Movie Review: Hobgoblins (1988, Vinegar Syndrome)

The 1980s were a weird time, man. Seriously. I was there for all of it. Bizarre. Near the beginning of the decade, Joe Dante made a little movie you may have heard of. It was called Gremlins. It was modestly successful. I kid. It was a huge and caused a MONUMENTAL TIDAL WAVE OF MONEY to crash into Steven Speilberg. That began a trend. A trend that continues to this day. A trend that we all wish had gone away forever: the cute, mischeivous and ultimately evil gaggle of little creatures film. Gremlins spawned Munchies, Critters (1 through 4), Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, Troll, Ghoulies (1 through 3), the list goes on. The least of which, by all accounts, is one of the final entries on the list. Hobgoblins. Written, produced and directed by Rick Sloane, Hobgoblins took advantage of the mini-creature fad to the best of it's ability. Most of the time, when the biggest selling point of your movie is Mystery Science Theater 3000 infamy, that is a sure sign to stay away. Not so fast, kemosabe. Hobgoblins, and the blu-ray treatment from Vinegar Syndrome is worth a shot.

LAKE PLACID Collector's Edition lands on Blu-ray July 8.

SCREAM FACTORY™ PRESENTS

A Pulse-Pounding Suspense Thriller Written by David E. Kelley and Directed by Steve Miner

LAKE PLACID

Starring Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda and Oliver Platt

COLLECTOR’S EDITION BLU-RAY™

Featuring All-New Interviews with Actor Bill Pullman, Filmmaker Steve Miner and More!

INVADES HOME ENTERTAINMENT SHELVES EVERYWHERE

OWN IT ON JULY 8, 2014 FROM SCREAM FACTORY™

Pre-Order This Highly Anticipated SCREAM FACTORY Home Entertainment Release Today!

You’ll never know what bit you… It has existed prehistoric times and was worshipped by ancient cultures.  It can kill a man with one crushing bite!  This summer, one of the world’s oldest creatures has found a new home.  Written by David E. Kelley (Ally Mcbeal, Boston Legal) and directed by Steve Miner (Halloween H20, Friday The 13th Part 2), LAKE PLACID stars Bill Pullman(Independence Day, The Grudge), Bridget Fonda (Jackie Brown, Point of No Return), Oliver Platt (X-Men: First Class, TV’s Fargo) and Brendan Gleeson (Troy, The Village).  Brimming with heart-racing suspense and thrills, this bloody terrifying tale of man vs. nature and survival also co-stars Betty White (The Golden Girls) as the cantankerous Mrs. Bickerman. On July 8, 2014, SCREAM FACTORY™ will unleash LAKE PLACID COLLECTOR’S EDITION Blu-ray™, featuring insightful bonus content and all-new interviews with director Steve Miner, actor Bill Pullman, production designer John Willett and more. This definitive home entertainment release also contains a collectible cover featuring newly rendered artwork, a reversible cover wrap with original theatrical key art. A must-have for loyal fans, movie collectors and horror enthusiasts to complete their entertainment library, LAKE PLACID COLLECTOR’S EDITION Blu-ray is priced to own at $29.93 SRP.

Movie Review: Dragon Wasps (2012, Chelsea Films)

Reviewed By: John Beutler

I have to admit, good or bad, this reviewer is a sucker for 'nature strikes back' flicks, especially the mutation-themed ones...even going as far back as the '50's nuclear age, when ol' mad scientist Leo J. Carroll, was over a barrel, when "Tarantula" took to the hills. Giant bugs...giant animals...even giant people...sometimes borne of atomic radiation...often wrought from a mad scientist's radical experimentation...occasionally originating from the outer reaches of space...the odd times, abruptly awoken from prehistoric sleep...and in the past few decades, the dreaded scourge of genetic mutation. 

The basic story-lines themselves, a dime-a-dozen, and almost negligible...virtually writing themselves...the situations, given the variant 'tweeking', here and there, are often not that far removed from each other...put a number of characters in a desperate situation...a good guy, a bad guy, and a damsel in distress, amongst others...throw in the prerequisite slimy 'creature', which proceeds to dispatch the minor-league characters, one by one...cue the sappy, albeit responsive-to-the-situation melodrama...muscle up enough gumption from the survivors, in an effort to destroy the creature, as resourcefully as possible...and BAM!! Creature is destroyed, the typically arrogant bad guy dies, in the process...hero and damsel embrace, and all is well. An interchangeable scenario, seen often enough to become cliche, at this point...but like every other film of it's type, the real meat of the 'nature strikes back' flick, is the creature, or creatures...and how it is/they are creatively and realistically rendered. It is in THIS...what is supposed to be the anticipated payoff of the film, that 2012's derivative and ho-hum moderately entertaining, high-octane, rapid-fire sci-fi actioner, "Dragon Wasps", lets the viewer down...

Movie Review: Night Of The Tentacles (2012, DVD)

Review By: Rob Sibley

 

This is the first film of Dustin Mills I've ever seen. I've heard of his work before with flicks like Zombie A-Hole & Bath Salt Zombies. I must say I'm really impressed with what he was able to achieve, working no less with a budget of only fifteen-hundred bucks.

The film deals with a fellow by the name of David (Brandon Salkil). A man who's life really isn't going the way he plans. He's a struggling graphic artist who specializes in erotic horror artwork. He lives next door to some neighbors who are constantly causing a ruckus having sex non-stop. Things are looking to good for our dear David. Who's sole pleasure in life in waiting for his down stares pregnant neighbor Esther (Nicole Gerity) to get home. Why? So he listen in, ear to the floor and masturbate to the sounds of her moaning, doing the deed herself. Not much of a silver lining in his life eh? 

Movie Review: From Beneath (2012)

Directed by David Doucette
Starring Lauren Watson, Jamie Temple and Blake Retter
Run Time: 83 minutes

When Jason and his girlfriend Sam head out into the country on a road trip to visit her sister's family, they arrive at their farmhouse to find it deserted. While out on the property searching for the missing sister, her husband and their two daughters, they come across a swampy looking pond and for reasons unknown decide to go for a little swim. This turns out to be the first of about a thousand bad decisions the couple makes, as Jason is bitten by some type of mysterious parasite which quickly burrows under his skin and  disappears. Once back at the farmhouse, Jason’s bite quickly turns into a very nasty looking wound, and he begins to have strange  hallucinations. Not long after, they discover Sam’s sister's corpse in the basement, and she apparently looks to have been infected by something similar to what Jason is suffering from.

Movie Review: The Nest (1988, Blu-ray)

The "killer bug" film has been a constant staple in genre films for more than half a century. The big bug films were huge in the 50's, 60's and 70's with titles like Tarantula, Food of the Gods and Empire of the Ants. Size can be intimidating for some viewers of these fine creature features but for me it was the smaller insects and arachnids that created a much more realistic scare. Scream Factory's recent release of Terence H. Winkless' The Nest is one film that did just that - featuring hordes of disgusting flesh-eating cockroaches.

Some carelessness leads to disaster when a small ocean-side town is terrorized by flesh-eating cockroaches who mutate as a result of hazardous waste dumping. Mayor Johnson (Robert Lansing, Bonaza, Empire of the Ants) doesn't really think much of the situation. Johnson's daughter, Elizabeth (Lisa Langlois) is the opposite, she wants to get right to who or what are killing residents of the town. With the assistance of the quiet and very in-over-his-head cop, Officer Tarbell (Frank Luz, Ghost Town, When Harry Met Sally), Elizabeth attempts to get to the bottom of the carnage.

Movie Review: Camel Spiders (2012)

The thought of a movie produced by Roger Corman about killer spiders, directed by quite possibly one of the most prolific titty flick directors in Jim Wynorski (Not of this Earth - 1988, Hard To Die) had this murderous arachnid enthusiast very excited. Not since Arachnophobia, nearly 20 years or so ago, the killer spider film has been neglected. Anchor Bay has just released the superb documentary on Corman, titled Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel so maybe the creepy crawlers can duplicate the success and give us creature feature fans what we need.

The American military are immersed in an intense exchange of artillery with some Arab soldiers in the Middle-East. What both parties don't know is that they are about to be joined by a new foe that will make their little skirmish look like teenagers fighting with Supersoakers. There to crash the party are gigantic poisonous camel spiders.