For the Mill Creek compilation “Scared Silly,” the company brings together the roots of horror comedy with a thirteen movie set that’s well worth the cash. Some of it is the same old material you’ll find in other collections, but considering the sub-genre, that’s nothing to sneeze at. On Disc One there’s 1961’s Creature from the Haunted Sea starring the googly eyed sea weed monster, as directed by Roger Corman. It’s a classic you can’t help but giggle through.
Almost three hours brings you zingers and one liners for some of the finest hall of famers sports has ever seen and Time Life Brings it in one fine compilation. For folks that just want to see the sports stars of the seventies and eighties be roasted among their peers, “Hall of Famers” is a fine volume for the “Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts” Library.
Once Mel Brooks proved that horror could be lampooned while also paid tribute, Hollywood followed suit with a lot of horror comedies that were sometimes mild spoofs and other times very heavy (“Transylvania Twist”) to the point where it was literally nothing but winks and gags. In either case, “Love at First Bite” took advantage of George Hamilton’s star power and put him front and center in a full fledged Dracula spoof.
It seemed like such a sure thing. Take one of the scarier aspects from one of the best horror movies of the decade, and give it its own origin movie. Except, the end results of “Annabelle” are about as boring as its origin. I would rather have seen the original story about the rag doll than this sequel, spin off, or whatever the studios are calling it. I’m not entirely sure what the studios are painting these movies with the Warren ghost hunting duo as some sort of avengers team, but “Annabelle” is a step in the wrong direction with a movie that goes absolutely nowhere.
Season seven and eight of “Married with Children” bring about the unfortunate introduction of Seven. Not the number, but the obnoxious child character that the writers of the series felt they had to force on audiences to improve ratings. Whenever a series hits a low point in ratings, a child is added for some contrived reason, and it’s never more apparent than in “Married with Children.” Despite the appearances by Bobcat Goldthwait and Linda Blair, they play cousins of Peg who leave their bratty son Seven with the Bundys. Of course he’s eventually accepted in to the family, and adopted for adventures with the low class foursome.
Director David O. Selznick’s civil war drama epic about an upscale socialite is one of the many cinematic masterpieces I’m not very fond of. Visually, it’s a stunning work of art, with sweeping splashes of bold colors that help to establish the power of the love for the South, and character Scarlet O’Hara’s ability to take from her beloved land to rebuild her empire. But underneath the gloss and brilliance of the cinematography, “Gone with the Wind” really doesn’t garner much of a complex narrative beneath its seams, relying on very unlikable and vapid characters that serves their purpose all too well. While they could really complete a story about the inner turmoil of the wealthy in the war torn South, the characters of Scarlett and Rhett really offer nothing interesting to the narrative, and most of the interesting tidbits are handed over to character Mammy.
I’m not sure I understand Charles Band’s obsession with tiny terrors, other than they’re much more cost effective to film. I’m assuming. “Dolls” is a fun precursor to the “Puppet Master” movies that mixes fantasy, comedy, and horror altogether to compose some kind of twisted meta-horror film about a little girl whose daily monsters begin turning in to actual monsters without her realization. Director Stuart Gordon’s horror fantasy moves along at a brisk pacing, making the best out of its minuscule budget, and transforming its house of dolls in to a house of terrors. Continue reading