LouHomey
From my favorite movies..
Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Kayden
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
lost-in-limbo
The Cates family inherited an old mansion in Beverly Hills from their late uncle Tyler Walker, who was a well-known stage actor. When they get there, they find the rundown place to be overrun by some street punks who want nothing but trouble. After the Cates' teenagers make fools of those punks, they want to make their lives living hell. But also their uncle Tyler's spirit still hangs around the house, and doesn't seems to like the street punks' intrusion.Roger Corman's Concorde churns out an uneven, but well intended low-rent b-horror film that stage an entertainingly weird mixture, where it has the story criss-crossing into campy fields of supernatural and revenge, and then finally combining the two. Everything about it is stereotypical with the usual shenanigans, but director Bert Dragin does a well enough job with his pacing and makes the twisty style unpredictable and always engaging. Limitations don't hold it back, as the competent make-up and special f/x generates some creative and effective moments. It slowly builds itself up, for a crackerjack closing half. Some demented scenes towards the end, are well worth the attention. Sure the technical side of the production might not be perfect (with the boom mike constantly becoming visible), but it was surefooted. Zoran Hochstatter's murky camera-work sometimes had a neat frenetic touch and dreary colour use, and David Bergeaud's simmering music score stewed up some spooky cues to add to the atmospheric urban setting of the grand looking mansion. The gimmicky screenplay by Bert Dragin and Robert McDonnell seems to work, but if you don't take it for what it is. The ludicrous, and somewhat illogical and loose nature might be hard to shake. Also its change in moods, from being broodingly dark to suddenly comically light might be an inconsistent turn off. The script feels one-note for most part, but weaves in some amusing flourishes of dark humour; jaw-dropping dialogues and an oddly unforeseeable twist here and there. The performances are well suited and come across fair. Tom Bresnahan and Jill Whitlow are likable as the siblings. Christopher Burgard chews it up as smarmy gang leader and Todd Bridges shows up in a little part.Junky entertainment, but I wasn't expecting the modest quality that it dished up. Fans of low-budget horror should give it a try.
brokenlovesongs
80s horror is awesome, and any horror buff will tell you that, but when you're into this sort of thing, there are so many movies you run across that basically just suck. This movie is one of those. The concept is somewhat interesting. A brother and sister are home alone in a haunted house their family recently inherited, but the antagonist isn't the ghost of the performer who once lived in the home. The bad guys in this movie are a group of punks who find their enjoyment in terrorizing the brother and sister. This is definitely a workable plot, but this movie fails on many different levels. First of all, the acting is the sort of stuff you see on bad television; second, the brother and sister are much more carefree and upbeat than they should be in their particular situation, and the gang of punks seems so sadistic that it is practically impossible to think that the police would not have done anything to protect this family. It is a cool idea that the ghost who haunts the house helps the brother and sister kill off the gang of punks, but the kill scenes are terribly uninteresting, and these scenes do not warrant the level of creativity which they attempt to convey. The ending is for those with a very very low attention span. If you're a huge horror buff, like me, then watch this movie for its intriguing concept. Everybody else- stay away.
carmen3111
This movie was definitely cheesy. I saw this movie a long, long, long time ago on cable television. I enjoyed the movie because I was a child watching a rated R movie. It was a typical B-rated movie with blood and gore and sex and drugs and violence. You know, the essence of the 80's.
uds3
Scott (Bresnahan) is an FX genius (as opposed to an actor) who needs to call upon all his skills and more upon when he and his sister find themselves in their home at the mercy of a group of scumbags who have obviously watched STRAW DOGS once too often!Further help comes courtesy of a resident ghost in this low rent piece of garbage that barely saw a theatrical release. A few fleeting laughs at the occasional fx employed but the highlight of the flick remains the electrocution scene. Warning folks: don't try this at home, it may be dangerous!Mega bomb!