“I like movies that make America look great. Like “Rambo III”!”
“Teenage Wasteland” is about as inept a slasher movie as you can get, and yet it’s oddly compelling. Once again campers begin disappearing at the hands of Angela, and no one really knows why or wants to know where they went. All Angela has to say is “They went somewhere” and that’s fine for the cannon fodder that appear throughout “Sleepaway Camp III.”
It didn’t take long for “Sleepaway Camp” to mock its own premise, as after the shocking ending to “Sleepaway Camp,” “Unhappy Campers” doesn’t miss a beat in re-introducing Angela. In fact she’s a puritanical camp counselor devoted to stopping the hormonal teenagers running wild in her camp, many of whom want to outdo Angela and run her out of camp with pranks that go awry thanks to Angela’s own clever thinking.
You would think in a time where films like “Blackenstein” and “Dr Black, and Mr, Hyde,” that “Blacula” would be one of the worst blaxploitation titles of its time. Despite the title, “Blacula” is actually one of the strongest vampire films of all time, and one of the creepiest of its sub-genre. “Blacula” is a tragic character drawn a victim to his blood lust who begins turning everyone in to his spawn when he finds himself alive in the twentieth century, and it’s a shock to see such an entertaining movie arise from a concept spun off from Count Dracula.
Jess Franco’s vampire film genuinely doesn’t live up to the hype it’s garnered with horror and film buffs over the decades since its release. It’s a tedious and often dull affair that manages to numb the sexuality due to its incessant filler. The filler is ever present from the opening shots, and is used to pad the film’s run time, from performances in front of crowds, right down to dream sequences, much of it is used as a tactic to pad a thinly veiled “Dracula” remake.
Director William Wesley’s “Scarecrows” is the epitome of a good idea given a poor execution. “Scarecrows” is one of the many scary scarecrow movies that have become a sub-genre onto themselves in the horror genre, and director Wesley paints his tale like an EC Comics story. Though I can think of plenty more films about scarecrows with a better delivery of its concept; particularly “Dark Night of the Scarecrow.”
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.
Director Alex DiVincenzo takes the “Scream” formula and gives it a modern dysfunctional twist with a film I can only describe as a laugh a minute satire. Commenting on the nature of auto correct and its utter horrific ability to take words in to inappropriate new variations, “The Horrors of Auto Correct” is brilliant.