Cujo - 1983

I have always had a interest in the Stephen King movies, probably stemming from reading his books as a young kid. To be honest, I don't remember at what age I read any of his books, and I don't remember which of his books I read. I remember I lost interest in his books before I was 14, because we moved out of the house I remember at that age and I didn;t read any of his books ever again after that. I never read Cujo.

Cujo stars Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone amongst others, and in that way this always felt similar to The Howling, the original Halloween horror movie of mine which...I should really rent tonight and rewatch before I offically go off the booze for a little while. Dee Wallace is having a affair with another man and is raising her young son with her husband. The kid is played by Danny Pintauro and turns in an annoying character but extremely well written and acted, thought I.

In the beginning of the film, Cujo is a huge Saint Bernard that chases a rabbit into a hole and gets bitten on the nose by a bat that lives inside the hole. Rabies being the culprit to the events that follow, we have about 45 minutes of character building and the cheating by Dee Wallace I spoke of earlier. She would later get married to Christopher Stone and become Dee Wallace Stone, and their chemistry is undeniable. She takes their car to the shop around minute 45 or whatever, and it promptly dies there. Meanwhile, Cujo has had the rabies sit in, and he's gone fully off the deep end.

The dog in this is fucking incredible. This movie was the one that got me into animal attack films, I realized midway through it. I really have to think it was this. The dog is insane, and it looks vicious as shit. It's covered progressively with more and more blood, slime, and drool as the film goes on, and looks like a goddamn monster.

Why isn't this film more well known?! This is my Jaws. honestly, I've always talked about this, I think Jaws is massively over-rated, and I'd take Cujo over Jaws any day. The Dog in this is a character, he is smart and vicious, intense and unpredictable. He looks fucking awesome, and is fully believable as not only a acting dog, but as a legit deadly threat. I think director Lewis Teague should've gone on to great things, and he did create some known stuff, but it's too bad this is probably his best work. The animal work in this alone deserves note, and the acting and cinematography help it along as well.

This is one of my childhood horror movies, I am biased, this is a five star film.

The Twilight Zone - 1959-1964

I'm legit trying to remember if I had seen this show before middle school. It seems sort of unlikely, but the truth of the matter is that, as suggested on this blog before, I was raised without a cable TV connection and we only had our VHS collection and what we saw at friends houses as "our TV time".

I checked the IMDb just now to see if there was trivia about this show being aired, or being pitched, or anything. I wonder if there is a documentary or something about it, because I'd have to imagine it pissed people off, scared people, broke records, the like. There is SO much here. Just so much, whether it's the horror elements, or the more extreme underlying themes. I can't see how this show didn't garrner controversy.

Rod Serling introduces each episode of this well known series, a series which for me introduced me to many actors and was a launching place for really well known writers, directors, actors, and other screen icons. The range is of course all over the place. I had never seen the entire show before now, when I sat down and watched all fucking 5 seasons, but I had seen many of these episodes before. I was spurred on to buy the series because I wanted to see them in order, nazi that I am, and because I had never seen any of the season 4 episodes which changed the show from 30 minutes to an hour. The plots are always something alien, something new, something different from what was being shown on TV at the time, and connected by a theme that they're all otherworldly. Otherworldly because, as said by Rod, this is the Twilight Zone.

A great many of these episodes have stuck with me throughout the years. I've found myself being able to randomly recall such episodes that I saw first such as The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street or Time Enough at Last. What I didn't know when I started watching the whole show was just how many episodes involve time travel, time travel which is usually around 20-30 years spans. That plot came up again and again, as did the whole war thing, having the war come out differently or having something remaining from the war. World War II being only 10 or 20 years in the distance cemented this, and it's not a bad thing or anything. Just unknown to me.

Now that I've seen every episode, including the hour ones, and they were all in order, I wonder a lot about the show as said in my first paragraph. I also wonder if I'll ever watch the whole show again, like I have with The X-Files or Star Trek. I'm confident I might play an episode for someone here and there, but I don't know if some of these I'll ever need to watch again. The show is great, it's tremendous and obvious, but it is a long, long show and it takes a long time to get into it. Sometimes, though, late in the cabin, watching 3-4 episodes in a row, felt really awesome and I'll miss those nights.

There is no rating other than a 5 to give this, it was so far ahead of it's time and so influential in obvious and extreme ways.

Glass Jungle - 1988

I bought this one randomly on VHS from a local store. It looked fucking stupid, I need no explanation besides that if you've ever read this blog. Dog.

Joe Canalito was either a boxer or a football star, I don't remember, but he wanted to switch to acting like so many others, and had a brief stint in Hollywood where he was cast in this dumbass movie. In this one, he's a LA cabbie driving people around and getting mixed up into the plans of baddies and goodies alike.

He is a entirely charmless character, thinly written and badly acted. We start with the fact it always sounds like he is reading directly off a page, emoting nothing, and it goes from there. This is a great riff material movie. I am frankly shocked Rifftrax hasn't done this movie yet. This is right in their wheelhouse.

He gets involved in some crime, I don't remember the details, and he gets entangled with the girl, and we have a flashback about how his last girl died, and there's other irrelevant stuff as well along the way. There's also plenty of scenes where he drives around, doing cab fares or not, and they even had their own 3-4 minute Glass Jungle song that plays at one point! That was hilarious.

I liked this in a so-bad-it's-good type of way, and was excited to watch it with my friend while we drank, but I was actually surprised that he didn't enjoy it. It's not even 80 minutes when the credits roll, so I thought it was perfect, but I guess I mean to say you'll either like or hate it. He described it as insanely slow....which it really, really is.

I will give it 3 stars still though.

The Evil Dead - 1981

It's Halloween time again. And I was browsing through Netflix with my girl and saw that this was available and shit yo. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Halloween early.

Bruce Campbell stars in the Sam Raimi directed early 80s horror film about a bunch of people going out to a cabin in the woods. Back then, it wasn't quite as over used but even this was aware of that as a trope. And this is aware of a lot of those things because it's also one of the first best horror comedies. I forgot how fucking great this movie is.

The effects start early and they start often, with members of the friend circle becoming Undead. There's the infamous tree rape scene which leads to the first girl turning into a creature and getting locked in the basement and then there is slowly by slowly girls turning into the zombies. I do say girls because it is all the women who turn into monsters first, as if making a statement about chicks and stuff in general. It's a subversive film with an agenda for sure but it's also really really well done.

Bruce Campbell is great in it and the action Keeps us interested. There's a shit ton of jump-scares and there's a lot of wondering what's going to happen next. The extremity of the violence and the blood is laughable and that's where the comedy comes in. And there's also some great camera work and truly great effects at different points. It's no wonder that this guy went on to do some great horror.

I remember this movie being barely legible as a film and it being Evil Dead II that was the great film. But while we were watching this I was struck with how good it is... and I know that Evil 2 is generally accepted as better, but this still gets 5 stars in my book.

The Naked Jungle 1955

Charlton Heston and some lady star in this slow, slow a movie about ants, but really it's about Charlton Heston and the other girl not getting along.

in the beginning we see that Charlton Heston is some guy living in the Amazon who sends for a mail-order wife. When she arrives the woman wants nothing more than to love him, but apparently she's married to the biggest assholes of all time and this guy just wants her to shut the fuck up.

I'm serious though he's a total ass the whole movie and no explanation is ever given. He's downright abusive and yet she wants nothing but to be his wife and it's very demeaning towards women. Not to sound super woke or anything but this is a type of film that I'm surprised that was ever made because of how unnecessarily offensive it is.

a long time goes by without nothing happening until the last 30 minutes random ants appear in Charlton has to fight them. The effects in their are pretty okay but overall the really slow movie that is really really bad. Despite the fact that I got it used with a sticker that says a great film stuck to the front of the VHS,

The Island of Lost Souls - 1932

Further trips back in time, and I rented this without knowing it was a take on previously reviewed The Island of Dr. Moreau.

The essential plot of this is much like King Kong. In fact, I wonder if Kong as a story was basically ripping off the Moreau story. A bunch of foolhardy explorers come to a remote island where they find some weird indiginous people guarding a secret. That movie the secret was a giant monkey. This movie, the secret is half man half animal mutants that are taking orders from a mad scientist.

I guess a lot of these older movies have a lot in common really. The twisted perversion of science giving way to some sort of abomination or something truly evil is the major theme. This was fear of technology before it was cool, manifesting itself in the artistic mind.

Once our troop in this movie gets to the island, there is absolutely no build towards any reveal, because they are practically greeted at the shore by these hairy mutants. I think they have a dialogue about how it's just the native look, no big deal, but in short it's a thin excuse and once we learn the "truth" later it's kinds like - yeah, I know, obviously.

There's a lot of dialogue and the movie being just over one hour it still felt like it fucking crawled by. Dr. Moreau in this is played by Charles Laughton, and he is given a lot of explanation and talking as we plug along. And suffice to say, this movie was a short trip to yawns-ville, population me.

Bela Lugosi has a small role and should've been in the movie more, and other than that, there's not much to say. 1 star.

The Incredible Hulk - 1977

I have never seen the popular Hulk tv series starring Lou Ferrigno. It was before my time and it wasn't doing reruns, not that I had cable anyways.

Bill Bixby stars as David Banner, not sure why they changed the name. David is a science guy working on something having to do with muscle triggering, he's interested in the sudden strength people get when they're confronted with these life or death situations- people that have flipped over cars and the like.

David casually decides to irradiate himself with gamma radiation eventually and accidentally takes on a million units when he meant to take 300,000. He breaks down in his car that night and gets mad, transforming into the Incredible Hulk!

This was a made for tv movie that was pretty good. The actors are invested, the plot moves, the cheesiness is fun enough but not in your face. They actually tried, and it shows.

I would assume that the tv show was based on this, and if that's any indication, this movie was met well. And it should've been, it's a fine and entertaining movie that executes the idea well. Especially given the material. 3.5 stars.

Bride of Chucky / Seed of Chucky - 1998/2004

I might as well, huh? I don't think I'd seen these before. Fuck, I might've though.

Chucky is back in, well, both of these actually, despite dying in every sequel the series has ever had. Anyways, there's always a reason, and in Bride, Jennifer Tilly as an old girlfriend raises Chucky from the dead. She turns against him when he's an asshole to her, and then he kills her and puts her soul into a female doll.

Bride, honestly, was watchable though. It does feel a bit more self aware and trying to be comedic, but it still remains in decent territory because the plot is intricate enough to keep you going. Katherine Heigl and her fiancee are going to the East Coast, and they have the dolls with them creating a string of bodies in their wake, hence the two lovers are framed and have to escape the cops. Chucky and his bride clash, deaths are had, and it's fine enough, 2.5 stars.

In Seed, we start with the stupid fact they gave Chucky's son/daughter a awful British voice actor, and then we are also soon enough aware that there is going to be a lot more meta humor and nodding/winking to the audience. At one point Chucky turns to the camera and says "My story is so complicated if it was a film it would have 3 or 4 sequels!"

With Seed, we have a further marked departure towards comedy and stupidity, and it's just dumb. A lot of time during the film, I just sat there, looking blankly at the screen wondering, "What the fuck am I doing?"

This is straight from Wikipedia: "Universal Pictures, which produced the previous three films and had expected a more conventional slasher film with the son being a murderous villain, rejected the script with the note 'This is too gay.'" Hilarious.

This one fucking sucked. It's like, not only does the film suck, but the deaths aren't even that great, and it has the weakest death of Chucky yet. Also, stupid trying-to-be-ambiguous ending that you just want to say shut up. They try to do a whole meta thing a lot and it's just not that great. One star.

Child's Play Part III - 1991

I remember being surprised with how much I enjoyed Childs Play Part 2 when I saw it a couple years ago. It, and especially the end, was not the typical shitty sequel, especially in the horror genre where you get a lot of shitty sequels.

Child's Play III, which I got on a Chucky six film boxset, was one I haven't seen in a long time, or possibly, haven't seen ever? I remembered exactly one part of this film: I knew that Andy was in a military academy and there was a scene where Chucky was crawling under a bed with a knife, going for Andy's achillies tendon. Ugh.

So yeah, Andy is now a young adult - maybe 16, 17 or something, and he's in a military school because he got taken from his mom and caused enough trouble to get sent here. Chucky, in the beginning, is exactly where we left him, melted in a factory that's getting revamped to start doll production again. Some of Chucky's blood gets mixed into a vat of melted plastic and soon enough he's back in his full foul-mouthed glory.

This movie was a kick ass sequel, seriously. It is the standard 90 minutes, but it flew by. There's not even much death for probably the first 45 minutes, but once the killing starts, it remains. Chucky is at this military academy hunting for Andy when he realizes he could probably take this other kid Tyler instead, and Andy is after Chucky and there's also military dudes around and the movie moves at a great clip.

The acting is fine, the pace is great, the doll is fun to watch, and there's moments of comedy, self aware and otherwise, that elevate the movie. Characters like the crazy barber and the geeky friend and the decent girl make you grin and enjoy it. Also the movie doesn't take itself too seriously while also not jabbing you in the ribs and saying "Get it?! It's a stupid killer doll!"

Just like in part II, where the end was this kick-ass half hour long segment in a doll factory and super fun to watch, in part III here the end is in a haunted house! It's of course the most extravagant haunted house ride in human history, but it's so fucking cool to see, it's all practical and real, and they did a good job of attempting to top the sheer insanity of the previous films.

Fuck dude, I liked this more than I want to admit. It's a great sequel, I'd say it is better than the third of...Any horror movie? Let's see. It's better than Nightmare on Elm Street Dream Warriors, definitely better than Halloween: Season of the Witch, better than Scream 3 by far, Friday the 13th part 3 for sure... It might be one of the best 3rd part movies ever, realisitically. I give it 4.5 stars.

Nostalghia - 1983

I might have watched all the Tarkovsky that I'm going to. Sure, one day I might take a bullet and watch Andrei Rublev, but that day will not be soon, rest assure that. It's just fucking too long. Speaking of long, this 2 hour film may be one of the shortest Tarkovsky flicks.

Andrei Tarkovsky is one of the front-runners of an obscene, almost obsessive level of minimalism. Inside that mininimalism, there is gorgeous photography, immaculate design, and obviously wonderful composition, so it's like if you went to a museum but you had to stay there all fucking day. C'mon, at some point you just wanna go outside and have a little stimulation. Now, mind you, this movie is short for him, but it just crawls by.

Andrei is a Russian man who comes to Italy to research Pavel Sosnovsky, an 18th century composer. While he is there, he begins to feel nostalgic for Russia, and he encounters some strange offbeat characters. He meets a local somewhat crazy acting man, Domenico, who has stories about the upcoming end of the world and is a bit of a theatrical performer and zealot. Domenico talks Andrei into helping him stop the world, by walking a lit candle across a pool of water. That's basically the plot.

It's thin, it's vague, and you won't really know that's where this is going. Instead, you'll have long, detailed shots of intensely artistic but also intensly unknown goings-on and if you're like me, you'll sit there saying "this looks awesome and all, but what the fuck is going on?" In that way, it is similar to Mirror, The Sacrifice, and even Stalker. There's a contemplative, examining approach, and he is perhaps the best I've ever seen at doing that, but shit yo, you gotta be in the mood.

There is also a certain poetic, haunting, and very addictive feel to his films though, and since there is usually a "thing" that happens in the end, it can be looked at perhaps the most slow burn films of all time. They're very atmospheric, and certainly influential in that way.

I find this movie extremely hard to rate, so I'd have to compare it to his other works. I would say, I liked it more than some, less than others, which puts it probably at around a 2.5.

Rewatch 2025:I'm rewatching all of Tarkovsky's films, and on rewatch I like this a whole lot more.  I think context of his other films really elevates Mirror and Nostalghia the most, because they're the most intensely Him.  In the background, minimally, at one point is written 1+1=1 and I think it is this idea and many others one must contemplate when watching this film.  This is a clear masterpiece that I would now give 5 stars.

Horror Rises from the Tomb - 1973

I think I pretty much "Requiem for a Dream 'Back-to-back scened'" this one with the Crucible of Terror, and shit, I'm 1/25th done with this set already! I joke, this set is gonna take me friggin' forever.

Horror Rises from the Grave aka Horror from the Tomb is one of these where I read the IMDB and I'm like "Uh, did I finish this one?" I'm sorta sure I did, I think? I seem to remember it ending rather abruptly and that I might've poured myself my favorite drink right now, the manhattan with Willett rye and Carpano vermouth. No ice, no cherry.

Paul Naschy did star in some movie which was pretty boring and very forgettable. I would rewatch it but we know that ain't happening. 3 stars