The late Dr. Plato Zorba is an occultist who has left his large house to his nephew Cyrus. Curys and his family are living very much from hand to mouth, struggling with making ends meet, so this is a wonderful opportunity for them. Or so they think. Curys, along with his wife Hilda and their daughter Medea and son Buck, decide to move to the house despite the lawyer informing them that the house is also inhabited by a bunch of ghosts that Dr. Zorba collected from all around the world. With the property also comes a housekeeper named Elaine, who of course conducts seances and is creepy as hell. And that’s not even all, as there is a hidden fortune somewhere on the property. The ghosts are a varied sort, including a fiery skeleton, a slightly goofy Italian chef, and even a lion with its headless tamer. And none of them are there willingly, as they’ve been captured by Dr. Zorba who also created a set of special goggles that makes you able to see the ghosts. There are 12 ghosts in the house, one being the ghost of Dr. Zorba himself who is also trapped and wants someone to become the unlucky 13th ghost to free him and the others.
13 Ghosts is a supernatural horror film from 1960, written by Robb White and produced and directed by William Castle. In some previous films, William Castle had used gimmicks to promote them, and 13 Ghosts was no exception. Audience members were given the chance to see the ghosts by using glasses with red and blue cellophane filters, in a process dubbed “Illusion-O“. The filmed elements had a blue filter, while the ghosts had a red filter, so the blue filter “removed“ the ghosts. Using the glasses gave the viewers the option to see them.
The movie, and mostly the gimmick, was not all that well received, but it still became a modest box office success. It’s a fun old-fashioned haunted house film that of course never manages to scare, but still has its charm. The ghosts are actually interesting enough, all with their own little backstories and looks. I especially liked the ghost of the lion and headless tamer…makes me wonder why this was counted as just one ghost, though, as the lion and the tamer are definitely two ghosts. There’s another two-for-one deal here: the ghosts of a mother and her infant son who were both burnt at the stake as witches. Aside from the ghosts who are more or less “just there“, the story is simple and straight-forward enough with some mysteries and plot twists. After all, it isn’t only in Beetlejuice that you should never trust the living. Even with a house full of ghosts, the ones still breathing are a bigger threat than the dead ones.
13 Ghosts is very much a classic haunted house film, with some solid special effects for the time it was made in.
Director: William Castle Writer: Robb White Country & year: USA, 1960 Actors: Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, Rosemary DeCamp, Donald Woods, Margaret Hamilton, John van Dreelen IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053559/
We’re in Los Angeles, and the year is 1931. At the Vannacutt Psychiatric Institute for the Criminally Insane, the staff are under attack by the patients who are throwing a revolt against the sadistic assholes working there. The place, led by the sadistic Dr. Richard B. Vannacutt (yeah, that name speaks for itself) have been conducting medical experiments on the patients and they’ve all had enough. A fire breaks out, and nearly everyone dies, except five people from staff who manages to get out.
Then we head over to 1999, where Stephen Price (not to be confused with Vincent Price, despite looking almost exactly like him) is working on staging his wife’s birthday party at the abandoned hospital, which has over the years been partly converted into a residence. Price is an amusement park mogul, and well-known for his elaborate pranks. He invites five people to the party, but here’s a twist: the five people who arrive there are not the ones he invited. The ones who turn up are baseball player Eddie Baker, Melissa Marr who is a former television personality, physician Donald Blackburn, production assistant Sara Wolfe, and the building’s owner Pritchett. Price is confused, but still decide to hold the party as planned, and offers $1 million to each guest who remains inside the house until morning. In the case of someone fleeing or perishing inside the house, that person’s money will be divided amongst the remaining guests.
Then the inevitable happens: the security system in the building is tripped, and locks everyone inside. Why this happened? Who knows. Price blames his wife, she blames him. Sara, Eddie and Pritchett goes to the basement, that looks like a labyrinth, in order to find the control panel. And then things start happening, but is it really ghosts or just some of Price’s pranks? Because yeah, of course the place is rigged all over, and Price has an assistant overseeing the party stunts. But when he goes to check on him, Price finds the guy murdered in a horrible way. Dr. Vannacutt still wanna cut (har-har) it seems. Next up for the body counts is Evelyn, who has been strapped to an electroshock therapy table and is literally shocked to death. The question is: are the murders done by the living or the dead?
House on Haunted Hill is a supernatural horror film from 1999, directed by William Malone and based on the William Castle film House on Haunted Hill from 1959. This film was the producing debut of Dark Castle Entertainment, and it was released on Halloween weekend in 1999. In the tradition of William Castle’s gimmicks, Warner Bros. handed out some promotional scratchcards to the cinemas showing the film, offering ticket buyers to have a chance of winning a money prize just like the characters in the movie. The film was a commercial success, and opened as number one at the U.S. box office, grossing $65 million worldwide. And, surprise surprise – it still got mainly negative reviews from critics.
While the original film was more aimed at delivering a spooky atmosphere with a murder mystery, where the supernatural events were mostly hinted at, this one takes it all out and presents ghostly and gory mayhem all over the place. And while the house in the original was not the typical victorian mansion or something alike, the same goes for this film. The building looks incredibly oppressive. The exterior and interiors were designed by David Klassen, who used inspiration from Albert Speer, an architect who designed monolithic style buildings for Nazi Germany.
The special effects were designed by Gregory Nicotero and Robert Kurtman, with additional makeup design by Dick Smith. The film’s final scene effects were designed by KNB EFX Group, supervised by Robert Skotak. And while these effects have become somewhat notorious for being horribly bad CGI, most of the effects for that scene were actually made up of footage and photographs which were grafted together. There’s also a fair amount of practical effects in the film, and this combined with the set pieces almost makes it look like a fun and spooky haunted house attraction. With some decent gore added to the mix, there’s certainly a lot to keep your eyes busy with!
The acting here is pretty decent, especially from Geoffrey Rush playing Stephen Price, who was made to look very much like Vincent Price in an obvious reference. His wife Evelyn was played by Famke Janssen, who fits the role perfectly as the sly and seductive trophy wife. Dr. Vannacutt, the big bad of the film was played by Jeffrey Combs and he pulls of a nice portrayal of a gleefully sadistic doctor. House on Haunted Hill is very different from the original, but so fun in many ways if you want some goofy, campy haunted house B-schlocker. There’s still some twists and turns, just like in the original.
In 2007, there was a direct-to-DVD sequel called Return to House on Haunted Hill, with Jeffrey Combs reprising his role as Dr. Vannacutt. This film had no involvement from William Malone.
Director: William Malone Writer: Dick Beebe Country & year: USA/1999 Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali Larter, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Max Perlich, Jeffrey Combs, Dick Beebe, Slavitza Jovan IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185371/
“There’ll be food and drink and ghosts… and perhaps even a few murders. You’re all invited.”
Frederick Loren is a millionaire who has decided to invite five random people to a party which he is throwing for his fourth wife, Annabelle. The location of the party is an allegedly haunted house he has rented for the event. The people invited include the test pilot Lance Schroeder, the newspaper columnist Ruth Bridges, psychiatrist Dr. David Trent, a woman named Nora Manning who works for one of Loren’s companies, and the house owner himself, Watson Pritchard. To the guests, he also makes a promise: they’ll get $10.000 if they stay the entire night in the house. And they need to make up their mind soon, as the doors are closed at midnight, the windows are barred, and there will be no electricity, phones or radios to use. They will all be trapped inside.
Now, Frederick and his wife are not having the greatest relationship. Annabelle even tried to poison him once. She denies it, of course, calling him jealous and paranoid. Well, sometimes you’re jealous and paranoid with good reason. So, why has he decided to throw this odd party, with people they don’t even know, in a haunted house that will be locked down? Even offering the guests a prize for staying? It’s certainly a strange decision. The owner of the house, Watson, genuinely believes that the house is haunted. And there have been numerous murders inside, and most chilling is the murder that took place in the basement, where a man killed his wife by throwing her in a vat of acid. Annabelle suspects that her husband is plotting to use this night to murder her in some way or other, and privately tells Lance about this. And, lo and behold -after the full lockdown takes place, it doesn’t take long until Annabelle’s corpse is found, hanging from a rope. Did she really hang herself? Or is there something else going on…
House on Haunted Hill is a horror film from 1958, produced and directed by William Castle and written by Robb White. Exterior shots of the house were filmed at Ennis House in Los Feliz, California, while the rest was shot on sound stages. There were also several art pieces owned by Vincent Price that were used for set decorations in the film. It first had a limited release, and then premiered in San Fransisco in 1959, played on a double bill with The Cosmic Man. House on Haunted Hill, being a William Castle film, did of course have one of his famous promotional gimmicks: “Emergo“, which was a glowing plastic prop skeleton where they used an elaborate pulley system to have it flown over the audience during the screenings. Must have been quite an experience!
And the film ended up being a huge success, both financially and with the critics. And it certainly is fun! The effects in the film are goofy and somewhat campy for sure, but very charming. The movie was very low-budget, and for the special effects it relied on mostly rubber props and theatrical gimmicks. There’s also a good amount of old-fashioned spooky haunted house atmosphere to be found here, and Vincent Price in the role of the eccentric millionaire Frederick Loren is of course one of the film’s best features. He’s the star of the show, as usual. The premise, while seeming rather simple, is actually quite twist-filled and executed really well. It’s not just a ghost story but also a murder/whodunnit story, and of course we all know who to suspect…
House on Haunted Hill is a fun spooky film, with great atmosphere, some fun effects, and even a few twists and turns. And most importantly, Vincent Price.
Director: William Castle Writer: Robb White Country & year: USA, 1959 Actors: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson, Howard Hoffman, Skeleton IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051744/
Carly Jones is going to a football game, together with her boyfriend Wade Felton and their friends, and also her twin brother Nick. They’re going to camp for the night in a wooded area. Some dubious stranger driving a pickup truck arrives, and they all get a little spooked and Nick damages one of the truck’s headlights, making the stranger leave. Well, the next day they discover that Wade’s car has been damaged too: the fan belt has been severed. Hmm…probably not a coincidence. They’re lucky though, as they get a local guy named Lester to drive Wade and Carly to the nearby town of Ambrose. Meanwhile, the rest of the gang will be going to the game…hehe, yeah, right.
When Wade and Carly arrives in Ambrose, they notice it’s pretty much a ghost town. There’s a funeral going on, though, so perhaps this is where everyone’s located for the time being? While they wait for the mechanic, they decide to visit “Trudy’s House of Wax“, where everything is literally made of wax. Everything. But something’s not right, and the eerie lack of life in the whole town makes Carly very suspicious…
House of Wax from 2005 is a slasher horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra in his feature debut, and it is a remake of House of Wax from 1953 (which was actually also a remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum). It was filmed at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and the set for the town was constructed nearby Guanaba. Graham Walker was behind the film’s production design, who had also designed the sets for Ghost Ship and Gothika. This one took it some steps further with designing and building an entire town! About 20 tons of wax was used to craft the sets, coated primarily with beeswax. Over hundred detailed wax figures were created by a team of sculptors and mold makers, and all of them were modeled after real people. Jared Padalecki (who got most famous for playing Sam in the Supernatural TV series) has a role here, and he underwent a 3D body scan by KNB EFX Group in Los Angeles to have him moulded into a wax figure.
Just like the other Dark Castle Entertainment remakes, this one does it in a very different way from the original, and while it’s having the schlock vibe all over the place as usual, it just kind of works in its own right. It’s a fairly straight-forward slasher, with some decent yet not over-the-top kill scenes. Yes, it’s a typical teen-slasher horror film, but one with a fairly interesting backstory, good props and practical effects, and some awesome set pieces.
While the original had Vincent Price, this one gives the audience the chance to see Paris Hilton die. Which was actually part of a campaign used to promote the film, I kid you not. Shirts were even created which featured the slogan “See Paris Die“. This was at a time when it was totally pop to hate Paris Hilton, so apparently they decided to take that ball and run with it.
House of Wax received generally negative reviews from critics, but still did well at the box office. With this being the 5th production by Dark Castle Entertainment, people pretty much knew what to expect and lots of people weren’t too fond of it. Anyway, it later garnered a cult following, which seems to be a trend with movies like these. Nowadays, you can kind of understand why…because in a lot of cases, certain “bad“ movies hold up better than you would initially expect. Especially in these days when we live in an era of franchise-sequel-prequel-reboot hell and, even worse, lazy AI slop. The latter has fortunately not infested the horror movie genre too much at this point, and let’s hope it stays that way.
Fun (or perhaps not so fun) fact: just like in House of Wax from 1953, it became obvious that fire is something you definitely should not play with, and something that easily gets out of control. Special effects expert David Fletcher and Wax Productions were sued because of a fire on the set during the production of the film, which ended in a $7 million lawsuit that alleged that they were grossly negligent over the fire, which actually destroyed part of the Warner Bros. Movie World Studios.
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra Writers: Chad Hayes, Carey W. Hayes Country & year: Australia/USA, 2005 Actors: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Abrahams, Robert Ri’chard, Dragicia Debert, Thomas Adamson, Murray Smith, Sam Harkess IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397065/
Professor Henry Jarrod (Vincent Price) is a very talented sculptor in the early 1900s. He runs a wax museum in New York City, where his work features historical figures who have all met with some kind of terrible fate. There’s just one problem: his work isn’t “sensational“ enough for his business partner Matthew Burke, who wants to draw in bigger crowds. Lucky for Burke, there’s a wealthy art critic who wants to buy him out in three months after he returns from Egypt. A great deal, except…Burke is way too impatient. He wants the money now, and three months is too long for him to wait. He decides to set fire to the museum to get the insurance money instead, but Jarrod tries to stop him. Burke overpowers him and leaves him inside the museum to die. And in this scene you can really feel the full inferno going on as there’s real (yes, real) flames everywhere.
So while all seems to go well for Burke afterwards with a good slump of insurance money in his bank account, a disfigured man in a cloak one day strangles him and sets it up to look like a suicide. Hmm…who could that mysterious man be, I wonder. He also kills Burke’s fiancée, Cathy Gray, but her roommate Sue comes in before he can make that look like a suicide too. Cathy’s body is later found missing from the morgue. Where could she possibly have ended up…
And here’s an early plot twist: Jarrod survived the fire. But not without a cost…he’s bound to a wheelchair, and his hands have become crippled so he is unable to sculpt anymore. Instead he has hired several assistants: a deaf-mute whose name is Igor and an alcoholic named Leon Averill. He has now opened a new wax museum, and meets with a man named Wallace who might be interested in becoming an investor. And this time, Jarrod has decided to go with what’s popular and have started showcasing acts of murder and violence, and even has one exhibition featuring Burke’s “suicide“. Not only that, but at the museum’s grand opening which Sue decided to attend, she notices that a wax figure of Joan of Arc looks very much like Cathy Gray…
House of Wax is a horror film from 1953, directed by Andre de Toth and starring Vincent Price. It was also the first 3D film with stereophonic sound to be presented in a regular theater, and also the first 3D Feature film in color from a major American Studio. What’s a little amusing, though, is that the director was actually blind on one eye, and thus couldn’t experience the film’s 3D effects at all…
On the film’s premiere in Los Angeles at the Paramount Theatre, it was shown at midnight with several celebrities amongst the audience. The film’s producer, Alex Gordon, decided to make use of Bela Lugosi’s desperate need for cash so he arranged for him to stand outside the theater wearing a cape and some dark glasses, holding a leash with actor Steve Calvert in a gorilla suit. He was going to be interviewed by a reporter and had received some prearranged questions, but the reporter (Shirley Thomas) asked them out of order and confused the hell out of him. It ended with Lugosi feeling so embarrassed that he left without even attending the screening. Poor guy.
The movie was topping the box office for five weeks, and became one of the biggest hits in 1953. It still received mixed reviews, but (as sometimes happen) modern audiences are looking at it in a much more positive light. The movie also bounced up Vincent Price’s career considerably, as he had mainly been playing secondary character parts since the late 1930’s. He later got several high-profile roles as villains of all kinds. And yes, there’s no doubt that Vincent Price is the highlight of the film, doing an excellent portrayal as Henry Jarrod who is the typical good-guy-turned-villain. The opening of the movie where Jarrod’s wax museum is set on fire, where you can see there’s actual fire all over the place while the characters are fighting each other, must have been a literal inferno to film. I’m sure Vincent Price didn’t really have to act that much during the filming of that scene, since anyone except a pure psychopath would feel terrified in a situation like that. And the fire did in fact get out of control, but because they couldn’t afford to re-shoot the scene they had to keep filming despite firemen actually entering the place. Jeez!
There’s a good amount of old-fashioned atmosphere here, with some obvious Jack the Ripper influences where our mysterious killer is seen stalking the dark, narrow streets for his victim. The story is somewhat mystery based, where it isn’t entirely clear who the killer is and why the wax dolls in the museum look so much like the recently deceased people. Yeah, yeah…we know, of course. It’s just that most of the characters in the movie don’t, and it’s all set up for a nice little old fashioned horror film.
House of Wax is a nice watch, especially if you want to see Vincent Price in one of his earlier roles as the typical elegant villain.
Director: André De Toth Writers: Crane Wilbur, Charles Belden Country & year: USA, 1953 Actors: Vincent Price, Frank Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Carolyn Jones, Paul Picerni, Roy Roberts, Angela Clarke, Paul Cavanagh, Dabbs Greer, Charles Bronson, Reggie Rymal IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045888/
The first film wasn’t the biggest success at the box-office, but we still got a sequel, of some sort. This time directed by Anthony Hickox, who also made Hellraiser III, the year before. Warlock: The Armageddon is more of a reboot than a sequel where our evil male witch (Julian Sands) starts from scratch to go on a mission to free his daddy Satan from Hell. And if you thought the first one was campy and silly, this one is just bonkers, wild and early ’90s madness through and through. And to quote Bon Scott: If you want blood, you’ve got it!
The film opens with a quick epilogue that tells us about a certain type of people known as Druids who used their magic to protect Earth from evil. And once every millennium during a lunar eclipse, these Druids use the magic of some sacred rune stones to make sure that the birth of Satan’s son gets on hold for the next hundred years. Just too bad we can’t do the same with dictators, politicians and influencers. The Druids have lived through generations which we’ll come back to.
Our introduction to Warlocks starts in a city apartment where some new-age chick has one of the runes hanging round her neck. As the next eclipse happens, she gets turbo pregnant and gives birth to Warlock in the most goopy way that could only be made in the ’80s and early ’90s. Great stuff. His first words are Don’t you want to give your boy a kiss, mother?, just to make it clear that our evil Warlock isn’t just more schadenfreude evil than ever, but also a notebook of one-liners ready.
After he kills the woman in a way I just can’t describe, he possesses the rune, rips off a chunk of the woman’s skin and…well, uses it as a map that will lead him to the next rune and the body counts who’ll stand in his way. And where’s our hero, Redferne, you may ask? Oh, well.
That brings us to the side plot with the Druids, where the simplicity of Redferne is very missed, as well as Richard E. Grant. The love story between Kenny (Chris Young) and Samantha (Paula Marshall) is pretty flat and uninteresting, which is hard to give a fuck about. And speaking of not giving a fuck: then we have Kenny’s dad, Will, a modern Master Druid who trains him to unlock his magic telekinesis abilities and become a Jedi, I mean a Druid warrior like him. He’s portrayed by Steve Kahan, aka Mr. I Don’t Give A Fuck and does one of the most soulless I don’t give a fuck, I’m only here for the paycheck-performance I’ve seen. There’s also some extreme tonal whiplashes where we have a cute Hallmark movie moment of Kenny cuddling a squirrel not so long before we cut to a grimy scene where Warlock has just slaughtered and dismembered a guy in an elevator, Predator 2 style. Kenny is Good and Warlock is Evil. We get it.
The highlights here are all the scenes with the Warlock. And like a Legion, they are many. He goes from different locations and colorful scenarios across the USA with no mercy whatsoever, where he even shoves an old, helpless dwarf (Mihaly ‘Michu’ Meszaro) into an iron maiden at a circus to get his next rune. Poor ALF. A woman gets her scalp ripped off. Gnarly. I also like the mirror scene where Warlock is having some fun and toys with his victims. There are also some Wishmaster vibes here, especially with a scene which I won’t spoil. Vulgar display of power turned up to eleven. Pure fun entertainment gold. Although the practical effects are solid, the visual ones are pretty wonky, which the first one also suffered from. In this case, however, I wouldn’t say it hurts the film that much, as it’s way more self-aware of its campy tone.
And yes, there’s a third, or a turd movie, if you will… and, well, that’s all there is to say about that one. RIP to Julian Sands and Anthony Hickox, who both died in 2023. Julian’s remains were found after going missing during a hike in the San Gabriel Mountains, 65 years old. Hickox died of unknown causes at his home in Bucharest, 64 years old. Only the good die young, as they say.
Director: Anthony Hickox Writers: Kevin Rock, Sam Bernard Country & year: USA, 1993 Actors: Julian Sands, Chris Young, Paula Marshall, Joanna Pacula, Steve Kahan, R.G. Armstrong, Charles Hallahan, Bruce Glover, Craig Hurley, Davis Gaines, Rebecca Street IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108517/
So, who’s this mysterious handsome Warlock guy with that soothing British accent? To quote the star himself, Julian Sands: he’s a man in black and white, who comes from the 17th century to the 20th century downtown Los Angeles. And he’s a malevolent person (and not here to audition for Calvin Klein). Sounds intriguing enough.
It all starts in the year of 1691 in Boston, Massachusetts, where the Warlock is chained at the top of an execution tower. He’s locked in a way that puts his thumbs and big toes together that would make him The Hunchback of Boston if he was stuck in that position long enough. When the witch hunter who caught him, Redferne (Richard E. Grant), comes in to witness the execution, the Warlock casts a spell and gets transformed into a cute little tornado, like in Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest, that warps him to present-day California. Redferne manages to jump into the spell at the last second. And a series of weird shit happens from here on.
Warlock swirls and crashes through a window into a house where the cuteface Kassandra (Lori Singer) and her landlord Chas live. They let him stay over for the night, because they are good people. The next morning after Kassandra goes to work, the Warlock spots a ring on Chas’ finger. He cuts off his finger with a kitchen knife before biting off his tongue and makes an omelet of it. Yum. Warlock visits a spiritualist lady whom I’d bet sits on a dildo saddle everytime she “goes into trance“. Warlock tells her to summon Zamiel, who tells him to find all the missing parts of The Grand Grimoire so he can learn to spell God backwards (don’t ask) and unmake Creation…something like that. The reward is to be the son of Satan. I’d just prefer a truckload of cash, but that’s just me. Warlock cuts out her eyes to use them as a compass to find the rest of the pieces.
The compass brings him back to Kassandra’s house, where he finds the first part of the Grimoire in an antique table. What a coincidence. Poor Kassandra, who just gets caught in the middle of this cosplay BS, tries to escape, but instead he does the worst thing you can ever do to a woman: by casting a spell on her that ages her to an ancient 40-year-old! And I find it funny that her “40-year-old hag makeup“ is just her, more or less, without any makeup, where I’d mistake her for being a witch from the Westboro Baptist Church. I’m sorry, that was rude of me to say. She eventually meets Redferne and, after clearing some misunderstandings (to put it lightly), helps him to track down Warlock because she is the one who knows how to drive a car. In return, he helps her to break the age curse. Sounds like a fair deal. So what we basically have here is a cheesy fantasy movie set in real time sprinkled with some mild horror elements, a road movie, and, well, it’s a movie. And the similarities to The Terminator are already obvious.
Warlock is an odd one which was supposed to be more of a horror movie than the final cut was. The story is very ambitious on paper, written by David Twohy (Pitch Black, Below, The Chronicles of Riddick), and with the horror director Steve Miner who did the first two Friday the 13th sequels, there were maybe some expectations. Instead, most of the horror elements got watered down and edited after a failed screen test. Some were cut out due to bad special effects and others because of the pure shock value. And the strained budget really shows in several places, especially the effects of Warlock flying which just looks comical and retarded.
A particular scene that was cut out was where Warlock meets the boy with the rugby ball and kills him. Since this boy was unbaptized, his boiled body fat would give Warlock the upgrade to fly like Superman. I like the dialogue leading up to this when Warlock asks the boy why he isn’t at the church given that it is Sunday. Not all Americans are Christians, believe it or not. Then the boy asks Warlock the same and the conversation goes like this:
– Warlock: No witch can set foot on church ground! – Boy: You’re telling me you’re a witch? You ain’t no witch. Witches are GIRLS. – Warlock: Some are MEN ! – Boy: Yeah..? Where’s your broomstick? Witches fly on broomsticks. – Warlock: I need no broomstick to fly. – Boy: Yeah..? What DO you need?
Then you have a sinister moment where Warlock just looks at him, starts to laugh like the evil super villain he is, and you can only imagine the rest. We see him shortly after drinking his boiled body fat while it got suggested that the boy got killed by the coyotes. Even though this part was cut down, film got blamed six years later for inspiring two Canadian teenage boys for killing and cut the skin off a seven-year-old, who believed they would be able to fly if they made a potion of it. Just too bad they didn’t jump off a cliff to see if it worked.
Despite the campy clumsiness and the weird tone, all the actors plays their roles straight. The one who plays it most straight of them all, is Richard E. Grant, as if his life actually depended on it. His intense and neurotic Shakespearian line-deliveries makes a fun contrast to modern day Kassandra while arguing with cab drivers in Boston. Fun fact: Basil Fawlty himself (John Cleese) was actually considered for the role of the evil Warlock. That would be Something Completely Different indeed, if you take the reference. Julian Sands, who was even hesitant to take a look at the script, plays the role as a slick, charismatic psychopath with the type of confident elegance that could only come from a Brit. Warlock is overall a fun watch, much thanks to our three lead actors who brings a lot of charm and personality to it. It’s not something I’d recommend for everyone, though, It’s feels very dated with schlocky effects, clunky tone and is way more a weird fantasy/action hybrid than horror. But then there’s the sequel.
Director: Steve Miner Writer: David Twohy Country & year: USA, 1989 Actors: Julian Sands, Lori Singer, Richard E. Grant, Mary Woronov, Kevin O’Brien, Richard Kuss, Allan Miller, Anna Thomson, David Carpenter, Kay E. Kuter IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098622/
It’s been nine years since Don Mancini created his feature debut Seed of Chucky, and this time, it seems he’s had enough of the goofy craziness we saw in the previous two films. Having written every single Child’s Play/Chucky film, he now wanted to get back to the basics with turning Chucky into a more sinister presence. Perhaps this decision was a bit aided by the audience’s disapproval for the extremely silly direction the franchise had been led into, with especially the last film. It is still supposed to be in the same universe as the previous films, though, as the story starts with what is supposed to be nine years after the events of Seed of Chucky. And no, Tiffany and Glen/Glenda are no longer in the picture, so they must be living their happy lives somewhere else.
The story here starts with Sarah Pierce and her paraplegic daughter Nica getting a mysterious package. What’s inside? A Good Guy doll, of course! What else. Chucky still knows his old tricks, it seems, as it isn’t the first time he’s shipped himself somewhere. Confused, Sarah decides to just throw the doll away, something she’ll soon regret. Nica is later awakened by hearing Sarah scream, and finds her dead body. It’s ruled a suicide, and Nica soon gets the house filled with family: her older sister Barb, her husband Ian, their daughter Alice, and their nanny Jill (who is of course having an affair with Ian). Alice finds Chucky and bonds with the doll immediately, and during a dinner where a priest has been invited, Chucky manages to poison the priest’s food. Another kill count upcoming, but this one happens after he has left so no one’s the wiser. Nica becomes suspicious about the doll, and Chucky seems determined to take them all out. But why? What’s his deal with Nica and her family?
Curse of Chucky from 2013 is the sixth film in the franchise, this time also written and directed by Don Mancini. And this one went straight to VOD, followed by DVD and Blu-ray releases. And this time the franchise has buried the comedy and over-the-top elements and nailed the coffin shut, going for a straight-forward horror premise. The setting is a creepy and large house, and there’s a good amount of spooky atmosphere to work well with the film’s more serious tone. I enjoyed several of the death scenes, great variation but not as excessive with the blood and gore as the previous entries. Overall a nice Chucky film, especially for those who wanted it to take a more serious route.
Honestly, though, I can’t say I’m a fan of the reveal behind Chucky’s deal with Nica and her family. It is simply too significant to make much sense…especially since the film is trying to take place in the same universe where all the previous films actually happened. All those years, and something that important in Charles Lee Ray’s life suddenly becomes a plot point? Sorry dawg, I’m just not buying it. The movie works pretty well for those who wanted Chucky to return to the more grounded horror levels, and was probably a relief for the fans who felt their favorite killer doll had been “ruined“ by the previous films.
There was also a sequel to this film called Cult of Chucky, where Andy Barclay is reintroduced, and while this movie seems to be rather well regarded among the Chucky fans, it really wasn’t my thing. And I’m probably also the odd one out here when I say I enjoyed Bride and Seed considerably more than Curse. Cult of Chucky was of course not the end of the killer doll, though, there’s since been the Child’s Play remake from 2019 by Lars Klevberg, and the Chucky TV series which is available on Netflix. Chucky just is one of those horror villains that never dies no matter how many times he is killed.
Writer and director: Don Mancini Country & year: USA, 2013 Actors: Chantal Quesnelle, Fiona Dourif, Brad Dourif, Jordan Gavaris, Danielle Bisutti, A Martinez, Maitland McConnell, Brennan Elliott, Summer H. Howell IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2230358/
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/
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/
The late Dr. Plato Zorba is an occultist who has left his large house to his nephew Cyrus. Curys and his family are living very much from hand to mouth, struggling with making ends meet, so this is a wonderful opportunity for them. Or so they think. Curys, along with his wife Hilda and their daughter Medea and son Buck, decide to move to the house despite the lawyer informing them that the house is also inhabited by a bunch of ghosts that Dr. Zorba collected from all around the world. With the property also comes a housekeeper named Elaine, who of course conducts seances and is creepy as hell. And that’s not even all, as there is a hidden fortune somewhere on the property. The ghosts are a varied sort, including a fiery skeleton, a slightly goofy Italian chef, and even a lion with its headless tamer. And none of them are there willingly, as they’ve been captured by Dr. Zorba who also created a set of special goggles that makes you able to see the ghosts. There are 12 ghosts in the house, one being the ghost of Dr. Zorba himself who is also trapped and wants someone to become the unlucky 13th ghost to free him and the others.
