Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Kappa Kid's Dungeon of Schlock

I've really been getting into B-movies over the past two years, especially 80's sci-fi and horror movies. This thread is for all of us to discuss what B-movies we've watched recently or just talking about our favorites.

Earlier this week, I watched Night of the Creeps from 1986. It was a pretty fun romp and an awesome tribute to 50's B-movies. Tom Atkins knocks his role out of the park, playing a jaded detective with a dark secret. The main characters have great chemistry and you really buy them as average college students, something I could relate to being a small college freshman myself. The alien slugs are a great plot device and the effects are great, showing that horror movies are at their best when they give CGI the finger. I recommend it highly if you dig this stuff.

Rating: 5/5 stars

I adore Night of the Creeps. Have you seen both versions of the ending, Indy?

I've only seen the one with the dog.

Ah, okay, there's another one, which is IMO superior, where...



At least one version of the DVD has both endings.

That sounds like an interesting ending. I wonder if they were originally planning to make a sequel?

Probably. Almost all horror movies were made with sequels in mind back in the 80s.

Another film I watched last night: Puppet Master

Like the Troma brand of the same era, the Puppet Master movies were the creation of Charles Band who created Full Moon Features, which was focused on exploitive horror movies. Like the Toxic Avenger, the Puppet Master movies were the staple franchise of the studio. The first movie in the series isn't very good, but the sequels gradually got better and even developed their own bizarre mythology and continuity. I recommend checking them out, though be warned the first movie has plenty of dull moments. The strangest thing is that the Puppetmaster series eventually became its own elaborate interconnected universe, something akin to a Marvel or DC multiverse, with many franchises coexisting and crossing over together, like Dollman. Full Moon's work may not be masterpieces, but I reccomend looking into the Puppetmaster for something just a little out of the ordinar.y

Rating: 2.5/5 for the first movie, 3.5/5 for the series

I've never seen any of the Puppet Master movies, but now I may check them out. Thanks, Indy.

Most of my favorite B horror movies were made in Italy during the 60s, 70s, and 80s: Suspiria, Tenebre, Blood and Black Lace, Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Kill Baby Kill, Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil, Zombie, Demons, Demons 2, House by the Cemetery, City of the Living Dead, and The Beyond are the first ones that come to mind for me.

I've not very well versed in foreign films beyond the Japanese Godzilla franchise. I'll have to check some of those out when I get the chance.

The ones I'd recommend checking out first are:

Suspiria
Tenebre
Black Sunday
Blood and Black Lace
The Beyond

If you like any or all of those, I think you'll probably like other vintage Italian horror movies.

As for Godzilla, I think some of those are fun. That reminds me, I still have to see Destroy All Monsters.

The Toxic Avenger is one of those cult film darlings that I've never fully embraced. Lloyd Kaufman, the founder of legendary indie outfit, Troma Studios, shows promise as an out of the box director, but that potential is squandered by paper thin characters and no interesting villain. The more exploitive gore and sex scenes are just eye rolling in some cases as they seem to drive the movie more than the plot in some cases. What does strike me as impressive about the movie, however, is the socio political subtext Kaufman sought to deliver. Toxie represents the socially downtrodden and liberal movement of American during the era, something that had largely been downplayed and oppressed during the conservative Reagan era America that prided itself on opulence and tradition.
Rating:2.5/5 stars

Toxic Avenger is another one I've heard of but never seen.

It's a very trashy movie, but if you enjoy schlockiest shlock out there, you might like it.

Ah, Night of the Creeps.

A touch of slasher flick, a hint of cop angst movie, a dashing of sci fi and decent portions of zombie and teen romance film, all lovingly bundled into a very underrated horror picture.

It's one that I still watch once in a while if I'm having a horror movie phase.

The female lead is a pretty strong character and Tom Atkins as the cop is the guy whose seriousness holds it all together. There's plenty of icky moments with the slugs. Memory tells me that there's just about the right level of romantic awkwardness from the lead characters (channeling the nerd v jock movie theme).

There's also a touch of sadness as the main characters best friend becomes plot fodder as soon as he's a couple with the leading lady. And where will that best friend be when the couple split up? That's right, possessed by zombie creating slugs. So, be sure to look in on your friends every now and again to prevent that happening to you.

The scene when he finds J.C's body was really sad.

About the only Troma thing I've seen was some of a making of documentary.

I've seen bits of the first couple, but never all the way through.

I'm not sure why that is. If only I had a post to blather on about it, I might find out...Ah, here's one now...

A lot of my early films were from the video store, so cover pictures and titles along with genre play a big part.

Toxie hits the undead, horror, low budget gore buttons well enough. So it's none of those. I think perhaps a slight cultural thing where it pushed itself a little too hard. Another gorefest, Bad Taste, builds up nicely where Toxic Avengers always seemed to be about the pay off. Perhaps I was just at the age there needed to be a little more from a movie than that (again this is based on what little I'd seen of it at the time).

Which isn't fair on the movie. On the assumption that it wasn't taking itself at all seriously, a number of the gore scenes work very well. There's occasional pointed social commentary thrown in too. From the documentary I saw, there's no doubt about the amount of effort Kaufman and his crew put in.

There was a funny moment, where Kaufman is talking about film making in New York. It's Troma and not Woody Allen who had been filming in the city longer (this is prior to Allen's travelogue around Europe). Yet, Allen was adored while Troma kept getting harassed by the police. It was said in a fun way without bitterness. Sure enough, they get pestered shortly afterwards.

On Puppetmaster

There was a little splurge of Killer Toy movies around this time. Along with Puppetmaster we had Dolls in 1987 and Child's Play a year later. Like pretty much every horror sub-genre there was also Devil Doll in the '60s and one of the Dead of Night stories a couple of decades before that.

Puppet Master had an advantage in that a number of the puppets had specific ways of bumping people off, adding to the fun. I can remember one with a drill, another with leeches and possibly one that was just really strong.

For Fickles Fancy: Puppetmaster's cinematographer was Sergio Salvati who worked with Fulci on Zombi II and the Beyond.

Why yes, I did just look that up. Actually, while I'm doing that...yes, one of the puppets was just very strong.

They even retconned Leech Woman to be the wife of the creator of the puppets in the 3rd film. The funny part is that change contradicted the first two films.

Cool!

Thanks, Thoth.

Just dug up (ahem) The Beyond for a watch later.

Braindead/Dead Alive, which is directed by Peter Jackson early in his career, is one of the best horror-comedies out there. The gore effects are in the same vein as the Evil Dead movies, but take it to hilarious extremes. It's gorey slapstick at its finest. The main character is a schlubby mama's boy and his arc of learning to be his own man and grow a pair is great. Watching the movie does make you wonder what would have happened if Jackson had stuck to making horror movies instead of moving on to the LoTR franchise. He had a unique voice in the genre, and like his contemporary Sam Raimi, brought a sense of fun to the genre that is usually very self serious and grim.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I still chuckle at some of the bits, and I do mean bits (yuck!) in Braindead. There's another awkward, but sweet romance in between the gore and the Sumatran rat.

Bad Taste, mentioned above, was also a Peter Jackson film before a particularly heavy Tolkien hardback fell from a shelf onto his head.

I've never cared for the Lord of the Rings films, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Braindead.

I think you nailed with your mention of the Evil Dead and gorey slapstick.

It's a craft to get any emotional response from an audience. To be able to get two, contrasting, responses simultaneously is what sets these apart. There's the over the top shock at the gore at the same time as the reaction to the humour.

There's more to both films than that, but that's at the heart of them.

In my first year of law school I went to a Halloween Schlock-fest. One of the movies was 13 Ghosts. In the movie the family was told that they inherited their uncle's house, but the will stated that they could not sell the house. Immediately, I remembered from my properties class that such a provision is called restraint on alienation and is illegal. Then I thought "No, no, it is a schlocky horror movie and this is just a plot device to get them to stay in the house."