Horror Movie Empire.com Reviews

1985 A Larco Production

    The Stuff is an addictive desert that is taking the country by storm. That is until little Jason (Scott Bloom), and a group of ‘good guys’, discover that it has a life of its own. Will they stop the production of this white and gooey evil substance before it takes over the entire country?

    No matter how much I try to like this film I just can’t. Just because it was made in the 1980’s doesn’t make it good, and the cheese factor in this is just so damn high that it stinks like cheddar that has been left out for a month. It’s a damn shame because I really do like the premise of it.

    The Stuff is written by Larry Cohen and while I find the idea behind the movie to be pretty original the screenplay definitely has some issues. For instance, why wouldn’t anybody know where The Stuff comes from. I mean it wouldn’t take that much of an effort to find that out would it? I realise I’m being rather logical but that really bothered me. Also, wouldn’t have a lot of other people besides Jason notice that The Stuff is alive? If it’s moving about in his fridge shouldn’t it being doing the boogie in others as well? One thing that I do notice while watching ths is that The Stuff can be either frozen, refrigerated or simply put up on a shelf, so I give Cohen some credit for thinking up such a very versatile desert. The final part of the film that features Colonel Spears (Paul Sorvino) really makes little sense at all since he is living in a ‘csatle’ surrounded by his troops. I had no idea that feudalism was alive and well in this country, why didn’t anybody tell me? It’s like Cohen didn’t know what direction to take this film into and attempted to add some 1950’s sci-fi movie camp.

    Larry Cohen is also in the directors chair and I have got to say that some of the worst ‘blue screen’ effects I have ever seen are in this film. When we are shown where The Stuff actually comes from it is really obvious that what we are being shown is some bubbling yogurt superimposed inside a rock quarry. I don’t expect this film to have high quality effects but as least they could have tried a little harder or something. When The Stuff explodes out of people it’s kind of cool, but then again you have some really fake looking models being used. Then there is the whole problem of how the film is cut. One moment we are being shown a room full of The Stuff and the next somebody is suddenly being attacked by their own dog. There are many more cuts that really make no sense whatsoever that are sure to astound and confuse the hell out of you.

    The major problem in this is the acting. It can be quite abysmal as is the case with Michael Moriarty who plays industrial spy Mo Rutherford. He used to star in Law And Order and used to have the reputation of being a total drunk so that may be what is happening in this film. He seems to be saying his lines without any feeling and kind of stumbles through the film not so much acting as just being on the screen. I have a feeling he was broke when offered this and didn’t even consider trying to act in it. Paul Sorvino is actually a good actor so I don’t know what the heck he is doing in this film. He was on Law And Order around the same time as Moriarty so maybe there is some sort of Law And Order conspiracy going on that I have yet to discover.

    If you like bad 80’s horror flicks then The Stuff will be right up you’re alley, but if you don’t then Bloofer Lady suggests staying away from this.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

2004 Satan’s Little Company

    Little Dougie (Alexander Brickel) loves Halloween and is dressed up as the video game character Satan’s Little Helper. When he finds a man in a costume who claims to be Satan his dreams come true, but at what cost?

Satan’s Little Helper is one of the best independent horror films I have ever seen. It is just so messed up and hysterical what is happening through the whole film that I can’t help but love it. It’s very original and well made, which is very rare combination in the independent horror genre of films.

    Jeff Liberman penned the screenplay for this and it has one of the most twisted plots I have ever seen. Dougie spends the majority of the film following around a guy dressed up in a devil type costume who is murdering people. Not only does this kid think that it’s all some sort of fun game but he really gets into what the guy is doing and even tells him to kill his sister Jenna’s (Katheryn Winnick) boyfriend Alex (Stephen Graham). We are given hints as to who the murderer really is throughout the whole film but it is never completely confirmed. In fact I like that aspect of it because you get to use your imagination and perhaps, just perhaps, that guy is really Satan after all. The entire film takes place in a community called Bell Island and during one point in the film everybody is going around robbing places and such, which is pretty hysterical since the place looks like something out of Leave It To Beaver. The characters are pretty well written and actually likable, so when they start getting maimed I actually care about what is happening to them. The Satan character may be fun to watch but by golly he’s not a very nice fellow! The ending of the film is quite chilling and let’s you kind of ponder what exactly happens next.

    This is directed by Jeff Liberman and he does a pretty damn good job. There are no major mistakes, as often seen in independent movies, and some of the scenes filmed are downright hysterical. At one point Satan takes Dougie on a wild ride in a shopping cart hitting a pregnant woman, a priest, a blind man and a baby. Not only that but you also get to hear the baby cry after it is hit! Yes, it is in slightly bad taste but that is what is so funny about it. There is one scene in this that really disturbed me and that’s because it involves a kitty cat and is quite graphic. In fact it made me cringe more than the scenes in which people are killed, so if you are an animal lover make sure you cover your eyes during it. One really strangely filmed scene is during a costume party in which people just kind of stand around while watching poor Merrill (Amanda Plummer) being semi tortured by the Satan guy. It’s kind of surreal but I can actually believe a bunch of drunk idiots thinking that it’s a whole costume gimmick! The camera follows Jenna trying to rescue her, all the while dressed in a big chicken costume that stands out from the other guests. People get offed in a variety of different ways including a homage to the beginning of The Omen, if you catch my drift! There is a good amount of blood in this but it isn’t over the top or meant to be gratuitous in nature. Yes, there are some boobies be if you blink long enough you will probably miss them.

    The first time I watched this film I couldn’t believe that Amanada Plummer plays the mother Merrill, because she has been in so many cool films and TV shows over the years like The Prophecy, and some very good episodes of The Outer Limits. I like how she plays the mom slightly ditsy and I think she would actually be a very cool mom to have after watching this! Alexander Brickel really does a good job playing little Dougie. Most of the film involves him in one way or another so if he was bad the film really wouldn’t work at all. It must have been fun as hell, no pun intended, for him to play this role. The rest of the actors are okay, but not quite on the same level as the two I just mentioned. Oh, I should also mention Joshua Annex who is the man who actually playas Satan in this. He is in a mask the entire time and that couldn’t have been very fun so I give him a thumbs up for that alone.

    Bloofer Lady thinks that this original independent horror film should be seen by all aspiring amateur horror film makers as an example of what works.

You can buy Satan’s Little Helper at Horror Movie Empire.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

2006 Gold Circle Films

    A meteor lands near the hick town of Wheelsy and unleashes an alien life form bend on taking over the planet. Will policeman Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion) and various other townspeople be able to stop the contagion before it’s too late?

    This film is funny as hell and very well made! It’s style removes it from the field of utter crap that litters the horror genre these days. The screenplay comes together well, the direction is quite good, and the special effects are very spiffy. Plus the acting itself isn’t too shabby! All of these things bring the film together and make it into something that Bloofer Lady very much enjoys; a fun horror and sci-fi romp through a hick town!

    Slither is written by James Gunn and it’s a B movie style film done well. It comes across as a homage to such movies as the original Blob, which also features a meteor from outer space that crashes to Earth. I really love the whole idea of every single fast moving alien slug in this being a part of the consciousness of one being. When Kylie (Tania Saulnier) is attacked by one going into her mouth she sees the memories of it when it was on a different planet doing exactly the same thing that is going on around her. I think this really gives some depth to the story, because we are actually given some background about the alien besides it being a killing machine. Also, near the ending we are shown that the poor thing is actually a rather lonely being, which makes me feel kind of sorry for the poor thing. So, the alien actually has his own arc of development, which really isn’t seen to often in a horror film. Instead we are usually given a monster who is simply evil and that’s it. The dialogue is very funny! When Starla (Elizabeth Banks) asks Grant (Michael Rooker) what’s wrong with him he answers ‘It’s just a bee sting!’. From all of the misshapen bumps on his head it obviously isn’t and that’s what makes it so hysterical.

    Besides writing the screenplay Mr. Gunn also directed this. From the opening credits he really does a creative job and there are several scenes that really stand out in my opinion. When the first person is attacked by one of the slugs we are shown an x ray shot of them as they are lying on the ground. This automatically tells out how it manifests itself without us having to sit through an explanation of how they operate by a scientist or another type of character like that. What really cracks me up is the part when dainty looking Elizabeth attacks one of the humans possessed by the slug by impaling it by the lights of a cop car and the body twitches like mad crazy! It’s brutal because the camera focuses so much upon it, yet funny because the looks on the other characters faces are incredulous. There are some really crazy looking effects in this, both CGI and those made the old fashioned way. The CGI doesn’t look too bad, and almost all of the slugs are created this way accept for in some of the scenes in which they are actually handled by the characters. The final scene is really disgusting because humans are being absorbed into a big blob of pulsating alien flesh. We are actually shown somebody joining into it and it remind me of when silly putty is stretched out a lot. There is a ton of gore, decapitations and various out nasty things that go on that will satisfy any gore hound watching this.

    What is usually wrong with modern horror films is that the acting isn’t quite up to snuff, but Slither doesn’t suffer from that annoying syndrome. Jack MacReady, the town’s mayor played by Gregg Henry, is my favorite character just because he plays the jackass perfectly. There are politicians like the character around where Bloofer Lady lives so I give him a huge thumbs up! He’s a character actor that has been on a ton of TV shows and movie such as Body Double. Nathan Fillion is pretty good as policeman Bill Pardy, who is the hero of the story. The character carries a torch for Elizabeth and Fillion translates that very well with his actions. Actually, if he had played him just a little more creepy he would have been my favorite actor in this. Brenda James, who plays Brenda, looks very much like Hillary Duff in this which was a little off putting I must say. it isn’t her fault so I won’t hold it against her!

    Bloofer Lady has a really good time watching this and wishes that other modern horror film would strive to be as original as this film is.

You can buy Slither at Horror Movie Empire.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

1987 Chaos Productions

    Viper, a deadly does of liquor, is unleashed upon the streets when a store owner find a case of it behind some old boards in his basement. How many will die before somebody finally figures out what is killing the people who live on the mean streets?

    Damn, this is one fucked up film. Not saying that’s a good or bad thing, but there are some scenes in Street Trash that are downright disturbing! It’s a horror film but it’s also some sort of weird social commentary on homeless people. One in which everybody is a horny bastard! The screenplay is has some really twisted moments and the direction isn’t actually that bad, so even though it is really strange it’s still watchable.

    Ray Frumkes penned this and I have to say that it has some really, really funny and disturbing scenes in it. The most infamous being when a penis is cut off and a bunch of people play keep away with it. Yes, you heard that right. I really don’t know whether to laugh or squirm while watching that because I kind of feel sorry for the guy who is missing it! That’s got to hurt! There is a scene in which Freddy (Mike Lackey) takes a drunk woman back to his homeless pad, screws her, and then lets a whole group of bums carry her away. Share and share alike? There are a lot of bums screwing stuff or thinking about screwing stuff in this. If you were to judge homeless people by what Frumkes writes you would think that every homeless person is a rapist or likes to screw the dead. Some of the dialogue is really hysterical. My very favorite line is said at the end of the film, ‘Kiss your prick? It’s dripping down your leg!’. Nice visual, right? The whole idea of people melting away from drinking some hooch is pretty cool, but I wish they had expanded on it a bit, like the carnage being more widespread or something along those lines. Sometimes the screenplay focuses on other things too much, like the bum who spends about ten minutes in a store shoplifting. Yes, that scene is funny but it kind of moves away from the main plot of the movie.

    I actually like how Michael Muro directs this, and it doesn’t look bad at all for a cheaply made horror film. One scene that I thought that was very creativity shot was the one in which the camera follows a pair of glasses through the lenses as the fall off of a man’s face and then we suddenly see a guy’s head sticking through a windshield. When bad guy Bronson (Vic Noto) has a flashback about being in Vietnam is doesn’t look really gimmicky at all which really surprises me. Instead, it actually looks like the guy is in Vietnam torturing and killing people. That scene is better looking than other similar ones I have scene in more expensively made films. After the bums drink the Viper they start disintegrating and oozing out what looks like Skittles goo, which is downright odd I must say! I don’t know why each bum does this differently, maybe Viper is like the mood ring of acidic liquids or something. The best one is when a bum takes a drink of it and disappears down a non functioning toilet with his blue skeletal hand still attached to the handle. One of the most unique decapitations I have ever seen in a horror film is towards the end and involves a canister of some sort of gas. I have to give them a special cookie for thinking that one up!

    Since this is a cheaply made horror film the acting isn’t the best but I do recognize one guy in this. Tony Darrow plays the gangster Nick Duran, and he was also in The Sopranos. This is his first film, can you imagine that? I wonder if the guy ever mentions being in it or if he keeps it a secret. I have to say the Mike Lackey, who plays Freddy, really annoys me for some reason. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I am thinking that it has partially to do with the fact that the character himself is a right pain in the ass. I guess my wanting to punch him kind of transfers over to the actor. There are a lot of people playing dirty and horny bums so I am not going to bother pointing one or another out. Suffice it to say that they all grossed me out in one fashion or another throughout the film.

    All in all Street Trash is fun to watch but there are bits of it which make Bloofer Lady want to weep. I feel like I need to take a hot shower to be cleansed after watching it, so if you watch it make sure you’re at home.

You can buy Street Trash at Horror Movie Empire.

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

She-Wolf of London is the third bonus movie on The Wolf Man Legacy Collection- and is quite the divergence from the previous two films. Here we get the women’s side of the  famous wolf curse- and things couldn’t be more different really. Directed by Jean Yarbrough and starring the ever sweet June Lockhart as Phyllis our so called tortured heroine- She-Wolf of London is at the very least a user of the Wolf Man brand.

When gruesome murders start happening in the park by their mansion, Phyllis suspects she is the one to blame. She has been waking up with no memory of the night before, her robe soaked in mud, and blood on her hands- seems perfectly logical to suspect werewolves are involved especially when your family apparently has a curse surrounding it. Due to be married soon to the charming Barry Lanfield, Phyllis hides herself from her finance and deeply wants to turn herself into the police. As the murders in the park increase however- so do Barry’s suspicions, as he suspects there may be more at work here then meets the eye.

While She-Wolf may be a sad failure of a werewolf movie- it definitely got one thing right- the creepy foggy, and gloomy atmosphere that haunts the park at night. The same rolling fog affect is produced here and it is pretty effective at creating a tingly sense of fear. However one would have to be pretty blind to notice- that the key element of any werewolf movie is missing. The Wolf!

That’s right- at no time throughout the movie do we ever see this supposed “she-wolf”. We see a woman walking through the park looking entranced and out of it- and then she attacks people- but we never see it. We only see the human figure. This sent up an immediate red flag because even though Larry Talbot was a werewolf who still had his human clothes on- his mannerisms and the way he walked was very wolfish. Without a transformation or an obvious wolf character- what are we really doing here?

One could argue that the point of the She-Wolf movie isn’t to chase after the success of the Wolf Man- but to bring a different kind of idea about the nature of being a werewolf to the table. Like I brought up in my Wolf Man review, the idea of the disease being associated with mental illness is quite prevalent and She-Wolf takes that idea and seems to make it the main point. It’s almost a reversal of themes from the original Wolf Man.

Above all else- She Wolf of London is a murder mystery. We have no clear idea of who the She-Wolf actually is. We think- and we are made to believe that it is Phyllis- but how can we really be sure if we are never shown the wolf? There is a clear sense of betrayal and confusion- especially with the idea of the reveal of the true family- I guess I just have a hard time figuring out why this is grouped with the Wolf Man movies.

I suppose you could look at it- as a true change in pace due to our main character suddenly being a woman. Having a man be a wolf means that he is filled with rage and has an alternate side of anger and wildness. A she-wolf has a bit of a different meaning associated with it however at least with this film. It seems that for the most part- a female wolf is just a woman who has a very vicious and unpleasant side. It actually makes me laugh- that when the female wolf is involved we never even get to see the “wolf”. Is it really a big gender difference or was the movie just intended to go in an entirely different way? It’s focus is surely on mental illness and betrayal- but the idea of the werewolf is meant to inspire some sort of fear. The only problem is- the fear is pretty much absent and we are left with a sad attempt at a Alfred Hitchcock werewolf movie. There is a bit of a twist however at the end- and although it’s a little wacky, I suppose it does elicit a bit of excitement after all.

Buy She-Wolf of London as part of the Wolf Man Legacy Collection at Horror Movie Empire!

Andre Dumas

The Horror Digest

1973 American International

    Blacula (William Marshall) is raised from the dead in a voodoo ceremony and becomes captivated by a voodoo priestess named Lisa (Pam Grier). He thinks that her voodoo powers can get rid of the undead curse that has been placed upon him. Will Blacula triumph this time around or will he be destroyed for good?

    Scream Blacula Scream is worse than Blacula, hands down. The only really good thing about it is William Marshall, but even his acting cannot save this unworthy sequel. Even though the writing team that penned Blacula also wrote this little ditty it is stale in comparison and very comical in parts, even though I don’t think it is meant to be that way. All in all it’s a very dismal film, with only the ray of voodoo shining through the muck.

    As I said Scream Blacula Scream is written by Raymond Koenig and Joan Torres, the two who are also behind Blacula. This time there is also a fellow named Maurice Jules who besides this wrote a film called The Velvet Vampire, which after watching this film I will never see. I like the whole voodoo angle of the screenplay but it is hampered and bogged down with some really bad dialogue and situations. Willie (Richard Lawson), Blacula’s first disciple, is all dressed up to go out and when he goes to check himself out in a mirror he is surprised that he can’t see his reflection, so he says ‘You got something to do with this man?’ to Blacula. Yes, the character is stupid enough not to know that you can’t see vampires in a mirror. Bloofer Lady has not known many ‘hood rats’ so maybe they don’t, but it makes for a really insipid scene! Then there is the scene between Blacula and Justin (Don Mitchell) in which Justin is trying to bait Blacula into admitting that he is a vampire. It is written so badly that the whole scene is awkward and makes me feel sorry for Marshall for having to say those lines.

    Bob Kelljan directed this and it is so disjointed in the way that it is filmed that it doesn’t feel spooky to me at all. The scene in which Blacula attacks and sucks the blood of Gloria (Janne Michelle) is shot so close up that it makes what is supposed to be a sexy scene very awkward and painful to watch. This happens not just once but several times. His overuse of closeups during the action sequences is very annoying because he has to constantly cut from attac to attack because of it. This is especially true during the last major sequence when the police and Justin try to find Lisa in Blacula’s house. The worst scene, in the whole film, is when a woman just stands there screaming and screaming without moving when Blacula enters the room. Instead of running or trying to get away she just puts her hands to her face and a long drawn out farce of screaming commences. She eventually faints but it is at least a minute too long and far too static. The bat to Blacula transformation scene in this is ten times worse than in Blacula, but the makeup itself is about the same, which really isn’t saying much at all actually.

    William Marshall and Pam Grier are the only two good actors in this entire film. Every single scene that Marshall is in is only watchable because of his presence. Remember that scene that I mentioned before between Blacula and Justin? Marshall acts circles around Mitchell so it is not only awkward because of the dialogue, it is awkward because it feels like that Marshall is acting with a high school drama class drop out. Grier is pretty believable as a voodoo priestess and even though she can be a little bit unsteady in reciting her lines at times she is better than any other actor in the film besides Marshall. With that being the case the scenes between her and Marshall are the best in the film. Everybody else in this is kind of like the tacky 70’s decor seen in this film; not wanted and very tacky.

    Bloofer Lady, in good conscience, cannot recommend this film. Blacula was fun to watch because it was nice and cheesy while Scream Blacula scream is just a round of rotten cheddar.

You can buy Scream Blacula Scream here: Horror Movie Empire

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

1965 Amicus Production

Dr. Christopher Maitland (Peter Cushing) comes into the possession of the skull of the notorious Marquis de Sade, and despite repeated warnings he keeps it thinking that he won’t fall under the evil spell that it casts upon those who own it. Will he have the will power to overcome it or will he be yet another victim of its nefarious wishes?

The Skull is a pretty good horror film dealing with the occult and Satanism and in my opinion is of one of the better Amicus films. It all centers around the Marquis de Sade’s skull and the havoc that it creates. There is only one problem that I have with it and that could be due to my impatience for things to move forward more quickly so take what I criticise with a grain of salt. The look of it and the creative shots used in it take it from being just an average film to a superior one, and the acting is very top notch.

The Skull is based on the story The Skull OF The Marquis de Sade by Robert Bloch. He of couse wrote Psycho among many other great things so you know the story idea itself isn’t going to be bad. It was adapted into a screenplay by Milton Subotsky, who also did the screenplays for several other Amicus films. Bloofer Lady knows about the true history of the Marquis de Sade so she has to suspend her disbelief while watching this film. In this the Marquis is not just a pervert, but also an evil devil worshipper who was not only possessed in life but also possessed in death. His skull commands people do do bad things that they wouldn’t normally do and destroys those that go against it. I love that whole aspect of it, and I also love how the character of Maitland is written. He is not satisfied with his rather large occult collection, and can’t resist having what he shouldn’t own. In other words he’s a greedy bastard that falls into his own egotistical trap of thinking that he can do what other have not been able to do. The last 20 minutes or so of the screenplay seem kind of repetitive to me and could of perhaps been tied together more neatly, but that is my only problem with it.

Freddie Francis directed this and his use of filters and very unusual shots gives this film a very scary look and feel. Whenever the skull tries to gain control of one of its victims he shoots the victim through the eye sockets of the skull itself, which gives us the same point of view as the evil object, giving it life that it would otherwise not have. There are two scenes in which he uses colored filters very effectively; while the skull is hypnotising a victim, and while the evil spirit of the skull travels in Maitland’s house. The skull is sitting on a mantle and Francis uses a green filter while focusing on it, then cuts over to the victim falling into a trance. It really gives the feeling of how powerful the evil that emanates from the skull really is. In the other scene he uses both yellow and red filters while the skull’s compelling evil spirit travels Maitland’s house to gain control of him. This scene has the same effect as the former one I just mentioned, but the red color in particular denotes that the skull this time is really pissed off and is going to get what it wants! Francis was known for this sort of work, and if you watch any of his films you will notice this straight away. He directed many British horror films, and I highly suggest you seek them out. The production itself is really well done and the scenes that take place far in the past look good enough to be mistaken for a Hammer film. Since this is an older film there isn’t much gore, but that shouldn’t matter to you since the screenplay works.

The acting in The Skull is very top notch, with Peter Cushing at the top of the pyramid. He is very convincing as the occult author and collector Maitland and you can really see the pain and conflict of the character because of his acting chops. There is even a scene that breaks my heart; Cushing crying from being so overwhelmed and crushed by the spirit of the skull. How many modern horror actors can you imagine being able to do that convincingly? Christopher Lee has a small role in this as Sir Mathew Phillips, a past owner of the skull who tries to convince Maitland to get rid of it. It’s nice seeing him play a good guy, no matter how small the role. You will also recognize Michael Gough, who is in quite a few British horror films, and Patrick Magee who is in a few other Amicus films and more famously appears as the wheelchair bound writer in A Clockwork Orange.

The Skull is a pretty good example of a well made British horror film and all fans of Peter Cushing should give it a watch. Actually, Bloofer Lady thinks it would be nice if all of you would give this film a chance because older horror films need love too!

Buy The Skull at: Horror Movie Empire

Bloofer Lady
Horror Crypt

2006 Dax/Twintalk Production

Spooked: The Ghosts Of Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a documentary about the famously haunted, you guessed it, Waverly Sanatorium that is located in Kentucky near Louisville. The building that now stands was a tuberculosis hospital from 1926 till 1962 and after that it became Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital until it closed in 1981.

Spooked is produced and directed by Christopher and Phillip Booth who made it at the same time that they made a horror film at Waverly called Death Tunnel. Avoid Death Tunnel because it’s really bad, trust me. However, I really enjoy Spooked because you get to hear the actual experiences of not only some of the people who worked there but from some of the actual patients. There are some parts of it which I just couldn’t get into because of some faulty evidence presented, but overall I feel that it is a documentary worth watching.

Before the advent of antibiotics tuberculosis, or TB, was a fatal disease and quite infectious. Waverly Hills was built to deal with the demand of hospital beds for these patients. Spooked gets into the history of this very effectively by the use of old photos and by interviewing workers and actual patients. In my opinion the patient testimonies are the best part of this documentary because you can feel the pain that they must have gone through by being separated from their loved ones for so long. In fact I find these parts of the film to be just as good or maybe even better than the segments that talk about the many hauntings that have occurred there over the years. The ex-patients never talk about ghosts and you get the feeling that they don’t really fully believe that they exist. One of the most grotesque things that some of these patients went through while there was getting parts of their rib cages removed. Seriously, doctors cut out whole segments of their ribs for treatment so that their lungs, one at a time, could be collapsed and have a chance to heal. Only 5% of people who had this treatment survived and it was only done to patients who were on the verge of dying.

Spooked is presented mostly as a documentary about the hauntings and spooky experiences that various people have had in it over the years. Some of the segments are much more believable and plausible than others. The two that I just couldn’t get into were the ones about the orbs and the brown imps. During the orb segment various photos containing ‘orbs’ are shown, but it is obvious to me that they really aren’t anything more than reflections of dust and the like on the camera lens. Orbs have been pretty much debunked by other people before, so I really don’t understand why they included them here. The brown imp part also showed photos, this time of supposed small brown figures. Personally, I couldn’t see a thing so I can’t buy into that at all. People could have seen bunnies or deer in the shadows or something like that.

The two most interesting, and compelling, parts of Spooked is the legend about the little girl with the ball and the exploration and history behind the death chute/tunnel. On the 3rd floor a little girl has been seen by various people over the years and you get to hear many, many people talk about her and their interactions with her. She appears in the main hallway of the floor and will disappear into the rooms while bouncing around a ball that people have actually heard the thumping of. One man placed a ball up on that floor and later that night he found it again on the second floor where he had originally tripped over it. There is something about these stories that really make me think there is something to it and it not being just a figment of all of their imaginations. The death chute/tunnel was a 525 steam tunnel that was originally used in the winter to get up the hill that the sanatorium is on. When the TB patients started to die in very heavy numbers they would put the bodies in small rail cars and move them down the tunnel to waiting cars and trains so that the living patients couldn’t see them being removed. They take us through it and it is spooky as hell with water dripping down and pieces of the old rail car pulley system laying about. You can just sense how freaky and haunted that it must be.

The Booth brothers do a pretty good job presenting all of the information. One of the issues that I have with it though is that it can be a bit jumpy as times. Right when you get really into a segment they will jump quickly to something else. My attention span is pretty darn good so this annoys me a little bit. Also, when they play the EVP recording of the ghostly voices that have been captured in Waverly they play some sort of special effects along with it that really takes away from the experience. I think they try to make the documentary more ‘Hollywood’ by doing this, meaning that they think it will get more attention the more things they add to it. Sometimes less means more, and I feel it would be an even better film if they would have dropped all of the extras they added to it.

Bloofer Lady thinks that Spooked has some issues but feels that it’s worth wathcing if not just for learning about the history of such a tragic building. After all, over 60,000 people died there. If you are at all morbid like I am it will interest you and maybe someday you will even feel the need to make a pilgrimage to the place.

Bloofer lady

http://www.horrorcrypt.com/

1977 Zopix Company

A boat hits a mysterious ‘ghost ship’ and ends up stuck on the reef of a seemingly deserted island. The passengers go ashore and encounter an evil that was long thought dead, but had come back from the grave to kill them off one by one.

What do you get when you cross a tropical island, zombie Nazi SS soldiers, and Peter Cushing playing a Nazi commander? Why you get Shock Waves, which is a cheesy fun romp! There are parts of this film which are just plain bizarre and make little sense logically, but despite that. or because of it, I really enjoy watching it. For an obviously cheaply made 1970’s horror flick they do a pretty good job at what they set out to do; scare people.

As I said, there are parts of this film that make little sense, but overall the screenplay by Ken Wiederhorn, John Kent Harrison, and Ken Pare is pretty original. A former Nazi commander is hiding out on an island after sinking his ship during the last days of WW2, which just happened to have a bunch of scientifically created Nazi SS super zombie soldiers on it when it went down. Why they come out of the water all of a sudden after all of those years is never fully explained. Maybe they can sense when humans are nearby? Your guess is as good as mine. What you do need to know is that the damn things kill efficiently and aren’t nice guys. Near the beginning of the film the diving boat captain (John Carradine) tells his shipmate Keith(Luke Halpin) to steer the boat to certain coordinates, so maybe he knew about the Nazis all along? That is never fully explained but it gives you a chance to perhaps come up with your own strange conclusions about the whole thing. If the movie didn’t have such a cool premise all of these things would probably bother the crap out of me, but a movie with zombie Nazis is always a good thing.

The biggest stars in this movie are Peter Cushing, John Carradine, and Brooke Adams who plays Rose. Peter Cushing is great as always and puts on a great German accent as the Commander. He really is a class act and gives it his all, just like he does in every movie he stars in. If you don’t know who he is for the love of everything that is unholy look him up on Wikipedia and watch all of the movies you can that he stars in. John Carradine is hammy as the Captain and plays him as a grumpy old sailor. I shouldn’t have to explain to you all of the great, and cheesy, horror films he has starred in, really I shouldn’t. You may recognise Brooke Adams from 1978’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and The Dead Zone. She isn’t bad in this at all and does pretty well with what she is given. Her character is the most likable out of all of the passengers on the boat so I think she lucked out a bit.

Shock Waves is directed by Ken Wiederhorn and he does an adequate job as foreshadowing and the like. It’s easy to notice when a scary bit is going to happen because he’ll shoot the character from a low position. I swear, a lot of the scary scenes happen right after he does this so once you take notice of this you can start laughing maniacally if you want to! While the diving boat is still on its voyage of doom to the the island he uses a yellow filter to make it look like the sun is shining strangely and in turn this freaks out the characters. It also tells us that the boat has happened upon some sort of evil, which is pretty neat! The most scary shots are the ones that are underwater. The first glimpse that you get of the Nazi zombies is when you see a pair of jackboots walking upon the floor of the ocean, and since that isn’t exactly a normal occurrence you know something strange is going on. Wiederhorn also directed Return Of the Living Dead Part II and some TV shows and that’s about it. There aren’t a whole lot of special effects in this film except for the zombie make-up which actually looks really good! The skin looks like it’s peeling and has an off color which is perfectly acceptable being that they have been underwater for a time.

Bloofer Lady really enjoys Shock Waves because she likes good cheese. It has Nazi Zombies, Peter Cushing, and a chick in a small bikini running around; what more could you want from a horror film?

Bloofer Lady

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