Horror Novel Review: The Cheater by R.L. Stine

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1993’s The Cheater, R.L. Stine tells the story of Carter Phillips.

Carter has everything going for her. Her father is a judge. Her mother is socialite. She’s a member of the exclusive Shadyside Country Club, where she and her friend Jill tear it up on the tennis court. She’s got a sweet and sensitive boyfriend named Dan. She’s got the type of name that people are definitely going to remember. There’s just one problem.

Carter sucks at Math.

And if Carter can’t get a decent grade on the big math exam, she’ll never get into Princeton!

Finally, an R.L. Stine book to which I could relate! Seriously, much like Carter, I was a pretty good student in high school but Math was never my thing. I would look at those test papers with all of those numbers and symbols and all of those commands to “show your work” and my brain would just shut off. Fortunately, my sister had been a year ahead of me and she held onto all of her old math tests. Since our teacher pretty much reused the same tests from year to year, I was lucky enough to have an answer key.

Every test day, I would wear a skirt and, right before class, I would write the answers on my thigh. If the teacher walked by my desk while I was taking the test, I would just pull down on my skirt. Fortunately, the teacher was a male so even if he did suspect that I was cheating, it’s not like he could tell me to lift up my skirt or, for that matter, even get caught trying to look down at my legs.

And that’s how I managed to pass algebra without ever paying attention to anything that was said in class. I know that I should probably feel guilty about cheating but, to be honest, I don’t. If I had it to do all over again, I would do the exact same thing.

Unfortunately, Carter doesn’t have an older sister and when she suggests that maybe Dan could take the test for her, Dan is so shocked that Carter has to pretend like she was just telling a joke. However, Adam Messner, who is a rebel who always dressed in black and doesn’t come from as wealthy a family as Carter or Dan, overhears Carter talking to Dan. He offers to take the test for Carter, on the condition that Carter go on one date with him.

Carter agrees. Adam gets a good grade on the test and, as a result, Carter is not only Princeton-bound but her father gives her a pair of diamond earrings. But now there’s the fact that Carter has to go on a date with Adam and the fact that Adam has decided that he wants more than one date….

It’s an intriguing premise but unfortunately, Stine gets bogged down with one of those murder mysteries that ends with a rather silly twist. Reading this book, it was obvious that it was written in 1993 because the main theme of the book seemed to be that Carter and her friends were totally right to be annoyed with the idea of having to deal with not-rich teenagers who dress in black and who have tattoos. One gets the feeling that, if this book were written today, the roles would be reversed with Carter being portrayed as the villain and Adam as the misunderstood victim.

That said, I enjoyed The Cheater. Stine kept the action moving quickly, Adam was actually a fairly well-drawn character, and I could relate to Carter. Seriously, Math can be difficult! The Cheater does the right thing and embraces the melodrama.

October True Crime: Texas Killing Fields (dir by Ami Canaan Mann)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The so-called Texas Killing Fields are a stretch of land situated off of Interstate-45 and about 26 miles southeast of Houston. Despite being surrounded by oil refineries and being near one of Texas’s busier interstates, it’s a location where one can easily disappear. Since 1971, over 30 bodies have been found in the Texas Killing Fields, the majority of them being girls and young women. Many of them came from the surrounding area but others were last seen far away from Houston. Kelli Cox, for instance, disappeared from Denton. Jessica Cain was last seen in a suburb of Fort Worth. Michelle Garvey disappeared from Connecticut, just for her body to later be discovered in the Texas Killing Fields.

Because of the number of bodies and the length of time, it’s believed that multiple serial killers use the killing fields as a dumping ground for their victims. Over the years, there’s been many suspects and a few convictions. Most recently, a trucker named William Reece was convicted of three of the Killing Fields murders. Another person convicted of committing two of the murders, Michael Self, is now believed to have been innocent and to have only confessed after being tortured by the police. Unfortunately, Self died in prison while waiting for his appeal to be heard.

The 2011 film, Texas Killing Fields, is very loosely based on the murders and the area’s reputation for being a serial killer dumping ground. Sam Worthington plays Detective Mike Souder and Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays his partner, Detective Brian Heigh. (The characters are based on real-life detectives Brian Goetschius and Mike Land.) Brian is originally from New York and is a devout Catholic who views his work as almost being a holy crusade. Mike is from Texas and is a bit more cynical. He’s not happy that Brian insists on helping out Mike’s ex-wife, Detective Pam Stall (Jessica Chastain), whenever a body is found in Pam’s jurisdiction.

The discovery of a dead sex worker leads to Mike and Brian pursuing two pimps (played by Jason Clarke and Jon Eyez). However, it soon becomes apparent that the pimps aren’t the only murderers stalking the area and using the fields as a dumping ground. A young mother is attacked in her house and, when interrogated by Mike and Brian, demands to know why they aren’t out on the streets, looking for the men who attacked her. Later, a mysterious phone call leads Mike, Brian, and Pam out to the killing fields, where they discover another body.

While this is going on, Brian also tries to look after Anne Sliger (Chloe Grace Moretz), a 12 year-old girl who spends her time wandering around town because it’s preferable to spending any time at her home with her mother (Sheryl Lee) or her mother’s creepy boyfriend (Stephen Graham). When Anne is kidnapped, Brian and Mike head into the Killing Fields to find her.

Directed by Ami Canaan Mann, The Texas Killing Fields is an atmospheric film in which every frame is full of a sense of dread. Much as David Fincher did with Zodiac, Mann creates a feeling of a world that has been taken over by evil. Unfortunately, the film itself gets bogged down with a few subplots that don’t really go anywhere. (Jessica Chastain’s character and her relationship with Mike felt somewhat superfluous.) As well, the film’s examination of both Mike’s atheism and Brian’s Catholicism felt a bit shallow at best, as if it was added at the last minute to try to give this thriller some theological heft. The identity of all the killers is pretty obvious from the start. That said, Ami Canaan Mann gets good performances out of her cast and the action scenes are well-executed.

As a final note, the film was not actually shot in the actual Texas Killing Fields. Instead, much like the same year’s Killer Joe and 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club, it was filmed in Louisiana and, to be honest, it looks like it was filmed there as well. There’s little about the film that feels authentically Texan, though it does do a good job of capturing the atmosphere of the bayous.

Horror Film Review: The Seventh Grave (dir by Garibaldi Serra Caracciolo)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 1965, The Seventh Grave is an Italian film, featuring an all-Italian cast and dialogue that is recited in Italian.

Despite this, however, the film itself takes place in Scotland and we’re told that all of the characters are all meant to be either Scottish or American. I imagine this was done with an eye towards eventually releasing the film in the States. Indeed, many Italian horror films were made to specifically appeal to American and British audiences. However, as far as I can tell from the information that’s available online, it doesn’t appear that The Seventh Grave ever made it over to the United States. It was apparently released in the UK and Canada.

As for what the film is about, it follows a group of people as they head to a gothic castle in Scotland. The castle was owned by Sir Reginald Thorne, who was apparently a scientist of some sort but who died of Leprosy and who, we’re told, was buried in the crypt’s seventh grave. Sir Reginald’s assistant also suffered from Leprosy and was imprisoned and sent to a Leper colony. However, as the film begins, we are informed that his assistant managed to escape a month ago and no one is quite sure where he is hiding out.

As for the people heading to the castle, they are all relatives and acquaintances of Sir Reginald’s. They’ve gone to the castle to hear the reading of his will but they’re informed that one of Sir Reginald’s relatives has yet to arrive and the will cannot be read until she does so. While they wait for her, someone mentions that the castle is rumored to be the hiding place of a treasure that was found by Sir Francis Drake. Since just about everyone in the film is super greedy, they all want to get their hands on that treasure. Since one member of the group is said to be a “powerful psychic,” they decide to hold a séance so that she can commune with Sir Francis Drake’s spirit. Needless to say, the séance doesn’t go particularly well and soon, people are turning up dead. Is the murderer a ghost or could be the Leper assistant or could it be one of the visitors to the castle?

(As a sidenote, allow me to just mention that Sir Francis Drake was one of my favorite of the British explorers. Queen Elizabeth I could have been very happy with him under different circumstances.)

The plot of the Seventh Grave is next to impossible to follow and, like a lot of gothic Italian castle films, it suffers from the fact that there’s really no one to root for. I mean, just about everyone in the movie is motivated by greed and, even when the murders start, no one really acts that upset about any of them. That said, the castle is an atmospheric location and the film is only 77 minutes long so at least it doesn’t drag. For the most part, though, it’s easy to see why The Seventh Grave is largely forgotten today.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special John Carpenter Edition

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 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 is all about letting the visuals do the talking.

This October, I am going to be using our 4 Shots From 4 Films feature to pay tribute to some of my favorite horror directors, in alphabetical order! That’s right, we’re going from Argento to Zombie in one month!

Today’s director is the man who put Halloween on the map and a personal favorite of everyone here at TSL, John Carpenter!

4 Shots From 4 John Carpenter Films

Halloween (1978, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)

The Fog (1980, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)

The Thing (1982, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Dean Cundey)

Christine (1983, dir by John Carpenter, DP: Donald M. Morgan)

Guilty Pleasure No.66: Cloverfield (dir Matt Reeves)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Let’s just be honest, here. In many ways, 2008’s Cloverfield is a remarkably stupid film.

I mean, don’t get me wrong. It’s an entertaining film. It’s a fun film. It’s a film that I’ve seen a few times and I usually enjoy it whenever I see it. But it’s still a film about someone who refuses to stop filming, even in the middle of an alien invasion. It makes sense, of course, that Hud Platt (T.J. Miller) would want to film the going away party that’s being held for his friend Rob (Michael Stahl-David). But why would Hud keep holding onto that camcorder even after the aliens invade and New York starts to explode all around him? There are several moments in the film where it’s obvious that the camera is slowing Hud and his friends down. The easiest thing to do would be to drop the camcorder and run to safety. I mean, it’s not like the destruction of New York by aliens is going to be lost to history if Hud doesn’t film it. But instead, Hud not only keeps filming but, for all the shaky cam effects and the heaving breathing of people running for their lives, Hud still somehow manages to capture every important event on camera.

In many ways, the film epitomizes everything that tends to drive people crazy about the found footage genre but Cloverfield is an undeniably fun movie. I mean, there’s a scene where the head of the Statue of Liberty is literally tossed into the middle of the street. It’s such an over-the-top moment that it’s impossible not to love it and, to be honest, the fact that Hud manages to hold the camera still enough to perfectly capture the image of Lady Liberty’s head crashing to the ground is kind of cool. The film follows a group of friends as they try to make their way across New York City to try to rescue Rob’s girlfriend Beth (Odette Yustman) before then evacuating the city and there’s something rather exciting about the sight of this small group of people continually moving in the opposite direction of the crowd around them. While everyone else runs away from danger, our heroes move straight into it, even though none of them are exactly action heroes. They’re nerdy hipsters on a mission and, even though you know from the start that they’re all doomed, it’s hard not to kind of love them. The film’s final moments carry more an emotional punch than you might normally expect from a found footage alien invasion film.

That said, if the aliens do come and they are literally tearing apart the Statue of Liberty before your very eyes, there’s no shame in putting down the camera and running. In fact, if there’s any lesson to be learned from Cloverfield, it’s that sometimes, it’s best just to run for it.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Horror Film Review: Troll (dir by John Carl Buechler)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The 1986 film, Troll, opens with Harry Potter moving into a San Francisco townhouse.

Okay, it’s not that Harry Potter. Troll was produced long before the first Harry Potter book was even published so it’s fair to assume that it’s just a coincidence that this film — about trolls, magic, and faeries — just happens to feature not just one but two characters named Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Sr. (Michael Moriarty) is a typical, dorky father figure. Indeed, he’s such a conventional figure that it’s a bit hard to understand why the always neurotic Michael Moriarty was cast in the role. Harry’s son is named Harry Potter, Jr. (Noah Hathaway). Harry, Jr. is a teenager who is shocked by how bratty his little sister, Wendy (Jenny Beck), becomes after the family moves into their new apartment.

Why is Wendy acting like such a brat? It’s because Wendy has been kidnapped by Torok the Troll (Phil Fondacaro), a grotesque creature who not only abducts Wendy but also steals her appearance so that he can safely move around the world of the humans. Torok, himself, was once a powerful wizard but, centuries ago, he and an army of faeries tried to destroy all the humans in the world. Their plan didn’t work and, as punishment, Torok was turned into a troll.

But now, somehow, Torok is free and he’s taking over the apartment building. One by one, he tracks down each tenant and casts a spell which turns them into a mythological creature, like a gnome or a wood nymph. All of the apartments turns into lushly overgrown forests. Among those tenants that get transformed are Sonny Bono and a young Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I have a feeling that, when Sonny later ran for Congress, he did not include his appearance in Troll in any of his campaign literature. As for Louis-Dreyfus, she was reportedly angered once when a talk show host (I think it was Jay Leno) showed footage from this film while interviewing her. It’s not so much that Julia Louis-Dreyfus isn’t a convincing wood nymph as much as it’s the fact that she’s Julie Louis-Dreyfus and it’s just difficult to imagine her appearing in such a stupid role. This, of course, was her first film and everyone has to start somewhere.

Anyway, realizing that he has to rescue his little sister, Harry Potter, Jr. gets some help from the local witch, Eunice St. Clair (Joan Lockhart). Eunice gives Harry a magic spear to take with him in his quest. It’s not really that much of quest, however. Troll is a low-budget film that was produced by Albert Band so this is not the film to watch if you’re expecting some sort of elaborate fantasy epic.

One positive thing that I will say for Troll is that some of the troll makeup is effective. The plot maks absolutely zero sense but Director John Carl Buechler specialized in creating memorable monsters on a budget and he manages to do that with Troll. And, despite all of the people getting turned into monsters, Troll is a largely good-natured film. It’s not a deliberately cruel or even gory film. It’s a dumb little horror/fantasy film that features Sonny Bono turning into a plant and Julie Louis-Dreyfus turning into a wood nymph. It’s dumb but it’s mild and generally inoffensive.

Finally, I should also note that it is in no way connected to Troll 2. Troll 2, after all, is about goblins.

Horror Film Review: The Mummy’s Hand (dir by Christy Cabanne)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1940, having brought back The Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster, Universal Pictures decided that it was also a good time to bring back The Mummy!

The Mummy’s Hand takes place in what we’re told is Egypt, though it’s obvious just a Universal backlot. Two archeologists — Steve Banning (Dick Foran) and Babe Jenson (Wallace Ford) — are penniless and stuck in Egypt. Babe wants to find a way to return to Brooklyn and his ex-girlfriend. Steve is a bit more serious about archeology, though it must be said that he’s no Indiana Jones when it comes to discovering relics and taking them to museums. If Indiana is the type who will risk his life to search a hidden cave in the Amazon Rain Forest, Steve is far more likely to just wander around an Egyptian market until he comes across someone selling an ancient vase.

Which is exactly what happens! Steve finds someone selling a vase and, after he learns where it came from, he buys the vase. He takes the vase to Prof. Andoheb (George Zucco), not knowing that Andoheb is an Egyptian high priest who has been sworn to protect the tomb of Princess Ananka. When Andoheb realizes that the vase could lead to the discovery of the tomb, he lies and claims that it’s a forgery. He then “accidentally” breaks it in order to keep Steve from showing the vase to anyone else. Steve, however, is not deterred and a chance meeting with an American magician named Tim Sullivan (Cecil Kellaway) leads to Sullivan agreeing to finance Steve’s expedition to discover where the vase came from. Sullivan’s daughter, Marta (Peggy Moran), worries that Steve and Babe are just trying to steal her father’s money so she insists on coming on the expedition with Steve. Also following the expedition is Andoheb, who is himself starting to fall for Marta and who is hoping that he can use a secret serum hidden in the tomb to make both himself and Marta immortal.

Of course, the tomb itself is protected by Kharis (Tom Tyler, under a ton of bandages), a mummy who is immortal due to the serum and who has sworn to protect the tomb from any outsiders. Kharis moves slowly but efficiently. He’s a ruthless and silent killer, one whose eyes appears to just be two black holes, the better to reflect his own lack of a soul.

The main problem with The Mummy’s Hand is that it takes forever for the Mummy to actually show up. This is only a 67-minute film and the Mummy mayhem doesn’t really start until around the 50 minute mark. As a result, the viewer spends a lot of time watching Steve and Babe wander around Egypt and essentially act like stereotypical American tourists. Even when the expedition finally gets started, the audience still has to sit through endless scenes of Marta accusing Steve of being some sort of con artist. This is a movie that will truly leave you saying, “When is the mummy going to show up!?”

That said, The Mummy itself is a frightening creature, especially with his empty eyes. Mummy’s are naturally frightening, especially when they’re walking towards you and dragging their decaying bandages behind them. The Mummy is effective, I just wish he had been featured in more of the movie.

Previous Universal Horror Reviews:

Horror On The Lens: The Mad Monster (dir by Sam Newfield)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In the 1942 film, The Mad Monster, the great George Zucco plays Dr. Cameron. Dr. Cameron is a mad scientist who has a few issues with his colleagues and who makes the decision to deal with those issues by transforming his simple-minded handyman (Glenn Strange, who played Frankenstein’s Monster in a number of Universal films) into a wolfman.

The Mad Monster is one of the many horror films that were produced by Producers Releasing Corporation, which was one of the most poverty-stricken of the poverty row production companies. To me, the interesting thing about the film is that Cameron initially wants to use his werewolf formula to help in the war effort. He wants to help the United States win the war by turning soldiers into wolfmen. It’s only after his plans are dismissed as being ludicrous that he starts using his wolfman to get revenge. Unfortunately, the wolfman itself turns more savage and bloodthirsty with each act of revenge so I guess it’s a good thing that it wasn’t deployed on the battlefield because who knows what type of state the soldiers would have been in when they finally came home.

Here is 1942’s The Mad Monster!

Artwork of the Day: Terror Tales (by John Drew)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Dazzling Erin

by John Drew

This cover is from 1938 and becomes more horrifying the longer that you look at it.

Music Video of the Day: Nemesis by Shriekback (1985, directed by Tony van den Ende)

Posted on October 9, 2023 by Jedadiah Leland

Just try to get that chorus out of your head after listening to Nemesis. Everybody happy as the dead come home!

Director Tony can den Ende has also done music videos for The Proclaimers, Meat Loaf, Melissa Etheridge, Joe Cocker, Thomas Dolby, Manic Street Preachers, and Guns N’ Roses.

Enjoy!