Review – Madhouse

Alas, poor Vincent Price. Stuck in another crappy horror movie. This time around he's playing a washed-up fright flick star whose career was ruined when he either killed or didn't kill his fiancée. But when he attempts to make a comeback by taking a role akin to the kind he used to play, the low-budget production's body count starts to mount. Have his inner demons returned? Is someone else committing the crimes and framing him for them? Does it really make much of a difference? Mildly amusing

Review – Innerspace

In general I enjoy director Joe Dante' work, but something about this one just leaves me cold. Perhaps it's that plot-wise this is a sitcom version of Fantastic Voyage. A ne'er-do-well Air Force pilot (Dennis Quaid) takes the helm of an Explorers-looking pod that's miniaturized for experimental injection into a rabbit. But thanks to some meddling industrial spies, he ends up injected into a neurotic grocery clerk (Martin Short). Some of the effects work is kinda cool, but it can't overcome the production's overall silliness. Mildly amusing

Review - Fame (1980)

Looking back from the age of American Idol, it's funny how almost sweet and innocent this seems. To be sure, any movie about fame-hungry teenagers is going to feature a hefty dose of self-important desperation. But there' also a measure of likability thanks to characters who have at least some dimension. I'd worry that my mercy to this cliché-ridden musical was prompted by nostalgia, as I was a teen myself back when this came out. But then I never saw it until years later, and I don’t particularly miss the era as a whole. Mildly amusing

Review – Scarecrows

A squad of douchebag criminals ends up stranded in the middle of nowhere after one of their number double-crosses them and absconds with their loot. So it's their dumb luck that the nowhere they end up in the middle of happens to be inhabited by evil scarecrows. But honestly the scarecrow element doesn't really play much of a role. They might just as easily have been killer traffic signs or satanic desk accessories. No matter what guise the forces of darkness adopt, their MO is always the same: slaughter the douchebags while they bicker among themselves. See if desperate

Review – Donovan's Brain

Funny how the word "brain" in a movie title is an almost infallible indication that it's going to be a mad scientist picture. And this one certainly doesn't disappoint on that count. An expert in keeping brains alive after death finally gets what he's been wanting – a human subject – almost literally dropped in his lap when the freshly-dead body of a plane crash victim is brought to his isolated desert lab. Things go wrong when 1. the donor turns out to have been an evil man and 2. The brain has the psychic ability to assume control over the doctor's will and force him to misbehave. The concept is clever enough, and the actors – even the future Nancy Reagan – do what they can to overcome the picture's relatively low budget. Mildly amusing

Review – Night of the Scarecrow

Thanks to an infestation by the evil spirit of a long-dead Satanist, this thing is scaring more than crows. Indeed, he's taking revenge on the descendants of the townsfolk who imprisoned him in limbo centuries earlier. The production banks on its ability to impress audiences with bush league gore and a smattering of cheap sex. In other words, it's fairly indistinguishable from hundreds of other movies of similar ilk. Mildly amusing

Review – Catacombs

For a movie about demonic infestation, this one’s remarkably calm. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the evil spirit chained up in the basement, this monastery would be an ordinary, everyday community of religious men. But then a female teacher shows up to do some research, the demon gets loose, and things go downhill from there. The natural-to-the-verge-of-dull atmosphere made the supernatural intrusion more effective than it would otherwise have been. It’s a shame more low-budget horror filmmakers don’t take advantage of this simple trick. Mildly amusing