Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Late Night with the Devil is not just bullshit; it’s Penn & Teller: Bullshit-worthy bullshit. Most movies are bad because they lack quality; this one is bad because it lacks scruples and moral fiber. It is as spurious as the supernatural claims it supports, and as devious (and thank God, as sloppy) as the con...

Monster Mash (2024)

Any movie called Monster Mash is obviously not meant to be taken or to take itself seriously; still, this is not nearly as much fun as a movie called Monster Mash ought to be, mainly because it doesn’t know whether it wants to be homage or parody.  Dr. Frankenstein (Michael Madsen) sends his monster, Boris...

The Haunting of Morella (1990)

This movie claims to be “Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunting of Morella.” That is, in one word, horseshit; Poe never wrote anything with that title any more than he wrote the epigraph that opens the film: “And the ghostly winds whispered but one sound upon my tortured ears—Morella...evermore.”  The actual quote, “The winds of the...

Island of the Dolls (2023)

Island of the Dolls is “based” on the “true story” (uh-huh) of Adrian (Howard J. Davey), who in the mid-1950s found the drowned body of a little girl named Josie. Adrian buried her, whereupon “he was haunted by her spirit.” Why? Who knows? Maybe he accidentally buried her alive.   Adrian “attempted to appease [Josie] with...

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Lisa Frankenstein is a suitable title. Not because this is a Mary Shelley rip-off (which it only ever so slightly is), but because it has been made with parts from many other stories — some better, such as The Monkey’s Paw, Pet Sematary, Hellraiser, The Phantom of the Opera (the Lon Chaney version, natch), Return of...

Frankenhooker (1990)

Is Frankenhooker a quirky meditation on sex, drugs and gender roles, featuring modest but well-realized special effects and a few passages of superbly written dialogue? Or a cheap excuse for gratuitous nudity and cartoon violence? Like the title character, it’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, all barely held together with...

The Pumpkin Man (2023)

The Pumpkin Man’s tagline is “Some tales are better left untold!” This movie leans dangerously toward being one such tale; on the other hand, with so many unworthy low- and high-budget horror flicks getting made and released, just to find one that doesn’t abuse CGI (or, for that matter, that hardly uses it) is in and...

History of Evil (2024)

According to History of Evil’s opening intertitle, 20 years from now the U.S. will become a “neo-fascist state known as the North American Federation.” I guess that means Trump got re-elected. Technically, the United States already is a federation (the oldest surviving one, in fact), but that makes no difference because this movie isn’t really...

Double Blind (2023)

As Nightmare on Elm Back Streets go, Double Blind is somewhat similar to Awoken. It's also smarter, although I’m not sure dog shit is the standard of intelligence against which you’d want to be measured.   Instead of a supernatural entity, the bogeyman this time is the pharmaceutical industry — because all prescription drugs are...