Castle Freak (1995)

Castle Freak is an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation from the short story “The Outsider”, directed by Stuart Gordon  and released by Full Moon Entertainment. The plot involves a family who inherits a 12^th century mansion in Spain. John Reily (Jeffery Combs), Susan Riley (Barbara Crampton), and Rebecca Reily (Jessica Dollarhide), as their blind daughter, move into the 12^th century mansion. The family is still recovering from a drunken driving accident that killed their son and left the daughter blind. John is a recovering alcoholic and is attempting to win back his families trust. While John combats his own demons, there is something living in the basement. This basement creature is a maniac and eats humans if it isn’t chained to the wall. Strange noises occur throughout the house and the Reily family believes that it’s just the old mansion. The creature becomes loose and wreaks havoc on the mansion murdering guests and leaving John as the prime suspect. John later finds out that the creature in the basement is his brother. His mother locked him in the basement due to her embarrassment of his disfigurement and that his father was not her husband’s. The film is an excellent adaptation to the short story and keeps you in your seat the entire time. It has become one of my favorite films from Full Moon Entertainment. Castle Freak was released recently by Full Moon Entertainment on DVD or BluRay, as well as a UK version on BluRay or DVD by 88 Films. It can be purchased through Amazon on either format and is a must own for any horror fan.

Popcorn (1991)

Popcorn is an American horror film from 1991 directed by Mark Herrier and written by Alan Ormsby. The film revolves around a “Horror-thon” in an abandoned theater, when a mysterious murderer begins killing off the teenagers. The film focuses on a college film student Maggie Butler (Jill Schoelen) who has had recurring dreams about a young girl named Sarah who is being chased by a killer while being stuck in a house fire. Taking notes from her dreams, she plans to make a movie out of her dreams. Recently her mother Suzanne (Dee Wallace), who she lives with, has been receiving strange and threatening phone calls. A friend of the Professor, Toby D’Amato (Tom Villard) a film school student has a plan to throw an all-night “Horror-thon” to raise money for their department. They set up the “Horror-thon” at a now defunct Dreamland theater, an old building that’s about to be demolished in three weeks. Professor Davis (Tony Roberts) head of the film department is concerned about time constraints and has hired an expert on film memorabilia, Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston) who chooses the horror props for the festival. While setting up the props, they begin to see a mysterious figure roaming the theater.  The figure turns out to be Toby, who fifteen years-ago was badly burned as a child in a theater, after a showing of a horror movie with his mother, who was killed in the fire.  Now, he still holds a grudge against Suzanne and Maggie for being responsible for his mother’s death. He has deranged thoughts and now plans to exact his revenge on them by re-enacting the film he witnessed with his mother. As he acts out his revenge with murder scenes from the movie, he kidnaps Maggie and Suzanne, eventually finding out that the final cuts of the film end up destroying his plans. The film is thrilling, exciting and has a bit of comedy entwined within the film which made this film a cult classic among many as the film has gone out of print. The film is still very hard to find and expensive to purchase, but for its original plot and ideas coming from the horror culture, this film is a must own for your own horror collection. It still can be found in limited listings on eBay and for purchase on Amazon released by Elite Entertainment on DVD which is now discontinued. A domestic version of the film is planned to be released by Synapse Films on BluRay soon which will make this a well sought release.

Beyond Darkness (1990)

Beyond Darkness Aka “Horror House II” is an Italian horror film directed by Claudio Fragasso and produced by the legendary Joe D’Amato. Beyond Darkness is also a sequel to the Italian gem “Ghosthouse”. In this film Father Peter (Gene Lebrock) is given a satanic bible from a crazed woman on death row. The crazed woman claimed she is a witch and was imprisoned for eating children for their souls.  The crazed woman placed a death curse on him before dying in the electric chair. Father Peter, his wife and two children move into an old house, with no knowledge that it was built at a location where a coven of witches were burned at the stake. Shortly after, strange and paranormal things start to happen as peter begins peaking in tongues and rants on with strange incantations which seem to disrupt and awaken the evil further within the house. Suddenly, upon moving into the home, the film becomes very similar to Evil Dead as inanimate objects begin to take a life of their own. Now fully aware of their haunted house, Peter attempts to compel the evil spirits to leave. When he brings up the strange occurrences taking place at the home to his superior, who appears to be aware of what happened at that location decades before he insists that Peters faith will send it away. Once again the superior suggests that Peter can subdue the evil with the strength of his faith. Quickly things progress and his son Martin (Michael Stephenson) become trapped in another dimension behind the wall and with his help from a good friend Father George (David Brandon) Beyond Darkness has its moments of being very similar to “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist”, as well this time to travel to the realm Beyond, Darkness. When a simple haunting turns into full bodied burned witches, Beyond Darkness is an excellent film that refreshes the haunted house subgenre in a whole new way. Newly released on BluRay as a double feature by Scream! Factory, Beyond Darkness is not a film to pass up on especially if you loved the first film to this sequel “Ghosthouse” It can be purchased on Amazon or directly from Scream! Factory packaged as a double feature with a sci-fi horror, “Metamorphosis”. Italian director Joe D’Amato’s work on this film is spectacular as with the hundreds of other excellent horror films he released in the past.

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.