and performs a voodoo ritual to revive him. Aaaand…nothing happens. Botched ritual…or perhaps a delayed delivery? Hmm. In the meantime she gets a visit from a dude named Damien who is madly in love with her, and voila, there’s life in the old doll after all and we get the first kill.

While Tiffany is at first very happy about having her love brought back to life, she soon finds out that he was never really that serious with her after all. What a surprise. She gets angry, and locks him inside a playpen while giving him a bride doll to taunt him. Uh-oh…bad idea. Chucky electrocutes her and uses a voodoo spell to transfer her soul into the bride doll. It’s supposed to be an act of vengeance, but at the same time…he got himself a female counterpart. A Harley to his Joker or something like that. They also kinda fall in love with each other all over again, and they certainly seem to be a perfect duo. Now, we have two killer dolls who want to escape their doll bodies, by finding some humans they can switch with, and they end up choosing Tiffany’s neighbor boy Jesse and his girlfriend Jade.

Bride of Chucky is the fourth film in the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise, and the first to use his name in the title. It was once again written by Don Mancini, and this time directed by Ronny Yu. And this is also where the franchise really swerves into a completely different lane, where it’s pure comedy almost to the point of being self-parodic. And to be honest…I kinda liked this turn, as the shift fits with the goofy foul-mouthed doll who was never really scary to begin with (my opinion). And no matter the reception, it became the highest-grossing film in the series.

Kevin Yahger and his team created many animatronic puppets for this film, where Chucky alone had nine different ones, and each doll required seven puppeteers to control. And yeah, we’re going for practical effects, which of course look great. The acting is actually pretty good too, with Dourif naturally returning as Chucky, but Jennifer Tilly also does a very fun performance as his unhinged and slightly cute-naive girlfriend. Her doll version looks great, a perfect counterpart to Chucky and just as full of life and character as he is. Their love-hate relationship comes off as both cute and funny, and the kill scenes are considerably more gory this time around. The only thing that falls a little flat are the two human characters, Jesse and Jade, who become totally uninteresting compared to the rest, but fortunately the majority of the film delivers on doll action and kills.

Bride of Chucky is, just as Mancini himself said: part horror, part comedy, part romance and part road movie. And it is a such a fun time! It doesn’t take itself seriously for even a split second, it knows exactly what it is. And that ending…yeah, that’s certainly something. Which of course gave the perfect idea for the next film, since obviously they decided to say “fuck it, let’s just have a ton of fun at this point and go even more off the rails“.

Director: Ronny Yu
Writer: Don Mancini
Country & year: USA, 1998
Actors: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, Alexis Arquette, Gordon Michael Woolvett, John Ritter, Lawrence Dane, Michael Louis Johnson, James Gallanders
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144120/

Child’s Play 3 (1991)

Posted on October 6, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

It has now been 8 years since Chucky’s second death, and the Good Guy dolls company have re-opened their abandoned factory. As Chucky’s “corpse“ is being removed, a drop of his blood falls into the molten plastic which is used to produce the new Good Guy dolls, which of course gives him a new body so he can start killing and cursing once again.

Since 8 years have passed, Andy is now 16 years old, and he has been sent to Kent Military School. And yes, his mother is still in the loony bin. At this military school he befriends an 8 year old boy named Ronald Tyler, another cadet named Harold Aubrey, and the spunky female cadet Kristin De Silva whom of course becomes his love interest. His only struggle so far is the sadistic lieutenant colonel Brett C. Shelton, who bullies the cadets and really has one out for Andy. This not nothing compared to the threat of Chucky, who of course has managed to find out where Andy is and gets himself shipped to him as a package. Chucky is in for a surprise, though, as it isn’t Andy who ends up opening the package, but 8 year old Tyler who really, really wants his own Good Guy doll. Chucky decides to tell Tyler his secret, which will give him the opportunity to use a voodoo soul-swapping ritual to take over the kid’s body. None of this goes exactly after Chucky’s plan, but as always he’s determined enough to do anything to get his way.

Child’s Play 3 from 1991 is the third film in the franchise, once again written by Don Mancini but this time directed by Jack Bender, with David Kirschner as executive producer. And this one received mostly negative reviews from critics, and ended up being the lowest-grossing film in the series. The movie was made very shortly after the second film, giving it a tight schedule. It was filmed at the Kemper Military School in Boonville, Missouri, while the rest was filmed in California at Los Angeles and the Universal Studios Lot, with the carnival scenes shot in Valencia, California.

It also became somewhat notorious in the UK as it allegedly inspired a real-life murder of a child named James Bulger, where the killers were two ten year olds. It was said that they had imitated a scene where one of Chucky’s victims were splashed with blue paint, but this was just a rumor mainly based on that the father of one of the boys had rented the film some months earlier. The boy in question had most likely not even seen the movie since he had not been living with his father at the time. What can you say…people always try to blame shit on movies, games and other media.

When it comes to franchises, there will always be those movies considered the “better“ and “worse“ ones. Sometimes you have a dip and rise of varying quality, while other times you have a constant nosedive (like what happened to the Hellraiser franchise, where pretty much none of the movies after the third one seemed like they were made to be Hellraiser movies at all, and the Hellraiser elements felt like they had been shoehorned in). I guess we can say that in Chucky’s case, the character definitely feels more important than the story at this point. And I’m going to guess that this is why Child’s Play 3 was the last movie in the franchise to have “Child’s Play“ in the title, and the upcoming ones were always titled Chucky-something-or-other. And that’s very understandable.

What’s mainly different this time around, is that Andy is now closer to becoming an adult. Thus the movie spends some time with how he interacts with the other people, including his love interest, all of which isn’t that much of interest to be honest. You just wanna see Chucky messing around and killing people. The animatronics and effects are still really good, and Chucky looks more menacing than ever. And while the death scenes are a bit mixed (there’s one where a guy literally just gets a heart attack because he’s so scared by seeing Chucky), I loved the mean spirited garbage truck scene.

Many seem to consider Child’s Play 3 to be the “black sheep“ of the franchise, and while I personally find it far from the best, I still had a good time with it.

Director: Jack Bender
Writer: Don Mancini
Country & year: USA, 1991
Actors: Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, Jeremy Sylvers, Travis Fine, Dean Jacobson, Brad Dourif, Peter Haskell, Dakin Matthews, Andrew Robinson, Burke Byrnes
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103956/

Child’s Play 2 (1990)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

It has now been two years since Chucky died, and the manufacturer of the Good Guy dolls are still trying to recover from all the negative publicity. Easier said than done when everyone thinks your product is faulty to the point of becoming a death threat. So, in order to recover from the bad reputation, they decide to “prove“ that nothing was actually wrong with the doll at all, and takes the Chucky doll’s remains and reassemble him into…not exactly as good as new, but at least whole. Sounds like an excellent idea to reassure their stockholders, right? Well, after having made Chucky whole again, a power surge suddenly electrocutes and kills one of the workers, and Chucky comes alive.

Then we’re heading over to Andy who has been in foster care after the Chucky incident, since his mother was institutionalized after she refused to back down from the claim that the doll was alive. He is now trying to live a normal life. That is, as normal as you possibly can when your possessed doll killed people and got your mommy thrown into the loony bin. Chucky, however, still needs Andy to get a proper body, and manages to find out his new living location. He figures out a way to get himself inside the house, and takes the place of another Good Guy doll already there, who is named Tommy. Yes, the Good Guy dolls are produced to come with different names. Andy soon finds out that Chucky has re-entered his life, but the problem is that no one believes him…at least not at first.

Child’s Play 2 from 1990 is the sequel to the first 1988 film, this time written by Don Mancini and directed by John Lafia with Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif reprising their roles. Tom Holland was asked to return as director, but he refused due to conflicts with the film’s producer David Kirschner and United Artists during the making of the first film. While the first film was mostly shot on location in Chicago, this one was shot on Universal Studios Lot, and the toy factory scenes were shot in an abandoned warehouse in Valencia, California.

Kevin Yagher returned to make the special effects for the film, and he even directed some of the scenes too. The puppetry and animatronics look great, and Chucky’s facial expressions are even more wild. He’s just as foul-mouthed as ever, and Brad Dourif’s voice has pretty much merged with the character at this point. Dourif is the only Chucky by now, with it impossible to imagine anyone else in the role.

It is overall an entertaining sequel with some decent kills and great effects, but it is the climax of the film that goes in a really fun direction, and the most impressive part of this sequel. It’s using the toy factory setting, where there’s a maze of who knows how many Good Guy doll boxes. While it was obviously filmed in a way where it was later edited so it looked like the maze was considerably much bigger than it was, it still looked really cool. Then the actual ending of the movie is so goofy and fun, and definitely one of the biggest highlights in the entire franchise! Well, at least in my opinion. Child’s Play 2 offers more of the comedic tone than the first film, but it fits well together with how the movie also goes for a more crazy ride.

Director: John Lafia
Writer: Don Mancini
Country & year: USA, 1990
Actors: Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, Christine Elise, Brad Dourif, Grace Zabriskie, Peter Haskell, Beth Grant, Greg Germann,
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099253/

Child’s Play (1988)

Posted on October 4, 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/

Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)

Posted on October 3, 2026October 7, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Your suffering will be legendary ― even on Earth! Yeah, sure, if Earth is such a green-grassed utopia to begin with, especially the Rotten Apple that is New York. And speaking of: the young, douchey pussyhound and goth-nightclub owner, J. P. Monroe (let’s just call him Jay Pee), has bought the grotesque pillar we saw at the end of the previous film, before it would be locked away in Warrens’ Occult Museum. After he fucks some chick, hooked chains flies out of the pillar and rips her skin off, and Pinhead, with only his face popping out of it, eats her. Similar to the previous films, he needs to eat human flesh in order to become whole. Only here though, he’s a demon that would be set free in the real world, in a goth nightclub, even. How fitting. Jay Pee becomes Pinhead’s bitch who gets ordered to serve him more bodysuits to eat. Not the most difficult task since New York has plenty.

Then we meet our protagonist, where the formula began using the reporter/detective trope to slog us through rest of the sequels. Here, however, we have the young news reporter Joey who has recurring nightmares of her dad being killed in Vietnam, and we can say that the plot thickens as much as it gets muddy where we eventually have two Pinheads, one good and one evil. Joey gets in possession of the Puzzle box, thanks to the clubgoer Terri, and finds a videotape of Kirsty (from the first two films) who explains how to use it in order to send Pinhead back to hell. When Pinhead (the evil one) finally gets out, he turns into pure slasher villain-mode and collects more bodycounts than the whole franchise combined. Pinhead goes on a blasphemy spree, enters a church where he mocks the crucifixion of Christ behind the altar before the place explodes. The conservatives in North Carolina, where the film was shot, had a problem with that. So yeah, Pinhead is the man of the hour here where he has the most screentime in the whole franchise and gets his time to really shine, spiced-up with some colorful one-liners.

And then we have our new group of Cenobites, which look more like something from a canceled Hellraiser Saturday morning cartoon show. Say hello to Doc the Cameraface, who has a camera merged in half of his face. And since this is the early 1990s, what could be more cool than DJ the CD face, slicing people with CD’s? So rad! And watch out for Rick the Bartender who fries your face as he spits flames from his cocktail shake beverage. And we can’t have a ’90s film without some big explosions. The comedic and playful tone lingers all over the film, as you’d expect when we have the director of the Waxworks films in the director chair. Not for everybody’s taste, but it at least still manage to feel like a Hellraiser film where there still was some respect for the source material, and is far from boring. The film ends perfectly with the song Hellraiser (of course) performed by Motörhead , and the franchise should also end with that note. The success at the box-office suggested otherwise where the brutal humiliation ritual of the franchise was about to begin.

Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996), or Hellraiser in Space if you like, became the final theatrical release of the franchise. That film was directed by ~~Kevin Yagher~~ the legendary Alan Smithee and also the final Hellraiser where Clive Barker was involved before the smell of bullshite got too strong and jumped ship… so that maybe speaks for itself.

What we have next is six more sequels, and…wooooof. This is the worst kind of early, ultra-cheap, soulless 2000s direct-to-video toilet slop imaginable: Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002), Hellraiser: Deader (2005), Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) At this point I’m actually surprised that they just didn’t go for Hellraiser: Hellraiser. Fun fact: Inferno is the directorial debut of Scott Derrickson, but even he couldn’t get Pinhead back on track. Hellworld was the last film where Doug Bradley said fuck this bollox, I’m outta here. But it didn’t stop there, as we got the worst of them all served on a paper plate: Hellraiser: Revelations (2011) ― a baffling amateur show in all aspects and way too boring to be so-bad-it’s-good. Then we have and finally the last one, Hellraiser: Judgement (2018). Have yet to see the Hulu remake from 2021.

So what really went wrong with Hellraiser? Simple and boring answer: the first four since Inferno were originally written as standalone crime/thrillers, not as Hellraiser films. The elements with Pinhead was shoved in at the last five minutes and slammed on the posters, with the Hellraiser title, in order to cash-in and fool us gullible audiences. How they managed to poop out four of these turds with Doug Bradley onboard, is a mystery box of its own. But showbiz is showbiz and there’s always rent to pay. Your suffering will be legendary by watching them all in one sitting without any pauses, unless you’re masochistic enough.

Director: Anthony Hickox
Writer: Peter Atkins, Tony Randel
Country & year: UK/USA, 1992
Actors: Terry Farrell, Paula Marshall, Kevin Bernhardt, Doug Bradley, Ken Carpenter, Brent Bolthouse, Sharon Percival, Philip Hyland, David Young, Peter Atkins, Ashley Laurence
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095294/

Mr. Crocket (2024)

Posted on September 29, 2026September 29, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Time for a trip down the nostalgia-lane once again, at least for those of us who grew up during the 90’s. We’re now in 1993, where there’s a children’s TV show called Mr Crocket’s World, hosted by Mr. Crocket himself of course, and his puppets: Boogaloo Blue and Squawky Bird. Now, this TV show is not one of those popular shows that everyone knows about…only a select few gets to experience it fully. This includes a boy named Darren Harper, who found the VHS tape in a free library outside his home. Later that day, during dinner, Darren once again experience the abuse from his stepfather Kevin. Yes, he’s growing up in that kind of home…because you see, here’s another thing: Mr Crocket only seeks out children who happen to grow up with shitty, abusive parents. And Mr. Crocket and his friendly puppets are ready to bounce into the real world from the television to set things straight! Before Darren’s stepfather can make the dinner even worse, Mr. Crocket emerges from the televison, gets a monster chair to trap the guy and soon has the bastard killed in an amusingly satisfying and gory way. Then he takes Darren with him and they all live happily ever after…

Or not. We fast forward to one year later, where we meet the single mother Summer Beverly, who is struggling with her disobedient son Major. Her husband died recently, and she believes Major’s behavioral issues are due to the loss of his father. Or is it that simple? When she finds the Mr. Crocket’s World VHS tape in the free library, she gives it to her son in the hopes he’ll have something to cheer him up. And indeed he does…the boy becomes obsessed with the show. And his behavior gets even worse, and he starts throwing tantrums. Having had enough, she snaps at him one day and sends him to his room, and this is where Mr. Crocket once again comes out of the TV to bring a child with him to a happier place without bad parents. Except in this case, it looks like Mr. Crocket missed his mark a little. Anyway, with Major now missing, Summer learns about the other missing children and cases similar to hers, and starts researching Mr. Crocket to find out exactly who or what he is, and how she can hopefully get her son back.

Mr. Crocket is a supernatural horror film from 2024, directed by Brandon Espy in his feature directorial debut from a screenplay he co-wrote with Carl Reid. Espy made a short film in 2022 with the same name. This feature film premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2024, and was later released as a Hulu original and can be seen internationally on Disney+. Espy got inspiration for the movie after seeing how his eldest son obsessively watched a TV show called Blippi, and then mixed in more inspiration from Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, Pee-wee’s Playhouse and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Quite a mix. Being born in 1987 and thus experiencing childhood during the 90’s probably also did its piece.

And going for a 90’s style movie, there is one thing you absolutely, absolutely need to do: use practical effects. And they sure got that right here! There’s lots of fun practical effects including the delightfully cheesy-creepy monster chair, who is of course named Mr Chair because what else. There’s ripped torsos, guts and blood, all done in a cartoonish and silly way. In Mr Crocket’s own hellish realm, there’s not only his demonic-looking puppets but also living clocks, mailboxes, and furniture. All practical, by the way. There’s also a short animated cartoon used as part of the backstory for Mr. Crocket, and YES, it was done by actual animators, from the NY animation studio Cartuna. So take heed, directors out there: it’s possible to have an animated cartoon in your movie without retorting to fucking GEN AI. Yes, you probably know which movie I’m hinting towards right now.

Elvis Nolasco who plays Mr. Crocket in this film, really, really wanted the role. And he fits it so well, where afterwards you can’t really imagine someone else playing it. He even remained in character throughout the filming, and even introduced himself to the cast and crew as Mr. Crocket. Must’ve been quite a blast, especially when doing parts of the TV show theme song A Friend Like Me.

Mr. Crocket is by no means any masterpiece, but it is pure 90’s horror cheesefest, and one I found surprisingly fun and creative and also a little more bloody than I initially expected. Which just added to the fun. Would have loved to see a sequel if done with the same 90’s charm and the same use of practical effects. And of course, with Elvis Nolasco reprising his role as Mr. Crocket. No news of any sequels though, even if both Espy and Nolasco have expressed an interest in expanding the story further. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Director: Brandon Espy
Writers: Carl Reid, Brandon Espy
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Jerrika Hinton, Ayden Gavin, Kristolyn Lloyd, Alex Akpobome, Elvis Nolasco, Akim Black, Jermaine Rivers, Riley Vinson, Lyla Randall, Jabari Striblin, Vivien Huang
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32916093/

100 Tears (2007)

Posted on September 25, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

― I think I’m gonna shit my pants!

Imagine if Terrifier was directed by Andreas Schnaas, just with a more sober camera man and even a cleaner camera lense. There you more or less have 100 Tears. What else is there really to say.

Well, there’s actually a plot here, somewhere, I believe. It goes something like this: A mute double-chinned psycho clown, simply called Gurdy the Clown (Jack Amos), goes around and slaughters people like there’s no tomorrow with a ridiculously big meat cleaver. C o o l. He kidnaps some victims to drag home to his abandoned warehouse to, well, torture them. A girl gets slowly killed in Ginî piggu-style, before killing another guy and ripping out his intestines like a kid opening his presents on Christmas morning…and then chopping his head off with the meat cleaver, causing blood spurts like a garden hose. Gurdy surely has learned from the best.

Then there’s this mysterious young disturbed blond woman, a Harley Quinn wannabe, who picks up guys at the local bar to take them to an alley to have oral sex before she, yeah you guess it, kills them. What connection does she have to anything, you ask? It’s pretty obvious.

There’s also an iceberg to this Gurdy clown, and the two tabloid journalists, Jennifer and Mark, are working to get to the bottom of it. If they’re a couple/married or whatever, we don’t know. But what we know is that the guy who plays Mark, Joe Davidson, is no doubt a clone of James Gandolfini. And they’re overall entertaining to follow if you’re drunk enough, even though most of the wonky dialogues just flies over your head while we’re waiting for the next goreshow by Gurdy.

Because the most outstanding here are the practical effects made by the director himself, Marcus Koch, who has worked on 100-plus obscure independent horror films. Nikos the Impaler and Lung II are two I can mention that are reviewed on this site. So, if you’re first and foremost looking for crazy over-the-top violence where torsos get cut in half and limbs scattering left and right, spiced up with some dumb humor in glorious Z-movie format, you’ll have a jolly good time. A Director’s Cut Blu-ray is released by Unearthed Films and can also be found on Tubi.

Director: Marcus Koch
Writer: Joe Davison
Country & year: USA, 2007
Actors: Georgia Chris, Joe Davison, Raine Brown, Jack Amos, Kibwe Dorsey, Rod Grant, Norberto Santiago, Jerry Allen, Jeff Dylan Graham
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0943946/

American Psycho (2000)

Posted on September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in 1987, and Patrick Bateman is a New York City investment banker who is very obsessed with showing off a perfect façade. His clothes need to be perfect and of the best brands, he only dines at the most trendy and expensive restaurants, and is of course within a circle-jerk of apparently likeminded wealthy associates: shallow, arrogant, and secretly hating each other and filled to the brim with jealousy. However, Bateman is not all what he seems on the surface. Inside him there’s very violent impulses he can’t (or won’t) control. He’s in fact a reckless serial killer, brutally killing everything from animals, homeless people, prostitutes and also one of the other rich douchebags from his circle of acquaintances. This leads to the involvement of a private investigator. Bateman, however, has already spiraled so far down into a dark hole filled with sadistic depravity, that he has already started to lose his sense of reality.

American Psycho is a psychological thriller from 2000, based on the 1991 novel by the same name written by Bret Easton Ellis. The film was directed by Mary Harron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Guinevere Turner. It stars Christian Bale in the role as Patrick Bateman, and also includes some other familiar faces like Willem Dafoe.

The author of the novel, Ellis, considered it “unfilmable“. And if you were to do a proper and true adaption including some of the book’s most graphic content, then yeah…they would have censored the fuck out of it and probably banned it outright in many countries. The novel, while starting off rather slow, really goes hard in the latter part of the book and it’s definitely not for the faint of heart. Some of the scenes depicted in the novel are even more extreme and vicious than what you would find in a Terrifier movie, and that says something. Anyway, Edward R. Pressman was determined to make an adaption no matter what, with Stuart Gordon, David Cronenberg and Rob Weiss considered as directors before Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner started writing the screenplay in 1996. The pre-production didn’t go smoothly with lots of back and forth, and Harron was even fired when she wanted to hire Bale to play Bateman. Lions Gate Films wanted Leonardo DiCaprio for the role, so they replaced her with Oliver Stone. That didn’t go well, as DiCaprio and Stone had “creative differences“ which made them leave the project, where Harron was reinstated as the director and got her wishes to cast Bale. Which is good, as Bale does an excellent portrayal of the arrogant and unhinged yuppie.

Interestingly, Harron had actually attempted to read the novel shortly after its publication, but was put off due to the very violent content. She gave it a second chance later, and was especially interested in the satire presented in it. The movie, just like the book, heavily satirizes the 1980’s yuppie culture, where Bateman and his colleagues are depicting social privilege in a very on-the-nose matter. What’s a little hilarious is how the movie got a pretty good reception, where mainly it was well received but some still criticized its “violent nature“. Hah…they should’ve read the book instead, those wusses. Roger Ebert liked it, though, and gave it 3 out of 4 stars.

Bale, in order to appear as much like Bateman as possible, started going to the gym to become completely ripped, and also got a tan and fixed his teeth. Still nothing compared to how far he went for his role in The Machinist, though…but yeah, Bale’s performance really stands out and he fits the role like hand in glove, and totally embodies the character. Some of the political and societal satire is still present, and I found myself often chuckling at how seemingly perfect lives Bateman and the other characters apparently lives, with all that fancy restaurant dining, expensive luxury brand clothing, and the world at their feet. Yet they’re all filled with sickly jealousy over the smallest thing, constantly in some kind of pissing contest with each other, doped on Xanax or snorting coke. None is as miserable as Bateman, of course, who harbors a deep hatred for pretty much everything. It’s entertaining to see how he falls deeper and deeper into the hole he’s been digging for himself, while also wondering exactly what is really going on when certain things become a little too crazy. Both the movie and the book are intentionally ambiguous.

American Psycho is a pretty fun popcorn movie which is also dark satire about the 80’s yuppie opulence. Of course, it is nothing close to as vicious and graphic as the book, so don’t expect anything close to it. A fun little nod to certain parts of the book is actually shown in the movie, though, when we get to see a glimpse into Bateman’s journal where’s he’s made some crude drawings depicting all kinds of acts. This includes some of the things he did in the book, but I don’t think I was able to spot any nods to the iconic “woman, cheese, and a starved rat“. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know…

There is actually a direct-to-video sequel, called American Psycho 2. The movie doesn’t really appear to have anything to do with the first, aside from a quick flashback scene showing Bateman’s death (who wears a mask since that role is not played by Bale), and a woman named Rachael Newman who have become murderous after her encounter with him.

Director: Mary Harron
Writers: Mary Harron, Guinevere Turner
Country & year: USA, 2000
Actors: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage, Chloë Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Mathis, Matt Ross, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Cara Seymour, Guinevere Turner
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0144084/

An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)

Posted on September 8, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

If London wasn’t dangerous enough for Americans to visit, Paris wouldn’t be much better. So try Bratislava instead, haha. That being said, this is not a sequel to the well-known cult classic that is John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (1981), but more based on the idea that the first film was originally to be set in Paris. And why not. Paris rules! The only thing this one has in common with the original is that an American student visits a European country and becomes a werewolf.

The film has some very loose connections to the first one though, and to cut it short: John Landis was asked to make a sequel to London in 1991 and wrote several screenplays. The studio, Polygram Pictures, declined all of his scripts for whatever reason and ended up with Tom Stern and Tim Burns to write the script that was later rewritten after Anthony Waller got hired as director (catching my breath). He had recently made Mute Witness, a solid horror/thriller which had already gained a cult-following.

Andy (Tom Everett Scott) and his small group of American friends are visiting Paris to sneak up to the Eiffel Tower at night to bungee jump. The big event gets interrupted when they see a young woman, Serafine (Julie Delpy) standing on the handrail, who looks like she’s ready for a suicide jump. After she leaps off, Andy jumps after her, attached to the cord (duh) and grabs her foot at the last second before she would hit the ground. The only thing he has left from her after flying back up is her shoe. Andy gets knocked unconscious and ends up in the hospital. Welcome to Paris.

And after he wakes up in the hospital, the film bounces all over the place where we have a rather flimsy romance movie, a ghostmovie that could be in the same universe as The Frighteners, another romance side plot and, of course, something to do with werewolves. Andy spots Serafine at the hospital, where she just by coincidence works as a nurse (or does she?), and goes after her with her shoe, looking like a deranged psychopathic stalker as he’s holding up her shoe and says: You forgot…this! How romantic. After they start to date, Andy and his friends get access to a secret underground nightclub that connects to the catacombs. Nice! But here is also where it gets messy, because one of Andy’s pals finds Serafine, for whatever reason, locked in the basement. And don’t tell me that she can possibly be… a werewolf?! Now that she knows that Andy is in the club, which happens to be an underground society of werewolves who eat tourists (!), she has to get him far away. Too late. The moon is full, hell breaks loose and poor Andy gets bitten in the leg after running around in the sewer before he manages to escape through a pipe. Enjoy rest of Paris and good luck finding an antidote.

There are especially two classic “pure cinema“ moments here that stick out. The first is the most awkward date scene ever, also called the bubble gum scene, where our charming American blows up a condom while Julie Delpy sits in front of him with a cold stare. Can’t really blame her though. I won’t even try to explain the context, just watch it. The second one is where Andy’s werewolf senses start to kick in, goes on all fours in a cafè (still in human form) and does a quick ass sniff to some random woman (Julie Bowen) straight in her bum. Because it’s mating time, baby! They end up having sex at Père Lachaise Cemetery, because, of course, this is Paris, the city of love, after all. But then the moon goes full. Oops.

Going in and expecting a direct sequel to the first film, you’d be disappointed…very disappointed. And forget about any memorable werewolf transformation scene. This is not that kind of movie. It’s all, if not mostly CGI, or “the first CG werewolf in movie history“ as Anthony Waller called it. And it looks like you’d expect from the 1990s: not good. So no, I wouldn’t say that this is a great movie in its genre. It has its glaring flaws, it’s very unfocused at times with a very forgettable villain (yes, there’s a villain here if I forgot to mention) and the romance between Andy and Serafine seems pretty forced. While Tom Everett Scott had a fun time making the film, the same can not be said about Julie Delpy who only took the role to pay her rent. For unknown reasons she hated working on An American Werewolf in Paris so much that she avoided doing any other commercial Hollywood movies. (That was until she signed up for Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015). She still does a good performance as a mysterious melancholic downer though.

What makes the film a win is the comedic elements, the many set-pieces of Paris and just overall the distinct fun, goofy 1990s vibe which only us who experienced that decade, before the world went down the toilet, can fully appreciate. The few of the practical effects are great, the most noteworthy being the gags where the ghost version of Julie Bowen tries to whistle and pops out her eye instead. Delightful stuff. And since comedy is the most subjective thing ever, I can only speak for myself. Or maybe just being in the right mood helps a lot. I dunno. It’s certainly entertaining and far from the worst movie of all time. The film was not a success at the box-office though, barely earning back its budget. That’s a bummer, because a third film where it was the other way around, A European Werewolf in Chicago would surely be interesting. But then the movie would be over after just ten minutes or so, because, well…I think it speaks for itself.

Director: Anthony Waller
Writers: Tim Burns, Tom Stern, Anthony Waller
Country & year: USA/France/Luxembourg
Actors: Tom Everett Scott, Julie Delpy,Vince Vieluf, Phil Buckman, Julie Bowen, Pierre Cosso, Thierry Lhermitte, Tom Novembre, Maria Machado, Ben Salem Bouabdallah, Serge Basso
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118604/