Wild Stabs and No Killing Shot: Halloween Ends (2022) Review

Director: David Gordon Green

Notable Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, James Jude Courtney, Kyle Richards

 

When it comes to John Carpenter projects that are being revitalized in the modern cinema landscape, Christine was one that I was skeptical could be pulled off. With the success of Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (box office-wise) though, perhaps it made sense that director David Gordon Green would want to tackle the project. He had an eye for that kind of character trauma as presented within a horror landscape. It’s a good match. 

 

Oh, I’m sorry. This film is actually Halloween Ends and not a Christine remake. My bad. Someone should let Green know that too. 

 

Yet, that’s what Halloween Ends ends up being - the story of a maligned young man who is influenced by an evil presence and becomes more and more obsessed with the strength and power it gives him to stand up against all the awful people and circumstances around him. On paper, the idea is not only bold for a Halloween film but dare I say impressive. The problem that burdens the film is that it's jammed into trying to balance this new character arc with finalizing the other themes, characters, and stories of the Halloween series they started. It’s a balance that collapses in on itself, unfortunately. 

 

The New York Ripper (1982)

Director: Lucio Fulci

Notable Cast: Jack Hedley, Almanta Suska, Howard Ross, Andrea Occhipinti, Alexandra Delli Colli, Paolo Malco, Cinzia de Ponti, Daniela Doria, Cosimo Cinieri

One of the problems about being a critic that focuses on cult and genre cinema is navigating the often overzealous fanbases. There are ravenous fans out there that even refuse to acknowledge the idea that a film (or films) have flaws despite their love for the film. This is fine. An emotional attachment to a film or some part of it is the essence of what makes cinema so fantastic. I love films that don’t deserve my unadorned appreciation. However, as a critic, it becomes problematic when reviewing a film that has an incredibly dedicated fanbase and the film is significantly flawed. Such is the case with Lucio Fulci’s brutal and sleazy giallo-esque The New York Ripper. Although the film has its own rabid fanbase, enough so that Blue Underground felt comfortable enough to re-release the film in a stunning new 3-disc 4K restoration, it’s hardly the perfect film. A patchy script is somewhat reclaimed by Fulci’s intense style and intention to push horror cinema at the time to some new extremes, but it’s a film where some of the bold choices feel awkward. This latest release is a stunner though, so fans of the film will more than likely – if they already haven’t – pick up this Blu Ray for the sheer effort that went into delivering the best version of this film.

Child's Play (2019)

Director: Lars Klevberg

Notable Cast: Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza, Mark Hamill, Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, David Lewis, Beatrice Kitsos, Ty Consiglio, Carlease Burke, Trent Redekop, Marlon Kazadi

Honestly, the Child’s Play series has always been a favorite of mine. The original terrified me as a kid and growing up with the series through its ups and downs has been a pleasure to follow. When it hits its lows (Child’s Play 3) it bottoms out, but the series has always somehow found a way to reinvent itself in bold and intriguing ways. Enough so that Mancini’s last two entries, Curse and Cult of Chucky respectively, have been two of the best of the franchise and downright fascinating films in their own regards. It’s the love for the franchise and fantastic last couple of entries that lead me to be completely baffled by Orion’s choice with a remake of the original film. The Chucky series isn’t done and the upcoming TV show by Mancini is easily on my top list of awesome things that I am looking forward to in the future. An unnecessary reboot/remake certainly wasn’t something that was also on that list.

Leprechaun Returns (2018)

Director: Steven Kostanski

Notable Cast: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, Sai Bennett, Heather McDonald, Emily Reid, Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Leon Clingman, Mark Holton, Linden Porco, Pete Spiros

To properly address Leprechaun Returns, we need to start by having a brief conversation about the Leprechaun franchise thus far. After the first film came out with a bang, utilizing the emerging direct to home video market and developing a video store cult audience, the series has seen its relative ups and downs. This is a franchise that was never meant to be taken seriously. The tongue is very, very firmly planted in cheek from the onset. Whether or not you are willing to ride the series through its waning issues of quality and over reliance on gimmick is more or less a question of how far you are willing to accept ridiculousness and horrific puns. When the series suffered a reboot back in 2014 with Leprechaun: Origins, it was a wild mistake and wholly misguided venture that left most people, even those who enjoyed the series, myself included, perplexed. Did we ask for a super serious, dark, and modernized manipulation that forgot everything that was core to series?

The House That Screamed (1970)

Director: Narciso Ibáñez Serrador

Notable Cast: Lilli Palmer, Cristina Galbo, John Moulder-Brown, Mary Maude, Candida Losada, Pauline Challoner, Tomas Blanco, Victor Israel, Teresa Hurtado, Maria Jose Valero, Conchita Paredes, Ana Maria Pol, Mari Carmen Duque, Paloma Pages

The House That Screamed is one of those films that flies just under the radar. It doesn’t have a lot of backing from being part of any larger more mainstream movement, in particular the wave of Hammer Horror or the blooming giallo boom of the era, which does mean that it is often shoved to the side unfairly, but the film is still an impressive late 60s (even if it wasn’t released until 1970 or later in some places) horror film. It balances this unique sense of early slasher elements with dense gothic atmosphere and a slick and often nuanced sense of visual chemistry. More often than not, comparisons to the iconic Mario Bava through the lens of a Hammer film could be made, and that only comes as a compliment. The House That Screamed finds that sweet spot between exploitative elements and artistry with its narrative and it deserves far more fanfare than it has received.

Into the Dark: The Body (2018)

Director: Paul Davis

Notable Cast: Tom Bateman, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Aurora Perrineau, David Hull, Ray Santiago

With the recent boom of horror that has culminated over the last handful of years, reaching strange heights when the genre started winning Academy Awards last year, it was only a matter of time before the Masters of Horror format was revitalized. This latest series of films, under the moniker Into the Dark, has nothing to with the iconic Mick Garris series that premiered on Showtime, but the idea remains the same. Instead of Showtime, it's Hulu. Instead of Mick Garris, it's Blumhouse. Into the Dark will premiere a new horror film each mouth, partnering with the horror juggernaut Blumhouse, and each film will be coordinated with a holiday within the month that it is released. Honestly, that sounds like a pretty fuckin’ good deal to me.

The first film to be released within the Into the Dark series is The Body. Fittingly, the film features a hit man who is caught in a bad situation on Halloween night and he’s left dragging a body around in a desperate attempt to get it to its destination within four hours. Craziness ensues, a body count rises, and the hit man drops multiple dry humor monologues about his dark view point on life as a strange romantic interest blooms. The Body is an odd film, but, truthfully, it’s a fantastic film to release around Halloween and a great way to kick off the series.

Doom Asylum (1987)

Director: Richard Friedman

Notable Cast: Patty Mullen, Ruth Collins, Kristin Davis, William Hay, Kenny L. Price, Harrison White, Dawn Alvan, Farin, Michael Rogen, Harvey Keith, Steven G. Menkin

There are some films that take another genre and then embed horror within it. It can be very effective that way and it embraces that wolf in sheep’s clothing kind of cinematic element that can work impressively. Doom Asylum is not like that at all. In fact, it’s probably not too out there to claim it as a sheep in wolf’s clothing. On the outside, Doom Asylum looks like it just might be one of those genuine old school and off beat slasher gems that Arrow Video is known for putting out (see The Mutilator, The Slayer, and Blood Rage all come to mind.) It’s not. On the surface, it’s a slasher and hits all of the elements of the blueprint. In execution though, the film is more akin to a slasher spoof than anything else. It’s meant to be a comedy, naturally, but that doesn’t mean it can even do that well. To its benefit, the film is one that can be seen as a ‘so bad, it’s good’ piece of cult cinema, but even then, Doom Asylum can be a chore to work through.

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

Director: Johannes Roberts

Notable Cast: Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, Emma Bellomy, Damian Maffei, Lea Enslin

The first The Strangers film has become something of a modern horror icon film. Its heavy, nihilistic, stripped down, gritty, and realistic approach to the home invasion flick has lasted the test of time, solidifying the film as a cult classic. Ten years later, the sequel seems to be a bit too little too late in concept because, while The Strangers remains a cult film, it’s not one that remains in the mainstream consciousness. Still, being that the film is directed by Johannes Roberts (the gentleman that gave us the suffocating direction for 47 Meters Down) and seemed to sport a very different look, I was intrigued. Even with tempered expectations, it’s easy to see why many critics gave it poor reviews. However, I am going to stand on the other side of this see-saw with my opinion. I had a damn blast with The Strangers: Prey at Night. Sure, the film has a mediocre to terrible script, but Johannes and entire cast/crew seem to be having the time of their life making an old school slasher. For that, I will handedly admit that I sincerely enjoyed the hell out of Prey at Night.

Top 5 Modern Christmas Horror Classics

It’s now post-Thanksgiving here in the US and that only means one thing: Christmas has already been in our social conscious for four months. Seriously though, retailers have been prepping the masses for the Yule Tide cheer for months already. For most of us though, it’s not until after Thanksgiving and Black Friday that we really start to get into the Christmas spirit. For cult cinema fans, that means busting out the “non-traditional” Christmas classics from our collections. For many of us in particular, that means the popular Christmas horror sub-genre. We already all have our favorites for this genre, whether it’s Bob Clark’s nihilistic Black Christmas or the comedic scares of Gremlins, but for this article I wanted to dig into some of the modern films that deserve some love.

To qualify for the modern list, the film had to be released after the year 2000 and it had to be a horror film that embraced the tone and feel of Christmas. This can be a hard thing to define ultimately and I’m sure readers will immediately fill my inbox with suggestions of things I missed (which I wholly encourage since there are plenty of gems out there that I have overlooked), but for each film picked there is a little blurb as reasoning for its selection. As much as I loved this year’s Better Watch Out or the French extreme flick Inside, those films don’t quite embrace the Christmas time aura needed for it to make the list. Although I would love to hear otherwise from our readers.

So enjoy this Top 5 Modern Christmas Horror Classics list, spit some blood in the comments to let us know what we missed and why, and share it with your friends. Spread the cheer. Spread the screams. Cause it’s Christmas horror season.

05. Silent Night

It’s only natural that I start this list with the most controversial pick. Steven C. Miller’s much hated remake of the Christmas horror classic Silent Night, Deadly Night does do things in such a strange and often tongue-in-cheek manner that it’s one I always find myself watching this time of year. If you read my original review for Silent Night, I’m pretty harsh on it myself, but over time the film has grown on me with its outrageous concepts, fun visuals, and just hilarious moments of cheesy horror. In a way, this is the perfect viewing companion with the (also) very hated Black Christmas remake, but I think this one might just edge that one out as a fun classic that will ultimately find its devout cult audience.

04. A Christmas Horror Story

Anthologies right now are all the rage in horror (they come and go in spurts of popularity, really) and Christmas horror movies are also hitting a heavy stride in popularity, so it’s only natural to expect that there would be one to combine the two. Like many anthologies, the quality of segments wavers and as each segment attempts to bring a different kind of horror to the mix including a ghost story, a Twilight Zone-ish fantasy horror, and a monster story. Yet, it’s the inclusion of a segment where Santa must battle hordes of zombie elves that truly cements this on the list. Not to mention, it’s narrated by William Shatner? Yeah, A Christmas Horror Story a modern Christmas horror classic for those last two things alone.

03. Saint [Sint]

Dick Maas already defined his role as a cult horror director with his killer elevator films Lift and Down along with his cult classic Amsterdamned, which all recently were released on Blu Ray and I highly suggest picking them up or renting them on VOD, but his leap into Christmas horror with Sint – released in the US as Saint – is an instant classic for the season. One-part dark comedy, one-part fantasy, and all horror, Sint is outlandish and often perplexing in the best ways. Seeing a zombie European cloaked Santa riding a zombie horse on rooftops aside, the film has plenty of moments that are unforgettable and brilliantly executed and it remains one of my favorites for the season for a reason. This is one that is often overlooked by fans and shouldn’t be. It’s a genre bending and heartfelt film that earns its cult status.

02. Rare Exports

Another European film about the dark origins of Santa like the previous entry, Rare Exports, also released as Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, is the Finnish modern equivalent to classic family friendly fringed horror like The Goonies and Gremlins in tone and it’s brilliant to watch. It spins the narrative, uncovering an ancient and evil Santa, as it follows our young protagonist while it mixes a lot of childish fun with fantasy and some truly dark and horrific moments. Its themes about family and heart make it weirdly effective as a Christmas film on its own even outside of the horror aspects. Simply put, this is a must see in the next month or so.

01.Krampus

This is the one film that was obvious to me that it was going to make the list, not matter what. Director Michael Dougherty set the standard for modern day horror that embraces the Halloween spirit with his film Trick R’ Treat and it’s impressive that he was able to do the same with Krampus. With only a PG-13 rating, he crafts a film that’s filled with laughs, scares, and just straight out strange things in it that – like the previous entry on this list – can actually work as a film for the whole family as much as it does a horror film. Just a couple of months ago I saw a kid, maybe 10 years old, watching this film on a plane and it wasn’t even close to being Christmas season. That’s impressive. Not to mention, this film has also spawned one of the worst trends ever of terrible, horrible Krampus themed films that litter the shelves of Wal-Mart. There’s gotta be something to a film that spawns that kind of weird phenomenon.

So now that you know my top five picks for best modern Christmas horror classics, what’s yours? Do you agree with the list above? What have we missed here at Blood Brothers? Spit some blood below and let us know what are your favorite films that deserve some recognition.

Written By Matt Reifschneider

Red Christmas (2017)

Director: Craig Anderson

Notable Cast: Dee Wallace, Geoff Morrell, Sarah Bishop, David Collins, Janis McGavin, Gerard O’Dwyer, Bjorn Stewart, Deelia Meriel, Sam Campbell

Holiday themed slashers are all the craze right now and in indie, low budget horror it’s thriving. After watching films like All Through the House, A Christmas Horror Story, and having films like Good Tidings and Better Watch Out on my upcoming queue for the season, it felt proper to watch at least one during the Halloween binge I had in October. That film was the Australian film Red Christmas. Oozing with style, this controversial topic emblazoned slasher is pure exploitation (Ozploitation) and yet executed with absolute intent on being taken seriously as a horror film meant to stir a debate and it’s here that perhaps the film will either win its audience or lose them, as any truly effective cult film will accomplish. In that sense, it’s hard not to praise Red Christmas even if it has its problematic moments and pieces. Its intent is executed with style.

Cult of Chucky (2017)

Director: Don Mancini

Notable Cast: Fiona Dourif, Michael Therriault, Adam Hurtig, Alex Vincent, Elisabeth Rosen, Grace Lynn Kung, Marina Stephenson Kerr, Zak Santiago, Ali Tataryn, Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Summer H. Howell, Christine Elise

By the time that the fifth entry, Seed of Chucky, in the decades long Child’s Play franchise had arrived, the series felt wildly off track. This iconic horror franchise has always had its ups and downs, but the first ‘reinvention’ with Bride quickly fell stale and became a parody of itself without enough core horror elements to carry it. This left the stripped back and roots embracing sixth entry, Curse of Chucky, to become a breath of fresh air that displayed just why this series was so much fun to begin with. Now this little jaunt back in time for a couple of entries in the series may seem redundant for fans or those familiar with the Child’s Play franchise, but it’s important to remember now that the seventh one, Cult of Chucky, has been unleashed. That’s because this latest entry into the killer doll series is the perfect amount of traditional slasher and outlandish self-aware camp that we’ve all come to expect from Don Mancini and company. It’s delightfully aware of its own boundaries, maintains the pieces we all watch a Chucky movie to see, and still has no issue with breaking some new ground and pushing the series into some fresh feeling territory. It’s a film that covers a lot of territory and seemingly does it with relative ease to being one of the best of the franchise.

Torso (1973)

Director: Sergio Martino

Notable Cast: Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, Luc Merenda, John Richardson, Roberto Bisacco, Ernesto Colli, Angela Covello, Carla Brait, Conchita Airoldi, Patrizia Adiutori, Luciano Bartoli, Gianni Greco, Luciano De Ambosis

Torso was one of those films that when I told my cinephile friends I hadn’t seen they would gasp in shock. ‘You really need to see it,’ they would say. ‘I know, I know. I’ll get to it eventually,’ I would reply. Yet, it took my sorry keister a decent amount of years to get around to it and if it wasn’t for the fact that it popped up to watch for free on my Amazon Prime account I would have probably waited longer. Even then, my initial plan was to put it on in the background as I folded laundry, so I didn’t plan to invest myself fully to the film. I’ll be damned though. Sergio Martino directs the hell out of it. Soon, I had forgotten my laundry and found the credits rolling and an hour and a half had disappeared. Torso was a much better film than the sleazy slasher/giallo hybrid concept made it sound and even though the film is flawed in many regards, Martino brings such a solid game to his direction that rarely did I get caught up in the problematic nuances while it was playing. It’s a film that was built to appeal to the more generic horror fans at its foundations of exploitation, but it’s shot and executed like it’s the best damn piece of cinematic art released that year and it’s that intent that carries the film through the tropes and clichés to being such a pleasant surprise.

The Slayer (1982)

Director: J.S. Cardone

Notable Cast: Sarah Kendall, Frederick J. Flynn, Carol Kottenbrook, Alan McRae, Michael Holmes, Carl Kraines

It’s hard to have expectations when heading into a film when the film has been notoriously missing from general conscious for years. This is the case of The Slayer. While there was certainly some hype for the film, enough so that it was easily one of the most requested titles I saw in comments and threads for Arrow Video to release, it’s hard to know if the hype is simply there for it to get a release let alone if it deserves a pristine release. Yet, as the credits rolled on The Slayer, it was easy to see why it had accumulated such an aura as a ‘missing classic’ from the 80s horror brand. Not only is it a slasher at its core, but it’s an odd one that down plays the tropes in an effort to create a much more suffocating atmosphere that’s more akin to a giallo or Lovecraftian exercise of existential dread than it is about kills and thrills. It’s an approach that, even with its flaws, is highly respectable and deserves to be seen by a larger audience.

Urban Legend (1998)

Director: Jamie Blanks

Notable Cast: Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca Gayheart, Michael Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, Tara Reid, John Neville, Julian Richings, Robert Englund, Danielle Harris, Brad Dourif

When Scream kicked off the slasher revival of the 90s/early 00s, it did it in a way that was both intriguingly left field and completely misinterpreted by production companies looking to capitalize on its success. While this era is hardly the pit of despair that so many horror fans claim it to be, many of those ‘nu-slashers’ are certainly mediocre to terrible at best and for that reason I haven’t even bothered to revisit many of them since they came out. However, at the request of some of our readers, Urban Legend came to be on my review queue and eventually I warmed to the idea of taking on this modern slasher that spawned its own franchise...the sequels of which I have yet to revisit since they were released either.

Madhouse (1981)

Director: Ovidio Assonitis

Notable Cast: Trish Everly, Michael Macrae, Dennis Robertson, Morgan Hart, Allison Biggers, Edith Ivey, Richard Baker, Jerry Fujikawa
AKA: And When She Was Bad, There Was a Little Girl

“Most people’s nightmares end when they wake up. Mine begin.”

It starts off with a very wide shot. Blackness with a vague picture in the middle and some slight movement. A slow, creepy and somber version of Rock-a-Bye, Baby is sung as the picture draws closer to the viewer. It shows two young girls, one pushing the other in a rocking chair, before it takes a drastic turn as she repeatedly bashes the other one in the face with a stone. The tone of this opening is engaging and symbolic for a lot of the themes that Madhouse will explore over the next hour and a half as its audience is slowly brought down into an increasingly shocking nightmare. At the core of what this Italian and American co-production offers isn’t necessarily one that will rock the foundations, but there’s an admirable quality to the approach that easily lifts it above so many of its peers. So it’s not all that surprising Arrow Video finally decided to give it the robust collector’s edition in the US and UK. It’s truly one of those films that time and the mainstream horror community has forgotten when it deserves more attention than that.

The Blood Splatter: 2017 Horror Vol. 1 [The Windmill, The Devil's Candy, We Go On]

THE WINDMILL (2017)

Director: Nick Jongerius

Notable Cast:Charlotte Beaumont, Bart Klever, Patrick Baladi, Ben Batt, Fiona Hampton, Tanroh Ishida, Noah Taylor, Adam Thomas Wright, Kenan Raven

Also Known As: The Windmill Massacre

Ambition can be a great thing. However, in the case of The Windmill, it can also lead to disappointment. The concept behind The Windmill is fun and interesting. While I was lead to believe that it would be, more or less, a modern slasher, this film goes for a slightly more mysterious and supernatural slant for its slasher tropes. It takes its time to build the characters that end up on the broken down Holland tour that are stalked by a disfigured man from the nearby windmill and the use of visions, backstories, and tension is all great in idea. The film uses some nice practical effects as a basis for its kills and there are plenty of things to like about the film…on paper.

Top 30 Horror Films of 2016

It’s fascinating how cinema goes through cycles. In recent years, the cycles seem to be getting shorter as a particular style, look, or genre becomes popular and quickly dies out to be replaced with the next trend. In the realm of 2015 horror, it was the horror comedy that finally took a hold and delivered some knock out films that blended the humor and the horror in some fun ways. For 2016, however, it was the atmospheric horror film. Granted, if you look back at the various lists I’ve crafted for respective years you may already know that I have a soft spot for atmospheric horror. That means that this year was one that delivered a lot of films that hit the sweet spot for me as a horror fanatic. The style is not for everyone, but this year there was more than likely one for each kind of horror fan that could fall under the umbrella of being an atmospheric horror film. It was just that kind of year. There is other kinds of films that made the list, but if you’re a fan of this kind of horror it was definitely your year too.

Party Night (2017)

Director: Troy Escamilla

Notable Cast: Tommie Vegas, Billy Brannigan, Destinie Orndoff, Ryan Poole, Laurel Toupal, Drew Shotwell, Candice D’Meza, Lawrence McKinney, Jimmy Phillips

There is a moment in Party Night where the small group of teen friends find a VHS player in the secluded house in the woods in which they are staying. Next to it, a stack of old school slashers like Halloween. One of the teens in the group gets excited, talking about growing up with the films and his love for them. Proclaiming at one point that their post-Prom little party needs to add a viewing of The Mutilator to the agenda. This moment is a key point at understanding the approach and heart that Party Night brings to the table. The film is flawed, obviously restrained by its limited budget and eager learning talents in front and behind the camera, but there is a youthful excitement in its unabashed throwback 80s style that is paralleled by this teenage character and his oddly specific reference to a cult classic like The Mutilator. This film is not perfect, but it has a meta style quality in this moment that threads through most of the film that may strike a chord with slasher fans that are looking for a film that wants to recreate the style and approach to those ultra-low budget slashers of decades gone…warts and all.

Killbillies (2016)

Director: Tomaz Gorkic

Notable Cast: Nina Ivanisin, Lotos Sparovec, Nika Rozman, Sebastian Cavazza, Jurij Drevensek, Manca Ogorevc, Damjana Cerne, Matic Bobnar, Damir Leventic, Ajda Smrekar, Liza Marija Grasic, Kaja Janjic

Also known as: Idyll

On the back of the box, Killbillies claims that this film is “proving that the American South does not hold a monopoly on sexually depraved, bloodthirsty hillbillies” and this is a key statement to understand just what this film holds. Not just in the content that the film contains, but the approach that it takes. In many ways, if it wasn’t for the language being spoken, Killbillies never really feels like a foreign film in a traditional way – even by modern horror standards. This is a film that whole-heartedly embraces the backwoods killer formula and style as its focus in some very American ways. In this manner, it is disappointing as Killbillies is perhaps the first film I’ve seen that is Slovenian and I felt like it so desperately wanted to be underground American horror that it somewhat loses an identity it might have had. Truthfully, the film is not nearly as bad as the title would have indicated, but it’s also a film that firmly rests as a Wrong Turn film with the attempted execution of the visual and tonal style of Alexander Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes. Not terrible, but not great either.

Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) / Moonshine Mountain (1964)

TWO THOUSAND MANIACS! (1964)

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Notable Cast: William Kerwin, Connie Mason, Jeffrey Allen, Ben Moore, Gary Bakeman, Shelby Livingston, Jerome Eden, Stanley Dyrector, Linda Cochran, Yvonne Gilbert, Michael Korb, Vincent Santo

Going into this latest – and very expansive – box set about Herschell Gordon Lewis’ filmography, there was only one film I had seen of his previously and that is Two Thousand Maniacs!. It’s easily considered one of his best and it even warranted a remake in the form of 2001 Maniacs in 2005. On my second watch of the film I found that I enjoyed it a lot more than I initially did and that the exploitative horror film really does deserve the love as a simple and effective little flick. This is due to the fact that the film runs at a fairly effective (and fun) pacing, rarely holding up the movement of its narrative for much more than the next kill sequence or plot progression. It delivers on the kills, giving some uniquely “backwoods” kinds of sequences that intrigue in their creative spirit, but also unsettle the audience with the amount of ‘fun’ the villains of the film are having while our protagonists writhe and beg against the horrific things that happen. The film also pegs in a great little twist into the finale that adds a rather smart bend to the straight forward approach that it used for the rest of the film and sets itself aside.

However, Two Thousand Maniacs! is not perfect and the one major piece that it lacks is a truly effective pair of protagonists for the audience to connect to. Both Connie Mason and William Kerwin can work as relatable leads (see Blood Feast), but the film is more concerned with building up the plot and kill sequences that it generally leaves them as bland characters. It’s not until the second half that it really starts to give them the feel of real characters and by then it’s a bit too late. Otherwise, outside of some silly performances and cheap editing, Two Thousand Maniacs! is a massively entertaining and energetic film worthy of a lot of the praise it has been given. If the rest of this box set can match the manic tone of this, it will be a blast to work through. 

MOONSHINE MOUNTAIN (1964)

Director: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Notable Cast: Charles Glore, Gordon Oas-Heim, Jeffrey Allen, Bonnie Hinson, Carmen Sotir, Ben Moore, J.G. Patterson Jr., Stanley Dyrector

For the fourth film in this Feast box set, Moonshine Mountain is a change of pace from the other three films. Instead of a blood soaked horror flick or an exploitation drama, this one is a backwoods dramedy about a country singer who goes out to the rural country to find inspiration for some new material. The resulting film then struggles to find its footing for the first half as a musical/fish out of water flick and sort of falls into being a moonshine powered action thriller with crooked cops and back road justice in the second half. Neither part is all that interesting in the end, unfortunately.

Perhaps I’m just not all that familiar with the idea of a country, hillbilly drama comedy with action and suspense pieces, but Moonshine Mountain was a struggle for me to latch onto as a film. None of the characters, outside of a few fun smaller secondary roles, seemed at all that interesting and the stuttering narrative doesn’t quite seem to know where it’s going either resulting in a film that occasionally overstays its welcome. The film is made with a decent enough amount of energy, plugging in plenty of songs and just enough of Lewis’ horror pieces in the final act (that seemingly come out of nowhere honestly) to keep things just off beat enough, but Moonshine Mountain is not even close to being one of the better films in this set. There are certainly a sect of fans out there that will enjoy this for being a time capsule of the drive in era, but I highly doubt I will ever find myself digging into this one again.

Written By Matt Reifschneider