Written on June 30th, 2008 by GlowStormLionone shout
I remember when I first got a computer with a DVD-ROM drive. What a thrilling thought it was that not only could I play music CD’s, but now I could also watch entire movies right on my PC! Would there ever be an end to the wonders of this inspiring age of technology? Could it get any better in terms of entertainment value? Would the damn thing even PLAY the movie?
It was that last question I hadn’t thought to ask when I signed up for Netflix the very first time, a few years back. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that my sparkly new computer could handle a simple DVD. Besides, if it didn’t work I had my then recently acquired Playstation 2 as back-up. Turns out it didn’t work. Shocker. Neither would the PS2 play the disc. Rage. After instant messaging some death threats to more technically attuned acquaintances of mine I was finally educated in the intricate art of making computers play DVDs. It was a hellish (har) pain in the ass.
The story here involves some bigshot actors who I’m going to assume you’re familiar with the work of because that lessens the amount of typing I have to do. Keanu Reeves plays the protagonist of the film, named Kevin Lomax. Charlize Theron acts as his wifely counterpart, Mary Ann. John Milton is the name of Al Pacino’s character. Basically Kevin is a lawyer with a record that’s all wins and John Milton is a powerful legal type from New York who’s interested in bringing dear Mr. Lomax aboard the firm of Milton, Chadwick & Waters. Come to think of it, it’d make a great song: "The devil went down to Florida to score himself a hotshot attorney…"
Now of course Al Pacino is playing a diabolical force from Hell as he usually does so I won’t be spoiling anything by letting you know that. I’ll omit the cheesey ‘lawyers are evil’ jokes so we can move forward with the review. The general challenge laid out before Lomax is your basic question of how far you’ll go find success. Nothing new in that aspect, and honestly, overall I found the film fairly predictable.
The set design for this movie was top-notch. The luxury of the surroundings that the Lomax couple enjoy makes terrific eyecandy and also helps to make Kevin’s choice a bit more understandable. In the presence of such grandiose extravagance I could see how it might be hard to consider whether defending child molestors and murderers was all that wrong. Wait, no I can’t. I suppose that’s why I’d not make such a terrific defense lawyer. In a stroke of true irony, those who made the movie actually got in trouble for props that too closely resembled the sculpture on the facade of the Episcopal National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. This was changed for the DVD release but not before several without the editing had been produced. I wonder if those are hard to get ahold of?
As the story comes to a close it definitely gets weird. Since it’s supposed to be a bit of a mystery, I don’t want to give out too many details on what all happens in the film. Suffice it to say that you’ll get to meet the devil, but not Mrs. Jones and that you’ll find out whether or not there is a son of Satan and furthermore if there is, would he have sex with his sister? These questions nagged me until The Devil’s Advocate revealed all. I feel better knowing.
In closing, I give this movie a 3 out of 5 because Keanu Reeves is a pain to watch and Al Pacino didn’t do enough killing, nor did he pick up one single machinegun. It’s picky of me, I know but SOMEONE has got to stand up for what’s right!
Until we meet again, this is GlowStormLion cordially inviting you to say hello to his little friend.
Ah, the life of a writer! An existence brimming with passion and creativity. Plenty of time to dig deep inside one’s self to till the soils of the soul so that they become rich with purpose. Tending one’s fertile imagination so that it brings forth the kind of harvest that can be enjoyed by all. Alone with the paper or screen. Armed with visions and the words to describe them. A pure form of labor that precious few can truly succeed at. Must be an amazing way to earn a living, don’t you think?
Of course, nothing in this world is free… and other trite cliche’s along those lines. The isolation required to do what a writer does, that tenacity of purpose, must surely tax the mind, body and spirit. When the resource you’re burning as fuel are your own thoughts and the tools of your trade are your mind and hands, things can get a bit exhausting. Yep, Secret Window is about the burning struggles of a full-time author.
Since the film was based on the novella Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King from his Four Past Midnight compilation, I already knew the story. In the book we had a writer writing about writing. It wasn’t too bad as far as stories of that type go, in its written form, but could a MOVIE pull it off?
Here’s a quick rundown of the story. We have Mort Rainey (played by Johnny Depp) as a writer who’s soon to be divorced from his wife Amy (Maria Bello from Coyote Ugly and Permanent Midnight). Amy’s been sleeping around on Mort with Ted (Timothy Hutton of The General’s Daughter, The Dark Half) which is what leads to their break-up. Ted and Mort aren’t the grandest of friends, which is understandable given the circumstances. So, Mr. Rainey heads off to the isolation of a rural cabin where he intends to deal with his demons and fight his way back into the writing arena.
Normally I’m not much for movies that are rated under an R. Generally, they seem to try too hard to avoid the highlights of the cinematic experience, in my book. There’s almost always too much shying away from the less pleasant aspects of life. Avoiding the elements that make a story feel real to me only served to upset me because it’s crucial to my enjoyment of a film that I believe, even if only while it plays, that it COULD happen. Secret Window, surprisingly, does not disappoint in this respect. Sure there’s not a lot of gore or boobies or anything like that, but there is a lot of substance and style.
The elements of the original novella’s story were brought to life with such vision that it actually ended up enhancing the story line. I’ll be first to admit that it’s not often that anyone can enhance a King story, but the makers of Secret Window did precisely. The sense of frustration, apathy, anger and confusion are all very palpable. It’s what I’d term as ‘emotionally tactile’ if such a phrase existed. In the event that it does not, consider it just invented.
John Turturro (Fear X, Anger Management) plays the role of Rainey’s antagonistic fan John Shooter. This dear Shooter fellow is upset with Mort due to some strong feelings that Mort is plagiarizing Shooter’s work. You’ll have to actually watch the film to see how it all goes down. I’d like to offer a tip, though: stay aware. There’s a lot of symbolism in this movie and it all makes more sense when you’re prepared to watch for that sort of thing. I really wasn’t, so I needed a lot of discussion with a friend to be able to figure out what all was going on.
This is definitely a fine rental. It’s easily a 3 out of 5 for me. That may sound a bit harsh, but my rating is based on it’s suitability as a horror film. The elements are there, dark and strong, but it’d need to punch me a bit harder with the shock or creep factor in order to get those last 2 points. Overall, Secret Window is worth at least one peek through.
Written on June 22nd, 2008 by GlowStormLionone shout
Some days are perfect. Hell, some weeks are perfect. There are rare periods of tranquility in my life so serene that I find myself at blissful peace. Even the weather seems to cooperate with my moods during these little vacations from chaos. This is how I was feeling the day I first started up Human Nature (distributed by Asylum Films, produced by Creepy Six Films). The whole week had been as if I were gazing upon a radiant stained glass work of art. I was content, even having a glass of red wine to enjoy with the movie. The opening scenes rolled, I took a sip.
I’d read the box for the DVD and learned that it was "based on a true story". The general story was about the monsters among humanity. Okay, this sounds fine. Not screamingly original, but I’ve seen plenty of good movies along these lines. No problems. Indie and low-budget movies aren’t off-putting to me, afterall I actually ENJOYED Gummo unlike many people I know. There’s something about the gritty feel that I enjoy, so a horror film with a low budget that wasn’t attempting to create elaborate costumes or build up massive sets sounded rather refreshing. A simple story that could have some interesting details.
My stained glass window just might get that much more pretty. It all seemed so perfect. Then I felt jolted. Some bitch-ass threw a rock right through my beautiful window.
Yeah, Human Nature sucked. It sucked badly. I cannot fully express the magnitude of suckiness that I’m trying to describe.
The sound in this "film" is below amateur. I have personally shot video for cable-access with consumer level equipment and no boom mic that was worlds easier to hear. Donny James Lucas (who played a crackhead in Bones with Snoop Dogg and has done lots of TV work), plays the main character Harry who works in some sort of white-collar office. His wife has no idea of what he’s doing to hookers in the basement, she only longs for his affection. That’s pretty trite right there, but we’ll keep focused on the sound. Harry whispers alot and forget trying to make out what he’s saying, even at the highest volume setting. I normally try to be nice in my reviews, but you know what? I’m not going to be nice to sound that you can’t hear and companies that don’t even bother to put subtitles on a film that’s damned near entirely inaudible.
If for some bizarre reason you’re going to watch this despite not being able to make out most of what’s said, well you’ll be treated to an entirely inane story that gives me zero clue as to Harry’s motivation. He’s grabbing women to torture and what not but other than the frustration he experiences at work or the irritating nagginess of his whiney wife, I can’t quite figure out why he’s spending so, SO much time torturing people. Maybe he’s just pissed off about the script and wasting his life on this project.
Speaking of Harry’s job, this is the only and I say this with full conviction, ONLY part of the movie that was worth the DVD it was printed on. When he’s at work, Harry acts all nice to everyone but in his mind he’s a homicidal sociopath. We get to see what Harry thinks through flashes of some pretty sick violence. I empathize here with the frustration of dealing with certain people, so I will give this part due credit. It can’t save the film but it was a little shocking, definitely brutal and entirely confusing. I’ll assume that was the intended effect.
Such a great potential story to be told here and all we get is a gorey whisperfest of senseless actions and disconnected plotpoints. That’s gotta be what hurts the most: the totally mishandled an excellent premise, a good actor (Lucas) and a cast of folks who seemed to atleast want to make a decent movie, judging by the enthusiasm that bled through. I lay the blame for this stinking failure squarely on the director/producer end of things. There’s zero excuse to make a movie with this much potential as toilet paper when there are camcorders available at frickin’ Wal-Mart that could capture the action in a more enjoyable way! Why do you hate your audience?
Just in case the movie is some smarmy statement/observation on human nature not needing to be logical and therefore the story doesn’t have to be coherent, I’ll say this: that excuse will not save this film. If it’s a supposed to be a movie about human nature being erratic and emotional, fine. For the love of anything worth loving at ALL, atleast make it FUN! I don’t watch movies to coddle filmmakers and I don’t watch them to ponder the nonsensical, either. If you can’t make a film that’s passable as a high school project in a rural school then stay away from cameras!
So, in conclusion this film has earned 0 out of 5 stars. I’d say I’m sorry, but in truth – fuck it. Fuck having to deal with watching crap like this just because it’s the only thing left in the video store. Nothing could make this worth it. Hell, my wine glass broke during the movie. I blame Human Nature for that. Ugh. Hope this warning helps you people out because it sure was un-fun to write this.
Until nextime, I’m GlowStormLion, marching through the mansion of bad movies, room to room, shooting them in the head execution-style. Join me?
When I was growing up my family went through different phases. As a very young kid, say age 4 (when my first memories occurred) until age 9 we had cable television. I even got the Disney channel for my birthday one year. Then we moved to another state and went through a real economic deep freeze that made cable an unwanted expense for my parents. As a result, I missed out on a lot of good programming and instead was forced to watch PBS shows like Where in the World is Carmen San Diego and other atrocious shows. At no point did we ever have HBO or any other worthy pay channel, therefore I missed Tales from the Crypt entirely. I’d heard of it, but I’d seen none of it.
All that changed thanks to Netflix. Finally I was able to get ahold of the DVD of the first season of Tales from the Crypt! I was royally stoked when it arrived and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Each of the six episodes was gloriously fun. I couldn’t wait to write my review. Then I figured something out. I actually hadn’t seen the first season, I’d seen the second. Netflix had mislabeled the DVD! In the scope of things, seeing the episodes out of sequence isn’t too damaging to one’s soul.
Since I’m such a dashingly original thinker, I’ve decided to review each episode separately rather than the entire DVD at once. Genius, I know but I hate to gloat so we’ll go ahead with things. The Cryptkeeper opens the DVD at the menu was some funny comments but in fair warning I must warn you not to let it play forever because it does loop which can cause his jokes to get tedious. Just hit play and let the good times roll like heads in the French Revolution! Ha!
Ahem.
Dead Right – This episode stars the luscious Demi Moore as a somewhat financially focused career-woman. She walks into a fortune teller’s business as a skeptic and walks out… a skeptic. You see, Madam Vorma is your typical cheesy gypsy-styled shyster, Cathy (Demi) thinks. Her insights might be good, but when the lady tells Cathy she’s going to marry a wealthy man, it just seems to good to be true.
Natalia Nogulich (Postcards from the Edge, Hoffa) does a fine job in her role. I enjoyed her portrayal, as over the top as it might’ve been. A lot of the acting in this episode was fun, though I found Demi’s to be a bit limp. She never quite blended well enough with the rest of the cast for my tastes. Jeffrey Tambor (Hellboy, Arrested Development TV series) did a fabulous job acting his role which required quite a lot of special effects from the looks of things. He manages to bring some humanity to what otherwise be a total caricature as well as good humor.
I wasn’t terribly shocked by how the story played out yet it was worth the watch as total popcorn cinema. There’s nothing too insane or gory or sexual. Just a quick story that’s fun to watch.
The Switch – What you’ll witness in the second episode is Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s directorial review. When this came up on the screen a loud groan escaped me. Resentment welled up inside, I was prepared for a terrible piece of cinema that might compare with Schwarzneggar’s typical acting (which I have rarely enjoyed fully). What actually happened was quite groovy. In retrospect, Schwarzeneggar’s experience in the muscles and body-building lifestyle probably helped the film out, also.
Set design was very well done for this one. We open on a luxurious home of an elderly Mr. Moneybags, Carlton Webster (William Hicky of My Blue Heaven, Major Payne), who’s fallen in love at the ripe old age of older-than-god. He’s in love with a beautiful young woman (Kelly Preston of Dusk til Dawn, Jerry Maguire). Unfortunately, his lady’s love isn’t blind. She gently informs him that she can’t love one who’s so old and that he has zero chance to win her heart. That doesn’t stop our jolly, eternally optimistic bundle of ancient sunshine, though. This Carlton sings, dances and really won my heart. I wouldn’t mind being that joyously outrageous when I get to be his age (around 112, I believe).
Mr. Webster devises a plan to turn back the clock on his body. Through the miracle of modern mad science he begins a process that will change his life, allowing him to become what the object of his affection needs to see. The tale ends up being a moral play so I won’t ruin it for you, but I will state that it’s entirely enjoyable to the end. Before all this Govenator stuff, Schwartzeneggar sure did direct a damn fine film!
Cutting Cards – This episode is perhaps the most intense one of the line-up. We’ve got two major gamblers gathered together in the world’s capitol of luck, Nevada. Starring in this rather morbid show are Kevin Tighe (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Road House) as Sam Forney and Lance Henriksen (the Millennium guy) as Reno Crevice. This duo serves as an excellent object lesson in the dangers of gambling addiction. These high-rollers crave risky thrills the way zombies crave brains.
The cowboyish tone of the episode is quaint and there’s a definite feel of what the comics probably brought to the table in terms of pulp atmosphere. The story is simple, but effective and there’s an ending that’ll probably make you say "That’s messed UP!" If I’m not mistaken, that’s the general aim of Tales from the Crypt after all, so I’d have to say they hit the target dead on with this one.
‘Til Death – Here we have an episode that’s about a wealthy white plantation owner who is determined to build a resort hotel on Haiti. While there he meets an even wealthier woman who captures his interest. She won’t give him the time of day so he’s got to find a way to win her over because afterall, building actual relationships is an arduous process and not economically efficient. Thankfully, he’s in Haiti, though and you know what that means!
Yep, visit the voodoo priestess to the quaint locals and get yourself a potion. Unfortunately for Logan, our ‘protagonist’, the local voodoo priestess is also his ex-lover. Since he’s not exceptionally bright, Logan quickly follows the instructions with the potion and then adds his own twist. I’m not exactly sure what sort of social statement is trying to be made here, but it’s a bit… uncomfortable to watch in some places since the cultural sensitivity level is even further below my own. What I mean is that the story comes from the 1950’s so you’re going to see embarrassingly goofy depictions of black folks. Other than this, it’s fairly entertaining even if not quite the stellar gem of the DVD.
Three’s a Crowd – This one’s a doozy! We’ve got a married couple who’ll be celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. The husband Richard, played by Gavan O’Herlihy (Superman III, Willow), isn’t a big earner so he and his wife are being treated to a luxurious vacation by their friend Alan, who’s played by Paul Lieber (Parking, Shag). Lieber does an excellent job portraying the sort of grinning debutante that instantly gets under your skin and there’s not much time before you’ll be considering the wife Della, played by Ruth de Sosa (Dreamers, Confessions of a Hitman), to be a scheming evil cheat.
This O’Herlihy would make a wonderful werewolf. There’s a sort of bestial intensity about him that shines in this part. As what’s going on between Della and Alan becomes more apparent to him, he turns from subdued (or is it defeated?) husband and friend into a raging alcoholic nightmare. The thing is, you feel a real sympathy for what’s happening to him. The ending is killer for a wild twist, even though I saw it coming in the last few minutes. Also, they get points in this episode for utilizing a crossbow!
The Thing from the Grave – For a final episode, this one was a wise choice. It’s got Teri Hatcher (TV’s Desperate Housewives, Lois & Clark) in a great role and also it’s got Miguel Ferrer (Traffic, Robocop). The story involved Hatcher’s character Stacey as a model with a rather psychotic boyfriend, Mitch (Ferrer). There’s trouble in their relationship because Mitch is kind of a jealous guy. He finds it hard to deal with Stacey’s profession. During one photo shoot, Mitch shows up as Bo, the photographer played by Laird Macintosh (Nurse Betty, The Great Raid) is doing his camerawork. Bo gets to meet Mitch and it’s well, less than pleasant. Things roll on from there.
Ferrer does an absolutely brilliant job playing the creme de le creme of absolute assholes. He’s got the mannerisms, the wit and the charm to make you want to spend a vigorous workout stomping his face. It’s perfect! You pretty much know what’s going to happen but when a movie is acted out so well it simply does not matter. Ferrer’s work is of such blackly humorous quality that you won’t remember the episode is actually going to end at some point, anyways.
Contrary to what you might’ve held to be true, this DVD was not directed by the Cryptkeeper but rather by Ramon Sanchez (acted in Penitentiary II and The Lost Platoon) and Paul Abascal (who went on to direct Paparazzi). Neither mean are puppets, but they do have experience in make-up and special effects. The parts before and after the episodes are a treat for those of us who enjoy screechy little bastard son of Iron Maiden’s Eddie and the Wicked Witch of the West. That Cryptkeeper does his thing in style, alright and it just wouldn’t be Tales from the Crypt without him… and that music.
Clearly, we’ve got a 4 out of 5 here and the only reason it’s not 5 is because some of the episodes were a little dry. I’ll review more seasons as I get them.
Until next time, this is GlowStormLion lumbering through the graveyards in search of ghost droppings to sell on E-bay. Adios mi huevos de fritos!
Written on June 20th, 2008 by GlowStormLionno shouts
Originally Published: July 1, 2006
"Do me a favor? Don’t scream. Just hear what I’ve gotta say… and then scream." – The Collector (Billy Zane) in Demon Knight
Sometimes horror movies utilize humor. Oftentimes the humor ruins the movie. For me to enjoy humor within horror, it must not detract from the action of the movie or feel completely like some sort of set-up joke. I’m not claiming that it needs to be subtle or done any specific way, what I’m saying is that it needs to be done within the context of the film, rather than simply being tacked on. I don’t want to feel as though the jokes were added in case you thought the rest of the movie sucked.
Tales from the Crypt generally utilizes humor quite well. Demon Knight is no exception. Instead of half hour episodes on the DVD that arrived in my mailbox, ‘Cryptkeeper’s Deadly Duo Pack’, there were two full-length feature films! Bordello of Blood and Demon Knight. I was thrilled!
This time, I’ll just be covering Demon Knight, with Bordello of Blood to follow in a future review. I’m not sure what I was expecting from Demon Knight, but I didn’t have much time to contemplate. The movie fireballs straight out the barrel and directly into your face with plenty of action. The hero (William Sadler of The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) and the villain (Billy Zane of Titanic, The Phantom) are established right off the bat, there’s no mystery to this aspect. That’s alright though, because this no-holds-barred approach creates a vibrant tone that runs straight through to the end credits.
Zane and Sadler are visually dissimilar to such a level that it’s almost symbolic. The flashy, flamboyant pretty boy Zane was a perfect choice to play opposite Sadler’s grungy, rough-hewn Mister Serious. Normally I don’t care for Jada Pinkett Smith, but I must admit that this film finally placed her in a role where I not only tolerated her character but steadily rooted for her the whole way. When a film is cast so perfectly, the entire show is a credit to those actors involved. There wasn’t a single actor here who I felt gave a poor performance.
The special effects are decent for their time and somewhat creepy. The set design was appropriate while not taking over, but two primary elements really deserve to be highlighted. Those elements are: script and soundtrack. The script was so solid that I found loads of lines I could use for my quote in this article. I actually had a difficult time picking just one and generally speaking, that’s not hard at all (sometimes it ends up being tough to FIND a good quote). The soundtrack was flawless. Precisely the kind of music I not only enjoy tremendously, but feel works best in a horror flick. In fact, it was so good that I’m taking the liberty of listing the songs from the soundtrack because it, too, is worth purchasing.
Here we go:
Cemetary Gates (Demon Knight Edit) by Pantera
Tonight We Murder by Ministry
My Misery (Demon Knight) by Machinehead
Diadems by Megadeth
Instant Larry by The Melvins
Fall Guy by The Rollins Band
Beaten by Biohazard
Policia by Sepultura
Hey Man, Nice Shot by Filter
1-800-SUICIDE by Gravediggaz
This music is clearly from around 1995, when the film was made. It accents it so well and even today it doesn’t feel overly dated. I applaud the decision to get the artists listed above to contribute. Then again, who WOULDN’T want to help Tales from the Crypt make a movie?
As we close you already know Demon Knight is getting a 5 out of 5 from me. Precious few films can deliver quite this kind of style without falling into utter cheesiness and pervasive schlock. Give it a rent and see!
Until next time, I’m GlowStormLion enticing you to scream through subliminal Flash images of graphic torture that I’ve secretly embedded within this review. Enjoy your popcorn, but keep a trashcan within reach.
Originally posted October 29, 2007 @ 11:05 PM MST (Arizona)
I told the others, they didn’t believe me. You’re all doomed. You’re all doomed. – Crazy Ralph from Friday the 13th Part 2
Last year, I brought you the review of the original Friday the 13th from Friday the 13th – From Crystal Lake to Manhattan (8 Movies). I thought that this year I could cover the second one and then the third one next year and so forth, kind of make it a tradition. I was talking to a friend last night over the net about these movies and she said that she prefers more modern scary movies to the older ones. Personally, I like both of them, with a slight edge given to the older movies. Sure, there are excellent special effects right now, but sometimes it’s just fun to go back to basics every now and then.
So, Friday the 13th Part 2. Here, we’re introduced to a very different look for Jason, everyone’s favorite (usually) hockey-masked killer. Instead of the hockey mask (which is introduced in Part 3), he wears what appears to be a burlap sack over his head with one eye hole (must be extremely hard on the depth perception). We also get two actors playing Jason in this film, one for most of the movie and one for the end when we see him unmasked (the unmasked actor gets billed in the end credits). And so, without further wait, let’s get on with the movie!
We open on a pair of small feet playing in puddles on the street and sidewalk while the feet’s owner is singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Shortly, the voice’s mother calls the owner inside, which the kid does reluctantly, but shortly after the small feet leave the frame, a pair of larger ones enter it and begin walking towards a house. Inside this house we meet Alice, the last survivor of the original movie, who’s sleeping but having flashbacks of the events that ended the first movie. Finally, she awakes and starts going about her motions, taking a shower and talking to her mother. Her cat comes flying in the window (obviously thrown in, some said) and she goes to the fridge to get some food for it and is met with a very nasty surprise.
We cut to daytime and a couple are parking near a gas station and run to a pay phone to call their friends who are waiting for them to arrive. As they talk, we see a tow truck quickly drive up in front of their vehicle and load it up (we notice it but the couple seem oblivious, even though they sometimes seem to look right in that direction). While this is happening they meet everyone’s favorite local loony, Crazy Ralph. About this time they finally notice the tow truck starting to make off with their truck and start running after it, only to find out it was a prank set up by another of their friends. The three of them (the couple and the jokester) drive off towards their destination, a counselor training camp on the shore of Crystal Lake…
Filmed in 1981, but taking place at least five years after the events of the first movie (filmed a year before), the movie does well with suspense and scares, not relying TOO much on what I like to call "jump scares" (except in a couple scenes, including the aforementioned flying cat). Adrienne King reprised her role as Alice from the first movie for the opening cameo. Unfortunately, this was the last movie she appeared in on screen (she’s done voicework for other movies), as she had trouble with a stalker who saw her in the first two Fridays and it scared her from acting. Betsy Palmer reprised her role as Mrs. Voorhees in the flashbacks (which, technically, was archive footage) and in a scene near the end. In my post for the first Friday the 13th movie, I listed her film Bell Witch: The Movie as being in 2005, but it appears on the Internet Movie Database as being from 2007. She’s also in a movie called Penny Dreadful which wasn’t the one I covered for HorrorFest. Amy Steel played our new movie heroine, Ginny Field. She has had a long career of some TV guest star roles, as well as an appearance in the original April Fool’s Day movie. John Furey played Paul Holt, the head of the counselor camp. He also has appearances in such classics as Island Claws and Mutant on the Bounty. Kirsten Baker plays Terri, one of the counselors there for training. A Norwegian-born actress, she was in one of my favorite comedies, Midnight Madness. Following this movie, she was in three other projects, then left the big screen for a modeling career until 1993 when she gave that up, as well. Her whereabouts are somewhat of a mystery, outside of having been seen working in a Los Angeles art gallery. Tom McBride plays Mark, the wheelchair-bound counsellor. He passed away in 1995, after a rather short acting career, but he did a good job in this one.
All in all, a fun way to spend an evening, either Halloween night or Friday the 13th. I remember watching this on a marathon of Monstervision hosted by Joe Bob Briggs where they played five of the Friday movies back to back (they would’ve had the fourth one, but it turned up missing… as they went through the show, the crew of Monstervision kept disappearing until it was just Joe Bob and the cameraman left on a dark set). My rating for this one? A solid 5 out of 5. I’m happy to bring you this installment of the series and look forward to future postings. As always, until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
BONUS: Someone on YouTube posted what they think a trailer for Friday the 13th Part 2 would look like if the movie had been released today. It’s really good and I wanted to share it with you:
(distributed by Asylum Films, produced by Creepy Six Films). The whole week had been as if I were gazing upon a radiant stained glass work of art. I was content, even having a glass of red wine to enjoy with the movie. The opening scenes rolled, I took a sip. 
. I thought that this year I could cover the second one and then the third one next year and so forth, kind of make it a tradition. I was talking to a friend last night over the net about these movies and she said that she prefers more modern scary movies to the older ones. Personally, I like both of them, with a slight edge given to the older movies. Sure, there are excellent special effects right now, but sometimes it’s just fun to go back to basics every now and then. 
which wasn’t the one I covered for HorrorFest. Amy Steel played our new movie heroine, Ginny Field. She has had a long career of some TV guest star roles, as well as an appearance in the original 
movie. John Furey played Paul Holt, the head of the counselor camp. He also has appearances in such classics as 
and 
. Kirsten Baker plays Terri, one of the counselors there for training. A Norwegian-born actress, she was in one of my favorite comedies, 
. Following this movie, she was in three other projects, then left the big screen for a modeling career until 1993 when she gave that up, as well. Her whereabouts are somewhat of a mystery, outside of having been seen working in a Los Angeles art gallery. Tom McBride plays Mark, the wheelchair-bound counsellor. He passed away in 1995, after a rather short acting career, but he did a good job in this one.