You really should, it's a great read, and while there is certainly a lot of praise for Ender's prowess in the book there's also a lot of introspection on his part to break that up which may not have been translated to the screen as well. I kinda hate Harrison Ford so that's one thing i'm definitely apprehensive about... he's been pretty insufferable since the mid to late 90's imo but I'll still check it out.

Yes, I am a big fan of this film and think it's probably the best film out there based off of a real serial killer. It has such a grisly, abrasive atmosphere though it retains a certain level of class due to the excellent acting, disharmonic soundtrack and the overall subject matter and how it is handled. I can see the Taxi Driver comparison, definitely.

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Creature From The Black Lagoon / Univeral Classic Monsters Blu-Ray Collection

I recently just "plowed through" (over the course of two weeks, that is) all of the Universal flicks in the aforementioned box set and finished it off with Creature From The Black Lagoon this afternoon. I would say it's one of the weaker offerings from Universal's monster "series" but it still has plenty of excellent moments that make it a worthwhile viewing experience. The underwater scenes especially manage to keep the tension and eeriness high. If I had to quickly rank the Universal pictures from high to low it'd be something like:

The Bride Of Frankenstein
The Wolf Man
Dracula
Frankenstein
The Invisible Man
Creature From The Black Lagoon
The Mummy
The Phantom Of The Opera

Empyreal, your criticism of the movie is basically exactly spot-on criticism for the book as well. As failsafeman said, it sounds like the movie *is* a faithful adaptation of the source material, which is to say that it sucks just as hard.

I tried reading Ender's Game when I was in seventh grade but couldn't get past the first third due to rampantly shitty writing. And I was in seventh grade.

Glad to see the film takes after the book so closely. That's a rare trait these days.

The novel seems to be very polarising, I've seen it evoke some strong negative reactions in the past here. I read it in 2011 and thought it was... good. I didn't feel it was preachy or glorifying or hollow or anything like that, just an entertaining, comfy reading experience where one could finish the last page, close the book and say "huh, that was cool." I called it a "Goldilocks novel" once, it's just right in about every way, not fantastic, but not bad or mediocre either.

So, computer's been acting up and I missed the Halloween festivities here, here's my complete watch history:

Beneath

This one here had just a never-ending series of problems against it that there's not a whole lot of good points for it. The biggest issue with the film is that the film thinks these kinds of callous, vile humans are worthy of being the center-stage for the actions in here, yet none of them are ever worthy of doing anything more than being cannon fodder for the creature as other, smarter characters fought it off. Relying on bullying, cheating, blackmail and deciding that others where more worthy of living and dumping their friends overboard to die with the creature in the lake with them is perhaps the biggest death-knell to each of these characters, especially since all the while there's more than enough tactics on hand to actually fight it off with a gallant effort without resorting to dumping your friends in with the creature that even thinking of resorting to that tactic is really hard to forgive.

Of course, the fact that there's one who knows the truth about it but decides against telling the others so that he can win the heart of the group's resident slut doesn't do much to favor this either, and the fact that this one tends to focus solely on the group sitting in the canoe arguing with each other tends to make for wholly uneventful programming with nothing interesting happening.

That said, the gore isn't half-bad for the mangled bodies really look like they've been munched on and the creature does have some realistic looks to it since it's kept to a more reasonable size without being too gigantic to live there undetected, and frankly some of the sequences in the later half with the rapidly- drowning boat do get somewhat suspenseful. Overall, though, there's not too much to like here.

Black Water

This here turned out to be quite a lacking killer crocodile feature that really has to look at the main villain to understand the failure. This here has so little action with the croc that there's very few times where it has something going for it, as the film puts them in the water with it so early on but tends to make the more realistic route where it only shows up to attack that the main portion of the film is spent with everyone waiting in the trees for it to leave that it just grows deadly dull waiting for that kill scene or attack to happen and they just spend an eternity not having anything transpire that long which just gets old. As well, the utter lack of preparation for the unlikely event this happened really seems like it's just there to ensure they remain stuck in the situation longer than necessary, and for a film so enamored with realism that this one tries for is a little hard to swallow.

That said, the whole effort to remain wholly realistic for a change is where this gets some positive points in that there's a real sense this could potentially happen as the crocodile is kept to believable actions and motions, the prop for the creature behaves beautifully and looks realistic as well, and the rather ironic sense of cruelty that runs through it provides some decent moments both in terms of kills and character actions. It's more than enough to save some of it but not enough to fix all of the problems.

The Mad Ghoul

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable if flawed effort, mostly through the complete inactivity presented here. Because the main just of the storyline is that he's trying to win his girlfriend over to marry her, a lot of his screen-time is spent running off to find her but never coming out with his feelings once he does find her, making the reason for the journey quite unnecessary when nothing happens and instead it just turns into a tedious drag when it launches into yet another trip around the world as he follows her musical tour with the doctor in tow. Even with his secret romance towards her being as cliched as it ever is, that these scenes here comprise the majority of the middle section of the film means that the main focus has nothing going on despite ample evidence that something fun could happen as the transformation occurs quite early on in the film due to the running-time constraints which just make this all the more obviously dull and dragging. As well, the finale is so rushed and just completely underwhelming that there's a dramatic lack of urgency over the entire affair and making it just seem all the more ludicrous overall as it transpires.

That said, there's still some fun here with the storyline being quite original of utilizing the Mayan nerve gas and the regenerative properties being tied in with actual historical atrocities in a clever bit of retroactive rewriting, and the scenes of him in the laboratory operating on the different subjects early on make for a rather cheesy time with the portrayal of the classic cinematic mad scientist in such films. Several of the murders are quite creepy, and the continued marching off into the cemetery to recover body parts needed for the procedure make for a rather fun time and gets some chilling moments into the effort, and the make-up effects for the transformation look rather nice if pretty cheap overall. While there's problems, it does have some good points about it.

The Witches-

This was quite an enjoyable and exceptionally fun old-school witchcraft horror that had a lot of fun about it. The slow-building mystery about the tribe slowly taking over the village is quite exceptional and just completely overwhelms with it's ability to utilize the Gothic atmosphere of the surroundings, with it's splendid outdoor landscapes, closed-off township and just off-kilter vibe of the residents who are harboring a grave secret in grandest Gothic tradition and making for a generally creepy time as it goes about it's paces.

Though not really doing a whole lot in terms of action, the continuous references to the past troubles with the voodoo cult are just plain eerie and handled well, from the doll and the witch doctor in full costume appearing out of nowhere and the connection to the town as the small things begin piling up one-by-one where it becomes obvious that the whole town is witches. That culminates in the fun, chaotic finale of the interrupted ceremony that includes lavish decorations, a splendid Gothic dungeon and even a sacrifice that nearly comes through to fruition.

All in all, there's a lot to like with this and it's inclusion of witchcraft powers and voodoo sorcery, yet this does tend to take a while to get going and really explore it's story. While it's never boring, a lot of the film is devoted to one of two scenes playing out: her freaking out by something that reminds her of the past battle or witnessing something horrific that no in town believes in since there's no evidence of what she saw, and those tend to repeat themselves throughout until it's all put together and really resolves everything, meaning this has quite a lot of repetition amongst the lack of action which can get old quite quickly. Nonetheless, this has a lot of good qualities to override that.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

This here turned out to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining kiddie-centered horror-comedy. There's a lot of good in this about making an even mix between tween-inspired parts and more normal horror motifs, and there's plenty to both sides in here. The tween backbone here is all well-handled with the different attitudes toward the single father dating, the romance for once isn't obtrusive to the story in detriment for the actual horror, and the beginning where they explore the castle is just filled with some quality gags that really showcase the goofier humor present that really appeals to kids. From the gags trying to scare the sister to the constant sibling-like digs on each other and the side-splitting recurring gag with a character's name, there's some really funny stuff in here and it gets better once the transformation occurs. The antics that depict the transformation, from the heightened sense and reactions to the lessening of objection towards previously-objectionable attitudes and how their date goes which is constantly threatened by her burgeoning abilities for some nice laughs but knows to transition into horror territory nicely as once those abilities creep in, the explanation and backstory about the creature amongst the town's history is wonderfully handled.

It makes for a pretty enjoyable time by creating a pretty strong connection through the twisted mythology with the action in the last half which is just non-stop brawling between the two werewolves and the vampire clan through the catacombs under the castle, through the cemetery and finally into the neighboring warehouse providing plenty of fun times as the fight progresses, and overall this is mixed quite nicely with the humorous aspects of the story. The fact that the creatures are done with practical make-up effects that look rather impressive for the realism and great they look in design and movement is another key factor here, and the only real flaws come from the beginnings of their life.

The trouble it goes to set her up as a goofy klutz only to be saved by the werewolf curse is way too clichéd and feels too overwrought to be of much originality. As well, the whole thing is dropped once they get to the castle anyway, leaving the inclusion rather curious. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.

The Curse of the Crying Woman

This was a really enjoyable and entertaining effort that gets a lot right. One of the biggest pluses here is the extraordinary Gothic atmosphere at play, where the majority of the film takes place on a multilevel hacienda full of secret passage-ways, cobweb-infested tunnels, staircases into the other levels and so much more here that there's plenty of creepiness to get hooked on before adding in the dungeons full of rotting corpses with mashed-up faces, stringy hair and a loss of general bodily form that look effectively decayed and rotting away with sickly skin and just a look of complete and utter mess, effectively making for a great look here overall when placed into the setting of the house. As well, the look of the swamp where the creature appears is absolutely chilling and really sets off the opening ambush well with it's fog-laden surroundings, feeling of unease and general design that seems to make escape impossible.

When combined with a large amount of action, from an opening ambush in the swamp, the journey through the hidden mirror in the bedroom and the encounter with the reanimated servant all conspire to give this a spectacular feel where it doesn't really slow down the pace at all. The fact that this still features a ton of jump scares is impressive, with images disappearing in front of a mirror and the unaffected still interacting with with real-time person who's not giving a reflection, hands emerging behind unsuspecting victims and even the work in the finale, where three separate brawls break out around the crumbling villa and a mad dash erupts to get out alive.

While all this stuff works well, the fact that the rubber snakes in here look quite lame and really unconvincing, part of the whole special effects work that just looks really cheesy and fake and definitely looks really bad at times but not enough to detract from the more important matters.

http://plover.net/~bonds/ender.html

There's an article that basically sums up my thoughts on Ender's Game.

The Wicked

This wasn’t all that bad of an effort and had some good things going for it. One of the better elements is the fact that there’s a lot more gruesome-ness that would be expected in such an effort, the majority of it tied to the deaths inflicted by the creature during the latter half of the movie. Filled with bodies being fed through a sausage maker, limbs being ripped off, scratches that act more like gouges in the flesh and much more,as well as the continued usage of severed limbs and entrails as general props makes for a rather bloody time.

That the witch itself not only has a pretty creepy backstory in here, itself not really executed all that well but the idea itself is far and away quite chilling, works as a creepy character due not only to the backstory but also to the notion of using her powers despite already having the upper hand in the situation to gain an even more unfair advantage makes her that much more sinister and evil, just like a realistic being would be like if found in such a situation which greatly emphasizes the wickedness of the being. By trapping them inside the haunted house-style shack she inhabits that this whole thing takes place as well as the darkened woodlands surrounding the house, this pretty much focuses on a creepy character inhabiting a creepy location, and that's pretty impressive in establishing a fine atmosphere here.

There's still some flaws here, as the fact that the human interactions here are so non-worthwhile that they make the film a pain to get through with their boredom in going through so many useless, unnecessary and utterly cliched plot-points that the witch loses the central value for most of the first hour of the film. By having the family feuding with each other, the misunderstood teen fighting with the police for no real reason, the search party trying to score with each other, and generally focusing on these issues to the detriment of the horror makes this a tough one to get into. The finale as well takes a bit of extreme suspension to swallow it for how it finally handles the witch's powers, and it doesn't come off nearly as well as it should. These hold it down from what could've been.

I quite like Ender's Game the book but I'm super apprehensive about seeing the movie. As far as all the praise Ender nonsense goes (and just based off what I've read here) it really sounds like the reasoning was just lost in translation. The main thing that is keeping me from seeing the movie is the age of the children cause they aren't supposed to be teenagers especially not Ender. So if I'm wrong in my perception please correct me.

slayrrr666, are you going for a record on how many movie reviews you can post?

Set yourself up a blog or something because your content is too frequent and judging by the complete lack of replies or reaction, is being overlooked by basically everyone. Also, I don't recall you interacting with anyone in this thread except for when you were called out on your robotic spam reviews. A little back and forth might make others think highly enough of you to actually read your reviews.

There are much easier ways to get your post count up if that's what you're trying to do.

Landscape in the Mist - 8 out of 10.

Had to watch this for class today. Very fascinating and emotional film. The director experimented with a shit ton of long shots and while a few hindered the movie, most worked very well. Acting was good all around, the two lad kids did a swell job on their own. The score for this film was really good and easily one of the best parts. I will say that I'm not sure if I'd seek this film out to see it again, but I am glad I saw it and I'm interested in the director's other works (he does a Stephen King kind of thing by having all of his films connect to in the same universe).

The Purge - I went into this with low expectations, because although it's a theatrically released movie with actors I recognize, its premise - What if the government legalized crime one night per year? - is more ridiculous than even a lot of the low budget junk I watch. "Well you see, Mr. Downhill, it's set up that way because it's an insightful commentary about society's....." Yeah, sorry, I want entertainment, not a sociology lecture, and this wasn't that entertaining.

I don't know how they pulled this off in a movie that was barely 80 minutes, but there were actually parts that managed to drag. Then, once I decided to accept the goofy premise, characters did incredibly stupid things within that premise. The movie also relied way too heavily on 'scary' moments that involved


Apparently this did well at the box office, but it's hard to believe audiences liked it all that much given its 5.5 IMDB rating. Good marketing campaign, I guess?

That was delightful. Thanks!

I actually like the film's premise a lot, but the movie we got was horse shit. Now, if it becomes an anthology series comprised of The Purge in other locations or time periods (or even genres), then I'd be happier, but we all know that won't happen.

I am amidst giving Event Horizon another viewing as it has been a while. I do admittedly have a soft spot for this picture due to the Lovecraftian elements although it's a bit too similar to the Alien films in too many ways to enter into the territory of being masterful and/or overly groundbreaking. All the same, it's a rare diamond in the otherwise very rough territory of contemporary filmmaking.

Yeah but all the Saw, Transformers and Paranormal Activity movies did well, not to mention The Smurfs, Alvin and The Chipmunks, Horrible Bosses, Bad Teacher, Grown Ups, The Karate Kid and The Last Airbender all beating the likes of any worthwhile. Box Office is hardly a measure of a good film any more, if anything thing it's an indication of what low-brow people consider quality entertainment, the most mediocre ideas are the most attractive and digestible. The South Park parody of Rob Schneider is still relevant today as when it was made.

I can agree with the sentiment expressed here, definitely (excluding the South Park bit anyway - I've never seen the show). Modern "filmmaking" seems to be mired in greed and the desire to entertain a relatively dumb audience rather than to challenge them and/or their conventions. I don't think success takes away from a film's artistic value, granted (just look at a picture like The Godfather, for example), although I think the quality of mainstream films has gradually gone down over the years.

I never read slayrrr666's reviews largely because he seems to exclusively watch the worst shit imaginable and reading said reviews would only be to snack on but a sliver of the full magnitude of the pain pie that actually sitting through the films would embody.

You talkin' smack about the first Saw and Paranormal Activity 1-3?

That was the first "scary" movie I watched, as a twee 4th-grader, and it scared me so much I couldn't sleep that night - And that was the network-TV sanitized version, no less. Having watched it a few times since I've noticed it definitely has its flaws, but it's still a really creative film that's only just held back from being truly great.

Haha, yeah, horror films can have a lasting impact when viewed as a youth. The first horror film I ever saw was John Carpenter's The Fog and it terrified me considerably. I was six and was camping with my family and we had rented a VHS copy at this hole-in-the-wall video rental place and I couldn't sleep at all that night ... the rain and thunder probably didn't help either, haha. Anyway, it's kind of ironic that Event Horizon stars Sam Neill because he also starred in Carpenter's In The Mouth Of Madness which is a very H.P. Lovecraft-inspired film without actually being directly based on any of his stories. If you haven't seen it I do recommend it most highly!

That's some good taste there - The Fog and In the Mouth of Madness are quality flicks. I need to see em again sometime. But I'm still going through a horror hangover after October...it'll be a while.

In the Mouth of Madness and The Prince of Darkness are fairly Lovecraftian without being directly based on actual stories, maybe some of the best "representations" of the Lovecraftian vibe in mainstream horror cinema...really great flics. Sam Neil nailed it on ITMOM!

Haha, understandable. I love horror so I view it year-round although it gets more than enough exposure through the month of October due to Halloween, of course.



Ah, yes, Prince Of Darkness is an underrated Carpenter gem, I love that one - it's a great premise for a film and he pulled it off well. I think of all of the well-known horror directors out there Carpenter manages to capture a Lovecraftian feel more than any of the others. The Fog's atmosphere, for example, is very Lovecraftian even though the film's content really isn't; hell, even The Thing has those tendencies too. The feel of Lovecraft is a hard thing to nail in a film due to its literary and unfathomable nature so I generally find that films that hint at it are more successful than those that try and do a full-blown interpretation.

I found that, in both movies, the first and third acts are awesome while the second acts are dreadfully boring and completely devoid of anything, well, scary.

Well, how many horror movies legitimately, literally make you feel scared? Probably not many. It's about using your imagination and seeing what the films do well. Never seen Prince of Darkness, but In the Mouth of Madness is effective for other reasons. It's surreal, imaginative and cool as hell.

Damn, that really looks dreadful. Guess I won't be seeing this movie any time soon, nor reading the book.



Welt am Draht / World on a Wire pt.1 (1973)
I think this is actually my third German film, after Der Untergang(Downfall) and Die Fetten Jahre sind Vorbei (The Edukators) which are both recent movies. This one was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder who was an important director of the new wave of German films in the seventies. And it's quite something. First off, I have only seen the first part yet. You see, the movie was made for the TV directly (so it's fullscreen given the year of release) and the 3 hour thing got cut into two ''episodes'', which actually seem to be watchable on their own. Like I said, I only watched the first part and it felt like reading a well made novella with the punch at the end.

Welt am Draht is a sci-fi film but not a futuristic one, it really looks like how the people of the time would imagine their world 10 or 20 years in the future. The story is about an advanced supercomputer which could be used to forecast several aspects of the society in the future. Though the people working on the computer have doubts about its particularities and there's an intrigue around it going on, mixed with a bit of psychology. The intrigue is really interesting and well pulled-off. It's not the biggest punch in the world but I still managed to be surprised. Thing is, it's all in the details. The look of the film is particularly gorgeous and about everything in the depiction of the world has a meaning with the story, and these are all things you notice after watching the first part. For example, you keep seeing things through mirrors but only get to understand the imagery after finishing the first part. It's also interesting to see how they imagined this supercomputer in an era there were no such things as PCs, and there's a good deal of the moral implications of what science can do. Very recommended.

Aye, I think people eventually become numb to any of the potential scares in horror films outside of those moments that inevitably make one jump (there's one in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 that always gets me, for example). I absolutely agree that In The Mouth Of Madness is "surreal, imaginative and cool as hell" - it came out at a time when horror was certainly dying and it just packed such a powerful punch that it will always be one of my favorite horror selections from the 90s.

I can't even remember my first horror movie as I saw too many. Probably A Nightmare on Elm St was the one that first struck a chord with me and there's no denying how genuinely creepy Freddy comes off in the first 3 movies. Then there was Children of the Corn, Child's Play and a bunch of shitty Stephen King mini-series, and some fun ones thrown in like Shocker and Scream. When I was a kid, around the time I saw Event Horizon, I also saw a whole slew of forgettable trash like Ripper: Letter from Hell and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, I didn't have the best indicator of bad from good back then but I knew to avoid low budget c-grade crap. I remember Event Horizon and Nightwatch made me feel sick in the stomach and I didn't care for repeat viewings. One that really rattled my nerves was Mr. Boogedy, which I assumed at the time was a wholesome light-hearted kid friendly film, needlessly to say looking back it's not as scary or nightmare trip inducing as I imagined but it's still seriously odd for a Disney film.

My first horror movie was Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. I was exposed to it through TNN/Spike TV's old Friday the 13th marathons from the early 2000s, and that was the movie I remember seeing first. They really didn't edit much out of it aside from the tits and a couple gore shots here and there. As a kid, Jason's face reveal scared the shit out me just because of how grotesque it was in that movie. Nowadays having seen all the Friday movies multiple times, it doesn't phase me and rather I admire the makeup effects that went into making that look as good as it does.



Oh god, this movie. I saw it for the first time in either 2005 or 2006 on FearNet's on demand service, and even my 12 year old self knew I was watching a piece of shit. AJ Cook plays pretty much every single early-2000s goth loner character ever, and she's not even that good at it. I really only remember bits and pieces of it now, like one character admonishing AJ Cook by going on a diatribe about how her parents suck for no real reason, but I did not like that movie when I saw it.

Blockbuster Video has officially thrown in the towel. Long over due and I won't miss them. I don't think there has been one of their stores near me in a couple of years now anyways. I do miss Hollywood Video though. Better selection.

There was a huge Blockbuster in Bristol about 10 minutes from my house that was up and running for at least a decade. I remember as a kid I'd go there every Friday with my father and we'd get a movie for the weekend. It closed and the building was gutted and vacated ages ago, and it only just last month got partially filled again by a Jake's Wayback Burgers. It's really weird looking at the inside of both that empty store and my town's old local video store that closed almost 6 years ago, as I can still remember the layout and where everything was placed. The local store is still vacant and I don't believe will be filled anytime soon since any new businesses in this town die out within 6 months.

Mine closed a year after I stopped my membership(jan 2012). The online selection was horrible and at $20 a month, wasnt worth it at all.

There were two locations within one mile of my house in suburbia. The most recent one closed in '11. Yeah, Friday and Saturday nights were always crowded at those places. There used to be another smaller franchise called Video Update that was around town too but it went under about a dozen years ago. I won't lament Blockbuster's demise mostly because they put out mom and pop video stores out of business too. There actually is one privately owned single location remnant vestige video emporium near me that is still going. It has a huge selection of mainstream, rare foreign and obscure cinema plus an adult movie section in the back. I think it's one of the very few of its size remaining in the western US.

How many of you are dinosaurs like me who remembers Blockbuster's "Be Kind, Please Rewind" mantra on the videocassetes?

Yeah the only real reason I don't rent any more is I can buy second hand dvd's and blu-rays for what they're charging at video rental stores. Blockbuster never changes their prices or offers good deals and the amount of times I had sign up to be a member because I lost my card or membership is only valid at one store. Not to mention in the 00's they removed all the Nintendo games like nobody cared. As far as I can tell they are still kicking here in Australia but I won't miss them when they go. Renting movies has lost a lot of it's charm and when the whole process can be done effortlessly over the Internet, the most convenient method will prevail.

^ I could always just give my phone number to show my membership and it'd be fine. Always been a Blockbuster fan - shame they're closing, but unfortunately it isn't very unexpected or shocking.

I just thought In the Mouth of Madness was at its strongest when you never directly saw the creatures. For example...


The last 5 or so minutes, however, are absolutely genius.

I've got VHS tapes we bought from Blockbuster that have those stickers on them.

As cool as Netflix and streaming services are, there's always gonna be a part of me that misses actually going to a brick and mortar video store and renting a movie or game in person. Technology marches on, however, and Blockbuster at one point or another was gonna die for good. I'm actually a little surprised that Dish Network didn't close all the stores before now.

I worked at Blockbuster for several years after high school and it was evident then that the company was in a sharp downward spiral. The store where I worked was a local fixture; way back when I was a little kid it was an Erol's Video, then when Blockbuster was getting huge they bought out the whole Erol's chain. They even bought the biking supply store next door to the Erol's and knocked down the wall to make a much bigger store. I can't even being to imagine how many movies I've seen in my life that came out of that store.

Anyway, around 2005 or so is when shit started to really go downhill for them. First there was the horrible failure of the "No Late Fees" campaign. The way late fees used to work was that, if you kept the movie beyond the due date, you'd get charged as if you rented it again, and every rental period you'd get dinged again as if you rented it again (so about $4.50 every week for older movies, or every two days for new releases). The "no late fees" thing was this complicated system where nothing would happen if you kept it I think a week past the due date, but if you returned it between a week overdue and a month overdue, you'd get hit with like a $2 restocking fee or something. If you waited a month, we'd just bill you for the movie and you couldn't return it. People got outraged at that shit (witnessed a couple physical assaults on staff by people who'd been charged under that system) and it resulted in a lot of people getting upset because it severely affected our stock.

Around the same time some major publisher (I wanna say it was Universal Pictures) pulled out support for Blockbuster entirely for a while at least which left people baffled about why certain huge releases were totally absent from the shelves. That's also when Netflix started getting really popular. For a short time Blockbuster's Online service was actually a pretty good Netflix alternative, since it was the same price but you had the option to return your DVD's to the store and get new ones there, too, instead of waiting for the mail, but I'm sure they shat all over that and it no doubt became a huge joke, too.

Good riddance to a poorly-run company.

Night of the Demons - 2/5

Night of the Demons has all the makings of 80's classic, with one liners, overblown personalities and gratuitous tit shots, yet what is here is sorely lacking. It's about some popular teenagers going to a Halloween party at an abandoned funeral parlour called Hull House, the organisers are two teenage girls, one is a weirdo goth and the other is some type of slutty tramp. These two are going to trick the popular kids into thinking the house is haunted but this aspect is basically forgotten by the time it's told. Why these people would want to go to a random small party in the middle of nowhere, run by a social outcast/weirdo, when they could go to any party is a mystery to me. That is the nature of this movie, it's half-thought out and the premise is merely a device to start some spooks and bumps in the night. It's best to let it play out and try to ignore the bad acting, this by the way is no easy feat. That aside the monster make-up looks okay apart from the floating ant head, Rodger (the black guy) has some cool/fun moments and some it is kind of funny, if unintentional. On the other hand, the voices and growls coming from the goth sound like Dr Claw, so that right away kills any dread and makes her silly. The death scenes are half-arsed and mediocre, it takes too long getting to the actual carnage and it could use a couple of scenes to better establish the characters, like their origins and why this party appealed to them for starters. Under the helm of a better director with a better cast this would be a staple of the 80's, it's unfortunate because one liners like 'eat a bowl of fuck' go to waste.