ATTACK OF THE BEAST CREATURES - Every now and then I find what I'm looking for. Some people in a dinghy escape a sinking cruiser and end up stranded on an island where face-melting pools of acid aren't the biggest problem. The Beast Creatures of the title are basically plastic figurines with glowing eyes who, when they come at you, look as if they've just been thrown by a crew member who's more or less kept themselves off-camera. Usually, that kind of thing can only be played for laughs; here, it's a matter of the utmost gravity! I like that. 'Attack Of The Beast Creatures', like 'The Last Slumber Party', has massive outsider charisma. Most of it is just people wandering through endless greenery - those are the best bits! I'm not really being flippant, the key ingredient that elevates this perpetual walkabout from soporific to hypnotic is the lovely, drifty, synthesiser score, which actually made me feel a bit high at points.
DEADLY DREAMS - A man whose dreams are stalked by a figure in a wolf mask suspects his friend of playing mind games when the nightmare starts to invade his waking life. 'Deadly Dreams' was a nice find, one I was unaware of prior to stumbling upon it on Youtube the other day. It's interesting in that it plays a neo-noirish scenario off against genre tropes that were popular around the time (late eighties), namely the kind of dream horror riffs that followed in the footsteps of ANOES. Whether what's going on is supernatural or psychological isn't spelled out till the nicely cynical ending, but the film is really quite gripping when it shows Mitchell Anderson in the throes of utter paranoia. Well worth a look.
FRIGHT NIGHT 2 - Charlie Brewster is back, this time on the receiving end of vampiric seduction courtesy of Julie Carmen. He's convinced it's not really happening and determined to put all this crucifix and garlic bollocks away, but Roddy McDowall knows better. Although it's not quite the measure of the original, FN2 is a fun ride and offers lots of the kind of music-video type visuals that should please fans of the eighties (rooms full of candles, mist and filtered lighting are never far from my heart). Along with all that come the expected prosthetic moments, among them an intimidating-looking vamp on skates, a couple of mushy transformations and an unexpectedly Fulci-esque geyser of maggots at the end.
THE OGRE - I remember seeing 'The Ogre' around in rental shops when I was a kid and wondering about it. It seemed to slip off my Italian horror radar till I caught up with it on Youtube (again) a couple of days ago. From Lamberto Bava, and not his crowning moment, but it's brimming with stuff that I'm into. A writer revisits the nightmares of her youth whilst on holiday in a massive castle, probably not counting on there being a cellar with a huge pulsating Cronenbergian chrysalis thing in it (there's no point asking "why?" with that one, I think they just wanted a transformation bit to cash in on 'The Fly'... or maybe 'Xtro'!) There's something of the fairy tale about it, a sort of loose 'Beauty And The Beast' theme, plenty of cheap cobwebby sets and some nice late eighties synthesiser action from maestro Simon Boswell. Makes no sense, very much enjoyed.
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