Summer of 84

Well Kiddies, I know that I keep saying that I will make it to Sundance eventually but that day has yet to come, and …well I have to be honest with you I am for more interested in the flicks than the events. There are some amazing flicks despite the fact that festivals are notoriously biased against genre films. 

That being said there are often some genre flicks and usually I hear of them. The Alamo Drafthouse is great at arranging limited screenings and often times will even arrange their programming around a particular film. As was the case this summer with the Sundance hit “Summer of 84”. 

After seeing the movies that the Alamo was showing to aid us in remembering the Summer of Return of the Jedi…No they could not show that flick, The films included naturals like Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Footloose and to more obscure titles like BMX Bandits for last months AGFA. 

Summer of 84 came to The Alamo for a limited release at the Irving location, so off I went to check it out. 

Basically in the darker tradition of The Goonies, and The Monster Squad premise this flick is the basic plot line of “The Monster Next Door” our main character begins through a series of coincidences to suspect that his police officer neighbor is the serial killer that is stalking the children in the local area, Assembling his quartet of friends and beginning their own investigation into these crimes. 

Taking place in the titular summer of 1984 the film manages to create the nostalgic feel while not going the cheesy route that other  80s period films entail, while also creating a Bradbury like community and science of isolation the film at many times feels predictable but leads to a direction that many will not see coming, as well as a darker tone.

With a Carpenter like synthesized score the flick adds suspense and Drama where it needs them to be and Jump scares in all the right places. 

I can see why this would have simply a limited release but will soon be found on the streaming services and will find it’s audience there. 

2 Dead Bodies

1 Breast 

1 Beast

2 Gallons of Blood 

1 Broken leg

Gratuitous girl watching 

Gratuitous 6th Grade Humor 

Gratuitous family fighting 

3 ½ Stars 

Check it out 

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs

There are times in life that you just can’t relive. Sure you can take pictures and watch recordings of the experience, but that does not match the real time. Last weekend was one of those events.

To tell you about it first I have to take you back to my youth. In what many would consider the early days of the internet, not to mention “The Dial-Up Years”. One of my greatest memories of this time is the late nights on TNT.TURNER.COM/MONSTERVISION  playing “Find That Flick” among other activities on the website and in the chatroom with other fans. All of this while watching the late night double feature of Monstervision all hosted by one of my hometown heroes John Bloom, better known as his alter egos Joe Bob Briggs.

After the cancelation of Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theatre on The Movie Channel the program was quickly picked up by TNT and became a late night staple as viewers watched the antics of the host and his mail girl along with the crew. Enjoying gimics like Summer School where viewers were given quizzes on the website in relevance to the film that was viewed and featured guest lectures from actors in the flick. Joe Bob’s Last Call, and the Halloween weekend marathons where Joe Bob and his crew were stalked by a maniacal Ted Turner or the search for The Nair Witch.

Without warning in the height of the popularity of the show Monstervision was abruptly canceled by TNT, The first victim of the AOL merger and the change in format of TNT. Viewers were informed of this after logging on to the website to see an official statement by the network. Overnight Monstervision was gone without a finale leaving viewers asking the simple question…Where was Joe Bob?

While many of us were now without our Saturday night hero, Joe Bob was not hard to find. Soon DVDs were released with commentary tracks by the former host and Joe Bob frequently appeared at many conventions and festivals, but the question remained. Will there be another Monstervision? Viewers longed for the trailer and to enjoy a “Long Neck” while hearing of The Drive-In Totals, and to be delivered by the Mail Girl letters form inmates at various correctional facilities that wrote sent letters and later exclaimed the Joe Bob got them through that time.

The answer to these questions came in the announcement from Joe Bob and Shudder.

Joe Bob was back for The Last Drive-In; a 24 Hour Marathon on Friday the 13th where Joe Bob will host 13 flicks “Monstervision Style” where he will interrupt the flick every now and then to give his opinions on the flick as will as give some facts about what was seen, and Joe Bob was off to the promotional tour with appearances on popular podcasts, websites and personal appearances hosting films at specialty theatres around the country.

My home away from home, aka Richardson’s Alamo Drafthouse was the location of the Screening of the 1980s Cult Classic The original Sleepaway Camp featuring a similar intro by Joe Bob in which our audience was treated to a rant about the drama involving transgender restrooms. Needless to say it was a hell of a night.

Now this is where I have my own rant about Shudder. You see Shudder was not prepared for this kind of fan base and on the long awaited night of the screenings, well…WE CRASHED THE SERVERS!!!

Now while I was able to quickly troubleshoot this problem by constantly refreshing there were many of us that were not too fortunate. Needless to say this was not the fault of Joe Bob Briggs and I do give credit to Shudder for their handling of the situation.

Now this issue aside this 24 Hr marathon did indeed remind me of tho old days where I would spend the evenings watching Joe Bob and the fact that I was on Twitter and Instagram the whole time. As a matter of fact with the uncensored content of the films I considered this to be Monstervision Unrated!

While there were no commercials the Joe Bob segments interrupted the flicks with a static channel change effect, giving us the illusion that Joe Bob was hacking the website to give us facts about the films and I have to say that I loved these segments more for this reason.

Cosplayer Diana Prince took over the Mail girl Role, and I did briefly meet her in her appearance at the Alamo she seemed nice and polite but taking into consideration that in this case this role is more ceremonial as it made myself and others on social media long for Honey, or my personal favorite Rusty. Who I am sure have since have moved on from the role decades later.

That being said Diana added a new freshness to the role as she appeared in every Mail Call segment wearing a different costume in relevance to the film that was being shown.

Like many times before The Last Drive-In featured guest appearances relevant to a couple of the flicks. Starting with an appearance by Sleepaway Camp Star Felecia Rose giving her own facts and experiences working on the film and her chemistry with Joe Bob added to the humor and was a great way to start the night. I would like to talk about her “confrontation” with The Mail Girl but that would contain spoilers for those of you that have not seen the flick.

Personally I  admit that the appearance by my friend Cryptozoologist and Ghoultown frontman Lyle Blackburn during the showing of The Legend of Boggy Creekwas my favorite part of the marathon. Seeing Joe Bob express his theory of the identity of The Fouke Monster with Lyle alone was enough, but when they had their own rendition of the Travis Crabtree “Ballad” from the film had many of us singing along despite ourselves.

When it finally came down to the final film Joe Bob selected the cult Hit Pieces due to his personal history of the film.

Emotions ran high as Joe Bob opened the flick talking about his recently departed friend and original horror host John Zacherle and became emotional speaking about his history and the tremendous respect he had for the man.

Fans fought back tears as Joe Bob closed the program thanking the fans who reached out to him and reminded us as the lights went out on The Last Drive-In. The credits rolled as Joe Bob sat in his chair in the dark after his trademark closing reminding us the “The Drive-In will Never Die”.

The Last Drive-In can be seen by Shudder Subscribers on Shudder.com and the Amazon channel.

By the way it was just announced that like the villains  that we frequently seen in the genre that Shudder is in fact bring Joe Bob back for another marathon. This in fact proves that not only The Drive-In but Joe Bob Briggs will never Die!

Deep Blue Sea 2

There are some things that are better left alone, there are some flicks that are great Stand Alone stories…Basically that means that a sequel is unnecessary.

Deep Blue Sea is one of those films.

Released in 1999 The Rennie Harlan classic is regarded by many as “The Greatest Non-Jaws Shark Movie”. Telling the story of Genetic altered Maco Sharks and their intended victims, including then relatively unknown actors Thomas Jane, Saffron Burrows, with LL Cool J and Samual L. Jackson I’m memorable roles that are still relevant in our pop culture.

Well the folks at Warner Brothers decided that the franchise needed to continue because…well the direct to video market does not have enough flicks for your on demand watchlist.

Deep Blue Sea 2 which was released in April is a sequel in title alone and taking into consideration that the first film isn’t referenced is far more remake/reboot than anything else.

Like it’s predecessor DBS2 the plot follows a pharmaceutical company that has experimented on The brains of Sharks to find the cure to brain detonation and in the Murphy Law of a genre film leads to a group of survivors trying to escape their under the sea prison while being stalked by angry carnivorous fish.

Now there are some differences and twists. In the original flick the Sharks were macos and the threats weee their speed. In this entry the villainous breed are Bull Sharks chosen for their aggressiveness.

The other twist in this flick is that our female shark gives birth to a litter of small sharks that behave more like a school of piranha therefor no place is safe.

This sequel feels more like a pilot for a TV series version of the original film. Clearly a fraction of the budget of it’s predecessor and lacking of Star Power like Samuel L. Jackson as well as characters like Preacher, the film barely allows for any real character development and this is due to the fast paced story and the blink and you will miss the character.

The film also lacks Harlin’s direction.

The lower budget is shown is in the lack of kills. While there are some great and original kills most often the characters are either taken out off camera or are dragged under the water and blood surfaces.

All that said On the positive note the film does make for an entertaining SYFY original movie type of flick if you can avoid comparing it to the original flick and we are shown the Real Human villain of the flick to add interest to the story as well as some creepy sequences involving the Sharks peeking into windows and eavesdropping on the conversation…Where they learned English? I don’t want to know!

There is an interesting James Bond like opening credits scene and the ending reeks of the original Piranha.

All in all it’s an OK flick but not worthy of it’s title.tures

Blu-Ray Features include two Behind the scenes, Deleted Scenes and an Outtake Reel.


8 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
5 Sharks
10 Killer Baby Sharks
1 Head Biting
2 Biting in Half
2 Severed Faces
Shoe Fu
Human Fu
Drone Fu

2 Stars

Check it out!

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www.videocreep.com

Encounter with The Unknown

I can’t believe that I am saying this but I think I like Amazon Prime’s streaming service better than the others because they have the rarer gems.

There are also flicks that are just plain nostalgic.

Now what I am here to talk about tonight is a rare gem from 1972 titled Encounter with the Unknown.

I am not going to go into too much detail about my personal history of this flick but I will say that it creeped the hell out of me when I was a kid.

First off what sold me on the film was on the cover was none other than Mr. Rod Serling himself credited as the narrator and I immediately thought Twilight Zone…though the film is far more Night Gallery.Actually to be honest to you other than the voice over work Serling had really nothing more to do with this flick. As a matter of fact he isn’t even the only narrator in the movie, More on that later.

This flick helmed by Harry Thomason  is an Anthology film that details some of the stories in a cemetery in an unknown location and while the film takes a scientific approach as we are informed of the studies of Parapsychologist Dr. Jonathan Rankin revealing that he has linked various paranormal phenomena and certain cemeteries across the country and these tales are all contained in this particular graveyard.

This is when Serling takes over the narration in his own twilight zone fashion.

The first tale is of a seemingly innocent prank that ended in tragedy with the unintended death of the victim and the mother cursing the three that she sees as responsible, telling them of the heptagon and “seven times around go the three of you and may your award be just and true”.

What follows is a airplane confession to a traveling priest from one of the three telling of the tragedy and the death of one of them seven days later.

Now this tale is creepy and when I first saw the flick and the constant imagery of The Mother’s curse and her face particularly the eyes…It added some further atmosphere to the story.

The next tale follows a boy searching for his lost dog and while searching finds a hole in the ground with an unearthly growling coming from inside. Needless to say the father and some of the local men including The Sheriff investigate with disastrous results and proving the theory that sometimes you don’t have to see to be scared.

Our third tale is a retelling of “The Girl on the Bridge” aka “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” with Playboy Playmate Rosie Holotic in the title role. Holotic was known for other genre works including Don’t Look in the Basement.

This interpretation of the famous ghost story spends a great amount of time with our Hitchhiker showing her story of love, loss, and the ultimate tragedy and fate of all involved that ultimately makes the tale hard to watch due to the fact that we know early on the outcome of the story.

Now this is where I talk about the end of the film where another narrator takes over for Serling and examines all three stories and their meanings and tries to explain the logical and supernatural explanations. This narrator is implied to be Dr. Rankin who was established earlier to be deceased himself and remains uncredited.

Now I will come forward to state that I do believe this unknown and uncredited Voice to be None other than Dana Andrews.

Now many have complained of the use of repeats in the film as many believe that it was used to expand the films running time and added much redundancy to the film. Now I state that that did not bother me as much because in many ways it added to the creepiness and tragedy to many of the stories. Also bear in mind that this was an often used narrative during this film’s production era and adds to the nostalgia.

Now the film’s use of many often seen character actors as well as it’s production technique does give the flick it’s regional feel as one of the Southern Exploitation of the time.

Nice pick in the cemetery for the location.

This is also a flick that you can watch during he day and still be creeped out.

I agree with some sites that this flick should be screened with Legend of Boggy Creek and Town that Dreaded Sundown or with some episodes of Night Gallery or In Search Of.

The Strangers: Prey at Night

I love advance screenings simply because I feel that I can give all of you an advance notice of where to spend your money on the weekends and this week was no exception and I decided to check out Lewisville’s newest Movie Place The Coyote Drive-In over on Hwy 121 for an Early showing of The Strangers:Prey at Night.

First off these advance screenings have tight security and I unfortunately understand why. With advances in technology the movie can be on the file share sites before you know it and…that ruins it for everyone. As a result the studios didn’t want us in our cars for this show and had us all placed in chairs in front of the screen on a lawn. Well you had to bring your own chair and blanket.

I did not receive this memo from the boys at GoFobo.

Thank You to the folks at The Coyote who not only gave me a lawn chair that you would reserve they even carried it to the lawn for me, and when I told them that I was going to my car to get a warmer coat they saw that I was walking with a cane and had quite a way to go across the field, even had one of their guys give me a lift in a golf cart! Needless to say It was appreciated.

That is service as well as quite an experience as well. With it being a Drive-In Theatre there is a nice retro vibe from a era many thought was gone and never to return while also giving a modern approach.

The popcorn was excellent! They also have a Pepsi mix fountain and a full bar. I will have to try the rest of the offerings in the restaurant at a later time.

Now on to the Flick!

The Terror Trio of Sadistic Psychos are back! This time with 47 Meters Down director Johannes Roberts taking the helm from Bryan Bertino who remained on as writer with Ben Ketai.

After their horrific attack in the original 2008 film they have a new set of targets, including Mad Men star Christina Hendricks, and The Ring’s Martin Henderson as their intended victims.

Following a distinctions family that is in the process of taking the daughter to a boarding school, which this is against her wishes as well as a brother that is forced to come along, our set of parents plan to stay the night at an empty trailer park managed by their Aunt. Well you can assume what happens next. It however does not go the way you will expect.

Like it’s decade old predecessor focuses more on it’s Darkness and suspense than it does on jump scares and gore…That being said it does follow the basic sequel rules being that there is more gore and a bigger body count.

Also like the previous flick…Someone went to “The John Carpenter Film School”. From the music that made me think of The Fog to a scene that made me reminisce about Christine. Not to mention a part that made me think of the late Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

All that aside this flick is your Basic Slice and Dice and does not break any real ground but is still a great time to be had and I will recommend watching in a full Theatre.

7 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
3 Beasts
2 car chases with multiple Crashes
Throat Slashing
Multiple Stabbings
Beatings
Shootings
Burnings
Impaleings

Gratuitous 80s Soundtrack
Trailer Park Fu
Stranger Fu

Netflix and Chills: Jeepers Creepers 3

Okay Kiddies The Creeper is back!!!

Now you ask why am I so excited well it’s been too long and I didn’t think that there was going to be a sequel since the last time we saw The flying People Eater he had gone back into his slumber for 23 years, which left us wondering will we have to wait until then till we see him.

In the new millennium we had a severe lack of a good Boogeyman. While we still had the remakes and the Devil’s Rejects films the classics did rear their heads around occasionally.

The truth is that I liked the flicks. Jeepers Creepers became a staple of AMC Fear Fest in October but it was noticeably absent this year because they were airing on SyFy’s “31 Days of Halloween”. Which I was surprised about and then I saw that the flick had debuted part 3.

I have to admit that I was not too happy about this development as that sometimes means that the movie is not too good but that has changed in recent years. Well you know what they say don’t judge a book by it’s cover and this flick is no exception.

Here is the cool part. 3 takes place between 1 and 2 and follows another group in a different area terrorized by The Creeper during his time awake, Not to mention that it picks up where the first flick leaves off.

Jonathan Breck also returns as The Creeper.

Now what makes this flick different is the fact that we follow a group of survivors from the Creepers rampage 23 Years earlier especially Gaylen Brandon, played by genre favorite Meg Foster, as she struggles to keep her grand daughter from meeting the same fate as her own father during The Creepers previous rampage years earlier. Gaylen also shares a physic link to both The Creeper and her dead son.

While this storyline is going on we also see the authorities in pursuit of The Creepers truck that we discover is laced with various boobytraps seeking to both keep The Creepers meals safe…I feel the need to mention also that the Damned thing moves by itself.

This flick was not bad though I have to admit that I expected more after the 12 years since part 2 but I was still not disappointed and I do look forward to another entry in the near future.

A good Pizza and Beer flick!

11 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
1 Creeper
1 Ghost
1 Demonic Truck
1 Psychic Severed Hand
1 Car Chase with 2 Crashes
Severed Arms
Double Body Impaling
Head impaling
Axe to the Face

3 Stars

Check it out and have a round for me.

At the Alamo: Bomb City

I have been reflecting much on my Past in the recent years…Well taking into consideration all that has been happening. I remember when I was a senior in High school during the Holiday season of 1997 when my focuses were on my performance in the winter Drama play, as well as the events and responsibilities of becoming 18 years (not to mention being constantly reminded that I was now to be tried as an adult). Despite all of this I did hear about an event in Amarillo.

Learning of the murder of Brian Deneke caught my attention due to the circumstances of the tragedy. While I was not too into the Punk subculture I did in fact have friends that were and I did at times witness what they went through in the hazing and bulling from the more affluent types.

What would turn out to be the more disturbing aspect of this tragedy is the leniency of the jury and justice system on the killer which caused an uproar in many communities years before Affluenza became a title.

Not too much was said about this case with the exception of an episode of City Confidential and a few videos and some interviews from Marlyn Manson on the subject.

Recently we have seen the release of Bomb City which is a dramatization of the events leading up to the tragic event. Focusing on Deneke and his relationships with his friends and family in flashbacks during the trial of Dustin Camp.

There are parts of this flick that are hard to watch in the fact that you are also shown the biased position the authorities show “The Whitecaps” as opposed to their treatment of “The Punks”.

Now this is where I commend Glen Morshower as the defense attorney who bashed the lifestyles of the victims and their families while commending the murderer and his friends. His performance was great in the fact that myself and my friend that was with me wanted to jump into the flick and punch him in the face.

Despite the fact that this is a hard flick to watch due to the fact that the disturbing events happens I do recommend that you check it out.