american horror movies – Page 4

Lovely Molly (2011)

Posted on September 5, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

Molly and Tim have gotten married, and they move into Molly’s childhood home. There, strange things start happening in the house, which becomes quite a bother for the newlyweds. Not to mention that Molly is a recovering heroin addict, which doesn’t exactly make anything easier. Soon, Tim has to leave town for a few days, leaving her in the house all alone. As you can imagine, upon Tim’s return he doesn’t exactly find her in the best of states. And things keep getting worse. Molly starts hearing the traditional folk song “Lovely Molly” sung by a man in the house, a man that she cannot see. Is Molly just experiencing the backlash of painful memories arising to the surface upon moving into her childhood home, or is it something other than memories haunting her?

Lovely Molly is a supernatural horror film from 2011, directed by Eduardo Sánchez, who was also one of the directors behind The Blair Witch Project (co-directed with Daniel Myrick). Unlike the aforementioned film, this one is mixing the found footage style with a traditional narrative, and starts off with a scene that gives us a little bit of an idea of what might actually happen to Molly. We see her filming herself, very clearly in a state of terror which we do not yet know the extent of. It starts the movie off with certain expectations.

The spooky happenings are nothing out of the ordinary, there are the usual alarms going off in the middle of the night, footsteps which can be heard without anyone else being present, songs sung by an unseen entity, and stuff like that. And of course, the husband has a job (in this case, he’s a truck driver) which causes him to be away from home for lengths of time, giving the little wifey enough time alone to go gradually bonkers due to what is happening around her. Yep, it’s a formula we’ve seen before, of course. Throw in a little bit of drug abuse and a scarred childhood filled with trauma, and there you have the perfect “is this really happening, or is it all in her head” scenario. The film still use this formula effectively by mixing the narrative with some found footage scenes, which consists of several POV style scenes but also some security footage which eventually leaves you wondering if there really is something there, outside of Molly’s own mind. The soundtrack also adds a bit of different flavour with the post-rock band Tortoise having recorded the score for the film.

Lovely Molly isn’t especially original but it’s a decent supernatural horror film with some creepy scenes and an eerie vibe, although it will leave the viewers a little befuddled as to what the hell was really going on.

Director: Eduardo Sánchez
Writers: Jamie Nash, Eduardo Sánchez
Also known as: The Possession
Country & year: US, 2011
Actors: Gretchen Lodge, Johnny Lewis, Alexandra Holden, Field Blauvelt, Ken Arnold, Tara Garwood, Camilla Zaidee Bennett, Kevin Murray, Doug Roberts, Dan Manning, Daniel Ross
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt1707392/

Castle Freak (2020)

Posted on August 29, 2023August 29, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

Rebecca “Becca” Riley is a young woman who was blinded in a car accident. The accident happened due to her boyfriend driving under the influence, and naturally their relationship has become quite strained. One day, Becca is contacted by an estate agent in Albania, telling her that she’s inherited a castle from her biological mother Lavinia Whateley. Becca, of course, is very exited about having inherited a castle, and while her boyfriend wants her to quickly sell the castle, Becca wants to learn more about her biological mother once she’s visiting the place. Upon arriving there, she starts hearing strange sounds and has visions, and her relationship with her boyfriend becomes even more strained when he just decided to invite four of his friends to come along without asking her about it first. One of these “friends” being a woman he’s been flirting with, as if the a-hole alert wasn’t already strong enough with this character. Among the group is also The Professor, who has been studying the occult and is the only person to actually believe Becca when she tells him about her experiences. Since she has had no contact with her mother and knows nothing about her or the castle she’s just inherited, she is of course also oblivious to what happens to live there…

Castle Freak is a 2020 American horror film directed by Tate Steinsiek, and is some kind of remake/reboot of the 1995 Stuart Gordon film by the same name, which are both loose adaptions of the Lovecraft story The Outsider. With emphasis on the word “loose”. While the first movie barely has anything to do with the Lovecraft story, this movie has a lot of references to all kinds of Lovecraftian stuff. As for the similarities, both are pure B-shlock entertainment, but the first one focused more on atmosphere and had a certain modest 90’s horror romp charm, while this remake adds more gore, tits and Lovecraft references. We get to know that one of the elder gods, Yog-Sothoth, is supposed to be summoned, something that was never any part at all of the original movie.

This remake of Castle Freak is a very different freak than the first movie, in many ways. I wouldn’t really recommend it just because of the Lovecraft references, as they honestly feel somewhat forced…one of the elder gods is supposed to be summoned, there’s a character which has attended the Miskatonic Universtity, the Necronomicon suddenly pops into their hands, Becca’s mother was named Lavinia…yeesh, those Lovecraftian tentacles are all over the place. Those who liked the original from 1995 will find that this one is very different, and this will likely be off-putting for some. Still, the movie offers some decent cinematography, locations and production design. Gorehounds may also enjoy the additional gore added compared to the first. So overall, it can be considered a primitively entertaining B-horror flick, just don’t expect any masterpiece. It’s shlock and sleaze, pure and simple.

Director: Tate Steinsiek
Writers: Kathy Charles, H.P. Lovecraft
Country & year: US, 2020
Actors: Clair Catherine, Jake Horowitz, Kika Magalhães, Chris Galust, Emily Sweet, Omar Shariff Brunson Jr., Elisha Pratt, Genti Kame, Klodian Hoxha, Klodjana Keco, Josif Sina, Enkel Gurakuqi, Genc Fuga
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt10701458/

Beau Is Afraid (2023)

Posted on August 25, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

Beau Wasserman is afraid. He’s afraid of a lot of things, but mostly he’s afraid of going back to his childhood home. He’s grown up without a father, and his mother told him he died in the instant Beau was conceived, due to a heart murmur caused by orgasm which is supposed to run in the family (or at least according to his mother). His mother, Mona, is a successful and wealthy businesswoman, while Beau has grown up to become an extremely anxious person living in the crime-ridden Skid Row. He’s prepared for a flight in order to visit his mother for the anniversary of his father’s death, but his apartment keys and luggage are stolen and all hell breaks lose, his home is invaded by a bunch of homeless people for the night, and of course he misses his flight. How does his mother take the news about that? Well, I guess you can imagine. Later, he tries to call his mother again, only to get a UPS driver on the line telling him that he found his mother decapitated after a chandelier fell on her head. Beau, not far from having a complete mental breakdown at this point, ends up taking a bath in order to prepare himself for a final travel to his mother’s place in time for the funeral, but ends up getting in a violent confrontation with an intruder, runs out in the street naked and tries to get help from a police officer. That goes as well as you can imagine. After trying to get away from the incompetent police officer threatening to shoot him, he gets hit by a food truck, and then his anxiety-ridden journey in order to reach his mother’s funeral has just begun.

Beau Is Afraid is a surrealistic comedy drama with some horror elements, written and directed by Ari Aster. Aster, most known for his directorial debut hit Hereditary and his other horror film Midsommar, actually intended to have Beau Is Afraid as his directorial debut, with a 2011 short entitled Beau serving as the basis for this movie.. Well…for his career’s sake, it was probably best he didn’t and went for making Hereditary first, because Beau Is Afraid was a major box office bomb, despite receiving rather positive reviews from critics. It had a budget of $35 million (making it A24’s most expensive film) while only grossing $11 million. The problem with this movie is that its three hours of arthouse tragicomedy surrealism is certainly not for everyone, and it’s a movie where you need to know what you’re in for, and most specifically you should not compare it to any of Aster’s earlier movies. Those who end up watching this expecting another Hereditary or Midsommar, will be disappointed and most likely confused as heck.

The movie is chock-full of metaphors about childhood trauma, manipulation, guilt-tripping, shame and anxiety, presented with some crazy visuals, weird characters and great performances. Art-wise you could say it often leans into the more abstract, where you aren’t told exactly how to interpret everything and this will often lead to some real wtf-moments. To be honest, the first part of the movie which takes place in Skid Row, despite how insane it actually is, is probably the most down-to-earth and believable part of the entire movie. Just like Beau has no other choice than to keep trudging through the weirdness he encounters, we who watch his journey have no other choice than to keep trudging through it with him, not always able to make sense of what is happening. One easy way to define the movie, is to call it “Beau has mommy issues”, with very clear depictions of his mother being manipulative and toxic. He’s filled with anxiety, guilt, shame, and everything that comes with such a crappy upbringing. While this is certainly the core of the movie’s topics, there’s so many other things here that could make you quite busy with metaphor-hunting. I personally saw some vague hints about possible sexual abuse, and possibly some Jocasta complex thrown into the mix. Many things in Beau’s life appears to be muddled with lies from his mother, and we, the viewers, are not entirely sure what is fact and what is not.

Joaquin Phoenix does a good job portraying the anxiety-ridden, guilt-tripped to the point of barely functioning, and constantly confused and scared Beau. The character’s confused and totally lost appearance fits in with how completely without hope we realize Beau actually is. Aster described this film as a “nightmare comedy”, and as “if you pumped a 10-year-old full of Zoloft, and had him get your groceries”. No matter how you may view this film and how you may interpret it, there’s no doubt Aster knows a little bit about trauma and anxiety, that’s for sure.

Beau Is Afraid is a weird, surrealistic Freudian nightmare, sometimes quite abstract and a bit demanding to keep up with, but if you want something on the weirder scale, this might be something for you.

Writer and director: Ari Aster
Country & year: USA, 2023
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Kylie Rogers, Denis Ménochet, Parker Posey, Zoe Lister-Jones, Armen Nahapetian, Julia Antonelli, Stephen McKinley Henderson
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13521006/

Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

Posted on July 21, 2023August 4, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

It’s now been nine years since the Lambert family had their paranormal troubles and decided to use hypnosis on Josh and Dalton so they could forget about everything and try to live normal lives. Now Josh is divorced from his wife Renai, his mother Lorraine has recently died, and his relationship with Dalton has gone down the gutter. In other words, nine years later things aren’t exactly that great. Josh tries to bond a little with his son when driving him off to college, but everything just ends with a fiery argument instead. And of course, both Josh and Dalton start to experience paranormal things again, and after Dalton accidentally starts wandering into The Further, not really knowing what he’s doing and oblivious of his astral projection abilities, his roommate shows him a YouTube clip of Specs and Tucker talking about the theme. And when Dalton sees a clip of Elise talking about The Further, everything starts to slowly unveil.

Insidious: The Red Door is the fifth installment of the Insidious franchise, and it’s directed by Patrick Wilson (who plays the role as Josh in the movies) in his directorial debut. It is a direct sequel to the second film in the franchise, Insidious: Chapter 2, which was released in 2013. James Wan serves as producer together with Jason Blum, and it’s based on a story by Leigh Whannell and Scott Teems. The movie has received rather mixed reviews, and honestly, this one feels like the weakest installment and unfortunately comes off as very sparse with actual scares, which have been replaced with awkward college-themed humour, family drama, and trauma issues. There’s some really cringey scenes at a party featuring a dude dressed up in diapers, maybe the youngsters found this hilarious and a comic relief but I guess I’m too old for such shit. Still, I have to add that the movie does have some nice ideas though, like the college part of The Further which includes the puking ghost of a student that died at the frat house, and the scene in the MRI has a really good build-up and was solidly made.

Now, every movie in the franchise have offered us some demonic baddies of various kinds, and what was missing here is the focus on some villainous entity like in the previous movies. There’s the Lipstick-Face demon, but we barely get to see him. I think it could have redeemed the movie a bit if we actually got to see more of this main villain in the series, and his theater-like room with marionettes and a gramophone playing Tiptoe through the Tulips by Tiny Tim. Speaking of which, when we actually get to this area later in the movie, and the gramophone starts playing, I got in the mood for that exact song to relive some of the feeling of the first movie…but instead a different song started playing. And while Tiptoe Through the Tulips could be heard a little while later, I’d found myself already thrown off the mood. The Lipstick-Face demon scenes were used too sparsely to have much payoff, unfortunately.

With a budget of $16 million, it’s now looking at a worldwide gross of $126 million, which does make Insidious: The Red Door a financial success at least. But whether this is the final nail in the Insidious coffin and having the red door locked up for good, remains to be seen. If you’re a fan of the franchise and would like to see the (probable) end of the story, it’s likely worth a watch, and if you’ve been watching the previous movies and noticed the gradual decline, it won’t come as much of a surprise that this last installment isn’t exactly a masterpiece. As a directorial debut from Patrick Wilson it’s not all that bad, but it’s unfortunate that the franchise had already come to the point where it’s outstayed its welcome, and with nothing new or exciting to add it fell a bit flat. It’s nice to have seen it if you want the conclusion to the franchise, but overall this one’s probably more fun for the younger audience (who sat screaming, gasping and jumping in the seats when we watched it).

Director: Patrick Wilson
Writers: Leigh Whannell, Scott Teems
Country & year: USA, Canada, 2023
Actors: Ty Simpkins, Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Sinclair Daniel, Hiam Abbass, Andrew Astor, Juliana Davies, Steve Coulter, Peter Dager, Justin Sturgis, Joseph Bishara
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13405778/

Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

Posted on July 18, 2023July 21, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1953, and we meet Elise Rainier as a kid. She lives in Five Keys, New Mexico, with her parents and younger brother. One night, Elise and her brother encounter a ghost in their own bedroom, and their abusive father won’t have any of that superstitious bullshit, so he canes Elise and locks her down in the basement. There, Elise finds a red doorway and ends up getting possessed by a demonic spirit, and this demon kills her mother. After this brief introduction into a part of Elise’s rather messed up childhood, we travel decades forwards in time and end up in California in 2010, where Elise is working as a paranormal investigator together with her colleagues Specs and Tucker. She gets a call from a man named Ted Garza, saying he’s experiencing paranormal events in his house. When Elise realizes that the house he’s living in is her childhood home, she travels there in order to help this man. And back at this place, she is not only revisiting old bad memories, but also the demon that killed her mother which is known as Keyface.

Insidious: The Last Key is the fourth installment in this supernatural horror film franchise. It’s yet again written by Leigh Whannell, and this time it’s directed by Adam Robitel (who earlier directed The Taking of Deborah Logan and later Escape Room). Just like the third film, the story is focusing on Elise and her paranormal investigator group, and it’s no doubt that Lin Shaye’s performance as Elise is what holds the majority of the move up. Once again we’re presented to a big bad demon villain, this time in the form of Keyface whose fingers transform into keys. But aside from the demon itself, Elise’s childhood was also plagued by a parent who’d rather beat you instead of supporting and helping you, plus there’s a little bit of serial killer mystery thrown in for good measure. There’s also the comic relief from Elise’s two companions, Specs and Tucker, who pretty much come off as immature dolts for most of the time.

While we get a further glimpse into the characters and especially Elise, since the story here is about her own past, it’s unfortunately become a little evident that the franchise is about to run out of steam. While there are enough creepy atmosphere and ideas to hold it up, you can’t help but feeling that it’s been a gradual albeit not dramatic decline since the first movie. Now, of course this is normal in most franchises, so in the whole it’s still been going relatively strong all things considered. Also, in this movie everything ties up to the first story, which is nice as it gives a certain hope that they’ll conclude the series sooner than later rather than continue creating sequel-prequels until the whole franchise would end up totally watered out. Insidious: The Last Key is by no means a bad movie, though, and has enough effective scenes to be enjoyable enough, but I’d say the movie is mostly one for fans of the franchise.

Director: Adam Robitel
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Country & year: USA, Canada, 2018
Actors: Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Kirk Acevedo, Caitlin Gerard, Spencer Locke, Josh Stewart, Tessa Ferrer, Aleque Reid, Ava Kolker, Pierce Pope, Bruce Davison
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt5726086/

Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)

Posted on July 14, 2023July 21, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

The story takes place three years before the case with the Lambert haunting, and the demonologist Elise Rainier has retired. She is contacted by a teenage girl, Quinn, who wants to contact her deceased mother who died a year ago. Reluctantly, Elise agrees, but after sensing a malevolent force she urges Quinn not to try contacting her mother again. Later, Quinn sees a strange figure waving at her from some distance in the middle of the street, and while distracted by this mysterious person, she walks out on the street and gets hit by a car, and ends up in the hospital with both legs broken. Afterwards, she’s stuck at home with her father and brother, and while disabled and vulnerable she starts experiencing paranormal activities, which includes visions of a malicious spirit wearing an oxygen mask. When things start escalating, her father contacts Elise, hoping she can help his daughter from whatever seems to be after her.

Insidious: Chapter 3 is the third installment in the Insidious franchise, and is both written and directed by Leigh Whannell in his directorial debut. The film is a prequel to the first films. While taking us out of the main story of the Lambert family, and instead shift the focus over to Elise and her companions Specs and Tucker, it makes for some new ideas and new characters. Having a disabled girl at the mercy of a dangerous entity makes for some really tense scenes lead by good setup and acting, which are all well utilized in making us feel the girl’s despair and helplessness while being stalked and tortured. There’s a lot of creepy atmosphere and genuine chills here, and with a new entity simply referred to as “the man that can’t breathe” the franchise manages to create yet another villain who, while not quite as iconic as the Lipstick-Face Demon and the Black Bride, works pretty well and is distinguishable and frightening.

While the first two movies had to be viewed consecutively in order to get the best viewing experience (otherwise, the second film would just feel confusing as it directly continues the story from the first), this movie actually stands well alone on its own feet and doesn’t even require any knowledge of the first two in order to properly enjoy it. That being said, I’d still recommend watching them consecutively, as knowing a bit more about Elise and her companions is likely to heighten the investment in the story.

Insidious: Chapter 3 is solid third installment in the franchise, with further looks into The Further, creepy-looking ghoulish entities and the overall eerie atmosphere the movies are known for. While neither of the two sequels have been on par with the first movie, they’re still fairly good and at this stage the franchise is yet to have worn out its welcome.

Writer and director: Leigh Whannell
Country & year: USA, Canada, UK, 2013
Actors: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Lin Shaye, Tate Berney, Michael Reid MacKay, Steve Coulter, Hayley Kiyoko, Corbett Tuck, Tom Fitzpatrick
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3195644/

Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

Posted on July 11, 2023July 21, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1986, and the demonologist Elise Rainier is called to help Lorraine Lambert and her son Josh, who is being hunted by an evil spirit in the form of a black bride. Apparently, Josh has been using his astral projection abilities, and thus gotten the spirit’s attention. Elise says his abilities must be suppressed, and manages to plant altered memories in his brain so he can forget about it all and live a normal life. Now, twenty five years later, Josh and his wife Renai are being questioned after the death of Elise, where Josh is considered the prime suspect of her murder. Renai and their children relocate to Lorraine’s house, and paranormal events continue to happen all around them. A woman in a white dress is giving Dalton nightmares, and she also manifests and attacks Renai. Elise’s former associates, Specs and Tucker, attempts to contact Elise’s spirit and are told that they need to find answers at an abandoned hospital where Lorraine once used to work. Soon, the mystery of the black bride and the woman in the white dress starts to unravel.

Insidious: Chapter 2 is the second installment to Insidious from 2010, and is a direct sequel from the first one. Of course, after the success of the first there was bound to be more movies which would later spawn a franchise. This one is also directed by James Wan, and written by Leigh Whannell. The film was promoted in different ways, the first theatrical trailer for the film was actually screened to a live audience on location at the Linda Vista Community Hospital (where the hospital scenes in the movie were filmed), and a maze attraction called “Insidious: Into the Further” was featured in 2013’s Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Now, as this is a direct sequel to the first movie, compared to the first it’s not quite as effective in its scares and lacks the same tension, but there are some good things to find and we get to know a bit more about one of the villains presented in the first movie. The setting is spooky, and some of the scenes are filled with that good, eerie atmosphere. The backstory of the creepy “black bride” is what mainly fuels the story here, which proves to be an interesting character with both a tragic and horrific background. The movie also focus a bit more on explaining some of the things that happened in the first movie, which makes consecutive viewing mandatory in order to get the best experience.

Aside from spooky settings in creepy houses and an old hospital, we do of course get further glimpses into the netherworld-like area The Further, which is arguably the franchise’s best selling point. While there are loads of depictions of otherworldly dimensions seen in both other movies and TV series, there is just something fascinating about The Further’s somewhat simplistic take on it. It’s surreal and dreamy, vast, dark and for the most part appears to be rather empty. It’s like one of those surreal horror exploration games where the seemingly apparent emptiness still holds both dangerous and fascinating things hidden away in a corner here and there, if you manage to find it.

Overall, Insidious: Chapter 2 works well as a sequel to the successful first film, not on par with the first but still a creepy and decent supernatural horror flick.

Director: James Wan
Writers: Leigh Whannell, James Wan
Country & year: USA, Canada, 2013
Actors: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Joseph Bishara, Philip Friedman
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2226417/

Insidious (2010)

Posted on July 7, 2023July 21, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

Renai and Josh are a married couple with two sons, Dalton and Foster, and an infant daughter named Cali. They move into their new home, and there things quickly ends with disaster: after Dalton sneaks into the attic one evening, he inexplicably slips into a coma. The days, weeks and months passes by, with no sign of Dalton waking up. Despairing while trying to keep their hopes up, they take their son back home from the hospital to care for him there, and then they start experiencing frightening things that appear to be paranormal. Everything reaches its peak when Renai finds a bloody inhuman-looking handprint on the sheet of Dalton’s bed. Convinced that their house is haunted, they decide to move, only to find that the paranormal activity continues to happen in their new home as well. Sometimes, it’s not the house that’s haunted…

Insidious is a supernatural horror film from 2010, directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. James Wan previously got his foot into the horror genre with his Saw film from 2004, a film which he admitted being very proud of, but he also felt all the violence and gore put some people off from working with him. Thus, he decided to make Insidious to prove that he could also make a horror movie that is not focused on violence. Although he did, actually, make another horror movie called Dead Silence in 2007, but this was a largely overlooked film and received rather poor reception, which is a shame, because it’s not that bad. However, you can get a little idea of how this movie harbours a “could’ve been” scenario, as screenwriter Whannell revealed in a blog post that the film was an “extreme, coal-face lesson in what not to do“, where he talks about the origins of the film within the context of the Hollywood film industry, where they had to play by the rules of agents and script-doctors. Insidious was made independently, which probably saved the movie from Hollywood’s meddlesome and destructive claws.

The movie starts off with seeming like your typical haunted house movie, and there’s enough atmosphere and creepy, subtle scenes that gradually builds in an insidious way. So yeah, there you have it, the title pretty much explains the movie’s progression (although it was originally planned to be called something else. More about that later). There are more than a few truly effective scenes that actually manages to deliver a scare, and expertly used angles, color and music achieves the perfect mood. The music score was composed by Joseph Bishara, who also plays the demon in the movie. They wanted to go for a score with mixing some “weird piano bangs” and “scratchy violin”, and there were a total of thirty-three violins used for the theme music. Wow.

Going from the subtlety of the classical haunted-house vibe, the movie veers and jumps straight into the rabbit hole when “The Further” is introduced, with the medium Elise (Lin Shaye). This is some kind of dimension that houses the souls of the damned, and appears trippy as hell. Originally, the movie was actually planned to be called The Further too, but it almost goes without saying that Insidious is a way better choice of title. This dimension/heaven-hell-limbo or whatever one should call it, leaves a lot to be explained, but the mystery of what it is exactly is pretty much what is needed to make it work. It gives the movie a mystery and that extra flavour of something of its own, saving it from ending up as a typical derivative effort in the haunted house category. It adds a demonic and otherworldly element into the mix, and there’s a certain balance here between the serious paranormal parts and the spookily fun horror parts, which could have ended up as a disaster had it been made by the wrong people (or with any Hollywood interference) but instead ended up as gold since it was made by the right ones in the way they wanted the movie to be. It’s both scary, creepy and slightly amusing. Watching a ghost boy dancing to Tiny Tim’s version of “Tiptoe Through The Tulips” adds both an outlandish and uncanny feeling for sure!

Insidious became very much a success, and apparently filled a vacuum of sorts for supernatural horror movies that actually manage to come off as scary for a lot of people. It also includes some quite distinctive characters among the entities/demons, giving us actual recognizable villains for a change. The success not only gave enough fuel for more sequels/prequels, but also other franchises like The Conjuring and Annabelle. In the Insidious franchise, we are looking at a total of 5 films so far with the newest one being shown in theaters across the world at the moment.

Director: James Wan
Writer: Leigh Whannell
Country & year: USA, Canada, 2010
Actors: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Ty Simpkins, Lin Shaye, Leigh Whannell, Angus Sampson, Barbara Hershey, Andrew Astor, Joseph Bishara, Philip Friedman
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1591095/

Puppet Master 4 (1993)

Posted on July 4, 2023October 6, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

And now it’s getting really silly, if it hasn’t gotten already. In Puppet Master 4 we get our ass back to the Bodega Bay Inn with a new timeline where we get introduced to yet more meat suit balloons. And like the previous film, the puppets are the good guys. So, who’s the baddies here you’d ask? Say HELLO to the demon Lord Sutekh, who’s not some obscure former member of the metal band Gwar, but the ruler of Hell, the Prime Evil himself. The intro sequence where we see his stark color contrasted underground chamber as he sits on his throne surrounded with the most expensive Halloween decorations the budget allowed, not to mention the several piles of human skulls stacked around, surely grabs one’s attention. And as we go back and forth to this set, it’s the most memorable aspect of the film just by how over the top, cheesy and cartoonish it is. It’s something straight out from an 80s Saturday Morning Cartoon, and as a kid of the 80s myself there’s certainly some nostalgic strings to be pulled here, no pun intended.

Meanwhile at Bodega Bay Inn we meet the young scientist Rick who, among his girlfriend and some other friends, discover the secrets of Toulon’s work with the puppets and the Elixir of Life, the whole package. A lot of nonsensical BS happens with an unfocused script with as much direction like a Russian drunk driver on a regular thursday afternoon, but the premise is that the demon lord we saw in the beginning wants the elixir so he can do whatever. Since he can’t leave his domain he sends a couple of Totems, or just simply Demon Puppets, to invade Bodega Bay Inn and get the treasure. Toulon’s puppets have to save the day.

Toulon pops up here and there as a bizarre hologram as he gives some advice. We have some quick lackluster kills with some leftover cranberry juice as blood. The human characters are just meh and generic. I was hoping to see more of the demon lord and if he was ever to leave the depths and enter the surface to raise hell and mayhem. Never did, and that’s my biggest disappointment when they could do more of this character. Maybe it was a matter of budget which I would guess they blew most of on the demon lord’s set-design, or all the five who wrote the script couldn’t come to any agreements on what to do with him.

The final act is the most entertaining when it’s basically Puppets vs. Hellpuppets. Naive, dumb, innocent fun with a great dose of lighthearted puppet action, some pretty decent stop-motion and lively camerawork. Probably more fun for the kids and given that’s there’s no tits or other sleazy nudity here, and the gore is almost non existent, this is as close it can get to being family friendly. There’s also a weird Frankenstein reference thrown in here which leads to a robopuppet shooting lightning from his head. And the good old classic hand-drawn lightning effects will never, ever get old.

And then the film ends with a to be continued …

… and the film could just as well have ended there because there isn’t much of a continuation in Puppet Master 5 which was made simultaneously with this one. It’s the same movie all over again with little to no pay off. More scenes of puppet action while the demon lord just goofs around in his underworld basement sniffing his own sulfur-smelling farts. The fifth film was also promoted as The Final Chapter, and ha-ha, there’s only ten more films. As a first time watcher of this franchise I was a little surprised it was able to barely keep afloat to this point, because it goes straight down the toilet from here on… and I just leave it at that. All films (except for two) are available at fullmoonfeatures.com. Have fun and good luck.

Director: Jeff Burr
Writers: Todd Henschell, Steven E. Carr, Jo Duffy, Douglas Aarniokoski, Keith Payson
Country & year: USA, 1993
Actors: Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler, Six Shooter, Decapitron, Gordon Currie, Chandra West, Ash Adams, Teresa Hill, Guy Rolfe, Felton Perry, Stacie Randall, Michael Shamus Wiles, Dan Zukovic
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0107899/

Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991)

Posted on June 30, 2023October 6, 2023 by HorrorGhouls

In the third installment of the Puppet Master franchise we go back to year 1941 and the place is Berlin, Germany where we meet André Toulon who works at the local puppetry theatre. And already here is the continuity off the rails when we learned in the first film that Toulon committed suicide in 1939 to escape the nazis, yet here is he alive and well and looks even younger. And if you thought this continuity blunder was bad, then you haven’t seen Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich where Toulon is suddenly an evil, unearthly and monstrous nazi himself. Oh my. Anyways… Toulon is also a happy man with his wife Elsa and it’s all flowers and rainbows until a nazi spy gets his attention on Toulon’s mysterious green serum, Elixir of Life, which wakes his puppets to life. And the nazi colonel Major Kraus (Richard Lynch) is very interested in that serum so he can resurrect dead bodies to use as human shields at the battlefront. With a group of Gestapos they invade his home and Kraus shoots and kills Elsa like the main villain he is. Toulon manages to escape and settles down in a hiding place where he’ll plan his way to avenge his wife and kill those nazi pigs with the help of his loyal puppets.

Although ocean air is always good for your health it was refreshing to get a break from the same locations on Bodega Bay Inn to the dark smogfilled streets of Berlin. And as Full Moon’s very limited resources to do a WW2 film is pretty far-fetched, they surprisingly nailed it. The sets, the costumes, the noir atmosphere is spot on. I was also surprised how the stock-footage of a crowded WW2 Berlin was able to blend in.

Then of course we have the puppets themselves which from here on and onward are actually the good-guys. Don’t know what I actually feel about that but as long they fight against nazis I’m in for it. And yes, nazis gets killed here in a straight-forward fashion, but like the second film and the upcoming ones, the kills are pretty tame and underwhelming. Some blood here and there and that’s pretty much it. Oh yeah, some quick shots of bare breasts, I almost forgot to mention. The new puppet, Six Shooter, is fun to watch though. He’s some dark bizarro version of Woody from Toy Story.

Puppet Master III is also regarded as the best one in the series and I agree. The script is on its most cohesive, more steady pacing and more interesting characters to pay attention to. The strongest card here is the main villain, Major Kraus, played by the charismatic cult legend Richard Lynch, the most top-tier actor you’ll witness in the whole franchise. It also have the unique whimsical Full Moon trademark tone from first two perfectly balanced with the more serious undertone, which adds to the odd entertainment value.

Director: David DeCoteau
Writers: Charles Band, C. Courtney Joyner, David Schmoeller
Country & year: USA, 1991
Actors: Blade, Pinhead, Jester, Tunneler, Six Shooter, Leech Woman, Djinn, Mephisto, Guy Rolfe, Richard Lynch, Ian Abercrombie, Kristopher Logan, Aron Eisenberg, Walter Gotell, Sarah Douglas
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0102728/