When all is said and done, “The Exorcists” could have been so much worse. And that’s about as good as it gets with Jose Prendes’ horror thriller. As is typical of “The Asylum” studios, “The Exorcists” arrives right around the time of the big reboot of the classic William Friedkin film (I’ll see your two priests and raise you five!). This new film isn’t bashful in hiding its intentions, even styling the title fonts to look similar to “The Exorcist.” Even with all the reservations, “The Exorcists” has a decent concept, but what hinders it is that the script feels painfully under developed.
Tag Archives: Demons
Seven Horror Baddies that Deserved to Be Bigger
For every Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Chucky, and Freddy Krueger we have, there are at least two dozen horror villains that either fell in to obscurity, or were never fully realized. Every horror geek has their own list of horror baddies that they felt could have and should have risen to mainstream popularity, or icon status, but alas sometimes the horror world isn’t in their favor. These are seven horror villains that deserved more films, or better films than they received, in the end.
What are some of your beloved horror baddies you think deserved a huge fan base or franchise?
Night Of The Demons 2: Collector’s Edition (1994) [Blu-Ray]
I originally saw Brian Trenchard-Smith’s “Night of the Demons 2” before ever seeing Kevin Tenney’s original 1988 classic. It was a late night viewing on Cinemax that still remains burned in to my brain. Brian Trenchard-Smith fills in with Kevin Tenney offering up a sequel that’s just as good as the original “Night of the Demons.” Hell, I wouldn’t argue if you even insisted the sequel is better.
Night of the Demons (1988): Collector’s Edition [4K UHD/Blu-ray]
There aren’t many horror movies that I’d genuinely pass out for Halloween as party favors, but “Night of the Demons” is one of them. It’s low key one of the top five Halloween horror movies of all time. It is set on Halloween night, revolves around a disastrous Halloween party and even ends on a completely pointless but fun scene involving razor blades in candy. Kevin Tenney’s horror production is known for being a cheapie production that was constrained to filming in one setting and one setting only. Kevin Tenney is talented enough to where we can barely tell the difference turning the house that the whole movie is set in in to a veritable cauldron of pure terror.
Satanic Hispanics (2022)
“Satanic Hispanics” really is an experiment that I want to see more of. Not only is it a great horror film, but it’s also a pretty great horror anthology that implements the Latin folklore very well and creatively. It’s an admirably ambitious film one packed with so much talent in front of and behind the camera, and it might even spark some interest by horror fans to delve deeper in to the Latin folklore and monsters. “Satanic Hispanics” is an anthology of five short films from some of the leading Latin filmmakers in the horror genre. The cast in each short are predominantly Latin with a slew of stellar supporting actors and actresses alike.
Ranking “The Conjuring” Universe From Best to Worst
I’m a big fan of James Wan’s “The Conjuring” movie universe as it’s one of the most effective, fascinating, and scary library of horror movies ever produced. While the legacy of Ed and Lorraine Warren is infamous, the fictional Ed and Lorraine Warren are great cinematic horror heroes, and they’ve been the center of one of the more diverse horror movie series to come along in a while. What with “The Nun 2” coming to theaters this week, I ranked the whole “The Conjuring” movie universe from the best to the worst.
Let me know how you’d rank the movies in the comments!
Astonishing Tales of Terror: Rocktapussy! (2022)
I appreciate what Andrew Cymek, who writes and directs “Rocktopussy!”, tries to with his feature film, utilizing as many resources as he can to deliver something that unabashedly melds Heavy Metal, Barbarella, and HP Lovecraft. I’m not sure what he has planned for future films or if there’s going to be more movies under the banner of “Astonishing Tales of Terror,” but “Rocktopiussy!” is off to a good start with a movie that while it doesn’t deliver completely on promises made in the trailer, is at least a fun time with some midnight movie potential.