I haven't seen superstition in a while ....what a wacky scary movie. The score was pretty good too!

ALLIGATOR 1980


A mutant alligator is running wild through the sewers and when body parts start turning up at the water filtration plant...its huntin' season.

Actually fine 80's fare.

DREAM DEMON 1988

I'd be hard-pressed to explain the convoluted story but that still didn't stop me from enjoying this "little engine that could".

A young woman, on the verge of marrying the man of everyone's dream, starts slipping in and out of a nightmare world in the new home she will soon be sharing with her husband. Add a young woman turning up from America who believes she was raised in said house but has little if any memories of the place at all.

NIGHT OF THE DEVILS 1972


A man happens across a family of peasants deep within the forest and has to spend the night with them. They live in terror and are afraid of being attacked and becoming "wardulaks" a vampirish zombie. It is a curse their family has fallen prey to.

What happens that night is revealed in flashbacks that same man has as he was found wandering with amnesia and is now in a mental hospital.

It was great.

LEMORA A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL 1973


An angelic young girl is lured to her estranged father's deathbed by an ancient female vampire.

Beautiful to watch.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Rating: 3/10

This is a generally well received film, both at the time, and in perpetuity. I am most decidedly on the other side of the fence on this one. I thought it was slow, absurd and mostly devoid of humor, suspense, scariness, intrigue, depth of plot and character.

I don't think the film properly established an empathetic emotional connection with Dr. Phibes' pain or character. He'd speak with stoic poetry at the picture of his wife, but I didn't find it convincing or emotionally evocative. The only other characters to grasp at were the detectives; but I found them equally stoic and shallow, and a bit less than mildly amusing. In the last quarter of the film, the father, of the captured son, added a degree of human connection and emotion, but hardly a cap full.

The kills, as it were, were inventive, but carried out as a matter of fact, without much suspense, rage or victim orientaded empathy (with a few slight exceptions). The sets were nice though.

Alien

Needed a refresher of this for the tournament topic, I've seen it maybe once a long time ago so it was pretty much a first viewing for me. Didn't love it but didn't hate it.

THE LOST BOYS (1987). Didn't think much of this back when and find it even less so now, continuously checking the playing on the DVD player, never a good sign. A good cast and remember the outrage when FANGORIA magazine>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SPOILER>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>showed a photo of the vampiric Edward Herrmann which pretty much revealed the ending. One reader mentioned how goofy BH looked (comparing him to Pee wee Herman), but the wife and I thought he looked rather Jack Nicholson-ish!
Know it has its fans and all for the good, but find this seriously style over substance and if I have a Teens/Vampires jones, will pop in the wonderful FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) any time. *1/2

Ditto. Didn't think much of it when it came out, nor 20 yrs latter. It was mildly entertaining, and MTV style over substance -- I never got the hype.

Oddly, or not so oddly, it's a bit like Rebel Without a Cause.

Zombi 2 (1979)
5/10


First of all, is the background supposed to be visually warping -- as if someone filmed a copy off a screen that was twisting in the wind a bit on the sides -- or did I see a warped version? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8mpY4tN8_Q) If it's like that intentionally, I wonder why I couldn't find any written mention of it?

Anyway, Zombi 2 is surreal... any appreciation of the film, beyond the gorehounds, is the arthouse approach. There's a ton of unrealistic scenes, jumpy and jump-cut editing, and mix of good and amatuer acting. There's a few creative cinema scenes and shots. If that's what you like, or you like to make fun of a film with your buddies, ala MST3K, then you might enjoy it.