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Monster Scum Marathon - Day 13: Candyman (1992)

Written by: Digger Anyone who has ever been to a Halloween party has heard of the 'Bloody Mary' game. You go into the bathroom, face the mirror, turn off the lights, say Bloody Mary three times, and turn on the lights. Supposedly, the spirit of Bloody Mary would appear behind you and kill you, or give you a back rub, or something. This, of course, never happened, but there would always be someone who knows someone who has a friend whose brother was killed by Bloody Mary, and a most kids that try this get fairly freaked-out about the legend. The film Candyman takes the legend even further by by replacing the ghost of Mary with an angry Tony Todd with a hook for a hand and shoots bees out of his mouth. Now that's scary. Based on the short story The Forbidden, by Clive Barker, the movie follows Helen (Virginia Madsen) a grad student writing a thesis on local folklore and urban legends. She comes across the legend of a black artist who had his hand cut off then was s

Monster Scum Marathon – Day 12: Subspecies (1991)

Written by: Digger The vampire is one of the most prevalent monster archetypes in film history. Ever since Nosferatu premiered in 1922, vampires have always occupied a special place in horror films. Subspecies is a Full Moon produced vampire film that never saw a theatrical release, but still has a dedicated cult following. The story starts with Radu (Andres Hove) walking though an authentic-looking castle to confront his father, King Vladislas (Angus Scrimm) and challenge him for control of the castle and an artifact called the Bloodstone. Radu’s look in the movie is actually one of the highlights of the film for me. He’s got unkempt rock star hair, powder-white skin, fingers that are twice as long as they should be, and the actor always has a sting of red drool trickling out of his mouth. He is very reminiscent of Count Orlock visually. The King explains that Radu cannot inherit the Bloodstone as it will give him too much power, and since Radu is evil, him having too much power w

Random Movie: Kalifornia (1993)

A few years ago, I wrote a paper in college about real-life violence and how some people, erroneously in my opinion, try to blame movies and other mediums of entertainment for corrupting young minds. One of the films that was called out was Natural Born Killers for its glamorized presentation of the lives of a murderous duo. Kalifornia has a similar story but is told in a more sinister fashion. As David Duchovny muses in the film as aspiring author Brian, some people are born without the sense to know when they cross a line from the what-ifs of possibly hurting someone to actually doing so. Early Grayce, as played by the always awesome Brad Pitt , is one such person who enjoys life in the moment without much pause for consequence or reflection. When Brian and his other half Carrie ( Michelle Forbes ) plan to travel cross-country visiting murder scenes for Brian’s book, they hook up with Early and his girl Adele ( Juliette Lewis ) as a way of splitting gas money as both seek refu

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 11: Tremors (1990)

Written by: Digger In sharp contrast to yesterday's DeepStar Six, today's film is well written, well acted, well paced, and enjoyable from top to bottom. Tremors is a modern monster classic carries the spirit of fifties science fiction and perfectly balances horror and comedy. Directed by Ron Underwood and staring Kevin Bacon as Val and Fred Ward as Earl, two down-on-their-luck handymen trying to escape their dead-end existence in Perfection Nevada. When they try to leave their tiny, isolated town, Val and Earl discover the body of a resident high on an electrical tower, dead from dehydration. The deaths outside the town begin to pile up as the surviving residents try to piece together just what exactly is killing so many people. Burt ( Michael Gross ) discovers a snake-like creature attached to the back of Val and Earl's truck that had stalled it out previously. With the only road to the closest signs of civilization blocked and all communication outside the

Random Movie: Beerfest (2006)

Written by: PBF Beerfest is the fourth film by comedy troupe Broken Lizard . I watched the unrated version on DVD and found it to be more humorous than I remembered. I assume that this is because most (if not all) of any recent viewings before this were on Comedy Central or some other basic cable channel, thus it was edited in to being unfunny. Johann von Wolfhouse, grandfather to Jan and Todd Wolfhouse, dies, and the brothers are sent to Germany by their Gam Gam (great grandmother) with his ashes. It’s Oktoberfest, and the Wolfhouses accidentally destroy a drunken celebration under a tent. They are taken to Beerfest, which is a drinking competition run by Wolfgang von Wolfhausen. Like the Olympics, teams from many different countries compete, and (unlike the Olympics) the Germans are the best. The German team are also Wolfhausens and it is discovered that they are the cousins of the Wolfhouses. However, the Wolfhausens are less than hospitable, claiming that Johann was a stable

Monster Scum Marathon – Day 10: DeepStar Six (1989)

Written by: Digger In 1989, all the cool movies were taking place under water. The most famous of these films was James Cameron’s The Abyss, but there was also a gaggle of much less memorable films, like Leviathan, Endless Descent, The Rift, and one that bares several striking similarities to Cameron’s film called DeepStar Six. In this movie, directed by Sean S. Cunningham who is most famous for gracing the world with Friday the Thirteenth, a group of submarine-driving roughnecks are contracted by the Navy to construct an underwater silo capable of launching long-range nuclear missiles. The rag-tag group includes B-movie regular Matt McCoy as James, Miguel Ferrer as a guy named Snyder, (you just know he’s going to be a bastard with a name like Snyder) and a ferociously hot Nia Peeples as Dr. Scarpelli. This crew works on the ocean floor in a scientific research station named, surprise surprise, DeepStar Six. While a pair of engineers are bombing out an undersea cave to construct th

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 9: Pumpkinhead (1988)

Written by: Digger In spite of what you may think from the title, this movie has nothing to do with pumpkins. There is never even a good shot of a pumpkin in this film. I mentioned the late Stan Winston in my Predator review, and he is considered a legend of creature special effects. Pumpkinhead is his directorial debut and features his creepiest creation in the title roll. The story takes place in what can only be called the back woods of the Appalachians. Here is where Ed Harley ( Lance Henriksen ) lives with his son Billy. ( Matthew Hurley ) One day, Ed must leave his son at his general store when a group of teenagers on vacation ( this sounds familiar ) stop for a while on their long trip. The guys of the group decide to mount up on their dirt bikes for a little mid-afternoon motocross, but Joel ( John D'Aquino ) who has been drinking, runs over little Billy and kills him, then freaks out about it and takes off with most of his friends. Steve ( Joel Hoffman ) sta

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 8: Predator (1987)

Written by: Digger Arnold Schwarzenegger has had several notable costars in his movie career, such as James Earl Jones, Michael Ironside, and Tom Arnold. But his most memorable costar, for me anyway, was a seven-foot tall alien with a crab-mouth and dreadlocks.  Predator is, without a doubt, one of the greatest action movies of all time. It has an all-star cast of thick-necked dudes headed up by Arnold as "Dutch,"  Carl Weathers as Dillon, Bill Duke as Mac, and Jesse 'the Body' Ventura as Cooper. The movie opens much like John Carpenter's The Thing, with an alien ship cruising through space, the dropping a pod as it passes by Earth. Man, Earth is like the all night truck stop to the whole galaxy, apparently. An random alien flying by sees our planet and thinks "That looks like a good place to stretch my legs, maybe grab a bite to eat." Anyway, we soon cut to Dutch and his commando team being flown in to a military outpost in Guatemala. He

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 7: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Written by: Digger Wait a minute. Rick Moranis ? Musical numbers? That doesn't sound like a horror movie to me. Little Shop of Horrors has a long and colorful history behind it, being a black comedy in it's first incarnation released in 1960. It was a low budget production that was directed by Roger Corman , but was pretty well received at the time. In 1982, that movie became the basis for an off-Broadway musical of the same name written by Howard Ashman . The stage play retained many of the same story elements and characters as the film. And, finally, that musical became the inspiration for the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors that was directed by Frank Oz . So, why am I reviewing a musical comedy in any shape or form for a Halloween monster marathon? Well, the giant man-eating plant in the film, Audrey II (voiced by Levi Stubbs ) is one of the most iconic monsters of all time. Anytime someone thinks "killer plant" they don't envision Triffids o

Random Movie: Alpha and Omega (2010)

Written by: PBF I almost feel kind of bad for giving a horrible review about a kids film. But I assure you, this film deserves it. Alpha and Omega is an animated version of the classic love story that involves a boy and a girl from different social backgrounds, in similar fashion of Romeo and Juliet or West Side Story. This one has wolves. Kate is an Alpha wolf. Alpha’s are more serious and responsible. Humphrey is an Omega wolf. Omega’s tend to have fun more and try to keep peace. It is arranged for Kate and Garth (another Alpha) to be married, however, Humphrey has a bit of a crush on Kate. Garth is a pretty boy, but has a weak howl, and apparently wolves mate (when not in arranged marriages) when their howls are the same. Some party happens and all the wolves are there. When Kate and Humphrey are alone talking, they both get hit with tranquilizer darts and wake up in a national park in Idaho. A goose that plays golf and his duck caddy inform them that they were brought

Random Movie: The Social Network (2010)

Written by: PBF Yes, I actually checked my Facebook while waiting for this movie to start. I also have a tab open in my browser right now where I am signed in to it. The Social Network tells the story of Facebook, from it’s drunken conception in a dorm room, to a billion dollar operation. Mark Zuckerberg ( Jesse Eisenberg ) gets dumped by his girlfriend and goes back to his Harvard dorm to drink and blog angrily. He suddenly comes up with the idea create a webpage where pictures of 2 female students are posted side by side, and users can click which one is hotter. As he is creating the page with the help of two friends, he blogs his progress. This project involves Zuckerberg hacking in to various residence hall databases in order to download pictures of students. He creates the page in one night and calls it Face Mash, then sends the link to as many people as he can. It becomes insanely popular, however, it lands Zuckerberg in to trouble and he is placed on six months of academ

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 6: Day of the Dead (1985)

Written by: Digger Zombies have been enjoying a lot of popularity in recent years. They have essentially taken the place of Nazis as the new go-to movie villains. Of course, we all have George Romero to thank for the common depiction of zombies in pop culture today. (often called Romero-zombies) Out of his Living Dead series of films, Day of the Dead is my personal favorite. When the movie begins, the world is already overrun with undead; it's more of a zombie post-apocalypse film. In fact, our small group of survivors are relatively safe and secure in an underground military compound outside of the Florida Everglades, at least from zombies. The humans in this film are divided among scientists, how are trying to find a way to make the zombie population docile so order can be restored, the military, who are tentatively supporting the scientists' efforts but are getting impatient with the lack of results, and a few civilians that provide indispensable skills like Jo

Monster Scum Marathon – Day 5: C.H.U.D. (1984)

Written by: Digger Going to college in Richmond Virginia, I had many run-ins with homeless people. Most people will tell you that the homeless are the helpless victims of an unsympathetic capitalist system, but I have mixed feelings in regards to them. I do want to help them out, really, but they also smell bad and are sometimes hard to talk to because of intoxication or insanity. This movie teaches us, in addition to having poor hygiene and yelling at people at the bus-stop, that the homeless might one day mutate into Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers. John Heard and Daniel Stern star as photographer George Cooper and “The Reverend” A.J. Shepherd respectively, long before they both appeared in Home Alone. George lives in New York City with his wife Lauren (Kim Greist) and has become disillusioned with fashion photography and has started taking pictures of, and befriending, Manhattan’s street people. He learns from them that many of the homeless that live in the tunnels o

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 4: Christine (1983)

Written by: Digger Environmentalists will tell you that cars are evil. Now, almost all motor vehicles are inanimate objects, incapable of making any kind of moral or ethical decisions of their own, but when they do, cars usually are evil. Christine comes to us from the mind of Stephen King , which makes sense as the story is basically the same one as Carrie , but with a little Maximum Overdrive flare. The film is directed by John Carpenter , and stars a lovely 1958 Plymouth Fury as the titular character.* It is never made clear in the movie why the car is magically alive and has such a bad temper, but Christine's murderous rampage apparently began as soon as she rolled of the production line, smashing one man's hand with her hood, then killing another factory worker in her front seat. After this opening scene, the film jumps to 1978 in some random, all-american neighborhood where Arnie ( Keith Gordon ) and Dennis ( John Stockwell ) are on their way to school. The two

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 3: The Beast Within (1982)

Written by: Digger This is the classic story of "Boy Meets Girl" except the boy is hearing a voice in his head guiding him on a revenge quest as he slowly transforms into a monster. The Beast Within is based on Edward Levy's novel of the same name and begins with something that, I have to admit, took me a little off guard. The film begins with Eli MacCleary ( Ronny Cox ) driving through Nioba Mississippi in the middle of the night with his wife Caroline. ( Bibi Besch ) Eli misses his turn and gets his car stuck in the mud, so he has to walk to the nearest gas station for a tow truck. (life sucked before we had cellular phones) While he's away, Mrs. MacCleary's dog runs out of the car and she goes chasing after it. She finds the dog, mangled beyond all recognition and is chased by a creature in the woods. She knocks herself out by running into a tree, and then, BAM, monster rape. We're not even ten minutes in and we've got a slimy beasty havin

Random Movie: Frozen (2010)

Despite the lack of a “horror” category tag, this is very much a horror movie, one that is uninterested in raving serial killers and dealing instead with the frights of an inexplicably terrifying real situation. Now, being quite desensitized to standard horror fare, I can watch zombies and blood and maniacal torture with no problem. Frozen though was at times intense enough that I had to pause the DVD for a quick breather to break the tension. Sure, some of Frozen may invoke the classic suspension of disbelief for the setup, but the rest of the film is as real and nerve-racking as a movie can get. What starts as a fun day on the slopes becomes a dangerous situation as three friends are stranded on a chairlift halfway up a mountain. Initially they sit thinking that the interruption was just a fluke or power outage but as more time passes they come to the conclusion that they are stranded fifty feet in the air until the resort opens the following weekend.

Random Movie: Let Me In (2010)

Back when I was looking forward to the upcoming movies over the next few weeks, I remarked how Let Me In seemed to take only the essence of its source material and put a new spin on it. Having seen Let the Right On e In a few years ago and several hundred movies since, I did not remember certain plot points that came back almost immediately as I was watching Let Me In . But, being based on an acclaimed novel, also called Let the Right One In , precludes originality for fear of backlash by fans of the story itself. Anyone with passing interest in the original will not be surprised by the direction the story goes here but director Matt Reeves is still able to create a film that is quite mesmerizing. Taking place in early 1980s New Mexico, the story revolves around the chronically-bullied Owen and the odd new girl next door Abby. The two meet in the courtyard of their apartment complex and almost instantly become close friends as both have little in the way of other relationships.

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 2: The Evil Dead (1981)

Written by: Digger This is the legendary horror film that launched a million fanatics, as well as the careers of director Sam Raimi and cult superstar Bruce Campbell . This is the first, the original, The Evil Dead . When this movie was released, it was billed as the ultimate experience in grueling horror. At its heart, the story is constructed in the vein of an H.P. Lovecraft tale, involving an unimaginable evil force lurking just outside the realm of our reality, and trying to get in. The film opens with the audience's point-of-view skimming just over a bubbling swamp, then cresting over a wooded hill to peer at a yellow Oldsmobile driving through the forest. Inside are five young adults on their way to spend the weekend in the absolute last place anyone would want to be if they knew they were in a horror movie, a dilapidated cabin in the middle of nowhere. The group seems to be pretty up-beat about the trip though, in spite of a near head-on collision and crossing a

Monster Scum Marathon - Day 1: The Awakening (1980)

Written by: Digger An adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, director Mike Newell's The Awakening shows us that there is nothing like a good mummy's curse to ruin your life and the lives of everyone around you. The first portion of the film takes place at an Egyptian dig sight where grizzled, hard drinking archaeologist Matthew Corbeck ( Charlton Heston ) is searching for the tomb of Queen Kara. He is there with his pregnant wife Anne ( Jill Townsend ) and his young, spry, and completely platonic assistant Jane Turner. ( Sussanah York ) Right from the beginning of the film we see that there is already noticeable friction between Matthew and Anne over his relationship with Jane. Anne has this wild notion that Matthew and Jane are spending some much time away from camp, in the hot, sweaty desert, because Ms. Turner secretly has a thing for Dr. Corbeck. On one such venture into the desert the pair stumble upon the tomb for which they had been s

Mini Scum: Friday (1994)

As a young Puck, watching Friday   was a bi-weekly tradition to vicariously experience life in an urban environment filled with guns, drugs, and crazy-ass Chris Tucker . I am convinced that Tucker was created to play Smokey as he steals the show with his irresponsible, over-the-top mannerisms. Writer, producer, and star Ice Cube is no slouch either as the laid-back, unemployed foil to Smokey. Director F. Gary Gray takes the ordinary occurrences and extraordinary characters of the neighborhood and constructs them in way that come across in a perfect combination of wacky fun and cautionary tale with the issues of drugs and violence.