October 26, 1979 Science fiction is something I enjoy; however, I’m glad I’m not as “into” it as horror because that would mean I’d have to watch more movies like Star Odyssey (1979.) I can watch almost any horror movie, no matter how bad, and exit the experience with some amount of appreciation. I can’t…

October 24, 1986 Many of the cast and crew members from Re-Animator (1985) returned a year later to make another adaptation of a story by H.P. Lovecraft: From Beyond. The two films share the same gross excess, but the action in From Beyond is a little more controlled and I prefer it’s consistency to Re-Animator.…

October 23, 1987 For his first 10 films, John Carpenter could do no wrong. Then came Big Trouble in Little China. I realize it’s beloved by many, but for me it was the beginning of a new era from which he never recovered. What happened post-1986 might be best explained by the talent of the…

October 16, 1987 During the Countdown to Halloween, there’s usually one movie that catches me by surprise. This year, it’s one I would never have imagined, one I can hardly believe I enjoyed so much: Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. No, it’s not really a sequel to Prom Night (1980.) In fact, I think…

October 4, 1985 As I popped The Doctor & the Devils (1985) into the ol’ Blu-ray machine, I wondered why in the world I owned a copy of The Doctor & the Devils on Blu-ray in the first place. It only just now dawned on me that I probably had it confused with The Flesh…

There are so many questions I have about Sleepaway Camp (1983), primarily having to do with its origin. What was writer/director Robert Hiltzik’s intention when making it? Was it supposed to be a Friday the 13th rip-off or was it supposed to be a spoof? Was it meant to be a serious horror film or…

In 1988, Frank LaLoggia wrote, produced, directed, and composed the music for his masterpiece, Lady in White. Seven years earlier, in 1981, he did all the same things for his… well, valiant effort, Fear No Evil. Not nearly as successful an achievement, Fear No Evil nevertheless shares some characteristics with Lady in White. First, he…

As I sat through Pandemonium (1982), it dawned on me that if you took the funniest bits from all the horror comedies of the early 1980s and stitched them together, you might have a pretty good movie. (Or you could just watch Student Bodies.) With this one, though, there’s only one scene I’d bother harvesting.…

When Mary Hyatt (Paula Prentiss) is bitten by the vampire, Waldemar (Jeffrey Tambor), she explains her condition by saying maybe she’s pregnant. Van Helsing (Severn Darden) responds by saying: Remember Rosemary? She had a baby? Unless you count its title, this is the closest Saturday the 14th (1981) comes to spoofing a specific horror movie.…