I think over time Demián Rugna’s horror film “When Evil Lurks” will become a monstrous classic that will be explored by a lot of the horror fandom. A lot like Lucio Fulci, and or Mario Bava, Rugna’s film is dependent a lot on striking, often disturbing imagery. Said imagery tends to compensate for a lot of the film’s incoherence and ability to leave us absolutely confused and dumbfounded. I’d be hard pressed to call “When Evil Lurks” a masterpiece, but it sure is a great horror film. Director Rugna, like the aforementioned directors, is big on mounting terror and suspense, leading us in to a pacing that is slow in the beginning but throws us head first in to explosive twists and violence.
Tag Archives: Horror
My Best Friend is a Vampire (1987)
It’s interesting that Jimmy Huston’s horror comedy has managed to rise above the rest of the teen horror comedies over the years. Even something like “Once Bitten” which had a young Jim Carrey, isn’t nearly as popular as “My Best Friend is a Vampire.” Despite being insanely silly, and features one of the most lackluster romantic interests of the eighties, “My Best Friend is a Vampire” (aka “I Was a Teenage Vampire”) has survived mainly for its very vocal LGBTQ overtones, and a soundtrack that’s better than it has any right to be.
Ranking “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” Movies from Best to Worst
“Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?”
It’s been an interesting year for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” fans as the movie series has finally been adapted in to what is, by all accounts, a popular survival video game. It’s also incidentally the twenty year anniversary of the shockingly popular Marcus Nispel remake, which continues to win new fans. With that said, I gave my personal ranking to all of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” films in the series. As always feel free to offer your own rankings or rebuttals the comments.
Teen Vamp (1988)
“Teen Witch” came in to existence from a studio’s desires to create a “Teen” monster franchise. “Teen Wolf” would give way to “Teen Witch,” and there was supposed to be “Teen Vampire.” Director Samuel Bradford’s super low budget “Teen Vamp” seems to aim to unofficially complete the trinity amounting to a bizarre eighties teen horror series. Although, you could ague “Love at First Bite,” “The Vampire’s Kiss,” and or “Vamp” completed the trilogy; I’d be more hard pressed to argue that “My Best Friend is a Vampire” feels so much more like a natural end to the desired gimmick. “Teen Vamp” is best left in the heap of obscure eighties video store shelf warmers.
Primal Rage (1988)
Director Vittorio Rambaldi’s horror film is such a silly bafflingly bizarre horror movie that even after the credits rolled, I was kind of dumbfounded. “Primal Rage” feels so much like someone wrote a teen college drama comedy about an aspiring journalist, and his love interest. And then someone had the bright idea of taking a script for a horror movie and just awkwardly wedged it right in between all the twenty something romance and growing pains with mopey aspiring photographer Sam and even mopier student Lauren. Continue reading
Five of My Favorite Childhood B Movie Queens
Growing up during the video age, and with cable television, you tend to come across a lot of recurring faces. Over the years I’ve managed to build a list of some of my all time favorite B movie queens, and these five are only a select few of the many women that influenced my love for cult cinema, and inspired me to dig deeper in to underground and horror cinema over the years.
The Black Phone (2022)
Director Scott Derrickson bring to screen what is really one of the more riveting thrillers of 2022. While “The Black Phone” almost always runs the risk of getting lost in its obvious influences of Stephen King and Amblin, “The Black Phone” ends up being a truly engaging and often scary hostage thriller. This one thinks somewhat outside the box bringing us not only in to the hot seat of the character that’s been kidnapped, but it also gives us a look at the echoes that emanate with every victim that villain “The Grabber” has ever victimized and murdered.