FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) 40th ANNIVERSARY – Revisiting the '80s Vampire Horror Classic!!!

FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) d. Tom Holland (USA)
FRIGHT NIGHT PART II (1988) d. Tommy Lee Wallace (USA)
FRIGHT NIGHT (2011) d. Craig Gillespie (USA)
FRIGHT NIGHT 2 (2013) d. Eduardo Rodriguez (USA)

**CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE**

Written and directed by Tom Holland, 1985’s Fright Night is a genre-blending horror-comedy that combines classic vampire lore with 1980s suburban paranoia. The story follows teenager Charley Brewster, who suspects his suave new neighbor, Jerry Dandrige, is a vampire. When his girlfriend Amy and best friend Ed dismiss his fears, Charley turns to horror host Peter Vincent to save the day... and the night.

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980) TURNS 45!!!

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (1980) d. Barbara Peeters (and others) (USA)

**CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL YOUTUBE EPISODE**

Noyo, a small coastal California town, is terrorized by a series of brutal attacks on its residents. These attacks are revealed to be the work of mutated, amphibious creatures—humanoid monsters created as a result of genetic experimentation. As the creatures hunt and kill, they also target the women of the town, leading to a violent clash between the humans and the mutated beings in a desperate fight for survival.

THE HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE (1988) movie review

The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) d. John Hough (UK) (94 min)

Joe Dante’s original 1981 werewolf smash was a perfect assemblage of sharp direction, Rob Bottin’s superb special effects, marvelously calibrated performances, and a smart, cunning script from John Sayles that improved markedly upon novelist Gary Brandner’s source material. For the fourth entry in the (very) loosely connected franchise, the decision was made to dispense with these winning elements and get back to the basics of shoddy lycanthropic cinema: a muddled yet cliché plot peopled with thunderously dull thesping, occasionally punctuated by a few sequences of fur and fangs and froth, all in the service of providing a more “faithful” adaptation of Brandner’s slick pulp yarn.

POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (1986) Blu-ray review

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) d. Gibson, Brian (USA)

“They’re baaa-aaaack.” The highly unoriginal tagline packs a fraction of the chills of Poltergeist’s “They’re heeeee-ere,” which is about the size of things in this half-baked, money-chasing follow-up. Gone are the rollercoaster thrills, taut direction, and cohesive screenplay Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg brought to 1982’s haunted house extravaganza, leaving C-list director Gibson with a game cast and a gamier storyline.

BAD MOON (1996) movie review

Bad Moon (1996) d. Eric Red (USA)

I’ll admit to having passed up this fuzzy wuzzy flick a few dozen times on the video shelf (remember those?) due to its lackluster moniker and poster art, and probably would have never thought twice about it had it not been for my recent acquaintance with James Newman’s recent terror-ific tome, 666 Hair-Raising Horror Movie Trivia Questions. Since James had seen fit to dedicate no fewer than six, count ‘em, six puzzlers to this DTV title, I figured that if I wanted to get a passing grade in lycanthrope class, I’d better check it out. (To be fair, longtime lycan expert Craig J. Clark had reviewed it on his blog back in 2008, but I don’t know that we knew each other back then.) To my surprise, it proved to be an entirely watchable popcorn flick, with one of the more impressive practical werewolf suits - supervised by f/x ace Steve Johnson - trotted out since the shapeshifting heyday of the 1980s. (However, the less said about the dodgy morphing sequences, the better.)

NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (1988) Blu-ray Review

Night of the Demons (1988) d. Kevin S. Tenney (USA)

I missed a lot of the “classic” 1980s B-movies in their prime, only catching up with them much, much later on home video and at a more advanced stage in life. As a result, they don’t often carry the same sentimental nostalgia that they do for many other horror fans my age, although I have come to appreciate their cheesy appeal in a way that the younger version of me probably couldn’t have. When I finally took the plunge and rented Night of the Demons about 10 years ago, though all-too-familiar with its hag-adorned video cover art over the years, I found it to be “not bad,” with Steve Johnson’s exceptional makeup effects (in his first solo effort) balancing out the dumb-dumb characters and logy first act. After recently sitting through it a couple more times, in honor of Shout! Factory’s recent DVD/BR release, I have a much greater sense of appreciation for Kevin Tenney’s sophomore effort – it really is one of those special films that gets better with each viewing.