Scarecrow's Blog From the Darkside

Although I adore the first film, even I have to admit "Trancers 3" might just be the best of the series, from a technical standpoint. KNB's makeup effects (you see veins bulge while a trancer soldier Robinson is in bed with helps to control her inner rage, a soldier fight results in the loser having his throat ripped out, lots of folks shot dead with plentiful blood squibs, a bullet to the forehead of a trancer posing as a cop, etc.) are solid, Thomerson's Jack Deth still has plenty of quips, attitude, and trancer hating left in him as the heroic Jack Deth, some minor characters are introduced that are fun while they last (the mechanical Shark and trancer spy Melanie Smith make for good sidekicks), C Courtney's script is actually ambitious even if the budget wasn't enough to really get the most out of the multi-year, time-travel, covert super soldier defense department, trancer army building story, and there's plenty of action (even a bar fight where one o

I never caught this on home video. I've seen Lovell in the likes of Femalien and Lolita 2000 but this and Killer Eye were in my to-see list. This isn't exactly the film I'd want as a long-term Full Moon fan for Joe Bob's Charlie Band feature. Being from the South, I do cringe when I see folks in LA drawing up their best exaggerated accents for us. Still, the dialogue for Myron, the Big Brain, opposing Lance, who operates a diner and wants money from him , was some fun. There is like peanuts for Band to work with, it would appear. As an addendum: Boo to all those who picked Rawhead Rex over Trancers. The long tongue getting its KY lick is very 1996. This was one of my favorite years of my life. Graduated high school and met the woman I'd later marry, 1996. Lovell is definitely a beauty Band would certainly put his camera right in the face of...and takes clothes off of.

The period production design, always magnetic Helen Mirren as Sara Winchester (who believes she's cursed because of her company's production of a weapon of death, with the house a product of that), Clarke's tormented addict as a therapist hired to determine Sara's mental health (trying to overcome his wife's death), and incredible attention to detail, with that house such a marvel reconstructed for us to experience ourselves as Clarke's Eric did really provide enough satisfaction to at least appreciate the presentation. The way the building continues construction into the night and how Mirren moves about like some dark-shrouded phantom, with Clarke very much anxious inside the maddening structure, did compel and captivate me. But, I dunno, this came during a number of haunted house period pieces like "The Woman in Black" and "Crimson Peak". You could see how they sort of follow certain similar beats, with a sound design that pounds between yo

Made a year before I graduated high school, with Bush on the soundtrack, Lori Petty not long after being Johnny Utah's romantic interest in Point Break and the sister to Geena on the baseball field as Tom Hanks opined that there's no crying in baseball, set in the future where water equals power and Malcolm McDowell's name was in the B-Movie Villain Rolodex for any producer needing that nasty British accent to inform his arch nemesis, "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here"; Tank Girl was gifted to us. Or maybe for those critics who detested it: it was vomited onto us. Talalay was not a highly considered director, after some rather lackluster received films -- "Freddy's Dead" and "Ghost in the Machine" -- so this was sort of her third strike (before television gave her an olive branch). Well, despite a cult following when I watched this ALL THE TIME on cable, the film bombed like a steaming pile on release. Talalay added a LOT of comic insert

  The Slayer I really take a liking to horror films that aren't quite rooted in pure reality and toy with how nightmares or just the tormented mind might produce or manufacture something primeval or worse. I was reading about what classifies as psychotronic cinema and I think this one thinks outside the box in terms of what is unleashed on an island, isolated and needing a plane or boat to get to it. It's tropical, idyllic, pleasing to the eye and senses. But add a troubled soul whose art seems to be painted nightmare fuel on canvas, somehow manifested when she goes to sleep ..which sucks for her hubby, brother, and sister-in-law. What was supposed to be a fun trip away from the rigors of business and painting turns into an actual waking nightmare, it seems, for the visitors to the island. I love me a good severed head gag, and this one has a doozy. Kissing th bloody lips of her hubby's head, pulling the covers away with the body gone. Later finding hubby's body hanging

 Sort of an extension to my Letterboxd review, I think the sheriff saying Looks can be deceiving before he leans on a loose beam that sends a plank of nails into his forehead while twenty somethings in a cop truck believe cabin backwoods hillbillies killed him perfectly describes the hilarity of the slasher comedy story, a marvelous parody that doesn't age but get funnier. The innovative wizardry of how the screenplay kills off psychotic Chad and sweet Allie's college friends is the film's near greatest strength besides the wonderful casting of Labine and especially Tudyk as lovable hillbillies startled by the violence brought into their territory from Chad and company, believing they kidnapped Allie. The idiotic accidental terminations (almost all self-inflicted or done out of sheer panic) include running right into an impaling (branch sticking out of a tree), explosion (Chad just blankets Tucker's cabin with gasoline, and another sets her friend on fire), woodchipper

 Wasn't doing well on Letterboxed. This wasn't as much a VHS rental as it was a DVD Blockbuster rental in the 2000s for me. I don't remember watching it on cable. Sweet little girl, Judy, and a salesman named Ralph, who is basically a child at heart clearly are set up to be the likable survivers while two Madonna Material Girls who steal and pickpocket dudes and unsuspecting victims and crummy father and wicked stepmother of Judy's are obviously the heels meeting their doom at the well-crafted hands of killer dolls, many antiques made by a spooky manor's toymaker and wife during a dark and stormy night as a rainstorm causes cars stuck not far outside. Many feel this is actually better than Band's more celebrated Puppet Master. Ralph tries to talk sense into the adults while Judy just wants to stay away from her parents. Gotta love Punch, the jester doll. And the wicked stepmother is played by Stuart's wife so you knew she was going to die horribly! I adore G

 There is so much meat on the bone in this film, and it is so much more than some "cheap and tawdry slasher film". Susan Tyrrell is brilliant as the aunt with a lust/passion for her teenage "son"/nephew, Billy (McNichol), so obsessed with keeping him at home despite a clear talent in basketball and potential scholarship to the University in Denver, she'll commit to whatever it takes to hold her grasp onto him...including poisoned milk, deliberately done to make sure he fails during a big basketball game. And the girlfriend Julie (Julia Duffy; imagine my surprise when flighty Stephanie from Newhart was having teenage sex with McNichol much to the disgust of Tyrrell!) is especially a nuisance to Tyrrell's plans, since McNichol is obviously in love with her. What I found particularly fascinating was the casting of Bo Svenson as the horrible lead detective with such homophobic tunnel vision he can't see any other resolution but his angle of a gay Billy killi

 We all have those movies that go way back. I remember seeing this in the 80s, recording on VHS for my *then* VHS library in the 90s, looking for it wherever it might appear. The giant alligator emerging from the city sewer system to munch on human food, including a birthday kid in his swimming pool and a cop after bursting from a sidewalk with local teenagers hitting the bricks. Silva's great hunter is chomping at the bit to nag this one with his rifle, while Forster is trying to keep what little rep he has as a cop intact, despite setbacks including losing a young beat cop during a hunt and not being able to find the alligator even with loads of police force and SWAT. Robin Riker is the pretty redhead reptile specialist who Forster will open himself up to at a certain point but because he loses those close to him won't commit to all the way, as the mayor has close ties to the Mr. Moneybags (Dean Jagger; "White Christmas") running a pharma company using growth hormon

  I legit last time watched this in the early 90s on the *then* Sci-Fi Channel. Watching this tonight -- my daughter and I had an absolute blast watching the first film last night -- it was nowhere near as bad as I thought I remembered. Not that I necessarily hated it as a teenager -- it is a killer gator movie with Richard Lynch as a great hunter after all -- but it just wasn't the first film. That critique isn't something I apply much anymore. I try to judge every sequel by its own merits. Bologna as the popular cop with a Hispanic district being gentrified by scummy real estate tycoon, Railsback, was a lot of fun to me in a rare lead role, with Woody Brown as his sidekick rookie partner. I just wish Dee Wallace had a more sizeable role as Bologna's scientist wife, while pretty Gagnier has a spunky little supporting role as the mayor's daughter wanting to put a stop to Railsback's political pressures on her father (Daily; The Bob Newhart Show). It was great to see

 My daughter really, really wanted to watch this. Like she begged me to watch it, haha. The tarantulas attacking the architect's face had us howling; her reactions to it were just priceless. I personally have no idea if Emily is a spirit or some sort of otherworld character from the past trying to warn Liza away from the dreaded warlock hotel in Nawlins, but I think she's just this incredibly iconic character, with her German Shepherd and painted contacts. When Liza drives up on her, I just think Fulci nailed it. It looks as if Liza encounters two figures not of our world. And the zombies of the film: I told my daughter, the Fucli zombie is not like any other. How they can just turn up wherever, like the Eibon book, and just whatever Fulci wants to do, he does. Fulci's style of storytelling is so elusive, head-scratching, unpredictable, and outrageous, I can't help but admire how audacious he is with throwing at us these bizarre setpieces such as Emily being attacked by

 Donald Sutherland plays this aching priest burdened by the confession of a serial killer of clergy, tormented by the sanctity and protection of the confessional, hoping to somehow investigate the death of a 16 year old suicide due to incest by her father, holding priests and nuns responsible, and stop the madness without breaking that church law. I'm not Catholic, so protecting murderers and psychos makes zero sense to me. The same for therapists who might stop their client from killing people. But I think this film really gets into the complexities of that, and the film's mood, it's dreary Detroit late 80s, automotive blue collar, somber and depressing feel just sets upon me. Donald's the least person I could imagine being a priest so for him to pull it off, I applaud the work. He and Durning, who adheres to the discipline and strict principles of Church Law, often go at it. Such as when an unwed mother wants her baby baptized. And this confessional just eats away at

 I just love Trish and Valerie, and the coach. Trish, to me, when I was a teenager watching this, was just the coolest. I like that she put away the toys, rode home from high school with some older guy on a motorcycle, can play the piano, is chill enough despite her friends' reservations, to see that taller Valerie deserved to be asked over to her slumber party and is just a killer basketball player, and seemed very comfortable in her ongoing adulthood. She does give the really great guy who is their neighbor a nasty stare before the parents leave on vacation, but he turns out to not be a square...she assumed he might be some drag of a watchdog. Valerie and her sis getting some good time in the film as an alternate to the slumber party is probably a major reason I love this film. I just love their rapport. I have two sisters so this film makes me smile when I watch it. The teen guys are such idiots because teen guys are idiots, haha. I also dig that you see a woman carpenter and re

 Some of the dialogue Stooge spews just makes me cringe...the demon invading Angela wanted pork tongue on Halloween night but not before we have to listen to his obnoxious slob for half an hour. The way he talks to Helen just makes my blood boil. Rodger, I don't care what anyone says, I think he had the absolute right idea of getting outta there. When he balked about remaining any longer than necessary and dicking around with a seance, I nodded along with him. I think Angela is an iconic 80s character; sure, Quigley and her lipstick, tutu, and bent over ass are deservedly popular, but that Dance of the Damned with the fireplace, Bauhaus, black dress and lingerie, and additional strobe light remain the highlight of this celebrated Halloween cult film. Sal was like, oh, hell naw, I'm out. Too bad he finds Suzie-Q " trying to fix her face". Jay decided Bo-peep wouldn't put out as her rep erroneously indicated, so his pursuit of Suzanne got him blindsighted. This was

 No one can just present pure rage out of a boil like Terry O'Quinn. Whatever his name is persona to persona, O'Quinn's always going to eventually lose control, have an outburst in his workshop, explode out of this barely contained facade of All American Dad with the White Picket Fence ("Should've bought American, Phil."), and kill folks who stand in his way of some ridiculous notion of the American Dream (including the family who just can't be perfect enough). O'Quinn is celebrated for these performances because he's able to give you all the fully realized performance theater of a psychopath unable to hold in who he really is. Hilariously "Gene" is a family therapist, inspired by the hospital shrink who trusted him ignorantly at Puget Sound before O'Quinn sticks him with a hidden spike in a painted model man. Take from experiences, apply them to a new persona, cultivate that persona, and try to "get it right this time". And

  Wightman was in a no-win situation following the great O'Quinn. Plus, "Gene" took the teeth of a damned hammer directly to the chest (on top of a cake knife stab to the chest) and collapsed clearly dead on the floor as he was bleeding out. In this third film, though, we actually see The Stepfather (as Keith Grant) romancing another woman (Susan Hubley) while married to a new family (Priscilla Barnes, who does what she can with the role given). It is always that nagging kid (David Tom) that doesn't trust you in these movies that get in the way. Well, besides the psychosomatic kid in the wheelchair with an addiction to computer sleuthing, there is the boss who gets too nosy for his own good (of course) and the priest who realizes also that Keith Grant might not be the wholesome family man he projects. Perhaps this job is better suited for The Stepfather instead of a real estate agent or psychiatrist, with the more blue collar gardening role allowing him to use the tal

**I didn't log this on my Letterboxd review, but Fulci looked incredibly gaunt by only 1986 (when it was shot). The ill health wasn't exaggerated.**  I had read a review from a critic of the time taking aim at the camerawork of the film, but I considered that, personally, as one of this film's greatest strengths. Especially when Fulci gives us an idea of Kathy's disembodied spirit leaving the barely-alive car-crash victim due to a nasty prank (of course) from the girls of St Mary's in Boston (and some guys, including the gym instructor known to flirt and such with the girls). Poor Eva (Lara Lamberti; I just watched her recently as the love interest for Bruno, the musician in Lamberto Bava's "Blade in the Dark") gets possessed by Kathy (Fulci does quick cuts of Eva and Kathy walking to the front door of the college, to hammer home the spirit will be occupying Lamberti) upon introduction. I don't think we ever truly watch Eva as a person; pretty much

  Leave it to a starving stage director to exploit a wardrobe mistress's murder for publicity as the acting talent lovingly bicker, insult, and poke fun at each other with lots of catty banter and mischief before a killer from a mental hospital cell goes on a rampage inside the theater house. That owl head is one of my favorite "masks" of 80s slashers and I dig Soavi's slight synth score...he has a little jazz tinge to it and a hint of erotica, along with how the initial play was supposed to be saucy and provocative. The director is a cad, the lead right in her mix of disgust, fear, and anxiety, and the remainder of the crew and cast sort of pulled into a night of terror. I have loved this film since I first was told about it in the early 2000s as I was discovering Italian horror. The director locking his people in the building was awfully bold and appalling. An actress stabbed to death while the director calls for the killer to do it, unknowingly encouraging the act

**It was great to get captioning on Pluto TV for the film. This was such a delightful revisit**  So I used to scan my uncle's VHSs on a shelf in the late 80s, just so curious with my eyes wide at all the tapes, carefully cultivated and set up so neatly. And there it was, on a videotape alongside something with John Candy and some other early 80s scifi, or perhaps Caddyshack...Trancers. Yep, the HBO intro through the city as that music pumped my adrenaline towards the opening credits, and that Trancers score kicks up with that bright blue aesthetic...my uncle always relented and let me borrow his tapes, haha. You have that red and blue neon mixed with 30s/40s smoky film noir, with a scuzzy diner and those cars with "future architecture" and my eleven year old brain was on overload. Oh, but you add Tim Thomerson, with that scar across the face, take-no-more-shit attitude, striking that match for the cigarette (one of many smokes I'm sure he's lit in the service of a

 I'm up here in a condominium room in Destin, FL, just dead to the world. I spent a few hours in the ocean getting pummeled by heavy waves, just defying the pounding with some stupid "Bring it on you bastard." Yeah, now I feel like a few rounds with Mike Tyson. Anyway after driving around in a thunderstorm to get folks food, I collapsed on the bed with some Subway, finding Comet on the television. X-Files is on and feels like it fits Comet like a glove. Comet reminds me of Syfy when it was Sci-Fi Channel in the 90s. It was really interesting watching this on our last night on vacation before returning home, Comet on Friday in Florida, The Jersey Devil from the first season, with Mulder dealing with Atlantic City law enforcement, wanting him out of their jurisdiction. Mulder driven to get an actual sighting on the record for an actual neanderthal woman in an actual urban area of New Jersey. Scully wanting a life outside FBI work, as Mulder can't help but passionately g

 Stanley Coopersmith (Clint Howard, in one of most memorable roles) is the brunt of every kind of bullying and cruelty at the Catholic military academy for which he attends due to losing his parents to an automobile accident. Why the faculty, students, and janitor just seem hellbent on tormenting Stanley despite no warranting the kind of meanspirited energy dealt his direction isn't as important in the film as us sympathizing with the poor kid (Clint was 21 at the time but plays him younger despite balding so young and looking older than he was). Diana Prince, Darcy the Mail Girl, for Joe Bob's Last Drive-In, gets "put on the spot" to reveal why she felt Howard just seemed to be so effective as a character actor mentions the emotional vulnerability he seems to really bring to even his more disturbed characters in his resume. I think you definitely see that when Stanley gets a cooked steak from one of the few characters in the film kind to the kid: a cook named Jake (L

I have actually not watched this since 2000. Quigley fans should not get too excited. Her career showing nudity was winding down after she did a shower in Jack-O. Her role here is as support for the struggling Kyra, joining a house involving others lodging together for a type of reality show that soon falls violently apart as the rooms are weaponized with saws triggered to slice open the spirited (very enthusiastic) Tina (Promise Lamarco), or the shower burns the face of pretentious Gary (Fairlie), who loves to talk and hear himself speak, with lots of anecdotes gibberish he thinks will provide insight others consider wise while nodding in agreement. Kyra (Weber) has delusions (including that of a killer peeling his face off on television, goes to attack her with that razor, or feels across her face while encouraging her to cut on her own face or continue gathering up more folks to "freeload" before dying horribly) and body cutting issues, putting a lot of that mental deteri

I watched this in memory of Bo Hopkins, playing the chill easygoing sheriff in a California town (shot in Piru) dealing with a series of teen murders surrounding a fifteen year old named Mellissa, whose father is an archeologist (Patrick Macnee) and mother a former resident (Susan Strasberg). Dana Kimmel (Friday the 13th Part III) and Steve Antin (The Goonies) are Hopkins' teen kids. Kimmel considers herself quite the amateur detective while Antin thinks Shirley's Mellissa is trouble. Lots of fun faces in this lesser distinguished slasher such as Sharon Farrell as a state employee sweet on Hopkins, Shanks (Michael Myers in Halloween 5) as Jason Longshadow, a take-no-shit local dealing with racism thanks to the always-loud and troublesome Don Stroud (when isn't he a handful?) and his buddy, and the aforementioned Strasberg and Macnee. Farrell pressing gum-chewing windower Hopkins up against a shelf wanting to go to dinner and her place cracks me up. Hopkins does get stern wi

It really sucks when you legit graduate and before even taking the chance to focus on some potential career, the sorority house mother croaks leaving her hidden son traumatized to a psychotic break and those responsible unknowingly provoking his wrath on them. The prank gone wrong, sorority students concealing a secret death, and those involved trying to ward off a guilty conscience until a killer gets revenge on them. Katie is the one disgusted with the coverup while Vicky is ringleader who swears them to secrecy, using their certain arrest and career in peril as reasons to not go to the police. The bird handle cane, a wrapped body in the dirty pool removed, a big sorority house party, the lively rock band, a doctor's own secret, and the sisters left rocked by tragedy until each is picked off one at a time. Very much a template for so many similar slashers and Lifetime horror after. I love me some Eileen Davidson, the vamp of the sisters and McNeil (Monkey Shines) is very much her

This seems to be the case where the lunatics are running the hospital! Barbi once was Hefner's Main Squeeze and in 1981 she was on a bed being examined naked for an uncomfortably long length of time. Nurses and doctors operate with the bedside manner of serial killer sizing up the next victim. And patients just sort of mill around the hospital without a care in the world, and areas of the building almost feel like some sort of dream labyrinth. I felt that once we're in the hospital it is like this unreal nightmare where everything is off. Procedures, protocols, orders of business, and just the usual hospital machinery that runs in a fashion that makes sense is all askew. For fuck sake Barbi is never checked in, stuck in an elevator, forced to stay when she wants to leave, kept waiting for a long time, looked at intensely and examined by the staff and patients with judgy, quizzical, creepy, and untrustworthy eyes, and even physically restrained. The lunatic running around, assum

One of the most amusing aspects of the film to me is how women just keep popping up on the rented estate of a composer working on the score for a friend's horror film...a horror film with a twist that brings out the worst side of someone close to the home occupied by Bruno. It was fun to see Soavi as Tony, the son of an oil executive renting the big sprawling home and grounds. There's a perverted gardener the film throws at us as a red herring, but the obvious suspect is the other character you see from time to time not a woman getting brutally murdered. On the grounds is a nice pool, plenty of trimmed hedges, surrounding wilderness, and well mowed lawns. I read this setting was the residence of an Italian producer...good for that guy! Speaking of the estate, I think why I enjoy this as much as I do is because of how impressive the residence really is. The sprawling nature of main location real estate offers plenty of space for the killer to hide and roam about undetected, easi

There is desire all over the place, beauty and violence seemingly bound together, pent-up yearning and lust. Yep, the Euro vampire modern Gothic complete with Seyrig as Bathory (pronounced by the hotel clerk as "Battory"), wanting to make sure she remained young, eyeing Karlin and Ouimet, with her companion, Rau, on the ready to do some seducing when the time was right. Karlin's "mother" is quite the secret he's kept from his new wife, so enraged after a call with disapproving Rademakers, he takes a belt to Ouimet, resulting in nasty whelps throughout her body. Much like "Vampyrs", you would need to be very comfortable with a lot of nudity or nearly naked bodies in plentiful supply. Set in Ostend, with locations in Belgium where Kumel shoots the film, the grand hotel is as luxurious and extravagant you might expect. The enigmatic Seyrig, to me, absorbs my attention, while Ouimet is incredibly beautiful (I admittedly have a weakness for long blond h

 This was a lot of fun Friday night. A big hit, too, on the Live Discussion Joe Bob thread on the Shudder sub of Reddit. === I'm the first to admit that I'm not as wild and crazy for the stories in this omnibus as I have been for Amicus films of the past. The first about a shadmock with a very refined speech and wealth (and deadly whistle of fire) preyed upon by a greedy couple has tragedy written all over it, the second about Daddy is a Vampire and Pleasence is leader of an order of vampire hunters in pursuit of Richard Johnson's well-suited bloodsucker has a little bullied boy and Ekland as the pretty wife. The third about a growly, bushy-browed Whitman literally caught in a ghoulish village of the damned led by no-teeth Magee while looking for a location to shoot his horror film might be my favorite if just for the overwhelming synth score and atmosphere. But who am I kidding? This is about the Stevie stage rock anthem, The Stripper, with a "skeleton strip" at

I was bummed when I noticed this was set to leave Shudder a few months ago. I've come to feel this and Tenebrae just belong on Shudder. I loved when this was on the Slashics channel late at night for a week or so; I just kept it on night after night. It has really grown on me. Connelly once said on a talk show not the most kind things about it, but the plot is wacky even if I am quite fond of it's many eccentricities. You can really tell Connelly was wise beyond her years. And Dario knew the kind of photogenic power Connelly had on screen right from such a young age. I was also just thankful Dario and Donald Pleasence made a film together...and that they made this film together. An insect specialist in a wheelchair, with a beloved monkey, bonding with a bright girl, with a psychic, loving relationship with insects, two quirky but open-minded outsiders looking for a killer. I was so bummed -- and continue to be -- Pleasence is killed but that does provide incentive for the monke

Joe Bob asked Eli Roth what he thought was Fulci's best film. Roth said he felt The Beyond was Fulci's masterpiece, but also (obviously and rightfully) mentioned Zombie 2. I am on the same wavelength as Roth, though my personal favorite is Lizard in a Woman's Skin. Discussing this film during the pandemic 2021 season on Shutter, JB wanted to pluck some sense from a variety of quizzical scenes, developments, character decisions and behaviors, and dream logic mechanics of The House by the Cemetery from Roth. I think you could see that Roth loved and appreciated this but clearly understood Fulci wasn't concerned with formulating a functional rationale, opting instead to throttle us with nightmarish grisliness and a nonsensical narrative. Lassander's realtor gets it real good. The poker just bursting blood from three stabs, especially that slow motion neck gusher is epic. But my favorite is the geyser of blood spewing from the scissor-stabbed bat and ghastly bite wound

I really like the family who made this and I'm glad they got the chance to be interviewed on Joe Bob's Last Drive-In. That said, the film just didn't really connect with me personally. The mother/daughter relationship did and there are these facial changes that are freaky...I did go woah on those moments. But it was just the wrong selection after The Monster Club...this might be better if you select it later on as a lone film when interested in something different. It has its fans. During the Live Discussion on the Shudder sub, the film got a mixed reaction. The vegan keeps witches in the Catskills sane angle amused me. I just didn't quite groove to it. I'll try this again sometime.

 ...on Letterboxd, a number of reviewers commented on the long running time, which I also address... --- Yeah, not to pile on, but this can be a slog when it doesn't really need to be. There is a fun 85 minute lean cut version of this St. Louis based horror film set primarily at a notorious house with a history of violence extended perhaps because the director had a lot of footage and just wanted to get as much on screen as possible. I get that those involved wanted to provide back story and reveal details about why a family was killed by someone supposed to protect them, revelations about a particular painting, and the demonic threat almost certain to plague humankind if unleashed. What stands between that demonic threat is a teacher and his class, offered extra credit to help him set up equipment to document the inside of the infamous house. I think as a trip back to 1985, you get plenty of personality and quirks (the guy who saw the fucking severed head wears a Teacher's Pet