It Came From The Man Cave!: October 2017

A Night of Pure Terror

Sorry gang I have been under the weather for 2 weeks now so today I'm going to have to cheat a little.

What are you afraid of? It's only rock and roll...

Charles Martin Smith

Writers:

Rhet Topham

Michael S. Murphey

Stars:

Marc Price

Tony Fields

Lisa Orgolin

Gene Simmons

Ozzy Osbourne

Hard rock idol Sammi Curr (Tony Fields) burns to death in a hotel fire. His biggest fan, Lakeridge High School student and resident metal head Eddie Weinbauer (Marc Price) is devastated by the news and turns to local radio DJ "Nuke" (Gene Simmons) for emotional support. After a heated discussion about the deceased rock star, Nuke presents Eddie with a rare demo record, the last ever recorded by Sammi and the only copy in existence. Overwhelmed by Nuke's generosity, Eddie accepts the gift without hesitation, unaware of its dark role in things to come.

Alone in his room with feelings of rage and retribution racing through his mind, Eddie places the new record onto his stereo and is shocked to discover that he can communicate with the deceased rock star when it is rotated backwards. Playing upon both Eddie's loyalty and emotional vulnerability, Sammi instructs the teenager on how to get back at those who have caused him so much pain, instructions that the easily manipulated Eddie carries out, prompting the usual 'underdog gets his own back' results.

When Eddie tries to destroy the record, an evil version of Sammi is resurrected (complete with supernatural powers) and goes on a rampage at the high school Halloween dance, turning Eddie's involvement with the devilish rock star into a spine tingling nightmare not only for the young headbanger, but for his school and hometown as well. Can Eddie stop the demonic Sammi before he sends the entire town straight to hell? One thing's for sure, the teenagers of Lakeridge High are in for a Halloween they'll never forget.

Low on gore and heavy on metal 1986's Trick or Treat fulls a little short 30 years later. As a young metalhead in 86's the movie was everything. I was different as well listing to Megadeath, Metallica and Anthrax like it was religion. I was bullied for being different but never really cared. I was all about the music bringing me happiness. The band Fastway carried the sound from beginning to end with it's pulse pounding riffs and heavy drums ringing in your ears. See my post from earlier this month for Music Monday the soundtrack still holds out.

Despite the big names of Osbourne and Simmons, the real star here is good old Skippy himself Marc Price. Price plays the lovable loser that saves the day. You find yourself really pulling for him just like you did while watching "Growing Pains". For me, the real star is director Charles Martin Smith you know the nerd from American Graffiti that also directed A Dolphins Tale. Smith weaves a story that works and never loses the pace giving us a fast hour and a half movie. The idea worked in 1986 and if you where a kid then you will love the stroll down memory lane.

The other notable actor would be Tony Fields with his height giving him a cool metal look. His back round is fascinating and nothing like the 16-year-old me remembers. Let's just say I do not remember the terrible lip syncing and the great dance's moves. Feilds began touring with Debbie Reynolds in her nightclub act only 3 months after starting at Dupree Acadamy of Dance when he came to Solid Gold, he had had only 2 years of formal training. He was also in Thriller and Beat it music videos. Sadly Feilds died of Aids in 1995.

The movie still Jam's if you were around to enjoy the great hair metal days. If not Trick or Treat will not carry its weight. And if you do go back and watch it remember this came out long before Wes Cravens Shocker as they are pretty similar. So, in the end, the movie is still worth finding and Fastway needs to get off there ass and cough up the music rights to a proper Blu-Ray can come out

3 Bloody Brains out of 5

This was part of the Maddy Loves Her Classic Films blogathon The Horrorthon check out the others that took part.

Ghouls just want to have fun!

Director: Jack Bender

Writer: William Bleich

Stars:

Lee Montgomery

Shari Belafonte

LeVar Burt

Peter DeLuise

Joanna Lee

Phil, Melissa, Mitch, Mary, and Vinnie are high school friends, who unwittingly raise the dead on Halloween night. Once the dead have returned, Pitchford Cove will never be the same again....or will it?

For years now during the Countdown to Halloween I have read about The Midnight Hour so this year I made it a point to track it down. Sadly it was pretty easy to find thanks to YouTube once again. And after viewing The Midnight Hour I immediately kicked my self for not watching this one sooner!

What is not to love about this movie, young 80's up and coming stars, silly small town plot that works if you live in a small town (duh), fun Halloween costumes, witches, vampire zombies and a stellar soundtrack! This movie is so much fun why does it get a bad rap? The film also marks Macaulay Culkin's first screen role as an uncredited trick-or-treater yet I could not tell you who he was.

Director Jack Bender was no stranger to TV movies like High School USA staring Chrispin Glover to a catalog of 29 other made for TV movies from 1980 until now. Bender has also worked on many great TV shows starting his career with Eight is Enough, 90210, all the way to Game of Thrones. But good old Jack could never break away from the small screen with only two theatrical releases Childs Play 3 and Lone Justice 2. But when it comes to the small screen he is pure gold just like The Midnight Hour.

It is also fun to point out William Bleich the writer has given us some great spooky Halloween style flicks to look back on as well. Starting his career with 1980's the Hearse to 1989's Chain Letter and one of my favorite Christmas TV movies Dolly Parton's A Smoky Mountian Christmas. The last thing Bleich has worked on was Poltergeist: The Legacy, in 1986 he was nominated for the Edgar award for best television feature or miniseries Deadly Messages. This man knows his stuff.

Let's talk about this amazing group of actors that brought this movie to life. Some will recognize Lee Montgomery from his starring role in 1972's Ben or maybe the 1985 Sarah Jessica Park's Girls Just Want to Have Fun for me tho it was Growing Pains, With Stephen and Elyse away for the weekend, Alex hosts a wild party and worries over Mallory going off with one of his womanizing friends. Montgomery is our star of The Midnight Hour and he does a fantastic job.

Shari Belafonte is beautiful as the main Witch and even gives us a little homage to Michael Jackson with a dance number even sung by her, "Get Dead" and why have I not put Get Dead on any of my Halloween mixtapes yet!

Oh, 21 Jump Steet how we thank you for all those heartthrobs that graced Tiger Beat Magazine we get Peter DeLuise has the dumb jock. All through this heartthrob has stepped behind the camera more working for the Disney Channel as well as the Hallmark Channel even giving us a Halloween love story Harvest Moon from 2015 that still airs this time of the year.

But by far my favorite actor in Midnight Hour has to be Jonna Lee as a stunning 50's era cheerleader. Lee can be seen in big screen hits Chained Heat with Linda Blair and one of my favorites Quarterback Princess with Helen Hunt and her big role Making the Grade with Judd Nelson. I do not know what it was but she played the innocent role so well as she was searching for love. I just could not take my eyes off of her as she lit up the screen. Sadly Lee has left acting to become an artist I sure would have loved to see more of her.

This movie also has some great cameos from legends like Dick Van Patten, Kevin McCarthy, Cindy Morgan, Mark Blankfield, and Kurtwood Smith. So what is not to love about this movie? And how about the soundtrack In the Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett, Sea of Love with Del Shannon, and Bad Moon Rising by CCR just to name a few. And the soundtrack comes to life thanks to Wolfman Jack as our radio DJ.

The special effects are phenomenal being this is a made for TV special. Nothing really over the top or scary but simple make-up works bringing the many ghouls and vampires to life. And the background visuals really pop to life with much time and effort spent making sure every little detail is there.

If you are an 80's kid like myself or even a 70's kid you owe it to yourself to watch this Halloween treat. I loved the story it was simple but effective with a cast that gets along so well you really feel like your part of the gang. A dream of a soundtrack keeps the pace flowing and of course an 80's style love story. I never lost interest in the story. To the critics that pan this movie you are obviously part of a new generation of fast-paced action games and forget what it is like to have a story that mixes comedy with horror and romance. So slow donw and enjoy life around you!

The Midnight Hour deserves a proper DVD or Blu-Ray release so we can add this to our let's watch a Halloween Movie Collection!!!! I will be revisiting this movie from now on as long as it finds its home on those streaming sites or if I can come up with $235 bucks for an out of print DVD.

Midnight Hour I give you....

4 Bloody Brains out of 5

If anything watch the dance and song Get Dead you will love it.

Man I love the 80's

Stardew Valley

So what am I doing when I am not blogging you ask? What do you mean you don't care? Well too bad Am going to tell you anyway. It's called Stardew Valley and it is the one video game I can not put down at all! If I go too long without playing I get nervous that my farm needs me not to mention my wife and kids! No not my real wife in kids my Kilmer Family on Cedar Famers. What makes this Farmville rip off so much fun I don't know I can not put a finger on it yet I come back day after day, in fact, I have put in well over 100 hours into this bad boy. Of course my favorite season...

My Humble Beginnings

...is fall not only do the monsters come out at night you get to plant pumpkins and make pumpkin pie and fall in love... I mean virtually fall I Love You! And then there are the festivals aka Halloween where you get to watch dancing skeletons and do a corn maze, bonkers I tell ya Bonkers! The only thing missing is Trick or Treating now that would be cool.

Dance by the pale moon.lite

Now that is a spider!

In all honesty, this game is by far my favorite. It is not for everyone that is for sure and in the beginning it sure is a ton of grinding gameplay just to get going. For me that was part of the fun, what can I grow now to what can I craft next?

Chris and Emily

Once you get going you can not stop you want to get to the next level you want to get married and make your house bigger. You want to go deeper into the mines and fight off monster after monster. Would you also have guessed that this game was a labor of love for one man? Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone As legend has it, Eric created Stardew Valley from scratch over several years, having no prior development experience before the game's release. Now, Stardew Valley is a major multiplatform hit, having just landed on the Nintendo Switch.

My First Child Pumpkin Born Just Before Halloween

Barone is working on a new game that takes place on the same planet as Stardew Valley. It looks like this new title will stay in the same universe, too. After one fan asked about Stardew Valley's lore outside of Pelican Town, Barone said his next game, "will expand on it some more." His upcoming title isn't a sequel or expansion to Stardew Valley, He did admit that his new game will "take a style of game that was never fully realized" and build it up from there, but as to what genre or game he has in mind, no one knows.

Yes, that is a Witch!

Early next year the game will begin testing multiplayer mode on the PC. In return, I really hope this means cross-platform play could be coming as well. I have also read the next game could be more of a wizard theme magic school RPG/life sim Spellbound (working title).

Spellbound

If you are looking for a game that will help you unwind from a hectic day Stardew is for you. If you are looking to blow stuff up look to World of Tanks for that. For me, Stardew Valley has been one of the best games I have ever played! Now if you would excuse me I have some farming to do.

Roblox Hallow's Eve

Roblox the extremely popular multi-platform free game is releasing Roblox Hallow's Eve: A Tale of Lost Souls. This free update is available now.

In “Hallow’s Eve: A Tale of Lost Souls,” players will get to immerse themselves in diverse worlds, each with their own spooky Halloween theme, and complete quests to earn more virtual prizes.

Also, want to share this crazy looking game coming soon, Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut

A killer puzzle game where you control Skullface, a psychotic slasher hell-bent on revenge. Slide this adorably demented murderer around hundreds of isometric puzzle levels to squash, flay, and decapitate hapless victims in this darkly comic homage to 80s horror movies.

This crazy looking came comes out today!

Famous Monsters

Not really going to share music today but rather a different kind of sound. If you were lucky enough to grow up in the wonderful age of records you know just how much they could transfer you to another world. One record that has escaped me for years would be Famous Monsters Speak. I know you can buy this on Itunes or even pick up the CD but nothing can replace that sound of a record.

But a few records that did not escape me Alfred Hitchcock stories for young people! I had a few of these talk about perfect storytelling.

When it comes to Vincent Price most of my collection was on cassette tape. I think Price had way more than Hitchcock but that is ok they both do a great job of scaring the pants off of you.

Man's Best Friend Just Got Spooky!

The Great Halloween Puppy Adventure

Director:

David DeCoteau (as Mary Crawford)

Writer: Andrew Helm

Stars:

Evan Crooks

Stephanie Shemanski

Kristine DeBell

Eric Roberts

Susan Olsen

Light-hearted family adventure. Linda (Kristine DeBell) and her boyfriend Ted (Eric Roberts), along with Linda's son Adam (Evan Crooks) and girlfriend Molly (Stephanie Shemanski), are looking forward to their Halloween break. But events soon take an odd twist when Ted finds himself inhabiting the body of a loveable bulldog after Molly experiments with a spell found in an old dusty book.

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

What the heck did I just watch? I feel dirty for some reason after watching this train wreck. Was this really for kids, because the sexual tension between the charters was a little hard to handle. How was this a Halloween movie?

So today the weather is cold and dark the perfect time for a Halloween film with the kids. We loved Spooky Buddies and I really like David DeCoteau's low budget entries into the Horror Realm. He is reasonable for Puppet Master 3 of all things! I have seen this movie floating around many of the streaming sites and have always wanted to check it out.

As the opening credits roll (In long form like most Full Moon Features) I was treated to some names that have a nice body of work. Like Harry Manfredini, you know the composer for Friday the 13th. And hitting the editing sweet Danny Draven who directed Reel Evil which is still one of my favorite Full Moon Features. The movie was written by Andrew Helm who seems to look to DeCoteau to direct most of his films also gave us A Talking Cat, Christmas Spirit, and Santa's Summer House.

Sadly Helm's story is so full holes that you just don't care about any of it. We get a teenager in College that is all about Halloween and his neighbor that is super cute helps with a spell that turns his mom's boyfriend into a dog. This all happens the night before Halloween and The day of but we would not know that from the background or the story thanks to a splash title screen we now know. Not so sure how Halloween play's into the story other than the kid liking Halloween and his girlfriend trying to be a Witch.

To the sexually frustrated mother gets a hair up her but to take a trip on Halloween to a cabin so she can work things out with her boyfriend. You know the ones that the teens just turned into a dog. Well, they all wake the next day to find a calm dog on the couch so they take it with them. Ok, first off if I was just turned into a dog I would not be this calm or happy! And once we get to the cabin (That takes forever in a long montage of roads with the three of them dubbed over so boring) we get some really odd scene of both couples. First Mom and the Dog pretty much make love through heavy petting and dog kisses but yet the dog is a female and the last time I checked Eric Roberts was a dude. This was so creepy and hard to watch I mean she gets down on the ground and eats grass with the dog!

Conveniently the other couple walks to the cabin next door that seems to know our college friend. She also seems to know the fact that she is a witch just like her. The new witch is played by Cindy Brady herself Susan Olsen. And thank god for her she was my favorite part of the whole story. So was so wacky and hippy like that she played her role perfectly. She tells the kids how to reverse the spell and they race back home to do so, you know because it is Halloween duh.

So lack of real storyline along with poor acting and a sesame street score that was so wrong matched with no real reason to call this a Halloween type of movie this was one of the worst things I have ever witnessed. Skip this at all cost's! If you have seen it let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Even Science was stunned!

Tarantula

1955 | B&W | 1 Hr 20 Min | Sci Fi | PG | Universal

Director:
Jack Arnold

Writers:
Robert M. Fresco

Stars:
John Agar
Mara Corday
Leo G. Carroll

In the Arizona desert, Professor Gerald Deemer is experimenting with growth hormones in the hopes of finding a way to increase the world's food supply. His partner in the project was recently found dead in the desert, suffering from a disease that normally takes years to advance but in this case seems to have afflicted him in only a few days. The local doctor, Matt Hastings, is puzzled by the strange case and with Deemer's recently arrived - and very pretty - assistant Stephanie Clayton tries to figure out what is going on. When cattle remains are found in the countryside, the evidence points to a giant tarantula as the culprit.

For the tarantula, an actual live spider was used. Blast's from air jets were used to make it move in the desired way over a miniature landscape. In the movie, Prof Deemer predicts that by the year 2000 the human population will be 3.6 billion, in fact, it was almost double that. And of course, keep your eyes posted for the young Clint Eastwood making his film debut.

“Tarantula” crawls onto your screen on Me-TV tonight at 8 pm eastern and Pacific, 7 pm central, and, if you are unsure of what time in your area, please check your local listings. For those of us in the Chicago viewing area, we can get an encore look The Ghost And Mr. Chicken WCIU, the U, at 11 am this morning.

The bloody conclusion to the 'Axis' trilogy!

Director:

Charles Band

Writers:

Charles Band (story by)

Roger Barron

Stars:

Diana Prince

Jessica Morris

Robin Sydney

Since its inception in 1989, the "Puppet Master Series" has been our most celebrated, beloved, and enduring franchise. It's the most successful independent direct to video horror franchise of all time! With classic characters like Blade, Jester, Pinhead, Tunneler and Leech Woman returning to thrill dedicated fans and general audiences alike. For the 11th installment in the series, Charles Band will be directing "Puppet Master: Axis Termination! Set in Los Angeles during World War II, "Axis Termination" continues the Axis Trilogy, which began with "Puppet Master: Axis of Evil" and continued with "Axis Rising". This is the same time period as David DeCoteau's classic "Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge."

With great new special effects, popping sound effects and the pulse-pounding score by Richard Band will PM Axis Termination come to a killer end or just slow burn itself out? Read on my lucky readers read on...

Man, this movie looks great! With vivid colors, excellent lighting the puppets have never looked so good. Every location Charles Band used was in perfect balance. But this three-parter was a mega slow burn! Most of the time I'm ok with that but with everything clicking on high octane right down to the soundtrack I wanted more and I wanted it now. But do not let that stop you the story is still a good one just takes some time to get to the gore!

And let me tell yea Tom Devlin poured on the blood making this one of the most blood-soaked Puppet Masters in a very long time. Devlin brought true life to Blade and his gang of misfit toys to the point that when they were on the screen you held onto your seat waiting for what was next. Devlin deserves more credit for his talent than what I think he gets.

Not only are the effects perfect but the soundtrack blends in very well keeping you motivated and the sound effects are some of the best as well. There seems to be a little bit of 5.0 mixing going on with builts whizzing by your head not going to lie I was impressed. But by far the best part of PMAT has to be....

This young actress played by Tania Fox, someday Band will be able to say he found this young talent like many before her, Helen Hunt, Demie Moore, and Megan Ward to name a few. Fox was brilliant playing the younger daughter with her own special powers. I really look forward to seeing more of this young actress in the future.

Yet in the end, I am still sitting here pondering just how much did I like this last flick. We get the most gore I have seen in a Full Moon Feature in well over 20 years if you ask me. The cast is perfect the movie looks great and the Puppets rock. Yet the slow building to the climax was at times long and hard to follow. The story was just ok. So honestly not my favorite PM but yet enjoyable. So with that being said, I am going to end this review a little bit different this time hope you can handle it.

5 Bloody Brains for the Puppets and effects tons of gore!

5 Bloody Brains for Tania Fox

2 Bloody Brains for the Story Arch

For an overall score of 3 Bloody Brains

Puppet Master Axis Termination is well worth the wait for PM fans and a ton of fun once the third act rolls around! So what is next Uncle Charlie I say send them to Space!