Sometimes They Come Back… For More (1998, directed by Daniel Zelik Berk)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The third and final Sometimes They Come Back film has nothing to do with the two films that preceded it. Those two films dealt with dead juvenile delinquents who came back to life to haunt the people who they blamed for their deaths. They came back for revenge. The third film has more in common with The Thing than the other two movies. If you’re going to make a movie that invites comparisons to The Thing, you better have the goods and unfortunately, this film doesn’t.

Captain Sam Cage (Clayton Rohner) and Major Callie O’Grady (Chase Masterson) are dispatched to an Arctic research center to follow up on reports that one of the researcher has snapped. For Cage, the mission is personal because his brother-in-law is at the center. What they discover is that almost all of the research personnel are dead and that Dr. Jennifer Wells (Faith Ford) and Lt. Brian Shebanski (Max Perlich) are the sole survivors. Someone at the research center had been studying Satanism and that, along with a portal to Hell under the station, leads to trouble. Soon, the dead are reanimating and stalking the living.

Sometimes They Come Back… For More gets off to a good start with the mystery at the base and a visual emphasis on the harshness of life in Antarctica. Clayton Rohner appeared in a lot of straight-to-video horror movies and, by the time he made this one, he was a pro at handling bad dialogue. Once Cage and O’Grady reach the base, the movie starts to go off the rails as the survivors make increasingly poor decisions, Faith Ford struggles to be a believable scientist, and an absurd twist is introduced concerning Cage and his brother-in-law (Damian Chapa). The movie was obviously influenced by The Thing and Alien but it never duplicates the claustrophobic intensity that made those films work. Not surprisingly, after this movie, they would not come back.

Sometimes They Come Back… Again (1996, directed by Adam Grossman)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

When Jon Porter was a child, he witnessed the murder of his sister by three delinquents named Tony (Alexis Arquette), Vinnie (Bojesse Christopher), and Sean (Glen Beaudin). The three thugs would have killed Jon too except that they were electrocuted by an electrical wire in a puddle of water. Years later, the now adult Jon (Michael Gross) returns to his hometown for the funeral of his mother. Jon is now a psychologist and has a daughter named Michelle (Hillary Swank).

The death of Jon’s mother was no accident. Tony has come back to life and Michelle, not knowing that he’s a demon, has a crush on him. Tony soon brings Vinnie and Sean back to life and they seek revenge on the man who they blame for their deaths.

This straight-to-video sequel to Sometimes They Come Back is slightly better than the first film, mostly because Tony and his gang are more intimidating than the ghost greasers that haunted Tim Matheson and Michelle wanting to date the man that her father killed adds a new wrinkle to the story. There’s nothing about Hillary Swank’s performance that would make you think she was a future Oscar winner but she is likable and sympathetic. The member of the cast who make the biggest impression is Jennifer Elise Cox, playing Michelle’s Tarot card-reading friend. (Cox is probably best known for playing Jan Brady in The Brady Bunch movies.) Cox brings a lot of kooky charm to the movie and is featured in the film’s most memorable scene. Sometimes They Come Back… Again may not reinvent the horror genre but it’s a passably entertaining straight-to-video horror film.

Sometimes They Come Back (1991, directed by Tom McLoughlin)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

In 1963, nine year-old Jim Norman witnessed a group of juvenile delinquents murder his older brother Wayne in a tunnel before getting killed themselves when a train came barreling down the tracks. Twenty-seven yeas later, Jim (Tim Matheson) is a history teacher and he has returned to his hometown to take a job at his old high school. He is haunted by memories of what happened in the tunnel and then he is haunted for real as, one by one, all of the dead delinquents returns to life and enroll in his class. They want revenge on the man that they blame for their fiery deaths.

Based on a Stephen King short story, Sometimes They Come Back was actually produced for television. It originally aired on CBS, complete with a warning that viewer discretion was advised. Though the ghost greasers are too ridiculous to really be scary (one of them laughs like a hyena), the movie was still more graphic than anything else that played in primetime that year. I wonder how television audiences, in those pre-American Horror Story days, reacted to one of Jim’s students being dismembered in the backseat of a car and the ghost greasers then tossing pieces of his body over the bridge?

Tim Matheson takes the material seriously and gives an intelligent performance as Jim Norman. Fans of Newhart might enjoy seeing William Sanderson (a.k.a. Larry of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl) playing a serious role as the one greaser who wasn’t killed by the train. Most of the other characters, including Jim’s wife and his students, are forgettable. The movie’s glaring weakness is the ghost greasers themselves. Even with their Satanic car and their threatening ways, they’re too cartoonish to be frightening. Sometimes They Come Back has its strengths but ultimately, it’s a middling Stephen King adaptation.

Great Moments In Television History #26: Siskel & Ebert Discuss Horror

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

This may not actually be a great moment in television history but it is an important one because it framed not only how horror films were discussed by many critics but it also is a big reason why many horror fans were not fans of this iconic duo. Despite Roger Ebert being one of the only critics to defend Wes Craven’s Last House On The Left when it was initially released, both he and Gene Siskel had a reputation for being anti-Horror. That reputation is largely due to a 1980 episode of Sneak Previews, in which they condemned what they called the “Women in Danger” horror films.

This originally aired on September 18th, 1980.

In Siskel & Ebert’s defense, they’re problem is more with slasher films than horror films. Do you agree with them? Siskel & Ebert criticized the way that audiences reacted to the films but is that the fault of the films or of the audience? Is it really fair to compare films like Don’t Answer The Phone and I Spit On Your Grave to films like Friday the 13th or When A Stranger Calls? It’s interesting to note that they defend Halloween as being an exception to the trend but Halloween was also a film that popularized showing scenes from the POV of the killer.

For a counter-point to this episode, check out a later episode in which Gene and Roger recommended horror films that they felt had been overlooked.

Previous Moments In Television History:

Horror Game Review: Zombie Blast 2023 (2022, Sam Ursu)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

The year is 2023 and the zombie apocalypse has begun. First, you parents were killed. Then, your spouse was killed. All you have left is your baby and you are going to do whatever you need to do to protect the last remaining member of your family.

Zombie Blast 2023 starts out simply enough. You are in a house with four room. The baby is in one of the rooms. (The room changes each time that you play.) You have an axe. You have a shotgun that carries a limited amount of shells. You have a limited amount of energy and, if you don’t stop to rest occasionally, you’ll weaken and maybe even find yourself incapable of moving. You also have to find time to eat. Your number one objective is to protect the baby from the zombie horde that is approaching the house. Whenever a zombie gets in the house, you have to kill it before it reaches the baby’s room. As the game progresses, you can level up and become a better zombie killer but, at the same time, the number of zombies will also increase.

Zombie Blast 2023 is an addictive work of interactive fiction. I played it several times, trying out different strategies and seeing how long I could last before I was “overwhelmed.” As you level up and as the zombies become more aggressive it becomes a real challenge to try to make sure that you’re in the right place to kill them before they manage to get into whichever room the baby is in. Can you make it through to the morning? It’s not as easy you might think.

Play Zombie Blast 2023.

Horror Game Review: A Shift In The Night (2022, Muulk)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Jedadiah Leland

You have a job working the graveyard shift at a gas station in the desert. Because you have been hearing things coming from the backroom, you go to see a doctor. He tells you that hallucinations are an occupational hazzard for people who work overnight. He gives you some pills to control them. He says that you must take them every hour.

Feeling better about things, you go to work and discover that you left your pills at home. Can you survive the night?

A Shift In the Night is a work simulator where you attempt to get through your shift without dying. It’s not just the weird buzzing coming from the stockroom that’s a threat. There are also customers to deal with. Some of them are harmless. Some of them are crazy. One of them is definitely very dangerous. Good luck guessing which is which.

You would think that surviving an 8-hour night shift wouldn’t be that difficult but I have so far managed to die in four different ways while playing A Shift In The Night and absolutely none of those deaths were pleasant. The game uses graphics and sound effects to put you right in that gas station. When I was 18 and fresh out of high school, I worked nights part-time to help pay my college tuition and this game captures the atmosphere of the night shift. I always enjoyed the freedom of not having to deal with salaried management but I also knew that I had a greater chance of getting shot at night than during the day. This game brought back memories.

Play A Shift In The Night.

Retro Television Review: Summer of Fear (dir by Wes Craven)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay. Today’s film is 1978’s Summer of Fear. It can be viewed on YouTube!

In this made-for-TV movie from 1978, Linda Blair (fresh from the first two Exorcist films) plays Rachel. Rachel is a teenager who lives on a ranch in California. She loves horses and she loves her boyfriend and she’s especially happy that her cousin, Julia (Lee Purcell) is coming to live with her. Julia recently lost both of her parents in a tragic auto accident. Though neither Rachel nor her parents have ever met Julia before, they’re all planning on welcoming her into their very nice home.

The only problem is that, once Julia arrives, she seems to be a little bit strange. She speaks with a strange accent that no one on the ranch has ever heard before. The horses all seems to be terrified of her. After Rachel discovers that Julia has stolen minor personal possessions from her new family, Rachel starts to suspect that Julia might be witch and that she might be casting spells! Of course, by this point, Julia is no longer as shy and awkward as she seemed when she first showed up. Instead, she’s now glamorous and every man who meets her becomes intrigued, including Rachel’s boyfriend!

Based on a best-selling novel, Summer of Fear originally aired on NBC. If it were made today, it would probably air on something like Lifetime and it would have a title like, “Deadly Spell” or “Dangerous Seductress.” Seen today, it’s a bit of a slow movie and Linda Blair occasionally seems to be trying too hard to come across as being wide-eyed and innocent in her role but it’s entertaining as long as Lee Purcell is giving people strange looks and chewing up the scenery. The more out-of-control Pucell becomes, the more entertaining the film. Summer of Fear does build to a satisfying conclusion but it’s still hard not to wish that the story itself had moved just a bit quicker. Jaded audiences in 2022 are no longer as shocked at the idea of witch coming to visit as audiences in 1978 may have been. In the end, probably the most interesting thing about Summer of Fear is that it was an early credit for horror master, Wes Craven. This was his third film and his first “major” production, one that he made in order to show that, after directing two independent films, he could be trusted with a mainstream, studio production. As such, you can argue that, without this film, Craven never would have gone on to do Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Modern horror would be very different without Summer of Fear.

Ultimately. the film’s a bit too slowly paced to really be successful but if you’re a fan of Wes Craven’s or even Linda Blair’s, you’ll probably want to watch it at least once.

Horror Scenes that I Love: Rabbits From Inland Empire

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene is from David Lynch’s Inland Empire.

I’m not even going to try to explain what’s going on here.

International Horror Film: The Deep House (dir by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury)

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 2021 French film, The Deep House, tells the story of Tina (Camilla Rowe) and Ben (James Jagger). Originally from New York, Tina and James are driving across Europe and filming themselves as they explore haunted houses. They have recently learned of a submerged house in France. With the help of a local guide named Pierre (Eric Savin), they track down the lake that Pierre claims is the location of the house. Tina and James put on their diving gear and jump into the water. Pierre, on the other hand, stays on dry land. In fact, Pierre seems like he might have an agenda of his own.

Tina and James find the underwater house and they continue to film themselves as they explore it. (In fact, with their eagerness to go travel the world and film themselves disrupting their surroundings, you might be tempted to think that this film has something on its mind about American interventionism.) Interestingly enough, the house is in surprisingly good shape despite having been underwater for a few decades. In fact, the house is full of posters, photographs, and graffiti, all of which one would expect to be destroyed by exposure to water. Why, there’s even a fake clown head just kind of sitting there. However, Tina and James are a bit more concerned about why their equipment suddenly seems to be malfunctioning. And then, of course, there’s the two dead bodies that are chained to the walls inside the house.

Now, you may be wondering why Tina and James don’t just leave the house. Believe it or not, they try to leave as soon as they come across the bodies. (Most of my friends would probably immediately try to leave as soon as they saw that clown. You have to feel bad for all the misunderstood and misjudged clowns of the world.) But suddenly, the window that they previously swam through has been blocked by a brick wall. In fact, the house seems to be constantly changing and rebuilding itself, all to keep Tina and James from finding a way out. With their air supply running out, Tina and James try to figure out how to escape the house and, even more importantly, how to escape the zombie that has suddenly shown up.

Oh, did I forget the mention the zombies? Well …. there’s a zombie.

Well-directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, The Deep House is an atmospheric horror film, one that doesn’t waste any time launching into its story. While there have been plenty of horror films about people exploring haunted houses and accidentally filming their own demise, The Deep House adds a new wrinkle by having almost all of the action occur underwater. Even if Tina and James manages to escape the house and the zombies, you still have to wonder if they’ll have enough air left to make it to the surface. Maury and Bustillo do a good job of generating suspense and the film has more than enough jump scares to keep most horror fans happy. The Deep House is worth the dive.

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: 2005 — 2007

Posted on October 23, 2022 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

This October, I’m going to be doing something a little bit different with my contribution to 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films. I’m going to be taking a little chronological tour of the history of horror cinema, moving from decade to decade.

Today, we take a look at 2005, 2006, and 2007!

4 Shots From 4 Horror Films: 2005 — 2007