ceejayred

BLOOD SONG is a movie that has a couple of interesting ideas but then totally writes them off in order to turn things into a stalker story.

Frankie Avalon plays a man named Paul, who escapes from the mental institution, making sure to take his homemade wooden flute with him. The flute is special to him and was made by his daddy when he was a kid. You see, he's crazy because he saw his father kill his mother and her lover in cold blood and then turned the gun on himself, which adds up to a very traumatic episode for little Paulie. The flute starts off interesting when Paul plays it and annoys the heck out of people like the guy in the van who picks him up hitchhiking, and then a female hitchhiker that Paul himself picks up after he steals the first guy's van. Then the flute is forgotten.

Donna Wilkes (JAWS 2, ANGEL) plays a young high school girl who has a bum leg. She eventually graduate from leg brace to walking stick. Soon after, her leg injury is totally forgotten about, as it doesn't even manage to become a plot device integral to the story. She has a doting mother and an alcoholic abusive father (Richard Jaeckel) who totally doesn't want her seeing her boyfriend. She is connected to Paul in a way that the movie doesn't really spend a lot of time on, and doesn't even bother exploiting it further after about halfway through the story. She received a blood transfusion after the car wreck that damaged her leg (caused by her drunken father), and the donator was Paul himself, since the mental institution was the closest hospital nearby. What a dumb idea! She has a psychic link and can see Paul murder people as it happens, but then this plot device is dropped as well.

Frankie Avalon is okay as the psycho killer, and has some good scenes early on, but then his character gets bogged down in a way-too-long chase after the young girl. She witnessed him burying one of his victims, and now he wants to killer her. Donna Wilkes tries so hard to get people to believe her stories that it gets repetitive.

There is some decent gore, but not enough action as the movie takes the slow build path to a climax that totally betrays everything that led up to it.

BLOOD SONG is an average thriller at best. Recommended for anyone who wants to see Frankie Avalon do anything other than Annette.

From 1989 comes THE DEAD PIT directed by Brett Leonard and starring the late Jeremy Slate. An evil insane doctor is conducting cuckoo experiments on the patients of a mental hospital, when the good Dr. Jeremy Slate shoots him dead in order to stop his insanity, then seals him up in his hidden pit with what apears to drywall spackle. Yeah....that'll hold him in there. Fast forward twenty years later, and Jane Doe arrives at the hospital not remembering a thing about her past or who she is. An earthquake strikes and TOTALLY RUINS THE SPACKLE JOB, reopening the crypt of insanity. Can Jane Doe overcome her own murky past and her own proclivity for running through a mental hospital in a t-shirt and bikini panties?

This plot runs as insane as a Stuart Gordon film like From Beyond or Re-Animator. It's fun to watch, if you don't have any hang-ups about stories that make sense. There is a lot of style here from Brett Leonard, the acting is okay-ish, thanks mostly to Jeremy Slate, and there is plenty of gore. True horror fans should have this one on their radar.

A photographer and his bevy of models arrive in Egypt for a photoshoot and run into a treasure hunter who is searching for mummy gold. They all inadvertently revive the bandaged baddie who then proceeds to slaughter everyone, with the help of his equally undead minions.

The production went into the locations, the costumes and the special effects makeup sparing none for the cast, since no one acting in this film was by any means a familiar face. The story builds rather slowly to a climax that is equal parts gory and silly. But still, there is something charming about this movie and I rather enjoyed it. There is some decent and totally gratuitous gore in Dawn of the Mummy. Watch for actor George Peck, who plays the treasure-hunting Rick, as he overacts with extreme prejudice. It's rather hilarious.

If you don't take this too seriously at all, and go into it with an open mind with zero expectations, you may find yourself enjoying this little remembered horror flick from the early 80's.

BLOOD HOOK starts off ultra-silly, as people disappear thanks to a killer with a nasty fishing lure. It's quite a ridiculous premise, but then you see that it's a Troma release and it all makes sense. Not the plot, mind you...just the company behind it all.

With a ludicrously over-the-top plot with bad acting, dialogue strewn with fish humor, BLOOD HOOK begins in a boring and clumsy manner, manages to become somewhat watchable before quickly fizzling at the end. The killer has a creative, albeit silly, reason for murdering, so some points given there.

This is not an atmospheric horror. It's a comedy with horror trappings. So proceed with caution.

I picked up Coffy as part of a 2-movie set packaged with Friday Foster. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked Coffy.

Pam Grier is a strong female lead during a time when strong female leads were rare, especially in the blaxploitation era. She plays a nurse named Coffy who goes out on a revenge-driven killing spree of any and all scumbags involved in the drug trade in her city. Her baby sister was a victim of drug pushers, setting off her rage.

The violence is pretty standard for the genre, but there seems to be an undercurrent of sleaze, with women getting their tops torn off just for the hell of it. Director Jack Hill is a veteran of the genre and this is nothing new for one of his films.

A solid plot without many logic gaps, good action, with actors such as Sid Haig and Robert Doqui to support Grier in her efforts to come off as heroine amongst the sleaze.

Recommended for those who enjoy 70's styled sleazy action.

Terror in the Wax Museum is more murder mystery than it is a horror film. With plenty of suspects and one red herring at the very end, the movie keeps you guessing whodunit throughout. It's not horribly scary, therefore it's the mystery aspect that will keep you watching.

There are definitely some silly moments, such as a couple of dream sequences and wax figures (played by actors) that are accidentally caught on-screen moving and breathing. However, don't let that distract you from the solid work from the cast, especially Ray Milland. The story itself has its moments of suspense, with a few chilling scenes. Overall, however, don't go into this film thinking it will scare you very much.

Recommended for lovers of good old-fashioned whodunits.

I caught Shock Waves on Amazon Prime. I have never caught this one before but always heard good things from other horror fans.

First, the good: the cast did an admirable job. Peter Cushing and Brooke Adams are pros, although this is early in Brooke's career here. John Carradine doesn't get a whole lot of screen time and is dead within the first 30 minutes (SPOILER ALERT!). The character of Norman (played by Jack Davidson) reminded me of George Costanza, so he was quite effective at being annoying. Fred Buch had a 70s James Caan thing going for him, while Luke Halpin pretty much took over as the film's male lead hero-type. The zombie Nazis were also quite effective, without even uttering a sound. The production values were quite low, but the filmmakers made the best out of locations, costumes and make-up. Give them an A for maximum effort.

The bad: it took a while for things to build. The zombie Nazis bobbed in and out of the water for much too long without killing anyone, and when they DID finally start to stalk and kill, the results were quite...dull. Basically, they grab someone and drown them. Some uninspired killing in this horror film. I don't need gore, but I would appreciate some creativity at least.

Ultimately, it's the bad that outweighs the good here. The plodding pacing and the uninspired deaths scenes really stick with me more than the tone or atmosphere. It was all a good idea in theory, and definitely a creative re-working of the zombie story, but it was all for naught when you don't really do anything with it from a story standpoint. Nice try, but falls short of expectations.