Final Women

Blood Theater The oldest movie reviewed here today is 1984's Blood Theatre, which involves a former theatre where a mass murder occurred being revamped years later into a cheap-o cinema. Quite frankly, I really should have reviewed this film right after I watched it, because just a few days on, I've already forgotten most of it. I could honestly tell you very little about the main plot at this point; I'm even kinda vague on how it ended. I do clearly remember one sub plot of the film though, as it involved Mary Woronov (Terrorvision), genre goddess and Andy Warhol Factory member. She plays the assistant to the owner of the movie theater chain that the titular "Blood Theater" is being added to. She's also the only competent actor in the entire movie. Her scenes are a delight to watch, and she provides the film with its few intentionally hilarious moments. If you like low-budget trash from the 80's (like-me), go ahead and check this one out in full. Otherw...

I'd actually seen this one before.  Filmed in 2006, but tangled up in distribution hell in the U.S. until 2013, I was lucky enough to come across this in a video store in 2009 while living in England. I was incredibly excited to get my hands on it back then, as it had already developed a reputation as a bit of a rare treasure among horror film fans. I remember walking away from my first viewing satisfied, but admittedly could only vaguely recall the film's events by the time I noticed it was on Netflix streaming recently and decided to give it another go. Amber Heard is superb as the beautiful, virginal Mandy Lane, whom all of the boys want a shot with. Formerly unpopular, Mandy apparently blossomed over the summer before her junior year of high school. Having attracted the attention of the popular crowd, by the end of the year Mandy seems to have distanced herself from her nerdy former best friend after his prank resulted in the death of one of her admirers months before. Fo...

The Signalman The 1976 episode of A Ghost Story for Christmas was the first episode not to be based on the work of M.R. James. Instead, The Signalman is based on Charles Dickens's most famous ghost story outside of A Christmas Carol. The episode stars Bernard Lloyd (who would appear as Marley's Ghost in the 1999 A Christmas Carol adaptation with Patrick Stewart as Scrooge) as a traveler who befriends a railway signalman, played by beloved character actor Denholm Elliott (Marcus Brody from the Indiana Jones movies). The signalman tells Lloyd's character (simply billed as "The Traveler" in the credits) about a recurring apparition that appears every time a tragedy is about to occur on the railway. The first time he saw the apparition, a nasty wreck occurred in the nearby tunnel, costing many people their lives. The second time, a woman soon leapt to her death from the train right in front of him. The signalman is concerned because the apparition has recently begu...

From 1971 to 1978, the BBC produced the informally linked A Ghost Story for Christmas series, with one episode airing each year around Christmas time. This year, in keeping with the season, I am issuing a two-part review of this exemplary series, which is worth a watch for any British horror fan. The Stalls of Barchester This first episode, premiering Christmas time of 1971, is adapted from a short story by M.R. James and concerns a cleric of Barchester Cathedral who, after growing tired of waiting for the current Archdeacon to retire or pass of old age, resorts to murder. After he apparently rigs a stairwell to cause the old man a fatal accident, he succeeds in becoming Archdeacon, but in the process also becomes haunted. It begins with him hearing voices in his house when alone at night. Then a large black cat begins stalking him. Eventually creepy hooded figures deliver the deacon to his just rewards. I've seen people complain that this (as well as other episodes of the se...

I'd actually previously viewed Prom Night IV but honestly remembered little to nothing about it, which could have had to do with the generic plot, or maybe I fell asleep. Since it is currently free on Amazon Prime, I decided I'd give it another shot. The extended opening sequence takes place in 1957 and concerns Father Jonas, a priest who sets out to punish "the sluts and the whores" in the name of the Lord, starting by killing two teenagers getting busy in a car outside of their high school prom. Despite the name of the film and the fact that the school is referred to as Hamilton High, this fourth entry in the Prom Nigh t franchise is unrelated to both the first film (starring Jamie Lee Curtis) and the previous two entries (which revolve around the ghost of poor Mary Lou). After his murders, the demented man of the cloth is discovered by his fellow priests at St. Basil's seminary where he apparently lives. The priests decide to send him to St. George's, a...