Thunder 2 - 1987

 Who knew that the movie I randomly rented from the library a while back, Thunder, had two sequels which my Idaho library has, for WHAT reason exactly??  Also known as Thunder Warrior 2.

Tried to find the filming locations just now, not listed, but I feel comfortable saying it is vaguely in Arizona.  

The first Thunder felt like it was directly a First Blood copy, and they could have definitely made a Rambo: First Blood Part 2 clone.  But I bet that was too high budget, or maybe it was just uncopyable.  But either way this movie takes a detour and strikes out on its own.

Thunder 2 takes off by having main star Thunder get hired by the police.  One of the cops is dirty and selling drugs, the sheriff is a good solid dude.  Thunder gets framed for this that or the other, and then the cops are after him.  Its all A to B to C.  Straight forward.

The cool thing in this is the helicopter sequence which goes on forever, and seems like it was shot completely incompetently.  But yeah!  Solid sequel.  I give it a 3.

Fear - 1990

 I dialed it back a little bit to 1990 but kept the same genre - that being serial killer movies.

This was a made for TV movie starring Ally Sheedy that I found in my neverending search for serial killer movies that were in the 90s.  It also got suggested to me because of watching In Dreams, so now the algorithm is giving me movies with a psychic bent to them.

These movies are often pretty similar - main character and evil killer are linked in some weird telepathic way, killer gets off on it and our star is frightened until they get a cop to help them and then they begin to see that they can use this power to control or affect the killer.  Then it keeps going and eventually the killer is after our main character.

This does describe to a T both Fear and the movie I watched after, Hideaway with Jeff Goldblum.  What can I say man, I am in the mood to watch these!  Hideaway is great, mini review says come for Jeff Goldblum stay for the crappy CGI and the over the top nature of the film.  3.5 stars.

But now Fear, Fear is a good one with a truly creepy vibe at times.  We have the killer "The Shadow Man" going after women, and Ally Sheedy is a psychic who's helped cops in the past track down two other killers.  Now she is after Shadow, and making a new boyfriend, and doing all the other classic stuff in between.  Spoiler alert the killer is awesomely played by Pruitt Taylor Vince, and the end sequence in a mirror house is awesome.

Its a fun movie, my girl liked it, and I would see it again.  Not bad for Made for TV!  It premiered on Showtime July 15 1990, almost exactly 34 years ago.  Weird.

8mm - 1999

 There are those iconic movies from youth that you remember forever, and for me this is one of them.  I'm using youth in the broad definition since this came out when I was 13, but I definitely remember this from some time close to then, I do not remember exactly when I first saw it.

8mm was one of those movies that you heard people talking about in that reverulatory way, the way people talked about Se7en and Silence of the Lambs.  They would whisper about its darkness, scariness, it's moral depravity.  I saw it, loved it, and have watched it many times and probably introduced people to it.  But like many things on this bog that are a rewatch, it's been years, minimally 10, since I have watched this movie.

Its also strange that this movie has had very little legacy.  Now, there was a straight to DVD sequel 6 years later, but I would think with the popularity of true crime and such, this could easily be translated into a TV show.  But it's more than that, its that this movie doesn't get talked about much, from what I see.  People name drop American Psycho more than this, and that movie came out later than 8mm.  

Nicolas Cage stars as private investigator Tom Welles, who is called in to investigate a supposed snuff film that was found in the private collection of a dead man.  He begins the hunt looking for the girl who is shown being killed in the video, and that leads him on a long and dark journey into the past as well as into the netherworld of underground pornography and the weirdos involved.  Along the way he meets Joaquin Phoenix as Max California, a grungy deadbeat who works at a porn store and helps him.

There's a lot of truly creepy shit in this movie, which is why I find it strange that this isn't as talked about as other stuff.  This was Andrew Kevin Walker's follow up to Se7en, and while I guess you could say that his career overall never achieved the heights of Se7en again, this is a really cool follow up that people who like dark movies should be talking about. 

Another thing that's certain is that this movie simply stinks of the year 1999.  I have been watching a lot of movies from that year, trying to find what is the most "1999" movie, and this is up there is it's nihilist, audacious slime.  Apparently, it is way less dark than what Walker had written, which makes me wonder, how crazy and dark was this originally?  Its a great rewatch, I'll give it 4 stars.

In Dreams - 1999

 I'm still doing it, everyone.  I am still watching 90's serial killer rip offs of Se7en.  You can't stop me.

I did watch Kiss the Girls finally as well, my mini review is going to be its good not great, stop having the killer be someone who knows the girl, and also stop having the killer be a cop.  I think its very interesting that they say Elwes didn't rape Judd, but other than that it's whatever.

In Dreams was directed by indie director Neil Jordan.  Funny, relevant quote from WikiPedia:  "Co-writer Robinson criticized the film the year after its release, stating: "It was a complete and utter mess from top to bottom. I thought Jennifer Eight was a low point, but Christ almighty, this hit the floor and dug."  Yeah dude, they though this was worse than my recently reviewed film Jennifer Eight.

So this is yet another serial killer thriller, one which this time stars Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr, and Stephen Rea.  This was made at the height of Downey's drug abuse, and he was imprisoned the same year this came out. 

Annette Bening is a relatively normal woman who's always had strange dreams, and it seems that now they are getting weirder, and have recurring motifs about children and drowning.  It might be related to a spree of child murders in the area that involve drowning, and soon enough Bening's child is killed and she is more involved.  They find stuff to prove her dreams are prognosticating the kills and bam, just like that you have another stupid serial killer movie.

What's strange about this and why it gets an entire review is the weird amount of time they spend with crossdresser or maybe trans character Vivian that RDJ plays.  There's very long, bizarre, surreal scenes with Bening and Downey in somewhat sexually laden, cryptic scenes that kinda go nowhere...?  They're quite cool and give the movie a bit more points.  But the rest of the film is so bland and so average that this part is all it really has.

Its a strange one, and one that stands out amidst these types.  I give it 3 stars.

Beasties - 1989

 Thank you to video stores. Seattle WA is where I am and where my friend and I rented this DVDR. Viva Scarecrow Video. 

Beasties is a zero budget 1989 horror Sci fi with little release and less legacy. According to the Wikipedia only 200 copies were made and sold before it was shelved. It's an odd duck and my friend picked it at random from the selection in Scarecrow. 

Nelson and Laura are the main characters in this very indie horror sorta movie. It's a very nonlinear plot as aliens land on the earth,  these guys discover them,  other conflict happens,  and that's about it. 

Surprisingly good practical effects and nudity help elevate this movie,  but the convoluted plot is a bit hard to follow. Towards the end things get easier,  but overall it's also incredibly slow. There's a gang of leather clad Goth dudes around to complicate things, and yea that's about it. It's a weird movie. 

I don't know if this movie even exists in any format or available,  but it's a fine watch if you find it. 3 stars.