Open House Pt 5 (House: the Collection)

For a long time, it was hard to come by the films in this set, outside of the first two which were more well known. Until Arrow came along, a complete blu-ray set seemed an unlikely scenario.

Each disc comes in its own case with reversible art, one side newly created artwork for the Arrow Releases and the other side the original poster or VHS art. I admit, my preference is to the original art. The paintings are really nice, but the disembodied hand ring the doorbell is iconic.

The Box itself is sturdy, allowing for safe storage.

Each disc is loaded with extras, including bonus interviews, audio commentaries and all new documentaries for three of the films. I wish they had one for the third film. However, the Horror Show includes the American and European cuts in HD.

This is a good set, full of really good extras to let you immerse yourself in the history of each movie.

May 29, 2020 0

Open House pt 4 (House IV: The Repossession, 1992)

After the massive departure with the Horror Show (including abandoning the “House III”) Sean S. Cunningham worked with a new team to bring out House 4.

This film is an attempt to return to something closer to the first two films. This film features the “return” of Roger Cobb, again played by William Katt. Cobb and his wife are being pressured by his step-brother to sell their old house.

Roger is killed an accident that also leaves his daughter wheelchair bound. Roger’s wife Kelly wants to keep the house, but also senses a presence and sees visions. Roger’s Step Brother is in league with a sleazy business man who is looking for a place to unload his toxic waste and they want the land on which the house sits.

The odd thing with this film is that it really does not connect to the original film at all. In that film he was divorced and had a son. This film has a wife and daughter and it appears they have been happily married for over a decade. There is really nothing that indicates there is any connections between the Roger Cobb of the first House and this film.

This one has an uneven feel. There are a few instances where they aim for humor, but it still stays closer to a serious tone for most of the film. And it moves at a slow pace. Having William Katt return as Cobb is just kind of confusing.

Overall, this film has a very early Fox TV movie feel (lie, the early days of Fox when they were trying anything to make it work…like the Omen IV). This never matches up to the heights of fun absurdity of the first two films, nor the gory seriousness of the third film, and it is just a bit lackluster.

May 28, 2020 0

Open House pt 3 (House III: The Horror Show, 1989)

After the failure of House II and the collapse of New World pictures, the franchise took a bit of time off. When Sean S. Cunningham found new studio for funding, the new team wanted to give the franchise a fresh start. So in America, they called the film the Horror Show, while in Europe it would be called House III. Cunningham decided this was better than nothing.

But the end result is that there is nothing that really ties the film to the franchise. There is no house the film is centered around. Instead, the film focuses on traumatized detective Lucas McCarthy. A family man, he is overwhelmed by nightmares about Max Jenke, a notorious serial killer he put away. Okay, most of the kills happen in the house and Max’s spirit is primarily focused on the McCarthy family, but the house never feels like a center piece or character as the two prior films.

But when Jenke is put to death by electrocution, he is actually set free as a vengeful spirit and sets out to torment McCarthy.

McCarthy must try and stop Jenke, while convincing himself, the police and his family that he is not going crazy and homicidal. This film also lacks the sense of fun of the previous two entries, it’s tone dreadfully dark. I mean, Brion James turns in a wicked performance, but he is a much darker take on the Horace Pinker character, making this film a more dreary ride. Even with Lance Henrickson at the lead, it never rises above the standard fare of super natural horror. Writer Allyn Warner even took the infamous Allan Smithee credit. This one just lacks the identity of the first two films.

May 27, 2020 0

Open House Pt 2 (House II: the Second Story, 1986)

Jesse has inherited his ancestral home and finds himself drawn to the history of the structure. His girlfriend works for a sleazy music executive and so his friend Charlie arrives with his girlfriend, the singer in a band to try and get her career a boost.

Jesse discovers that his great great grandfather (for whom he is named) may have been buried with a great treasure…he and Charlie decide to go to the graveyard nearby and exhume his grandfather. When they find the treasure, it is a crystal skull…but that is not all… great great grand dad is still alive. They bring him back, and it turns out that the elder Jesse is a kindly old cowboy who explains that the house is a unique nexus of time and space. But they must protect the skull as evil seeks it out for evil’s own gain.

Each room can lead to another time and place, fraught with excitement and danger. And it is this premise that makes House II stand apart from the first film.

Rather than follow Cobb on another tale in the house, they opted to tell a stand alone tale in an all new house. The tagline was “It’s Getting Weirder” and boy how… the premise is really more of a sci-fi fantasy adventure with little horror elements. Heck the film features Jesse and Charlie acquiring a weird but cute Caterpuppy and a prehistoric baby bird.

The cast of characters are a lot of fun, especially Royal Dano as Gramps (who even gets an emotional moment when he realizes he looks more corpse than living man) and a real highlight in John Ratzenberger as Bill Tanner. The second Cheers alum in the franchise was a coincidence…but frankly it would have been a hilarious conceit to continue the trend.

The film did not do very well upon release, but found new life on TV as it was PG-13 and could actually be played virtually uncut. And the fact is, this movie is just a lot of fun. It may not be much of a horror movie, but it is funny and exciting.

May 26, 2020 0

Open House pt 1 (House, 1985)

So, in the early 80’s Sean S. Cunningham was working on expanding on his success with the Friday the 13th franchise. Teaming up with Fred Dekker (screenwriter and director of Night of the Creeps and the Monster Squad) and Ethan Wiley to make a haunted house film directed by Steve Miner (Director of Friday the 13th pt 2 and Halloween H20).

House tells the story of a popular horror writer who struggles with his post traumatic stress from his time in Vietnam. In addition, since the death of his son, his marriage has fallen apart. He decides to tackle his demons by writing a book about his time as a soldier. He inherits a house from his aunt who hung herself.

As he sets forth making the house his new home, he starts to deal with bizarre phenomenon…like monsters coming out of closets and a monster version of his ex-wife and visions of his dead son.

House is one of the more unique horror films of the mid-80’s. It is very intentionally meant to be fun. The monsters are fun old school practical, but the film never is all that scary. William Katt plays Roger Cobb serious, but with just a hint of a man wondering if he is caving in to absurdity. George Wendt (Norm from Cheers) is his neighbor Harold. Wendt is pretty open that back in 1985, his Cheers success kind of fed his ego to feel he was better than appearing in a horror film (Wendt looks back on this as foolishness on his part and feels the movie held up). This may have benefited his performance though, because he is really entertaining.

As noted, in spite of there being plenty of monsters, this film is tonally light. But it benefits the film. House is a lot of fun to watch, and overcomes any limitations of it’s budget to be a memorable time.

May 25, 2020 1

Wild Girls (Booksmart, 2019)

Raunchy teen comedies with heart are the genre people love, but often, the genre falls kind of flat, especially when they start leaning into being shocking over a soul.

Molly and Amy are studious best friends who stayed focused on their studies so they could go off to a prestigious college and get high paying jobs. But when Molly discovers that all the slacker kids who made fun of them got into the same school or other Ivy League schools, she snaps. She convinces Amy they must attend the big pre-graduation party. There is one hiccup though, they do not know the address of the party.

The film follows the girls as they keep ending up at the wrong parties and dealing with crazy situations.

The film does something clever early on. At the start, we are really led to see the girls as outcasts whose lives were ruined by the mean kids. But as the story unravels, Molly and Amy start to question their friendship, with Molly being forced to question a lot about herself. And the mean kids? Don’t turn out to be that mean. Like, Amy and Molly could have been friends with these kids if they had not actually kind of looked down on them as dumb kids going nowhere.

When they get to the party, I kept waiting on a cliche that never came. I kept waiting for the scene where the mean kids humiliate them…and instead, the story flips it on it’s head. The heart of their friendship and self discovery takes over, rather than worrying about being outrageous.

Beanie Feldstein manages to really come close to the line of being obnoxious without actually crossing it, so Molly is flawed but still sympathetic. Kaitlyn Dever has the role that gives her an extra edge for being likable, as she is the straight man much of this film. But together, they really connect.

I really enjoyed Booksmart and am looking forward to Olivia Wilde’s upcoming career as a director.

May 22, 2020 0

The Family That Wrestles Together (Fighting With My Family, 2019)

Fighting With My Family is the story of wrestler Paige. Coming from a lower class family obsessed with wrestling, Zayara and Zak dream of the big time wrestling. When they try out for WWE, only Zayara is selected, crushing her brother. But when she tells him she won’t go, he lets her know he cannot take this away from her.

And so, Fighting With My Family takes us on Zayara’s journey to becoming the WWE Diva Paige.

As someone who has little knowledge of Wrestling beyond knowing who the Rock is, I cannot verify the accuracy of the film. What I can confirm is that this is a fun film with a lot of heart. Florence Pugh is incredibly sympathetic and lovable. The film does not make her pure of heart, she learns some hard lessons, like not seeing the other women as enemies. As she grows, she pulls others with her.

The relationship that becomes most strained is Paige and her brother Zak. He struggles with the idea that he cannot be where she is at. And it drives him away from everything good in his life for a time. The Rock is charming as usual.

This is a good little inspirational sports film worth a watch.

May 21, 2020 0

Same Old Story (Long Shot, 2019)

Have you heard about this movie where the schlubby guy hooks up with a hot chick out of his league? You know…the plot of, like, 77% of rom-coms? I mean…Seth Rogan? He is a type…

Rogan is Fred Flarsky, a lefty journalist who finds himself out of a job when his paper is bought by Parker Wembly (an unrecognizable Andy Serkis as a Rupert Murdoch type media mogul). At a party, he runs into his old baby sitter Charlotte Field, about to enter the ring as a presidential candidate.

Charlotte hires him to punch up her speeches and slowly, the pair find themselves falling for each other, in spite of the fact that her staff think this is a very bad idea, mainly because… well, Fred is a potential liability. He is a casual drug user, he has no filter and well…there is more.

And really? In the hands of less talented a less talented creative team and cast? This might have been an embarrassment of cliches. I mean, this film certainly follows all the tropes, right to the end. And yet, I never found myself caring. The film is funny, the characters endearing…I rooted for them to succeed. Theron and Rogan are great and I did not find myself questioning what she could see in him.

Long Shot is a terrific comedy that shows that you can actually follow the Rom Com template and make a very entertaining film.

May 20, 2020 0

Imitation of Life (Scoob!, 2020)

So, originally, May was bringing the first theatrical Scooby Doo film in over a decade. Thanks to a Pandemic (and no doubt a hope by the studio to replicate the success of Trolls World Tour on VOD) it is instead reaching us in our homes.

Opening with a tale of how the gang met, the film jumps to the present, where an investor wants to financially support the Mystery Inc gang…as long as they leave out Shaggy and Scooby. Before the gang knows what is happening, Scooby and Shaggy run off on their own. When the two are attacked by robots, they are rescued by the Blue Falcon and his trusty partners Deedee and Dynomutt.

At first the duo are thrilled at the idea of hanging out with their favorite super-hero, but as Scooby seems to be drawn towards the Falcon’s adventure, Shaggy starts to become jealous. At the same time the Blue Falcon is doubting himself as a hero, fearing he can never match up to his father, the previous Blue Falcon. All the while the rest of the gang is trying to locate Scooby and Shaggy before the villain Dick Dastardly does so that he can unveil his evil master plan.

Scoob! is entertaining, though probably, kids will enjoy it far more than adults. The plot gets a little convoluted, eschewing the traditional Scooby Doo format of a simple mystery that needs unmasking and goes for a big and over the top plot. It is pretty clear that part of the purpose of Scoob! was to set up a Hannah-Barbara extended universe of films. And that sometimes overtakes the film. Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley are here…we meet Captain Caveman and the end credits suggest future appearances by characters such as Jabberjaw and Atom Ant.

The film is trying really hard to be current and hip, which generally fails to work. I watched Scoob! with my nephews. They actually liked the film…but when we are introduced to the Blue Falcon, he dabs. My nine year old nephew states (and this is a direct quote) “He dabbed!!! That is SO SAD!!!! Nobody dabs anymore!”

Another area that hurt the film for me a bit was the voice cast. Since the death of Casey Kasem, Matthew Lillard has provided the voice of Shaggy. And he really is the voice (and managed to really capture the feel in the live action films as well). Grey Delisle Griffin has been the voice of Daphne Blake for nearly twenty years. I get that they are trying to be a new youthful take, but kids don’t see movies for the voice actors. And no disrespect is meant to Will Forte…but the end result here is that Shaggy sounds like someone trying to approximate the sound of Shaggy. I feel like it is a bit of a loss on our part that Lillard and DeLisle Griffin were not invited to return. It is pretty clear both love the characters and that is just missing here. While it is very clear they were disappointed, both actors have responded with a lot of grace.

One thing I did really like is the basic animation style. It walks a nice line of bringing the 2D animation to life. I really enjoy how they recreated the original opening Scooby Doo, Where Are You? title opener in the new style, so we get some fun throwbacks to the classic Scooby Doo monsters. And there is some neat 2D art used with the end credits.

Overall, Scoob! is not a disaster, but it is a whole more likely to entertain kids more than those with affection for the classic mystery solving team.

May 18, 2020 0

Soldiers for Life (VFW, 2020)

When a young woman runs into their VFW with a bag of stolen drugs a group of veterans find themselves have to fight vicious drug addicts hell bent on getting the drugs back.

I don’t have a lot to say here. The main draw is a really good cast of “Old Tough Guys” and George Wendt (who is a great actor, just not known for his tough guy roles). It is a pretty standard siege movie along the lines of an Assault on Precinct 13.

This is a violent and bloody film, but does a good job leaning into it’s tropes and not worrying too much about being some sort of heady exploration of themes. You just watch this for a wild and crazy action flick.

May 15, 2020 0