Tag Archives: Peter Stickles

The Eric Roberts Horror Collection: Space Sharks (dir by Dustin Ferguson)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Odd film, Space Sharks.

This 2024 movie imagines what would happen if a bunch of …. well, space sharks …. were developed by a group of mad scientists in a space station and then were sent down to Earth where they were invisible except for when they bit someone’s head off.  This is one of those films where new characters are continually introduced, just to be killed a few minutes later.  There’s a subplot about a bunch of former drug addicts taking a hike through the wilderness which leads to some of them getting space sharked.

On the one hand, the movie is pretty bad.  Even though it’s only 70 minutes (and about 15 of those minutes is taken up with the opening and the end credits), it moves extremely slowly.  The plot never makes any sense.  The special effects aren’t very special.  The Space Sharks are a lot more impressive on the poster than in the actual movie.  In fact, the poster has absolutely nothing to do with the actual movie.  You get the idea.

On the other hand, as is so often the case with low-budget horror films, it’s hard not to be fascinated by the dedication that was put into making such a bad movie.  There’s an undeniable charm to these DIY productions.  At least, there is for me.  This film has “Wow, someone actually made this!” appeal to it.  Your mileage may vary.  What director Dustin Ferguson has done here — coming up with a great title and then making a mediocre film — is what we regularly praise Roger Corman, Sam Arkoff, Herschell Gordon Lewis, and William Castle for doing.

The movie also has a surprisingly effective synth score and Eric Roberts!  Eric is in the film for maybe two minutes and, in the role of a random scientist on the space station, he’s playing a minor character that any actor could have played.  But who cares?  It’s Eric Roberts!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

  1. Paul’s Case (1980)
  2. Star 80 (1983)
  3. Runaway Train (1985)
  4. To Heal A Nation (1988)
  5. Best of the Best (1989)
  6. Blood Red (1989)
  7. The Ambulance (1990)
  8. The Lost Capone (1990)
  9. Best of the Best II (1993)
  10. Love, Cheat, & Steal (1993)
  11. Voyage (1993)
  12. Love Is A Gun (1994)
  13. Sensation (1994)
  14. Dark Angel (1996)
  15. Doctor Who (1996)
  16. Most Wanted (1997)
  17. Mercy Streets (2000)
  18. Raptor (2001)
  19. Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001)
  20. Strange Frequency (2001)
  21. Wolves of Wall Street (2002)
  22. Border Blues (2004)
  23. Mr. Brightside (2004)
  24. Six: The Mark Unleased (2004)
  25. We Belong Together (2005)
  26. Hey You (2006)
  27. Depth Charge (2008)
  28. Amazing Racer (2009)
  29. The Chaos Experiment (2009)
  30. In The Blink of an Eye (2009)
  31. Bed & Breakfast (2010)
  32. Enemies Among Us (2010)
  33. The Expendables (2010) 
  34. Sharktopus (2010)
  35. Beyond The Trophy (2012)
  36. The Dead Want Women (2012)
  37. Deadline (2012)
  38. The Mark (2012)
  39. Miss Atomic Bomb (2012)
  40. Assault on Wall Street (2013)
  41. Bonnie And Clyde: Justified (2013)
  42. Lovelace (2013)
  43. The Mark: Redemption (2013)
  44. The Perfect Summer (2013)
  45. Self-Storage (2013)
  46. Sink Hole (2013)
  47. A Talking Cat!?! (2013)
  48. This Is Our Time (2013)
  49. Bigfoot vs DB Cooper (2014)
  50. Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)
  51. Inherent Vice (2014)
  52. Road to the Open (2014)
  53. Rumors of War (2014)
  54. 2 Bedroom 1 Bath (2014)
  55. Amityville Death House (2015)
  56. Deadly Sanctuary (2015)
  57. A Fatal Obsession (2015)
  58. Las Vegas Story (2015)
  59. Sorority Slaughterhouse (2015)
  60. Stalked By My Doctor (2015)
  61. Enemy Within (2016)
  62. Hunting Season (2016)
  63. Joker’s Poltergeist (2016)
  64. Prayer Never Fails (2016)
  65. Stalked By My Doctor: The Return (2016)
  66. The Wrong Roommate (2016)
  67. Dark Image (2017)
  68. The Demonic Dead (2017)
  69. Black Wake (2018)
  70. Frank and Ava (2018)
  71. Stalked By My Doctor: Patient’s Revenge (2018)
  72. Clinton Island (2019)
  73. Monster Island (2019)
  74. The Reliant (2019)
  75. The Savant (2019)
  76. Seven Deadly Sins (2019)
  77. Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalker’s Nightmare (2019)
  78. The Wrong Mommy (2019)
  79. Exodus of a Prodigal Son (2020)
  80. Free Lunch Express (2020)
  81. Her Deadly Groom (2020)
  82. Top Gunner (2020)
  83. Deadly Nightshade (2021)
  84. The Elevator (2021)
  85. Just What The Doctor Ordered (2021)
  86. Killer Advice (2021)
  87. Megaboa (2021)
  88. Night Night (2021)
  89. The Poltergeist Diaries (2021)
  90. The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
  91. Red Prophecies (2021)
  92. A Town Called Parable (2021)
  93. Bleach (2022)
  94. Dawn (2022)
  95. My Dinner With Eric (2022)
  96. 69 Parts (2022)
  97. The Rideshare Killer (2022)
  98. D.C. Down (2023)
  99. Aftermath (2024)
  100. Bad Substitute (2024)
  101. Devil’s Knight (2024)
  102. Insane Like Me? (2024)
  103. The Wrong Life Coach (2024)
  104. Broken Church (2025)
  105. When It Rains In L.A. (2025

Big Freakin’ Snake (2023, directed by Dustin Ferguson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

People are being killed in snake attacks across Los Angeles and the sheriff and a scientist are determined to discover why.  The Sheriff says that there hasn’t been a snake attack in over 40 years.  His father dealt with the last batch of attacks.  Now, it’s time for the new sheriff to pick up his father’s legacy and discover why people are dying from snake attack.

Could it be because of the big freakin’ snake!?

Nah, son, that snake’s not that big.

There actually is a big snake at the start of the movie, which slithers its way through Los Angeles and wraps itself around a building but most of the movie is just scenes of people screaming at normal sized snakes that don’t appear to actually be aggressive.  A lot of familiar B-horror folk show up to get bitten but the special effects budget only allowed for one actual snake attack to really be shown.  If you’ve ever wanted to watch Brinke Stevens fight a rubber snake in a bathtub, this film is for you.

Big Freakin’ Snake is short, only 40 minutes long, and it is obviously not meant to be taken seriously so I can’t criticize it too much.  But for a movie called Big Freakin’ Snake, it sure didn’t have many big snakes.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Stage Fright (dir by Fred Olen Ray)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

(Hi there!  So, as you may know because I’ve been talking about it on this site all year, I have got way too much stuff on my DVR.  Seriously, I currently have 188 things recorded!  I’ve decided that, on January 15th, I am going to erase everything on the DVR, regardless of whether I’ve watched it or not.  So, that means that I’ve now have only have a month to clean out the DVR!  Will I make it?  Keep checking this site to find out!  I recorded Stage Fright off of the Lifetime Movie Network on January 29th, 2017!)

(aka Stage Fright)

Right above this sentence, you’ll see the original “poster art” for the film that was eventually broadcast on the Lifetime Movie Network as Stage Fright.  Even though the title changed (and personally, I think Stage Fright does carry a bit more oomph than Her Final Bow), I love this poster.  It’s just so melodramatic and I like how the stalker’s blue eye is staring straight at the viewer.  Even though the scene itself never actually occurs in the film, the poster still tells you everything that you need to know about this movie.  If I saw a paperback novel with this poster as the cover, I would definitely buy it and probably read it in one sitting.

Stage Fright tells the story of Sarah Conrade (Jordan Ladd).  At one time, Sarah was one of the most popular and famous opera singers in the world.  But then she was attacked by an obsessed fan.  Though he was subsequently gunned down by the police, he left Sarah with scars that are both physical and mental.  After she had a nervous breakdown, Sarah retired from performing and devoted her time to raising her daughter, Haley (Savannah Osborn).  However, one day, Sarah gets a call from a producer, letting her know that another singer is planning to perform Sarah’s signature songs and claim them as her own.  Though Sarah may be frightened of stepping back out on the stage, she’s a performer and she has her pride.  Sarah agrees to make a comeback and perform for one night only.

A lot of people are happy to hear this but it’s debatable whether any of them are as happy as Kevin (Peter Stickles).  Kevin works in a music store and he is one of Sarah’s biggest fans.  When she happens to step into the store, he not only tells her that he listens to her voice regularly but he also contrives to take a quick look in her purse.  Of course, Kevin also has a shrine to her in his house.  That’s … well, that’s a little bit creepy…

Audiences have waited for years for Sarah to make a comeback and now that she’s making it, the people around her are mysteriously dying.  The police even suspect that Sarah might have something to do with it.  Of course, we suspect the truth…

State Fright was directed by Fred Olen Ray, who is a veteran of these type of thrillers and who specializes in giving the audience what it wants.  In this case, the audience wants melodrama and Stage Fright certainly delivers that.  (Ray also delivers some effectively creepy shots of characters running around in the dank, lower levels of the opera house.)  Personally, I would have liked it if there had been a little more mystery about the identity of Sarah’s stalker but Jordan Ladd gave a good performance as Sarah and the mother-daughter relationship between Sarah and Haley felt real.  This is an entertaining little Lifetime movie that delivers exactly what it promises.