Intruder (1989)

Intruder is a horror film directed by an associate of Sam Raimi, Scott Spiegel and co-written by Lawrence Bender. This film aside from being excellent also has a cameo appearance by Bruce Campbell (Officer Howard), long time B movie master actor along with Ted Raimi (Produce Joe) and Sam Raimi (Randy). Intruder centers on a supermarket closing and its staff will be out of a job the next morning. The staff of the supermarket stays late as shop closes to repacking the stock for a new location. As the staff start to disappear during the night, Jennifer Ross (Elizabeth Cox) begins to think everyone has just packed up and left for their new jobs as she ends up the last person not aware that a maniac is meticulously killing everyone. The story involves the manager Dan Hicks (Bill Roberts) who had a major meltdown because his partner sold the store, and now he’s gone psycho. Dan murders each supermarket staff worker by decapitation, meat hooking, crushing and stabbing. The entire time Jennifer thinks it’s her obsessive boyfriend Craig Peterson (David Byrns) stalking her.  Craig however was trying to warn her of the danger and gets stabbed by Jennifer as she thinks she found the killer. Dan almost got away with everything while talking to the police Craig wounded attacks Dan with his own meat clever. Intruder is a well produced slasher film and well worth the addition to your horror or thriller collection. Originally Intruder was released by Empire Pictures before the company was dissolved by the famous B movie director and producer, Charles Band of Full Moon Entertainment. Intruder is available for purchase on DVD by Full Moon Entertainment or on a BluRay/DVD Combo pack released by Synapse Films.

The Horror Show (1989)

The Horror Show is a supernatural horror film directed by James Isaac and starring Lance Henriksen and Brion James. Aside from it being closely related and a probable sequel to “House” due to it being about a killer haunted house. Kane Hodder “Jason Voorhees” (Friday the 13^Th) was a stunt coordinator in this feature film. Similar to “Shocker” another serial killer haunting film this too was released the same year. In this film we have a stressed out and overworked Detective, Det. Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen) when after a huge manhunt believes he has finally caught the famed “Meat Cleaver Max” (Brion James) and despite seeing him burn in the electric chair on death row, He begins to see him wherever he goes as the meat cleaver Max taunts him and drives him into insanity, as well as haunting him in his dreams. Even killings done in the same fashion of Max start to occur in his own house, Detective Lucas begins to seem like the likely candidate for the murders. Along the way he meets up with a parapsychologist Peter Campbell (Thom Bray) that suggest that they believe the killings have been committed by Max, due to an electrical time lapse in the electrocution chair giving him the power to continue his murderous rampage beyond the grave. Lucas’ best bet now is to destroy his spirit for good before Max destroys his life and family. With full bodied apparitions of Max appearing and Killing off family friends within the house, The Horror Show is a must see if you enjoyed the film “Shocker” due to its close similarities. The Horror Show has recently been released onto DVD/BluRay Combo Pack by Scream! Factory and is packaged with extra interviews with Kane Hodder and an interview with actress Rita Taggart. This release is sure not one to pass up on, like many of the Scream! Factory BluRay releases and will make a great addition to anyone’s horror collection.

The Dead Pit (1989)

The Dead Pit is a thrilling horror directed by Brett Leonard. The film starts with a crazed doctor / serial killer Dr. Ramzi (Danny Gochnauer) who performs open brain experiments on his patients, eventually turning them into crazed blood thirsty zombies. Within the confines of the asylum his colleague Dr. Gerald Swan (Jeremy Slate) finds out what he is doing in the cellar with the missing patients and ends up killing him and sealing up the cellar chamber with the patients and him in it, hoping that he can look past the gruesome experiments’ his partner performed within the asylum. Twenty years later the asylum is run by his partner who is a bit more kind on the human psyche, when one day a Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson) appears complaining that she remembers her memory being removed and nothing else diagnosed with amnesia. Meanwhile during an eruption of earth quakes the seals to the chamber break open releasing the angry spirit of Dr. Ramzi and the zombie patients onto the unsuspecting new patients within the state institute. With Jane Doe’s acquaintance at the hospital Christian Meyers (Stephen Foster) they fight the relentless army of zombies finding their weakness and entombing them back to where they came from. The Dead Pit is a fun Horror/Thriller with many convincing actors and well done effects, this blast from the past is a must see. The Dead Pit is now available on DVD.