I never like to read too much about the movies I am going to watch before I do, so I can just see it and get it over with. Last night, I was surprised, and caught some old performances from two greats. Michael Berryman, famous for The Hills Have Eyes, and Lawrence Tierney, of Reservoir Dogs fame, and it also happened to be a Troma flick.

The title you ask? Wizards of the Demon Swords (1992). I know, I know. Laugh. But if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing some great sword play and one liners you’ll never forget. In addition, some great scenes and spliced in “dragons” that are actually Stegosaurus clay animations. Funny.

I also really enjoyed the crystal dagger, and the moment two goon run to a cliff (which looks more like a ten foot drop) and say “she must’ve jumped.” LOL It will keep you on the edge of your sofa, and laughing. Those looking for ladies in their horror are in for treats, I believe its not intended for minors.

Trust me, order your copy of Wizards of the Demon Swords now, it will definitely be a great addition to your horror collection.

Sure it’s cheesy. The acting is pretty bad, but who watches these for the plot? Pretty girls, guys with swords, and silly fight scenes. Invite a friend over though, may be too much to watch alone.

Starring: Terry Potter, Pete O’Herne Director: Peter Jackson Yes, Peter Jackson from Lord of the Rings

Bad Taste - The population of a small town disappears and is replaced by aliens that chase human flesh for their intergalactic fast-food chain.

Could a title be any more direct? New Zealand maverick Peter Jackson made a splash (well, more of a splatter) with this film debut, a slapstick gross-out comedy about an alien fast-food franchise that turns a small town into a cheap source of meat. All that stands in the extraterrestrials’ way is the Alien Investigation Defense Service (yes, it’s a tasteless gag), a bunch of would-be Rambos who take on the aliens with axes, rocket launchers, and chainsaws. Jackson mines vomit jokes, dismembered corpses, and brain-spattering gore for over-the-top laughs and succeeds with inventive low-budget effects, crack timing, and sheer exuberance. Not bad for a film made on weekends with homemade props and a bunch of energetic mates. Jackson topped himself a few years later with the even more outrageous and hilarious bloody gut-buster Dead Alive.

The limited-edition two-disc set also includes the documentary featurette “Good Taste Made Bad Taste,” a revealing “making of” shot at the time of production and featuring behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson’s home-made special effects, and a 16-page booklet with cast interviews. –Sean Axmaker

A must for the horror maniac!

Add this great movie to your collection: Order Bad Taste DVD

One hour stories with many themes, including; horror, twists, black-magic, sci-fi …. Introduced by a puppet called “The Crypt Keeper”. A cross between the “Twighlight Zone” and modern horror movies. Not suitable for the very young or squeamish.

Tales from the Crypt - The Complete First Season

Based on the legendary and gruesome EC Comics from publisher William Gaines, this horror anthology featured stories of murder, the super natural, gore and humor and always had a twist ending of sorts. Some of Hollywood’s biggest names took part, either working in front or behind the camera. Hosting duties fell to everyone’s favorite decaying corpse, the Cryptkeeper. The success of this series spawned a Saturday morning cartoon series (Tales From the Cryptkeeper), a short-lived Saturday morning game show on CBS (Secrets of the Cryptkeeper’s Haunted House) and lots of merchandise. Two feature films (Demon Knight and Bordello of Blood) were also produced and released in the late 90’s. The TV series originally aired on HBO, but was later syndicated to Fox, the Sci-Fi Channel, and most recently AMC. Despite being a short season (only 6 episodes), Season 1 enjoyed the highest ratings in its HBO airings.

More: Tales from the Crypt - First Season

Tonight, I think I’ll just put on Cube. Fear… Paranoia… Suspicion… Desperation

7 complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in an endless kafkaesque maze containing deadly traps.

Here’s another opinion:

If Clive Barker had written an episode of The Twilight Zone, it might have looked something like Cube. A handful of strangers wake up inside a bizarre maze, having been spirited there during the night. They quickly learn that they have to navigate their way through a series of chambers if they have any hope of escape, but the problem is that there are lethal traps awaiting if they choose their route unwisely. Having established some imaginative and grisly punishments in store for the hostages, cowriter and director Vincenzo Natali turns his attention to the characters, for whom being trapped amplifies their best and worst qualities. The film is, in fact, similar to a famous episode of Rod Serling’s old television series, though Natali’s explanation for why these poor people are being put through hell is a lot closer to the spirit of The X-Files. Cube has some solid moments of suspense and drama, and the sets are appropriately striking: one is tempted to believe at first the characters are lost inside a computer chip. –Tom Keogh

If you haven’t seen this one yet, check it out soon.

Order it: Cube

Bubba Ho-Tep (Limited Collector’s Edition) (2002)

Don Coscarelli directs and Bruce Campbell stars as the King of Camp in this intentionally over-the-top schlockfest. Bubba Ho-Tep is partially about Elvis Presley and partially about the title character, an Egyptian cowboy zombie, but mostly it is about camp. The movie is equal parts story and back story. We learn through narration and flashback how Elvis didn’t really die, ending up instead in a rest home in East Texas with JFK (played by Ossie Davis), who was dyed black and had his brain removed, presumably for reasons of national security. Campbell and Davis realize that something strange is going on when their rest-home compatriots start dropping off suspiciously. The whole movie leads up to a final showdown to the death with the Egyptian cowboy zombie who has been sucking the souls of their fellow residents because he thought no one would notice. The movie unfolds a bit slowly; it is, after all, a geriatrics-fight-Egyptian-cowboy-zombie movie. However, one wishes this self-conscious movie’s pacing took its cue from the atypically fast-moving zombie instead of from the senior-citizen Elvis and JFK. In the end, though, Campbell is flawless as the aged King; his accent, intonations, glasses, and trademark karate are at the same time sincere and over the top. –Brian Saltzman

Bubba Ho-Tep may have the most substantial and most worthwhile bonus features of any single-disc DVD release. “The Making of Bubba Ho-Tep” focuses on effects, make-up, and the musical score (which includes Don Coscarelli interviewing the composer, Brian Taylor). While the focus isn’t on the filmmaking itself, the 45-minute, four-part documentary (which can be viewed in segments or in its entirety) is an insightful exposé with lots of screen time for Bruce Campbell and Don Coscarelli discussing the success of the film on the festival circuit and the financial and industry challenges of making an “Elvis and JFK aren’t dead Egyptian zombie” movie that is set in Texas. The making-of is the heart of the bonus features, but there are also a couple of deleted scenes, a photo gallery, TV and theatrical trailers, and two commentary tracks, one by Campbell and Coscarelli and one by Campbell playing Elvis (”the King”). The limited edition also includes a small scrapbook liner note insert with photos and a brief letter from Bruce Campbell. –Brian Saltzman

Bubba Ho-Tep (Limited Collector’s Edition)

Now this is a Horror Movie. At least one with some creativity! If you have not seen this yet, do yourself a favor and order it as soon as you can.

I ordered Dead Alive a few weeks ago because a friend recommended it. For some reason it was not readily available at my local shop so I ordered it online. Well worth it.

Throw out all your preconceptions about the limits of horror! A new standard has been set with Dead Alive - The Mother of All Horror Films.

On a quiet street, in a small town, pure evil has come to stay. Lionel, an innocent young man, is forced to care for his domineering mother and finds the task a whole lot more demanding after she’s bitten by the cursed Sumatran rat monkey. Passing the point of death, Lionel’s mother sucks friends and family into her gruesome existence among the living dead and Lionel is sent spiraling into a ghoulish nightmare.

now a crazed zombie, she soon infects enough people to make it difficult for Lionel, still the faithful son, to keep the neighbors from suspecting that something is terribly wrong.

Dead Alive is dripping with state-of-the-art special effects that feature mutilations, rock ‘n roll dismemberments and household appliances, combining into the most bizarre ending ever filmed.

In case you forgot, Peter Jackson is also the director of The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings - Return Of The King.

I highly recommend Dead Alive for the gore loving splatter fiends!

Tagline: A Tale Of Murder, Mayhem and Revenge
Plot Synopsis: Sequel to ‘House of 1000 Corpses’ is set some months later with the Texas State Police making a full-scale attack against the murderous Firefly family residence for the 1,000+ murders and disappearances of the past several years. But three of the family members escape, including Otis, Baby Firefly and Baby’s father Captain Spaulding. The evil trio go on a road trip, leaving dozens of mangled bodies in their wake. Evading a massive Texas Rangers dragnet as well as a group of equally murderous bounty hunters led by Ken Dwyer (the brother of a policeman Mamma Firefly killed in ‘House of…’) who’s obsessed with finding the deadly killers, the surviving Firefly clan gather at a run-down amusement park owned by Captain Spaulding’s half-brother, Charlie Altamont, whom offers them shelter and a new base of operations for their killing spree as Sheriff Dwyer, the Texas Rangers, the FBI and others slowly close in.

Actors: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, William Forsythe, Ken Foree, See more
Directors: Rob Zombie
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen, Ntsc

The quest for the best Horror DVDs has once again led me not only to Troma flicks, but one arguably worthy for the shelf, or the trash can.

From the box:

Nightmares of the rich and famous! See what happens when the decadent desires of the super rich turn into perverted pleasures and monomaniacal obsessions. Stuff Stephanie In The Incinerator is a burning tale of macabre matrimonial murder and spine tingling suspense that is unlike anything ever before attempted on film! When your wife and best friend are after your hard-earned money, there is only one thing left to do… 1989 - color - 97 minutes - Rated PG-13

Well, it’s a poor attempt at a lot of things, but most of all an edge on horror/humor - which is one thing that is definitely hit or miss.

Horror and humor, go together in an awkward way. This movie tried to do too much with too little. The twists were silly, and of course good in a z-movie kind of way, but not in an entertaining way.

Worth a watch for the silly, even kinky death scenes, not spooky at all - but I own it

Sometimes when I buy a horror dvd I ask myself “Why did I buy this?” Other times I play the DVD over and over.

I am not quite sure why I bought The Lost Boys DVD. BUt I have played it a few times since, and again, I know not why.

Could it be the thematic and cheesy 80’s songs that accompany the bad acting, or is it childhood actors that simply make me laugh. Corey Feldman and Corey Haim?

Sam and his older brother Michael are all-American teens with all-American interests. But after they move with their Mother to peaceful Santa Carla, California, things mysteriously begin to change. Michael’s not himself lately. And Mom’s not going to like what he’s turning into.

The Lost Boys reshapes vampire tradition, deftly mixing heart-pounding terror, rib-tickling laughs and a body-gyrating rock soundtrack. Under Joel Shumacher’s direction, a marvelous cast: Jason Patric, Jami Gertz, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, and Corey “I Sell My Hair On eBay for drugs” Haim.

The text on the back of the DVD boxes always hypes up the movie so much don’t they? I added the sell his hair line.

I had to order me one too

Vote For Pedro Shirts

ok ok ok, so it’s not horror movie related. But it’s a cool shirt.