The TSL Horror Grindhouse: DNA (dir by William Messa)

Posted on October 20, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1996’s DNA, Mark Dacascos plays Dr. Ash Matteley, an American doctor who works to bring healthcare to the residents of Borneo. When Ash’s former boss, Dr. Carl Wessinger (Jürgen Prochnow), approaches Ash and invites him to take part in a jungle expedition to track down some beetles whose genetic material can cure all known diseases, Ash agrees. However, once Wessinger, Ash, and their native helpers find the beetles in an ancient tomb, it turns out that Wessinger has plans of his own. He shoots Ash in the shoulder and then makes his escape.

Two years later, Ash has long hair and he’s taken to wearing a Hawaiian shirt, but he’s still dedicated to taking care of the poor of Borneo. When CIA agent Claire Sommers (Robin McKee) approaches him and asks him to help lead her through the jungle, Ash says that he’s not interested. But when Sommers reveals that she’s looking for Wessinger, Ash realizes that he has no choice but to help her. For some reason, they take a child named Matzu with them. Why you would recruit a child for a dangerous mission that involves going upriver in a canoe, I’m not sure. Then again, I’m also not sure why Claire would wear a dress while exploring the jungle either, other than the fact that the film needed an excuse to have Ash look away and then sneak a peek while Claire undresses and changes into something more jungle-appropriate.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Dr. Wessinger has not been spending his time trying to cure all known diseases. Instead, he’s been splicing genetic material to try to bring an ancient creature back to life. Now, before you say that this sounds like a Jurassic Park rip-off, allow me to point out that Wessinger is not bringing back a dinosaur. Instead, he’s bringing back a big alien creature, one that perhaps crashed on Earth during the prehistoric age. This is not Jurassic Park. At most, it’s Jurassic Alien.

Or maybe it’s just Alien. Once Ash and Claire and the little kid make it inside Dr. Wessinger’s headquarters, there are a lot of scenes of people hiding in offices and nervously walking down hallways and hoping that the monster won’t jump out of nowhere and kill them.

Then again, maybe we should just call this movie Predator because eventually, the action moves back into the jungle and Ash finds himself being stalked by the alien, who is apparently a very good hunter and who lives for the hunt. Ash goes from being a hippie doctor to being a full-blown action hero. There’s even a scene where he and Claire and the kid have to run away from a crashing helicopter. Of course, the helicopter was obviously a model. Still, it was hard not to imagine Mark Dacascos saying, “Get away from da choppah!”

My point is that a lot of different DNA was spliced together to create this movie. Take a little from Indiana Jones and a little from Apocalypse Now and then toss in Alien, Predator, and Jurassic Park and you’ve got DNA. Unfortunately, the film still isn’t as entertaining as it should have been. Mark Dacascos barely gets to show off his martial arts skills while the film can’t even give us one good Jürgen Prochnow freak-out. Even with all of the shameless plagiarism, the film still feels like it’s just going through the motions. Sadly, DNA is never as much fun as it should have been.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Piranha II — The Spawning (dir by James Cameron)

Posted on October 19, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1982, Piranha II takes place at a Caribbean resort. It’s a great vacation spot. There’s a beautiful beach. There are lots of boats. The locals are friendly and eager to take your money. Chief Steve Kimbrough (Lance Henriksen) does his best to maintain law and order and keep the tourists safe. There’s a shipwreck nearby, and Steve’s estranged wife, Anne (Tricia O’Neill), leads regular underwater tours. Just watching the first few minutes of Piranha II, I was totally prepared to book a vacation, despite the fact that those Trivago commercials have left me somewhat fearful of the whole resort experience. (“You didn’t use Trivago.” And how is that any of your business?)

Then the piranhas arrived.

Yes, the water is soon full of piranhas, the sharp-toothed fish that look scary in 3D and that destroyed an entire resort in the first Piranha film. However, these new piranhas are even worse than the ones that came before them. These piranhas can fly! Someone has been performing gene-splitting experiments and now, as a result, the piranhas not only have sharp teeth—they have wings! And they can even survive inside the bodies of their victims. (One poor morgue attendant discovers this to her own grave misfortune.) Why would anyone put wings on a piranha? I mean, seriously, who thought that was a good idea? Is that what my parents’ tax dollars were going to during the Carter years? Putting wings on piranhas?

Soon, both the water and the air are full of blood. Can Captain Kimbrough save some lives? Even more importantly, can he save the lives of his family? This is one of those movies where we’re really not supposed to care about anyone other than the main characters. A lot of people die, but what matters is whether or not they’re a Kimbrough.

This film, which is not particularly good, is infamous for being the first film on which James Cameron was credited as director. Cameron himself has said that he had little to do with the content of the film and therefore considers The Terminator to be his first real film. According to Cameron, he had nothing to do with editing the film and the majority of the scenes were directed by the film’s producer, Ovidio G. Assonitis. Cameron requested that his name be removed from the film’s credits, but the production company declined to do so because they were contractually obligated to have an American director. Now, how much of this is true and how much of it’s Cameron not wanting to be associated with something as bad as Piranha II is anyone’s guess. I will say that, watching the film, I saw absolutely nothing that would make me say, “Hey, I bet James Cameron directed this!” The only real thing that this film had in common with Cameron’s other early films was the presence of Lance Henriksen. (Tricia O’Neill did go on to have a small role in Titanic.)

Henriksen is the best thing about Piranha II. No matter how ludicrous the story or bad the special effects, Henriksen keeps a straight face and takes the film seriously. There’s a fairly nonsensical moment where Henriksen jumps out of a helicopter to rescue someone, despite the fact that this causes the unpiloted helicopter to then crash and explode, leaving everyone stranded in the ocean. Somehow, Henriksen sells the moment and makes ditching a helicopter seem like the most natural, common-sense thing in the world. That takes skill. That’s the sign of a good actor, and one can see why Cameron continued to work with him even after Piranha II.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Demonwarp (dir by Emmett Alston)

Posted on October 15, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

George Kennedy vs. Bigfoot!

I think for most people, that will be the main appeal of 1988’s Demonwarp. Bill (George Kennedy) lives in a cabin in the woods with his daughter. After a Bigfoot-like creature kills his daughter, Bill grabs a shotgun and starts wandering around the woods, looking for revenge. And while I’m calling the character Bill, I should make clear that George Kennedy comes across as if he’s playing George Kennedy. If you’ve watched enough TCM, you know George Kennedy as the big, burly guy who might be in his 50s but still looks like he could beat up an army of young punks if he had to. He’s gruff and plainspoken and he doesn’t have much patience for people who aren’t willing to man up and work hard. And so, when Bill declares that he’s going to kill Bigfoot, it’s the equivalent of George Kennedy declaring it. It’s nice to see that, even after winning an Oscar for Cool Hand Luke, George Kennedy still had what it took to keep the woods safe.

Unfortunately, George Kennedy is only a supporting player here. The main characters are a group of teenagers who end up hanging out at a cabin of their own and who soon fall victim to Bigfoot themselves. It takes them a while to accept the help of George Kennedy and, for that, they have only themselves to blame. Obviously, they hadn’t watched Cool Hand Luke or they would have known that George Kennedy is exactly the guy you want to listen to in an extreme situation. If only they had binged the Airport films, as I do every time before I go on any type of vacation, things would have worked out much better for them. Let Joe Patroni in the cockpit and he’ll land that plane right on top of that monster. Problem solved.

Demonwarp is an extremely silly film that I happen to like. Some of that is because I don’t really like camping but I do enjoy going to my family’s lakehouse and every stupid mistake that the teenagers make in Demonwarp is one that I’ve made in real life. Reacting to a scary sound by running outside half-naked or just in a towel? I have lost track of the number of times I’ve done that. Usually, it was because I thought I heard a catfight going on outside. When you hear two cats yelling at each other, you don’t have time to worry about getting fully dressed. Modesty can be the difference between scaring off the other cat or having to take your cat to the vet. I imagine the same is true when it comes to Bigfoot intrusions. Yes, the characters in Demonwarp did some foolish things but they’re all pretty much the same things that I would do.

The other good thing about Demonwarp is that the final 20 minutes features a twist that is so out there and downright weird that it simply has to be seen to be believed. Demonwarp is a thoroughly ludicrous horror film and that’s the main reason to watch it.

The TSL’s Horror Grindhouse: Amityville 3-D (dir by Richard Fleischer)

Posted on October 13, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1983’s Amityville 3-D, Tony Roberts plays John Baxter, a journalist who is a professional skeptic. He made his fame by exposing con artists who pretend to have had supernatural experiences. He doesn’t buy that the famous house in Amityville is haunted. In fact, he’s so confident that there are no such things as evil spirits that he buys the house and moves in with his teenage daughter, Susan (Lori Loughlin). Soon, Susan and her best friend Lisa (Meg Ryan)—HEY! THAT’S MY NAME!—are fooling around with a Ouija board and people close to John are dying.

Now, I wish I could tell you that this Amityville film featured either Lori Loughlin or Meg Ryan getting possessed by the Amityville demon, because that probably would have made for a cool movie and it would also give me a chance to make some jokes about why Loughlin was later cursed to appear on Full House. (No, I would not have made any jokes about the college acceptance scandal because, as far as I’m concerned, Loughlin did nothing wrong.) Playing a teenager possessed by a demon would have also been quite a way for Meg Ryan to make her film debut. Unfortunately, neither one of them gets possessed. Instead, the evil in the Amityville house all has to do with a haunted well in the basement. A lot of people do die in this film. The deaths, though, tend to be a bit random. None of them are as disturbing as the deaths from the second film. That’s probably a good thing, as Amityville II is one of the few horror films that I really have a hard time watching.

When Amityville III went into production, Orion Pictures was being sued by George and Kathy Lutz, the two people who lied about the house being possessed in the first place. The Lutzes claimed they owned the term “Amityville.” Eventually, a court ruled that you can’t own the name of a town, especially one that you fled because the Devil was after you. Still, because of the lawsuit, Amityville III was specifically written to avoid mentioning anything specific that happened in the previous films. I guess the studio did this so that the film could be sold as just another haunted house film if the court ruled in favor of the Lutzes. As a result, Amityville III feels rather generic. There’s really only one scene that works, in which the ghost of a character who has just died makes a sudden appearance and smiles sadly before going on their way. Otherwise, things are pretty dull. Not even the presence of Robert Joy can liven things up.

Realizing that they would need a gimmick to get audiences to sit through another Amityville film, Orion decided to shoot this film in 3-D! Just imagine that Amityville Realty sign swinging back and forth and nearly taking off someone’s head in the audience. Scary! This movie came out around the same time as Friday the 13th 3-D and Jaws 3-D. Wow! I hope everyone kept those cardboard glasses that they used back in the day. It’s good to have a souvenir.

The third Amityville film was panned by critics and, while it made money, it didn’t make that much money. Still, the Amityville franchise continued. There are now probably over a hundred Amityville films out there and, God help me, I’m going to watch every one of them.

Previous TSL Amityville Reviews:

6 Edward D. Wood Jr. Trailers For Horrorthon

Posted on October 10, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Since today would have been the 102nd birthday of director Edward D. Wood, Jr., it seems appropriate to dedicate this week’s edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse Trailers to him!

Below …. can you handle six trailers for six Ed Wood films!?

Watch, if you dare!

Glen or Glenda (1953)

2. Jail Bait (1954)

3. Bride of the Monster (1955)

4. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1957)

5. Night of the Ghouls (1958)

6. The Sinister Urge (1960)

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Point of Terror (dir by Alex Nicol)

Posted on October 8, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the 1971 film Point of Terror, Peter Carpenter plays Tony Trelos. Tony is a hip, cool, swinging hep cat. He’s got a job singing at the Lobster House in Santa Monica, California. Everyone wants a piece of Tony because he has got the swagger of Sinatra and the voice of Tom Jones. When he meets Andrea (Dyanne Thorne), it’s lust at first sight. Andrea is married to Martin (Joel Hilliard), a wealthy and bitter record producer who is confined to a wheelchair. When Andrea murders Martin, it brings Martin’s daughter, Helayne (Lori Hansen), back to Santa Monica, and soon Tony is sleeping with her too. However, Tony has reason to be concerned because it appears that there might be another murderer stalking all of them. Or maybe there isn’t. The plot of this Crown International production is not always easy to follow.

Who was Peter Carpenter? I am honestly not sure, but this film appears to have been some sort of vanity production for him. He gets to sing several songs, and everyone he meets either wants to sleep with him or hang out with him. He gets a lot of big dramatic scenes, the majority of which he really didn’t have the acting ability to pull off. Tony is meant to be charismatic, mysterious, and a little bit dangerous, but as played by Peter Carpenter, he comes across as a second-rate lounge act who got lucky. Carpenter both co-produced the film and came up with the story. To be honest, you almost have to respect the amount of confidence in his own abilities that Carpenter apparently possessed. One can just imagine Carpenter turning to someone like Wayne Newton and telling him to scream, because there was only one actor/singer who was good enough to star in Point of Terror. Carpenter apparently died shortly after this film was released, and that is indeed a shame. Who knows how many ego-driven projects he could have given us?

Point of Terror is definitely a film of its time, which is to say that there’s a lot of polyester and a lot of nudity that was probably considered daring in 1971 but which is just kind of tame in 2026. The film does attempt to play around with the audience’s sense of perception and encourage them to wonder whether Tony is truly seeing what’s happening or if he’s just imagining things. For that reason, it sneaks across the line dividing psychological horror and neo-noir. It’s one of those films that’s probably more entertaining than it should be, just because it is such a film of its time. Someone could probably retitle this film 1971 and re-release it as a Paul Thomas Anderson-style satire.

Point of Terror was distributed by Crown International Pictures. Whenever I see the Crown International logo on an old movie, I know I’m in for a good time. Dyanne Thorne, it should be said, does a pretty good job as the femme fatale. That said, the true star of this film is definitely 1971.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: House of the Damned (dir by Maury Dexter)

Posted on October 7, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1963’s House of the Damned tells the story of an isolated mansion. It’s a place that many people have tried to live in but no one has ever been willing to stick around for too long. There are rumors that the mansion is haunted. In fact, you could even make the claim that the mansion is a house of the damned! Of course, we all know that there’s no such thing as ghosts, right?

Joseph Schiller (Richard Crane), the new owner of the mansion, calls architect Scott Campbell (Rob Foster) and tells him to go up to the house and check the place out. Scott points out that he was planning on celebrating his anniversary with his wife, Nancy (Merry Anders). Joseph say that there is no better way to celebrate an anniversary than to visit a house that might be haunted. Scott and Nancy (who is amazingly understanding) head for the house, where all sorts of strange things happen.

What type of strange things? Keys disappear. There are weird noises. Sometimes, it seems like something or someone might be lurking in the shadows. Could the house be haunted? While Scott and Nancy try to figure out what’s going on, Joseph shows up with his wife, Loy (Erika Peters). When Loy disappears, it becomes obvious that something is happening in the house of the damned!

House of the Damned is a briskly paced and occasionally effective haunted house story. It was directed by Maury Dexter, who was a director who was so fast and so capable of stretching a low budget that, at his best, he gave Roger Corman a run for his money. House of the Damned is only 63 minutes long and the film’s story isn’t particularly complex but Dexter still manages to create a properly ominous atmosphere and he does keep you guessing as to whether or not the house is actually haunted. The house itself was the former estate of infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel. Dexter reportedly spent ten days filming the movie at the Spiegel estate. Hopefully, he was not bothered by Bugsy’s ghost.

None of the characters are particularly well-developed but they are well-cast and the actors are all likable. The best performance comes from Erika Peters, who plays Loy as being slightly self-absorbed but ultimately good-hearted. She also gets to wear a bathing suit that is simply to die for. This film also features a very early performance from the great Richard Kiel, playing “The Giant.” It’s always nice to see Richard Kiel in a movie. Shortly before he passed away in 2014, Kiel visited my Alamo Drafthouse for a showing of The Spy Who Loved Me. Though it was obvious that he wasn’t in great health, he still took time to answer questions and to show off a rather charming smile. When a certain redhead told him that she loved him in a beloved 90s golf comedy, he smiled and said, “I believe that jacket belongs to Mr. Gilmore.”

House of the Damned was a nice surprise. We need more 62-minute films.

The TSL Horror Grindhouse: Back From The Dead (dir by Charles Marquis Warren)

Posted on October 6, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1958’s Back From The Dead, pregnant Mandy Anthony (Peggie Castle) is on a California vacation with her husband Dick (Arthur Franz) and her sister, Kate (Marsha Hunt).

While staying at Dick’s vacation home (which overlooks the ocean), a tired Mandy grimaces when Dick starts playing a record. Dick insists that it’s her favorite record but Mandy’s reaction would seem to indicate the opposite. While the droning orchestral music plays, Mandy has a sudden seizure and passes out. Dick rushes her to the bedroom while Kate smashes the record. A doctor (Ned Glass) comes to check on Mandy and announces that she’s had both an epileptic seizure and a miscarriage. When Mandy wakes up, she’s suddenly demanding to be called Felecia and referring to Dick by an odd nickname, “Deacon.” Dick rushes out of the bedroom and refuses to reenter. When Kate demands to know what’s wrong, Dick reveals that Mandy is actually his second wife. His first wife was named Felecia and she always used to call him “Deacon.”

Soon, Mandy is demanding to be taken to see “her” parents, who are actually Felecia’s parents. Felecia’s mother (Ada Bradley) is revealed to be some sort of witch who apparently cast a spell that caused Felicia’s spirit to possess Mandy as soon as she entered the vacation home. (It turns out that terrible record that Dick insisted on playing was Felecia’s favorite.) Along with Dick’s neighbor (Marianne Stewart), Felecia’s mother is a member of a Satanic cult that is led by the mysterious Renault (Otto Reichow) The possessed Mandy is soon threatening not only Dick but also all of Dick’s friends. She even murders Dick’s dog. (Boo!)

There’s an interesting subtext to Back From The Dead, though I’m not sure it was intentional on the part of the filmmakers. Even before Mandy is possessed, Dick is hardly the model husband. He comes across as being cold and uncommunicative and when both Mandy and Kate say that they don’t want to listen to the record, he ignores them and insists that they both love it. Dick also doesn’t seem to be particularly upset by the loss of the baby. As well, he’s never even told his wife that he was married before. The only time that Dick really shows emotion is when he realizes that he can no longer control Mandy. Mandy spends the entire film either being ordered around by Dick or being possessed by Dick’s dead first wife. In the end, it isn’t Dick or any of the other men in the film who fights for Mandy’s freedom. Instead, it’s Kate, Mandy’s sister. Kate is the only person in the film who seems to care that Mandy has basically lost control over her own life. In the end, the film becomes about just how far one sister will go to protect the other. Kate fights to give Mandy back her life but it’s hard not to feel that it’s not much of a life to begin with. Much like Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life, Back From The Dead ends with a false sense of happiness. For Mandy and Dick and Kate, nothing is ever going to be truly the same again.

Now, I should note that Back From The Dead is definitely a B-movie. It has the look of a well-produced episode of a 50s anthology show. All it really needed was Boris Karloff to host. Arthur Franz is a bit on the dull side as Dick but that’s largely the fault of a script that doesn’t allow him to do much other than seethe and glower. The film’s heart belongs to Masha Hunt’s fierce performance as Kate. Kate is a fighter and a protector and it’s impossible not to root for her. I can only hope to be as good as a sister as Kate but, then again, I don’t think any of my sisters are going to be possessed this holiday season. Let’s hope not!

The film has its slow spots but, for the most part, Back From The Dead is a 50s B-movie that holds your interest. You’ll never want to listen to vinyl record again.

Horror on the Lens: Raiders of the Living Dead (dir by Samuel M. Sherman and Brett Piper)

Posted on October 6, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there and welcome to October! This is our favorite time of the year here at the Shattered Lens because October is horror month. For the past three years, we have celebrated every October by reviewing and showing some of our favorite horror movies, shows, books, and music. That’s a tradition that I’m looking forward to helping to continue this year.

Today, we’ve got the 1986 zombie/sci-fi/action epic, Raiders of the Living Dead!

It’s the story of a creepy boy, a laser gun, a reporter, and a bunch of zombies. There’s a mad scientist involved, too. There always is. The movie opens with a truck being hijacked and then the action shifts to a power plant and, honestly, I have no idea what any of it means. If nothing else, it’s a film that you watch and you can’t help but admire the fact that it somehow got made and went on to find a small but kind of appreciative cult audience. It’s just a very strange film and one that simply most be watched in October.

Enjoy!

October Hacks: Buried Alive (dir by Gerard Kikoine)

Posted on October 5, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1990’s Buried Alive may be the worst Edgar Allan Poe adaptation ever filmed.

The film takes place at the Ravenscroft Institute, a former mental asylum founded by the fearsome Jacob Julian (John Carradine). Jacob’s son, Gary (Robert Vaughn), took over the Institute after his father’s death, treated his patients with kindness and compassion, and preached about the need for “freedom.” Now, Gary has transformed Ravenscroft into an all-girls school for juvenile delinquents. The students worship him because he tells them that nothing is their fault and that they deserve to live the life they want. His newest teacher, Janet (Karen Lorre), is a fan as well. In fact, she soon finds herself falling in love with Gary.

However, from the minute Janet shows up at Ravenscroft, she starts having strange visions. She sees thousands of ants crawling over her feet. She hears strange sounds in the walls. At one point, an arm reaches out of a toilet and tries to grab her. She thinks she sees a distinguished Shakespearean character actor sealed behind a wall. Is she losing her mind, or has she stumbled across something more sinister?

Now, when I say that Buried Alive is one of the worst Edgar Allan Poe adaptations I’ve ever seen, understand that it is not the fault of the cast. There are some truly talented people in this film. A young Nia Long plays a student named Fingers. Ginger Lynn Allen has fun playing a bully named Debbie. Robert Vaughn is appropriately intense as Gary, and John Carradine is… well, he’s John Carradine. This was one of Carradine’s final films, and he actually died before it was released. Obviously, Carradine doesn’t do much, but, as was often the case, his intimidating screen presence meant that he didn’t have to do much to make an impression. He just had to exist. Donald Pleasence plays Dr. Schaeffer, a German-accented member of the staff who wears round glasses and an ill-fitting toupee and who pops up occasionally to tell Janet not to wander around at night. Pleasence was obviously not in the best of health when he played Schaeffer, but, much like Carradine, his eccentric presence gives the film some much-needed atmosphere, and there is a fairly effective twist involving his character. Finally, there’s an absolutely adorable black cat that randomly appears throughout the film. It’s the film’s way of acknowledging Edgar Allan Poe, I imagine.

No, the failure of Buried Alive is not due to the cast. It’s really not even due to the script, which borrows the idea of someone being buried alive and not much else from the Poe story. Instead, the fault almost entirely rests with the film’s direction. The story unfolds with little momentum, some scenes meander while others are over far too quickly, and the director seems to think that filming anyone in an extreme close-up will automatically make them creepy. There are a few gross sequences involving a bunch of ants and the film has a few slasher moments, like the silencing of one annoying victim via a garden tool to the forehead , but otherwise there’s little horror and next to no suspense. I actually found myself getting angry over how poorly directed this film was.

The cast deserved better.