Halloween is right around the corner, and I’ve been averaging a horror/exploitation/trash movie about every other day for the month of October. Hopefully I can remember most of them…

1. Demons
Italian horror from the mid-80s. Some people get invited to a free screening of a movie, but something is wrong. A woman puts on a demon mask and is possessed. Everyone she attacks turns into demons and no one can get out of the theater. There are some pretty great gore scenes and a heavy metal soundtrack. I watched this a few weeks ago, because my friend Kyle needed to see the scene with the Accept song. The scene in question might be the most “Heavy Metal” scene from any movie ever. Dude rides a dirtbike (metal) through a movie theater, chopping the heads off demons (metal) with a sword (metal), all while “Fast as a Shark” by Accept is blasting. I challenge you to find something more metal than that.

2. Alucarda
My band had a horror movie night a few weeks ago. We decided to spin this little gem from Mexico. Alucarda was directed by Juan López Moctezuma, a friend and collaborator of Jodorowsky, if that gives you any insight. It features some of my favorite Satanic scenes in film, including a great scene where the possessed girls call fire down upon the convent. Tons of screaming.

3. Rana: The Legend of Shadow Lake.
I watched this at the Cinema Wasteland Convention. I didn’t watch any other films there, which is kind of weird, since I was there for all three days. It was pretty bad, but fun to watch in a room full of people. There’s an ancient monster in the lake and he is pissed about people stealing his gold.

4. Street Trash
I watched this with mybecause he hadn’t seen it. He was stoked. Now that I’ve seen it about a 1/2 dozen times, it’s starting to come together a little. There is this booze on sale, but there’s something wrong with it. When people drink it, they blow up. There is also this crazy Vietnam vet living in the junkyard with a bunch of other bums. He has flash backs and kills people. There is a crazy cop trying to catch him. There is this other kid who lives in the junkyard, too. The receptionist is nice to him. The girlfriend of the mob boss is killed in the junkyard. He is pissed. Uhh…and that’s just the beginning. Nothing like a feature film with no discernible main plot, just a bunch of very loosely connected side plots. Eat your heart out Tarantino…

5. Wham! Bam! Thank You Spaceman!
70s softcore comedy featuring some randy aliens who want to populate the earth by impregnating earth chicks. Features Nazi-explotation stalwart, Dyanne Thorn, aka Ilsa Shewolf of the SS doing an alien. “Sexy”? Definitely worth owning for the title alone.

6. Halloween II.
Michael Myers is still alive and he’s still fucking up Haddonfield and we still can’t kill him and Donald Pleasance is loosing his fucking mind over it and we still can’t kill him. I mean we put six bullets in him and he’s still not dead. Lady gets boiled in a hot tub! Michael Myers is burned alive. Fun stuff.

7. Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
Well..Michael Myers is dead (or is he [cue maniacal laughter])…and there aren’t any witches in it. Who buys fake vomit, blue mouth gum, red pepper candy, fake doggie doo, and that weird “smoke from your fingers” shit? Why, kids do! Well Silver Shamrock novelty company has a really weird business plan this Halloween. They make masks to kill kids. It’s kind of weird, because they are going to put their company out of business and ruin a bunch of people’s nights and not really gain anything. They’re just EVIL. Pretty cool flick though. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. At the time, I was too pissed about the lack of Michael Myers to fully enjoy its weirdness.

8. John Carpenter’s The Thing
Remake of the 50s movie in name only. This is one of those rare occasions where the remake is way better than the original film. There are some great gore scenes in the film and it features diabetes testing supplies guru and quaker oatmeal expert Wilford Brimley as a crazy mutherfucker. Some researchers unearth an alien spaceship. Alien can the form of anything it interacts with. Scary stuff.

9. They Live.
A bunch of crazy shit happens. There are some fights. People wear sunglasses.

10. 30 Days of Night
Some vampires fuck up an Alaskan town in the Arctic circle. I liked it, although it is a bit slow in the middle. I think they could have cut about 20+ minutes and had a much tighter film. The gore/special effects were primarily CGI, but looked pretty gnarley. I was really excited for this, as I’m a fan of the graphic novels. I wasn’t disappointed. For theatrically released horror this year, I’m still going with Halloween as my favorite.

11. Black Roses
An evil band from hell turns a small town’s children into satan worshiping, parent killing, maniacs. Lots of dudes turn into crazy puppet demon things. Carmine Appice plays drums for the band, which was kind of cool. The sountrack is a strange combination of score that sounds like it was taken from a disney live action movie and heavy metal. At any moment, it feels like it could break out into a musical, then the heavy metal comes blaring. The soundtrack feature originals by the Black Roses plus songs by Bang Tango, Lizzy Borden, Tempest, and Hallow’s Eve. I guess the soundtrack was released on Metal Blade.

12. Rock n Roll Nightmare
Same director as Black Roses. This time Jon Mikl Thor aka THOR is an archangel, but he pretends to be in the band. The band goes to this secluded place to work on their new album. The devil tries to kill them all and Thor reveals himself and goes to war with the devil. More crazy ass puppets and ridiculous music. Fun stuff.

13. Transylmania
I don’t know if I’m allowed to write about this or not. I got passes to a sneak preview of this movie. I guess it is a horror sequel to the National Lampoon’s Dorm Daze series. It was pretty painful, but the guy that was in Cabin Fever was pretty funny.

14. Redsin Tower
Redsin Tower is the first mainstream horror film by Pittsburgh Gore freaks, Toe Tag Pictures. I was very excited to see it, as I am a fan of their simulated snuff trilogy, August Underground. I managed to catch Redsin Tower at it’s premiere at Cinema Wasteland last plus and again at the Pittsburgh premiere. It’s a great little horror flick with awesome special effects. It definitely holds up on DVD.

I’m sure I’ll pack a few more in over the next couple days, so I’ll post messages as their viewed.