Independence day is upon the American people. A myriad of people barbecuing, drinking themselves to mass liver damage and blowing the crap out of most of their lawns and scaring the neighborhood animals. Rotten Reelz Reviews and Rotten Ramblin' On are making changes this month as there will be a couple of websites, a purchase of SoundCloud's services and hopefully we continue the same goofiness and entertainment that both have brought. May have to get a look for the potential Rotten Riffs but I have to see if anyone else wants to riff with me period.
Psst, you gonna leap on a couch?
So please toss comments, complaints, ideas, requests or other such concepts at Rotten Reelz Reviews or hit our e-mail at rottenreelzreviews@gmail.com New things are happening and I cannot wait to show the improvements. Do the same for Rotten Ramblin' On or e-mail at rottenramblinon@gmail.com.
Okay that is all the updates I have. Have a safe and responsible 4th of July and give a damn for your veterans with signs in their yard about how fireworks don't work well for them. Seriously, give a damn about them.
Welly, welly well, I am back my fine
readers. This time around writer/director Lewis Abernathy
(DeepStar Six,
House IV and Terminal Invasion)
this flick fell under direct-to-video comedy horror and produced by
Sean S. Cunningham and
composed by Harry Mandfredini which
should have been House III but apparently if some of the crew members
and a killer haunting a house but we have Roger Cobb reappear. This
is House IV: Home Deadly Home.
So that writing gig blew, on to repairing projectors.
Also
known as House 4: The Repossession, the reappearance of Roger Cobb
(William Katt of Carrie, The Greatest American Hero,
House, Daddy's Girl, Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor,
Jawbreaker, Justice League, Gamers and The Man from Earth)
with a new family? Yup continuity said screw you former wife Sandy
and son Jimmy. No real explanation at all for that. Thankfully
he washed his hands of "those people", yeah I said it!
Anywho, Roger now has wife name of Kelly (Terri Treas of
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Santa Barbara, Deathstalker and the
Warriors from Hell, Alien Nation, Roger Corman's Frankenstein
Unbound, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon and Alien Nation Millennium)
and daughter Laurel (Melissa Clayton of Caddie Woodlawn,
House IV, Stay the Night, A Child Lost Forever: The Jerry Sherwood
Story and Land's End) and a
step-brother?? Yes only child Roger Cobb magically has a
step-brother name of Burke (Scott Burkholder of Crimson
Tide, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Bandits, Swordfish, Impostor, ER and Six
Feet Under) who WE HAVE
NEVER HEARD OF, gets in touch with Roger about dead old dad (of
which we didn't know who he was prior)
passing and leaving him a creepy house...say ain't that familiar?
I like to think of this as Earth-2 Roger Cobb with a different story
arc than from the first movie. Maybe this one did in Big Ben
slitting his throat from ear to ear. Moving on the house could be
sold but Roger refuses to sell it while Burke wants to buy the house
with his company's scratch so they can bulldoze it down make the land
more profitable because it doesn't look like there is a neighbor for
over two miles in the frickin' desert!!!!
Why am I hanging with you white devils again?
On the way home,
Roger and family have a car accident that puts Roger in a coma,
daughter Laurel in a wheelchair and somehow Kelly is completely
unharmed minus a sprained wrist or some such. Roger is so messed up
that Kelly has to decide whether or not to pull the plug (SPOILERS!!!
Yeah she does) so it was really worth dragging William Katt back to
the franchise. Kelly's wisdom on the whole scenario is to selling
the house of their dreams and moving in the creeper old house for the
sake of her dead hubby. Burke comes around and pesters Kelly to sell
and she refuses. Later on, kooky supernatural events like: objects
moving, portal opening, general whackdoo.
A
vision the spirit of Roger is trying to warn Kelly that the car
accident was actually a murder attempt to gack the lot of them to
claim the house. Kelly views this logically and hires a Native
American spirit guide Ezra (Ned Romero of Hang 'Em High,
I Will Fight No More Forever, Children of the Corn II: The Final
Sacrifice and Expiration Date)
who points out the spirits want to help her against Burke and his
"associates". Will Kelly have piece of mind? Will Roger
get more screen time than 10 maybe 12 minutes overall?
The house looks
very similar to the family house in Bad Dreams. The movie formula
is back to a R rating giving it the near equivalence of the original
in the sense that it is a horror comedy and has a house. Aside from
that though, yeah this is not for those that have eyes, a soul or
even a brain stem. Loved seeing Charlie Blackfoot (Ned Romero)again
but yeah this was kind of a waste of time.
Sorry about the delay. Brain hating
migraines. Enough of that, time to get back to the continuing
series of House. Yeah this film isn't even supposed to be a link to
series but thanks to distribution from foreign to domestic this film
was released under... wait for it, ALTERNATIVE TITLES!!!! The
producers decided they need to rename this film House 3 for the
foreign market because...reasons. Yeah I was surprised it turns out
House IV should have been House III but produced by Sean S.
Cunningham and composed by Harry Manfredini simply made our original
third film House IV to solve all the issues and baffle about every
collector. This is House 3 a.k.a. The Horror Show a.k.a. La casa 7
a.k.a.Evil Dead 7 and House III: The Horror Show.
Yer gonna die ya filthy replicant.
Directed by the late SFX
creator/director James Isaac (The Horror Show, Jason X,
Skinwalkers and Pig Hunt) follows the story of Detective
McCarthy (Lance Henriksen of The Terminator, Savage Dawn,
Aliens, Near Dark, Pumpkinhead, Alien 3, Man's Best Friend, No
Escape, The Quick and the Dead and Millennium) finally
catches America's most successful serial killer with a kill count of
110 people. Our vicious and ridiculous laughing Max "Meat
Cleaver" Jenke (Brion James of Blade Runner, 48 Hrs., A
Breed Apart, Crimewave, Silverado, Enemy Mine, Cherry 2000, Red Heat
and Tango & Cash). Yes 110 people went to their deaths
somehow with the cops never noticing or finding any clues and
correlation to the other deaths. That stupid cackle will drive you
bat crap crazy.
Pumpkinhead 5: Harvest Season.
So sentenced finally to his death via
electrocution only physically but...it in fact made him into a
electric being that can manifest into all those who dare to watch his
execution. This particular concept of executed serial killer coming
back to life and stalk folks down was based originally in Wes
Craven's Shocker and Robert Resnikoff's The First Power.
Fearing for the lives for his family, wife Donna (Rita
Taggart of Coming Home, The Horror Show, Limbo and Mulholland Drive)
and kids Bonnie (Dedee Pfeiffer of For Your Love,
Falling Down, Cybill, Up Close & Personal, Burn Notice and
Flatline) and Scott (Aron
Eisenberg of Amityville: The Evil Escapes, Streets, Prayer of the
Rollerboys, Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge and The Liar's Club)
as Max haunts them from beyond the grave. The common theory is he
wanted to drive Lance Henriksen crackers before killing him. Will
McCarthy be able to save his family? Can Jenke be stopped? Will
anyone give a crap??
Several scenes had
to be removed to avoid an X rating according to the MPAA's standards.
The European release I saw has some serious gore that frankly wasn't
over the top by Saw's standards. Loved how Jenke's apartment was
completely untouched, none of his stuff removed and clues that he was
intrigued by McCarthy and his family for ages. Death row takes years
so who the hell was paying for that apartment to stay open for a
convicted serial killer?
Yeah it was
painful, plotholes of electromagnetic evils and the effects were
fair. Buck up folks, we still have one more House movie to go.
Back again gentle readers. I do so
hope House was enjoyable and you all rushed to your DVD stores and
got a copy. This time around we move into the realm of sequels.
Yes, I know how many you feel about sequels. Many times I view them
as inferior creations relying on basing from the original and never
surpassing it. Yet we have Aliens, Godfather II and Superman II so
conjure of that what you will. This next story prepares you for a
new story with a new house with a barrage of characters rating at
PG-13 rather than first's R rating. This is House II: The Second
Story.
So according to Ancestry.com I'm my own grandpa.
Practically growing up in a video store
I say two different covers for this film. Our movie written by
screenwriter Ethan Wiley (House, House II: The Second
Story, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, Brutal, Black Ops,
Bear, Elf-Man and Journey to the Forbidden Valley) brings us
twenty something yuppie Jesse (Arye Gross of Tequila Sunrise,
For the Boys, A Midnight Clear, The Opposite Sex and How to Live with
Them, Ellen and Castle) and his music producer girlfriend
Kate (Lar Park-Lincoln of Friday the 13th
Part VII:The New Blood, Knots Landing, Freddy's Nightmares, City of
Justice, From the Dark, Gravestoned and The Dancer) have got
to inspect the house from his inheritance where his parents murdered
while he was a baby, a bizarre home with mixture of Gothic and Aztec
design filled with passages and many rooms. Of all the rooms, a
fireplace fixture on the mantelpiece was a human sized skull made of
crystal (It belongs in a museum!!!) made flawless.
The House that Goofy Made.
His talent manager buddy Charlie
(Jonathan Stark of Fright Night, There Were Times, Dear,
Project X, Cheers, Bright Lights, Big City, Rain Man, The Spirit of
'76, Career Opportunities, Ellen and Stop It) and his singer
diva girlfriend Lana (Amy Yasbeck of Days of Our Lives, Magnum,
P.I., Generations, Pretty Woman, Problem Child, , Problem Child 2,
Robin Hood: Men in Tights, The Mask, Wings, Alright Already and
Little Women, Big Cars) seems to be the latest, new thing and
the two start conversing with Kate's boss John (Bill Maher of
Out of Time, Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death, Pizza
Man, Politically Incorrect, Bill Maher: The Decider and Real Time
with Bill Maher) while Jesse and Charlie decide to research
the skull's history finding it is told to offer a great wish or even
the possibility of giving the owner immortality. Jesse and Charlie
take off to dig up the relative, Jesse's great, great grandfather and
Jesse's name sake. Grandfather or Gramps (Royal Dano of Man of
the West, Never Steal Anything Small, Posse From Hell, Death Valley
Days, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Gunsmoke, Big Bad Mama and Capone)
turns out to not be as dead as they thought and sneak him into the
house. He warns the lads that the skull can effect the very fabric
of time and space, the house becomes a nexus of different timelines.
The Doctor would be fascinated and disturbed at the same time.
Aztecs appear, pop Gramps in the head and snagged the skull going
through the walls.
Another of Cheer alumni makes his way,
electrian Bill (John Ratzenberger of Cheers, Captain Planet and
the Planeteers, That Darn Cat, One Night Stand, Toy Story, Monsters,
Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille)
checks their wiring in the house and discovers one of those damn
pesky temporal portals. Can the boys get the skull back? What
other terrors await them? What rewards are to be found?
Sean S. Cunningham once again
produced this film and composer Harry Manfredini brings his
"A" game for the orchestral. Industrial Light and MagicPhil Tippett brought on the stop motion animation. I goofed not
acknowledging Ethan Wiley wrote this film as well as the previous
one. Creature sound effects is brought to us by voice actor Frank
Welker. This is goofy, fun and just plain entertaining and yes it
is safe for young ones in my eyes.
Welcome one and all. Well folks I have
gotten write backs from both a star and the writer/director of Camp
Blood 4 and 5. Goes to show you never know who is reading this
blog. That being said, the guys were good eggs in spite of my candid
and goofy takes on the film. Say, one could almost think of
interviewing them for Rotten Ramblin' On.
This week it is all about House. Yes,
the confusing series that has brought us 1,2 and...4? Huh? Yeah
that has been a mystery for more than 20 years for me and trust me
when I say, I was a tad disappointed at the discovery.
Told you to open the door and get me a beer!
Today's film comes from the mind of
writer Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps,The Monster Squad, If
Looks Could Kill, Ricohet, Tales from the Crypt and Star Trek:
Enterprise) produced by a teenybopper
slayer/director/producer Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the
13th, A Stranger Is Watching,
Spring Break, The New Kids, DeepStar Six and Terminal Invasion),
directed by a man of TV and movie sequels, director Steve Miner
(Friday the 13th Part 2,
Friday the 13th Part III, Soul
Man, Warlock, Elvis, My Father the Hero, Halloween H2O: 20 Years
Later and Lake Placid) and music composed by writer/jazz
soloist/composer Harry Manfredini (Here Comes the
Tigers, Friday the 13th, Swamp
Thing, Friday the 13th Part
III, Spring Break, Friday the 13th:
The Final Chapter, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, Zombie Island
Massacre and Slaughter High) bringing you the horror comedy
that is House.
Roger Cobb (William Katt of The
Rookies, Ironside, Carrie, The Rainmaker, The Greatest American Hero,
Perry Mason Returns, Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star,
Swimsuit, White Ghost and House IV) is a novelist that delves
into horror mostly thanks to his experiences in Vietnam (Cue Hendrix
music!) whose luck has gone terribly sour. His books aren't selling
as well as they could, he is separated from his wife and his son
disappeared mysteriously. Overall, a suck life thus far. His aunt
Elizabeth (Susan French of The Sting, Airport 1975, Jaws 2,
Captain America II: Death Too Soon, Flatliners, Younger and Younger
and Fist of the North Star) who raised Roger for many years
after his parents' death has passed away leaving her house to Roger.
Robert Culp furious with the revenues of Greatest American Hero.
Roger is being pressured to finish his
book project to increase his sales and get him back on top. Haunted
to this day about events of Vietnam we see why Cobb needs to end the
book to bring the demons to rest. Cobb holds onto the house as this
is where his son was last seen and is convinced the house itself is
the culprit as childhood memories of the house were disturbing. His
now ex-wife Sandy (Kay Lenz of American Graffiti, Breezy, The
Passage, Swan Lake, Stripped to Kill, Death Wish 4: The Crackdown,
Fear and Streets) checks on him when he shuts down or keeps
people at bay and you get the vibe she genuinely misses and loves him
still but the loss of their boy put a huge gulf between them.
Determined to finish his Vietnam
horror novel, he investigates the house itself as every night at
midnight something different, warped and ominous happens. His nosy
next-door neighbor Harold (George Wendt of Cheers, Fletch,
Space Truckers, Spice World, Wild About Harry and Saturday Night
Live) turns out to be a huge fan of Cobb's and the two then
check out the barrage of monsters and demons ebbing their way into
the house. Can Cobb deal with the ghosts of the past?
With some camp moments, the pace of the
story takes you on and makes a leisurely pass to realms brushing
against one another. Creatures manifest in the house harming Roger
and damaging his mind and soul. You get the vibe this could go
completely Jaccob's Ladder but skirts off into Evil Dead 2 territory.
With amazing prosthetics, stop motion animations and a bit of blue
screen you are in for a bizarre time. You know the seriousness of a
dismembering scene has been made fun of as our protagonist buries the
remains of his wife turned demon to the tune of Linda Ronstadt's
You're No Good. I think I belted out laughing. Dated perhaps but
still valid for some good scares and good story telling.
Hey there guys and dolls. I bet
you thought we were done for the week of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Sequels and well you were wrong. I rooted through this cinema
diaper pail of evil and pulled this festering ball of stink out just
for you. Um was that too descriptive? Yeah that was vicious and I will tone it down. Anyway this particular
masterpiece is the continuation of previous works...with lesser
dialogue...a minuscule budget...possibly even a clown. Okay it is
more Camp Blood. I know, I know. It's like the Godfather of horror
films. You think you are finally done with it and then it pulls you
back. This is Camp Blood 5.
All-night kegger, right? Oh, gonna kill a guy. k.
Back in the hands of Dustin Ferguson
(Doll Killer, Die Sister, Die!, Gloved Murderess, Cheerleader
Camp: To the Death and Invitation to Die) we continue the
saga of Raven (Schuylar Craig of Blood Claws, Camp Blood 4,
Blood Model and The Amityville Legacy) as it appears to be
three months after the massacre of her friends, the cops have found
neither hide nor hair of them and are starting to wonder if these
folks were ever even real... nah I was kidding on that last part.
Raven with the help of her friends Jenn(Jennifer Mill of Camp
Blood 5) and Kerrie (Kerrie Waybright Smith of Shivers
Down Your Spine: A Christmas Horror Story, Remission, Invitation to
Die and Camp Blood 5) are attempting to piece the events
together and track down our dastardly clown and cram vengeance up his
noise hole.
So yeah margaritas sound great. Cya at 7.
Now you get the vibe that these films 4 and 5 were shot
back to back and I would guess offhand there was a limited time and
budget to contend with but that being said, I have seen larger scaled
films with their "A" list drag butt for continuity or
re-shoot after re-shoot and while this is a smaller film, it isn't bad.
Yes the dialogue is not genius but find
me a slasher film that made people so realistic aside from Tobe
Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. My only real
critique is exposure needs work and have some portable floodlights
for night shoots. Also cheapy focusing lamp lanterns are about $20
and you can hang them wherever you need to and keep them out of
frame. Boom.
No this is not Ferguson's showpiece
but I think he is getting his sea legs for horror and it is evolving.
He is on his way. Might want to consider story boards for gore
gags and possibly a co-writer to collaborate with but all in all, not
a bad start.
Okay the genius behind these flicks is
picking up from Blood Slaughter and not the original three so aside
from a clown mask and blades, nothing else including location. Shot
in Lincoln Nebraska primarily on a shoestring budget the effects for
both Camp Blood 4 and 5 was through Wetworks SFXin
Omaha rigging prosthetic latex, blood gore gags and splatter effects
as well as prop blades. So go local biz!!!
Howdydoodlydoo!!!! So that was some
fun-filled sequels we have been through, huh? Oh wait, no they
weren't. Still they could have been worse. Many have complained
about Howling II: Sister is a Werewolf given its plot holes,
inconsistencies and Sybil Danning's copious topless and nude
scenes. But c'mon...Reb Brown was 1970's Captain America and
Sir Christopher Lee was Dracula back-to-back smoking
werewolves that...looked really cheesy and nothing of Rick Baker's
amazing SFX. This is Howling III a.k.a. Marsupials: The Howling
III.
Dress me in a coat will ya??!!
Back with director Phillippe Mora
(The Beast Within, A Breed Apart, Communion, Art Deco
Detective, Richard III, Mercenary II: Thick & Thin and Strange
Matters) and ONCE AGAIN sadly I start recognizing people
because I have seen some serious piles of monkey squirt. Well let's
dive right into this tour de force. Deep within the Australian
Outback, werewolves have evolved divergent from any other lupine and
morphed into marsupials...yup I didn't just mess with you all, female
werewolves developing pouches for holding the young.
Anthropologist
Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto of Benny Hill Down Under, Case for
the Defence, Tickled Pink, Norman Loves Rose, Undercover,The Punisher
and The Paper Man) managed to score grainy footage filmed in
"1905" of Aborigines burning and stabbing a wolf creature
and shows his classroom. Kinda surreal except it is clearly shot
with a higher def VHS used for broadcasting at the time.
No sooner is the class dismissed plot convenience number two appears in the form of a series of reports of
werewolf attacks in Russia giving Beckmeyer the belief of a
widespread of Commie Lycanthropes hell bent on taking over the world
and attempts to get hold of the President. Yeah that goes over
well as he explains to the President about werewolves and points out
that strange things exist all over the world. The President vows to
send Beckmeyer back to Sydney, Australia but he needs to keep the
commander-in-chief clued in on the werewolf phenomenon.
I'm far too excited!!!
A doofy American name of Donny (Lee
Biolos of Les Patterson Saves the World, The Year My Voice Broke,
Dark City and Candy Regentag) is on location to scout filming
regions and local talent for a Werewolf film Shapeshifters Part 8
bumps into a striking girl Jerboa (Playing Beatie Bow, Vietnam,
Future Past, Crossbow, Strapless, Candy Regentag, Flair and Queen of
the Damned) bumps into Donny and he tells her she would be
perfect to play a werewolf (wink wink) so they are off to the
director to get her spotlight a goin'.
Plans to move on the impeding werewolf
infestation is allowing paramilitary and military divisions to join up
with financial aid from the Vatican blessing silver for rounds and
start mounting preemptive strikes after the few they have captured
and interrogated to get the location they live in.
Will Beckmeyer allow the werewolves to
be destroyed?? Will the military succeed??
Okay the effects are really less than.
Gore effects were fair but the werewolf appliances are pretty hokey
and even the giant werewolf head looked like a giant boar or pig.
Turns out the head prop was from the 1984 flick Razorback so yup
fuzzy pig. Using a polarizing filter, all the background colors
looked amazing in spite of this film was a bit on the silly.
Basing the werewolves of Australia is on the extinct Tasmanian Wolf
as it was lupine and marsupial. Other than that, I was a tad bored. The only of the Howling series that fell under PG-13.
