Films 13 - October part 1

Welllll, it's that time of the year again, and these posts seem to be the most popular, so here's a few more oddball horror flicks to watch around Halloween-time. I might throw together another 'sounds of fall' list too, so look out for that, I guess. Or don't.

'Killing Spree' - 1987

In the 9th 'films' post, I reviewed a flick called 'Truth or Dare?: A Critical Madness.' It was an odd mess of a slasher flick made by Tim Ritter and featured a guy getting into increasingly violent games of truth or dare with everyone he meets. Ritter apparently has SEVERAL similar films, and all of them seem equally entertaining. There are about 5 sequels to the 'Truth or Dare' movie as well. Unfortunately, the only other one of his movies I could track down was this 1987 low-budget oddity. Well, not 'unfortunately' really because it's completely awesome. If anything, it's weirder and more disjointed than 'Truth or Dare,' but with a slightly lower budget. He kinda promotes these monsters like they're 'regular' slasher flicks, which I don't understand how anyone could fall for...I mean, everything is just so WRONG. It's similar in plot to 'Truth or Dare,' in that a guy catches his wife cheating and goes ape shit. However, he doesn't 'really' catch her cheating because he just keeps finding her diary. Then he kills all of her supposed lovers, and punches out a few random beach bums for no reason. Woops, turns out she was just writing steamy romance stories(!). So, keep in mind it's a fairly 'reality'-based slasher...no supernatural elements...until all the dead people randomly come back to life halfway through. Yeah. It's nuts. See it at once. Don't worry, I didn't ruin the plot for you, because it's completely see-through the whole time. But yeah, this one's totally great.

'Dead Ringers' - 1988

Here's a Cronenberg flick for ya. I never saw this one back in the day. Don't know why, because I've always loved 'Videodrome' and 'Scanners.' Just got lost in the shuffle. Anyways, it's pretty good. Not the best he's done. Kinda slow and boring in parts, but it's an interesting story. I guess it's more of a 'psychological drama' than a true horror film, but it's got some pretty terrifying parts. Two twin brothers share lives until an actress chick gets in the way and one falls in love with her. Then, one gets strung out on drugs while the other one gets more successful. Then he also gets strung out on drugs because why not? They're also gynecologists, but it's not a super-gross film or anything. That might've been what put me off this one initially, knowing Cronenberg's tendency for splatter. It's pretty tame by his standards. Probably won't watch it again. Oh well. He still rules.

'Demon City Shinjuku' - 1988

Never really thought of putting an anime horror in one of these lists, so here's the first. This is a slow-burning, menacing flick. Kind of a 'traditional' anime-horror plot...city is possessed by evil, one guy has to stop it, turns out it's family-related. But, it's particularly well-done, and it's got some real imaginative animation.

'Eyes of Fire' - 1983

This is one of the most interesting 'gothic' horror flicks I've ever seen. It's got a pretty low budget, too, but you really can't tell. It plays like a cross between a slightly less surreal 'El Topo' and 'Salem's Lot.' It's a pre-revolution era story about some colonist folks who live in a super-puritanical village in the south. The town preacher is sleeping with some lady who he's giving a home to while her husband is out exploring, and the rest of the town doesn't play that shit, so they try to hang him. He's got a mute supernatural girl on his side, though, and she helps him out. Then, they all decide to leave the town so they don't get killed. They end up in a weird abandoned town out in the woods which the preacher says is 'perfectly alright' to stay in. It's not, however, and some evil spirits who live inside trees start messing with them. Acid-weirdness ensues. I'd say watch this one alone. It's actually pretty frightening, and has a lot of cool visuals, mostly thanks to the director's photography experience. He did that one Tragically Hip album cover with the dog on it. This one's really good, definitely need to re-watch it a few times.

...that's it for now...I'll put some more up once I watch more movies.