We’re wrapping up our December of Holiday Horror with three more holiday-themed scare classics, starting with our final Christmas outing, “Christmas Bloody Christmas” (2022). Then we’ll ring in the new year with “Ghostkeeper” (1981) and “New Year’s Evil” (1980).
Then, we’ll switch back to our regular non-holiday format with two new releases, “Heretic” and “Street Trash,” both released fairly recently.
And, of course, we have five excellent short films for you!
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Mainstream Films:
2022 Christmas Bloody Christmas
· Directed by Joe Begos
· Written by Joe Begos
· Stars Riley Dandy, Sam Delich, Jonah Ray
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The first half is loud and bright with multiple people talking too much, too fast, and a whole lot of cussing. The second half is still loud and bright with a lot of loud talking and cursing, but at least the horror elements finally start kicking in. Brian didn’t care much for the whole package, but after not enjoying the first half too much, Kevin thought the second half was fairly entertaining, with a climax that reminded him of elements from the sci-fi flicks “Terminator” and “Hardware.”
Spoilery Synopsis
We watch a TV commercial about beer for the whole family, a horror porn movie, cream-pie ads, and a promo spot about government-military robots that have been licensed as Robo-Santas. Credits roll.
Tori goes to work at the record store. She knows more about the customers than their own spouses do. Robbie, her assistant, asks Tori what she’s doing for Christmas Eve. He tries to talk her into going home with him instead of her prearranged date. Even though they’re standing in a record store, Robbie shows her an example of the date singing on his iPhone. These two go on and on, spitting out supposedly witty dialogue for about a half an hour.
The two drop off some whiskey for Lana, who works at a toy store. It’s closed after-hours, and the toy store employees are having a Christmas party. They all make fun of the Robo-Santa they have. There's news reports of a Robo-Santa recall; they have been starting to revert to their previous military programming.
At the toy store, the Robo-Santa comes to life and looks around. He stomps around using his Terminator-vision to find the owners of the toy store. He finds a fire ax and kills them both.
Tori and Robbie drunkenly rant about rock bands getting bad haircuts and losing their talent. Sheriff Monroe comes in, and the conversation blissfully ends… until they go to Tori’s house and debate the merits of the Unsolved Mysteries soundtrack and which of the Pet Sematary films is best.
Outside, Santadroid has followed them home and kills the neighbor and his wife as Tori and Robbie have sex (with their pants on). We’re more than forty minutes in before Tori and Robbie have any idea that anything unusual is going on.
Tori wakes up Liddy and Mike, her sister and brother-in-law, and the four all hide from Robo-Santa as he stomps around the outside of the house. Tori and Robbie run outside, but the other two don’t make it. On the way out of the driveway, Robbie backs into the nasty neighbor’s car, and he comes out yelling and ranting as Santa comes up behind him. The neighbor dies, as does Robbie.
A cop pulls up, called by the nasty neighbor before he died, and he fills Santa full of lead. Tori tells the officer that the Santa is the same one from the toy store. Santa gets back up, and the officer shoots him again. Santa doesn’t stay down again this time and kills the officer. Tori runs over Santa a couple of times. More cops then arrest Tori and take her to the station, suspecting her of being the killer.
Tori tells the sheriff everything, and he doesn’t believe any of it, even though the robo-santa-thing has been all over the news that night.
Suddenly, Santadroid crashes an exploding ambulance into the police station. Tori, Officer Weston, and Sheriff Monroe are alone. Very quickly, that’s reduced to just Tori.
There’s some hide-and-seek, but eventually, Tori Tases Santa. He quickly reboots and continues the chase. She runs outside and drives away in an ambulance, but Santa is hanging on to the back door.
She crashes the ambulance, and Santa goes flying. She pins the robot under a crashed car and then sets the gas tank afire. Because this is a movie, it explodes excessively.
Tori breaks into her own record store as now-skinless Robo-Santa gets up once again. Tori is surprised when the Terminator walks into her store. She hides but eventually grabs a big sword off a display. She stabs Santa until he lights up like a Christmas tree. As it gets up yet again, Tori sets off the sprinklers, and the water ends up killing Santa. Or at least slowing him down enough for her to finish the job.
Tori breaks a leg and loses some fingers but eventually wins out in the end.
Brian’s Commentary
And the military retired these robots? Replacing them with what? I would want to be the enemy who finds out.
This movie is #$!@#$* awful. According to IMDB, the film features 487 uses of profanity, with an average of 5.6 per minute. Merry fucking Christmas, amiright?
Does every single location in town have either green or purple lighting? What did Robo-Santa have against Tori so specifically? There was a whole town full of people to kill, so why was he so obviously stalkingher? I shouldn’t nitpick, as there’s really very little to this film that makes any kind of coherent sense.
My main complaint is apparent after the first five minutes: there’s just too much dialogue. This must’ve been directed by the scriptwriter [checks credits…. yep!]. He wrote all the words, and he made sure the actors read all of them in the most annoying way possible. Or maybe there wasn’t even a script and the dialogue was just made up as they went along. Either way, it was atrocious and seemingly unlimited. After about a half hour, Kevin said, “This is exhausting.” Yes, by 25 minutes in, we were both hoping for quick death to the two protagonists.
The only thing less fun than listening to two drunks jabbering at each other incessantly for an hour and half is watching them blather on and on.
Oh, and that’s all just in the first half. The second half eventually becomes a horror movie with a killer robotic Santa.
Kevin’s Commentary
Robbie did say he was great at oral sex, and he proved himself right by successfully eating Tori out without taking her underwear off. This movie was a distinct half and half for me. I really didn’t think much of the first part, I felt overloaded with the fast conversation, loud music, and bright lights. And I have nothing against foul language, but this seemed deliberately excessive and a little forced. The second part started to feel entertaining once the full violence of the robot started kicking in and the mayhem went into full swing. And what a durable machine that robot was. So definitely mixed feelings for me. I would recommend if you aren’t digging the beginning, like I wasn’t, to stick with it for a payoff.
1980 New Year’s Evil
· Directed by Emmett Alston
· Written by Leonard Neubauer, Emmett Alston
· Stars Roz Kelly, Kip Niven, Chris Wallace
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a fairly standard formula slasher movie at its core. The 1980 music and fashion was pretty fun. It’s easy to figure out who the killer really is, because we see him at work and it adds some extra entertainment when things don’t go smoothly for him. It was decent.
Spoilery Synopsis
Ernie and Diane argue about her being late for her show. She calls Yvonne, who says Richard is out of town and drinking heavily. Yvonne then gets a dangerous stranger in her hotel room, and we see that her role is a very brief one. Credits roll.
It’s New Year’s Eve, and we cut to a bunch of rowdy punk teenagers causing trouble in their convertible. They soon arrive at the same high-rise hotel that Yvonne and Diane are in. Diane’s son, Derek, also arrives, but Diane doesn’t have much time for him. She doesn’t hear a word he says.
Turns out, Diane, aka “Blaze,” is hosting a New Wave Rock countdown for the holiday. The show is called… “New Year’s Evil!” It’s now 58 minutes until the ball drops.
They have operators taking calls for the best song this year. She takes a call from a guy using a voice altering device, and he wants to be called “Eeeeeeeevil.” He says he’s going to commit murder at midnight. “I’m going to kill someone you know, someone close to you.” All this is live and on-the-air. Diane tells Ernie to bring in more cops for security; that wasn’t the garden variety loony on the phone.
Meanwhile, at the Crawford Sanitarium, someone sneaks in the back door as the patients all jump around like… lunatics to the music on the TV. The man puts on an orderly uniform and tells a real nurse that he’s here to fill in. He’s brought champagne, and she’s charmed enough to hook up with him.
Lt. Clayton and a cop show up at the show, and he says Diane should expect that sort of thing considering the type of people her show attracts.
As the clock hits midnight on the East Coast, the fake orderly stabs the nurse to death. He then calls Diane back and tells her he made his first kill for the Eastern Standard Time. He plays her an audio recording of the murder, and then promises to call her again in one hour for the next time zone.
Upstairs, in his room, Derek takes some pills and shows us that he’s not quite normal. Lt. Clayton hears about the murder, and he starts taking it all very seriously. He figures the killer is going to kill three more times, once at midnight in each time zone. Diane comes to the conclusion that he’s also killed Yvonne, but they can’t find her body.
The killer puts on a fake mustache and goes clubbing. He finds one girl at the bar and starts chatting her up. He says he’s Erik Estrada’s investment guy, and she’s intrigued. She agrees to go with him, but she wants to bring her friend Lisa along. It’s looking like this murder is going to be late, and the girl is extremely annoying, which upsets the killer. He pulls over and gives Lisa money to buy champagne after going to the restroom. While she’s gone, he suffocates her friend with a plastic bag. Lisa comes out of the place and he kills her too. He leaves both bodies where they can be easily found.
On the way to his next victim, the killer rear-ends a biker gang, and that results in a quick chase through town. He ends up hiding in a drive-in theater, but they follow him in there. He steals a car, with a girl in the backseat. She gets out and runs, but the police find her before the killer, who runs away.
Meanwhile, Clayton makes an announcement to the show’s crowd during a break. They are not cooperative with “The Pig.” The psychologist that he’s brought in says it’s likely that Diane will be the final victim. The killer arries outside, but they aren’t letting anyone inside the show now. Still, he finds a way– he knocks out a cop and steals his uniform and gun.
Diane goes back to her room with a cop escort and argues with Derek some more. She sees a guy in a scary mask, but it’s just Richard, her absent husband. Yeah, we know he’s also the killer. He pretends not to know any of what’s been going on. The policeman, however, wonders how Richard got inside the locked-down building. The cops soon figure out that Richard must be the killer when they find his abandoned car.
Richard sabotages the elevator that Diane and the cop are in. He pulls the unconscious cop out and plays a recording of the murders for Diane. Now she knows it was him all along. He admits killing Yvonne and the others.
Richard is angry about Diane withholding money from him as well as the way she treats Derek. He chains her underneath the elevator, “Going up. Going down. Get smashed.” Somehow, Richard has fixed it so two elevator cars are going to crash into each other (how?).
The cops arrive and have a shootout with Richard. They shoot the elevator controls as he runs to the roof. Richard gets cornered on the roof and jumps off.
Derek finds his dead father and gets upset. He takes his father’s mask and walks off, looking like he’s planning for a sequel.
Diane gets found somehow and loaded into an ambulance– driven by Derek, who has killed the ambulance driver and is wearing his father’s mask now…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s a pretty standard slasher, but this time, we see the killer’s face very early on. Who he actually is isn’t revealed until the end, but it’s not hard to guess.
I was never into this kind of music at the time, but nowadays it sounds so… tame. I assume the bands were real musicians, but I’ve never heard of them– “Shadow” and “Made in Japan.”
The killer has one difficulty after another to get his job done, since no one seems to want to cooperate with him.
Kevin’s Commentary
Having some viewing experience with this sort of movie, I guessed right off the bat who the killer was. That aside, it was pretty good. The music and fashion of 1980 was fun to see. It was also a little different - and entertaining - seeing the killer struggling to get his goals met. It’s another decent entry in the slasher genre.
1981 Ghostkeeper
· Aka “Ghost Keeper”
· Directed by Jim Makichuk
· Written by Jim Makichuk, Doug MacLeod
· Stars Riva Spier, Murray Ord, Sheri McFadden
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s low budget, in fact so low that they ran out of money halfway through production and had to wing it in the second half. It would have been interesting to see what the result would have been with sufficient funds. As it is, it’s not a great film, but it kept us watching and interested until the end. It has a lingering 70s vibe, and a good setting, a little suspense. It’s worth checking out.
Spoilery Synopsis
We are told that there’s a legend about the Wendigo in Native American folklore. Credits roll.
Jenny and Marty enter the Mountview General Store and immediately make fun of the man inside, who offers them coffee. The storekeeper plays along with the bumpkin stereotype that Marty expects. Soon, Chrissy shows up on her snow machine; she complains about how boring it is at the lodge. Her date is even more boring. The storekeeper warns them that the mountains can be dangerous. “There are worse things out there than getting lost.” The three tourists ignore him and ride up the mountain on snow machines.
They soon decide it’s a good idea to drive across property marked “no trespassing.” They soon come upon an abandoned lodge, and that’s when Chrissy crashes and her machine won’t start. The snow has really drifted deep there, and it’s tough climbing to get to the lodge. They force their way inside.
It’s a swanky place, but from the dust, it’s been unoccupied for a long time. Oddly, the heat is turned on. The blizzard continues, and they decide they need to stay the night. Each of the three explores the old place. It’s New Year’s Eve, so no one at the lodge is going to even notice that they’re missing.
Jenny hears someone whispering her name, and we see an eye– someone is watching them. Later, she tells the others that she thinks they may not be alone in the building. Chrissy tells the others how she seduced her teacher in the 8th grade for $40.
Marty goes off to see if there’s a wine cellar. He screams when he finds an old woman in the kitchen. “You can’t stay here. You gotta go, now.” The three really have no choice but to stay with the weird old woman, who says her son also lives with her.
Jenny is clearly jealous of Chrissy, and Marty is a bit of a jerk about it. She blames him for sleeping around, and he gaslights her. “You’re scared of flipping out, just like your old lady.” We see the old woman listening to the argument outside.
Chrissy goes into the bathroom and takes a bath. We see someone in big boots outside the door. The bearded man whom we haven’t seen before drowns her in the tub, carries her to an icy cell, and then cuts her throat in front of a monstrous-looking creature.
The old woman says Jenny is strong, and that she’s getting too old for what she does here. Jenny and Marty wonder what happened to Chrissy but go to bed anyway. “She’ll turn up.” Jenny admits that she’s afraid of going crazy like her mother did.
Jenny wanders off later and overhears the old woman talking to her son. “You done good. He needed us. No, I’m not mad at you.”
In the morning, Marty goes outside and checks on the snow machines. He can’t even get the intact one to start. It’s been sabotaged. He runs inside and yells at the old woman, who says Chrissy is gone, but she doesn’t know where.
Jenny and the old woman skirt around the issue of Chrissy and what the old woman is really doing here. Meanwhile, Marty snoops around outside. Jenny passes out from the tea the old woman dosed her with, and later wakes up in a dark room with a book, “Mythology of Native Americans.” She reads about mutilated bodies and about certain women being able to control a giant monster.
Jenny then finds a room made of ice that’s padlocked. The old woman’s son chases after Jenny with a chainsaw, leaving the monster’s door open. He chases her all over but tries to evade him by hiding out on the roof. He falls to his death; she doesn’t. She runs to Marty and tells him about the monster. Marty thinks Jenny murdered the man, but then the old woman blows up the remaining snow machine, mumbling “It’s time, Jenny; Soon you’ll understand.”
Marty, in fact, loses his own mind when he realizes Chrissy is probably dead. He rambles on and on about his calm father and how Jenny killed that man. He wanders off into the snow, babbling about finding help. Jenny follows but soon turns back.
Somewhere else, an old hiker is out for a walk. He arrives at the lodge and comes right in the door. The old woman stabs him repeatedly. Jenny comes in a different door and picks up a loaded shotgun she spotted earlier.
Jenny finds the old woman, who says that old gun doesn’t work. “You can’t kill me, that’s something a crazy person would do. I’m your mother!” the old woman lies. Jenny is confused for a moment and then just shoots the old woman with both barrels.
Jenny still hears someone whispering her name. She goes back downstairs to the ice-room and unlocks the monster’s door. Inside is the Wendigo, a big monster-man. “It’s OK, Jenny will look after you now.”
Later, Jenny, who now refers to herself in the third person, finds Marty frozen to death outside. She goes back to the lodge that night, and she’s happy to be the new “Ghostkeeper.” We hear the old woman’s voice, “You’ll be fine, Jenny. I’ll look after you now.”
Brian’s Commentary
It’s a New Year’s movie, not Christmas. I’m still wondering where the old woman got her food and supplies.
We know pretty much from the opening that there’s gonna be a wendigo in this. The setting immediately reminded me of 2006’s “Cold Prey,” or even “The Shining” from 1980, but the main plot is completely different from those.
The director ran out of money halfway through the film and mostly just ad-libbed the second half. The monster only appears in flashes, and he’s not very good.
There’s no on-screen violence at all, and there are only a few characters, so the body count is quite low. It’s a slow burn, the acting is mediocre at best, and it’s a plot we’ve seen before. Still, it’s got a good bit of suspense, the setting is interesting, and we were never quite sure how it was going to end until it did.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s a shame that the funds ran out; I think this one had more potential than what actually came through. It’s low-key on horror, with a small cast. The setting and location was excellent. It kept me interested throughout, and I wasn’t bored, but it left me wanting for more.
2024 Heretic
· Directed by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
· Written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods
· Stars Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
We both thought this was truly excellent, with an amazing performance from Hugh Grant. Both the young women were good as well, with all three of them playing well off each other. It’s surprisingly talky, but there’s plenty of tension and weirdness to keep it interesting. We’d highly recommend it.
Spoilery Synopsis
Two girls sit on a bench and discuss porn movies and how they prove the existence of God. They’re on some kind of religious mission to convert as many people as possible to Mormonism. Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton walk through town, trying to proselytize everyone they pass.
They both finally make their way to their destination, a big house behind a metal fence… in the rain. The man inside, Mr. Reed, finally opens the door and welcomes them inside. He’d contacted the church asking for missionaries to stop by. They can only come in if there’s another woman present, and he mentions his wife is in the kitchen.
They sit down to talk about God’s plan for Mr. Reed, but he would rather talk about them. Paxton is super gung-ho and eager to talk about religion, but Barnes seems a little less enthusiastic. He asks them about polygamy and how the church stopped doing that. Both girls get very quiet as they explain how their beliefs have changed over the years. Reed has his own theories about Joseph Smith’s “Revelation.” He has a well read copy of the Book of Mormon. He gives a long speech about his beliefs and research, but the girls just want to meet his still-unseen wife. He goes into the back of the house to get her.
The girls decide that Reed is creepy and that they should wrap this up. They decide that the wife is not coming out to meet them. They decide to sneak out the front door, but their coats are somewhere in the back room, with the key to their bike lock in a pocket. Oh yeah, and the door is locked.
They look outside, and suddenly, it’s winter and a blizzard outside. The power goes out. They finally decide to go into the back, and the room where Reed is looks like a church. They grab their coats, but still can’t get the door open. They ask for help with the front door, but he says the deadbolts are on a timer and it won’t open. They’ll have to exit through the back of the house.
Reed says they can leave at any time, but he knows they’re lying about their reason for leaving, since cell phones don’t work here because of all the metal in the frame of the house. This is all dragging out for too long, and it’s clear that something sketchy is going on, and he finally asks if they really believe he has a wife in the house. This, of course, leads into another speech about irrational beliefs. The doors in the back both lead to a deep, dark basement.
Meanwhile, back at church, Elder Kennedy notices on the sign-out sheet that Paxton and Barnes haven’t clocked out.
Reed starts talking about the game “Monopoly” and plays a record. He compares playing Monopoly to reading the Bible. He says he’s going to say and do things tonight that they are really not going to like. The more he talks, the more unhinged he seems. He’s got a whole slideshow to accompany his rant.
He marks one door “Belief” and the other “Disbelief.” The girls have to choose a door, and they debate the merits of each. They finally choose the “Belief” option and go down the dark stairs. He locks the door behind them.
There’s a huge stone chamber down there beneath the house, and a strange old woman, not Mr. Reed, soon joins them and drops off some pie. The old woman then disrobes and curls up into a ball in the middle of the floor. Reed comes on through a speaker and says they are in the presence of a living prophet of God. He says he wants them to witness and verify that the miracle is real.
He announces that he’s poisoned the prophet, and when she dies, she’ll be resurrected. Sure enough, the prophet eats the pie and dies. They all wait for the prophet to get back up again.
Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Reed goes to answer the door; it’s Elder Kennedy, looking for the girls. Reed says nobody’s visited him all day. Kennedy doesn’t seem to notice the bicycles parked outside, and he just leaves.
Meanwhile, in the basement, the prophet wakes up and pukes on the girls. Reed then thanks her for her prophecy and leads her away. Reed then claims that one of the two girls is hiding a big secret, and he’ll reveal that later. Paxton believes the woman’s resurrection, but Barnes doesn’t believe it at all. Barnes has beenclinically dead, and she also had a meaningless near-death experience.
Before anyone notices, Reed cuts Barnes’s throat, and she dies. Reed tells Paxton not to worry, as he can bring her back, too. It doesn’t work, but then Reed cuts out an implant from Barnes’s arms. “She can’t come back. She’s a program.” We can’t always tell the difference between real life and dreams, he explains. He thinks it’ll be different when Paxton dies.
Paxton says that’s not a microchip, it’s a birth control implant. That’s against the church’s rules, so she kept it a secret. Paxton has a whole theory about what’s been going on here tonight, and he is very amused to hear it. The whole prophet thing was a magic trick. Paxton uses her theory to find a trapdoor in the floor; will she go down there?
“Don’t go into that cellar unless you are prepared to learn the one true religion.” She goes down and finds the dead prophet down there; there was a switcheroo trick. Reed locks her down there.
Paxton walks through the sub-basement, and there’s all kinds of religious and cult things down there. She then finds a door, locked with her own bike lock. She pulls out the key and opens it.
In the next room are many cells, each with a prisoner. Reed shows up and asks her if she’s figured it out yet. She explains how he must have moved their bicycles right after they arrived. She says “The one true religion is control,” to which he agrees. All these prisoners have chosen to be there; “It’s called drinking the Kool-Aid.”
Paxton stabs Reed in the neck and runs back upstairs. He catches up and stabs her in the belly. They both lay in the basement and wait for each other to die. “Pray for us,” he whispers. “Praying doesn’t work,” she responds. She explains how tests have shown that prayer makes no difference.
Suddenly, someone stabs Reed from behind. It’s Barnes, who really did wake up from death– sorta. She falls back over, dead again. Paxton eventually finds a way outside, and free from the house, calls for help on her phone.
She hallucinates a butterfly. Is anything real?
Brian’s Commentary
How did it go from a rainstorm to a blizzard in a matter of minutes?
Hugh Grant is amazing here as the creepy Mr. Reed. He said he got tired of playing the same old roles over and over, and this is very different from his usual stuff.
It’s a very talky film, almost entirely made up of Reed’s speeches and philosophical ideas. It almost could have been a stage play.
There’s not much action, but it’s extremely tense, Grant is ultra-creepy (partially because a lot of what he says is true), and it’s really well filmed. I liked this one a lot.
We’re about to record our “Top Ten for 2024” episode, and this is going to be one of my picks.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was very impressed with Hugh Grant here, not playing a basically good guy with good humor like he most frequently does. The movie is loaded with tension, and plays out really well. The two young women are perfect for their roles as well, and the three interact beautifully. I wouldn’t quite put it in my top ten for 2024, but almost.
2024 Street Trash
· Directed by Ryan Kruger
· Written by Ryan Kruger, James G. Williamson, Roy Frumkes
· Stars Sean Cameron Michael, Donna Cormack-Thomson, Joe Vaz
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a reboot of a 1987 film by the same name, truly a classic of cinema. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it’s a mighty entertaining and fun movie. The body horror gore is over the top. The humor and action is well done. It’s weird throughout, with a hyperreality science fiction vibe. It was a hoot.
Spoilery Synopsis
The loudspeaker calls for “Volunteer Number 85” and a man comes in to be handcuffed to a chair. He’s injected with something pink and glowy as the scientist watches for a reaction. He gets one. There is a great deal of screaming before the patient passes out. Then his head starts pulsing and his intestines pour out onto the floor. It only gets worse from there. The scientist is pleased. Credits roll.
We get an ad for how wonderful it is to visit Cape Town, South Africa interspersed with reports of rioting, monopolies, homeless, power cuts, and all kinds of bad things. There’s also the “Rat King” who leads the revolutionaries. We see that it’s basically an apocalyptic wasteland now.
One man leads the police on a chase through town. This goes really bad for the cop, who loses his penis.
Ronald and Chef watch Alex beat up some muggers. Ronald gives a new battery to pay off the Rat King’s henchman and take Alex with them. They take her home to where two more crackhead friends, Pap and Wors, are hiding in camouflage along with Offley. 2-Bit is also there, and he’s clearly crazy, with an imaginary friend who’s an alien.
The speakers announce the citywide curfew is now active, so the whole group goes to sleep. The next day, Ronald and Chef give Alex lessons on being homeless. She… doesn’t need lessons. They watch Mayor Mostert campaigning for re-election; he talks about the drones roaming around the city to round up all the nasty… particles. Yeah, particles.
Mayor Mostert goes to see his scientist’s test subjects. They watch the woman breathe in gas and then mutate horrifically. She dissolves into a puddle of multicolored goo. The mayor is pleased!
We hear a story about how Ronald goes to sex addicts anonymous and seduces people for money. We also hear about how Wors and Pap created an all-new drug. 2-Bit shows Alex his tattoos.
Outside, one of the drones gasses a homeless guy , who melts like the others. It’s quite a display.
The Rat King’s goons come for Alex. When 2-Bit gets annoyed, he runs them off. Later, Ronald and Alex trade sad backstories.
Later still, the goons grab Alex. The Rat King is a real freak, needing batteries to stay alive. Alex shows her the plans for a special battery that she stole. The King offers her one day to get that battery.
The drug dealer, Society, warns the guys that his supplier has vanished. Ronald wants some of that blue glowing stuff Society sells, but Society says he isn’t ready for that yet. Meanwhile, the mayor hands out free food to many of the homeless, and the melting-chemical is in the food.
Alex tells Ronald, Chef, and the gang what she needs. The plan she has is for one of those drones, and she wants to trap one using 2-Bit as bait. We soon see how that plan fares– not well, but they do get the drone.
Chef gets shot in the face with a blast of drone gas, and he melts in front of the group. 2-Bit gives a rousing speech about taking revenge on the Mayor. The police stop by and round up the whole group– except for Alex.
The gang is taken to a big building, which is recognized as the experimentation center for the drug. Pap, along with many others, are led into a room and gassed, although He finds a gas mask and puts it on.
Aex goes to see the Rat King, who has died and been replaced overnight. She talks the thugs into going to the factory and rescuing their friends.
Society is there as well, and he says it’s time for Ronald to take the drug he’s been denying him for so long. Ronald chugs it down and then helps release all the people from the cages. Ronald becomes a master assassin on the drug; he can also see 2-Bit’s little friend. He gets shot and doesn’t even feel it.
There’s nots of shooting and Wilhelm screaming. They find Pap, who’s half the man he used to be, but they still find a way for him to join in. The group breaks out and heads to City Hall, where the mayor is taking credit for solving the city’s homeless problem.
There’s another huge shootout where half the participants melt in the end. Ronald and the others soon catch up with the mayor, who calls them “Street Trash.” They let him have the gas, and it’s not pretty.
2-Bit says goodbye to Sockle, the little blue man, who vanishes away. This makes 2-Bit sad, but Ronald and Alex console him, along with Pap and Wors.
Ronald complains that the gunshot is starting to hurt after all.
Brian’s Commentary
Where do our bodies store up all the blue paint? If you liked the toxic waste scene in the original “Robocop” film and thought they should make a whole movie like that, then this is for you!
The gore and body horror effects are really over the top and a lot of fun. This is brought to us by the same writer/director that did the amazing “Fried Barry” from 2020. It’s also based on the 1987 film of the same name.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was weird and wonderful. Gary Green, formerly the lead in “Fried Barry,” tops the crazy with a raunchy opinionated creature sidekick that only he can see. The effects are gross and effective. I thought it was a winner.
Short Films:
2024 Short Film: Little Lilith
· Directed by Jamison Forkenbrock
· Written by Jamison Forkenbrock
· Stars Andy Mcphee, Adjovi Koene
· Run Time: 7:18
· Watch it:
What Happens
Two people discuss a retirement contract, but he won’t sign unless they explain how they are going to deal with his project concerning Lilith, who is not human. She has evolved a superhuman intelligence, and she’s been affecting the outside world, which he doesn’t like. She’s a conscious machine.
Commentary
I have no idea what that was all about, but it was really tense. This sounds like a world that might not be so much fun to live in, even less so when you find out who’s running it.
Very cool!
2024 Short Film: Pig
· Directed by Evan Powers
· Written by Evan Powers, Bryce McGuire
· Stars Aaron LaPlante, Jordan Wilson, C.J. Vana, Graham Outerbridge
· Run Time: 7:47
· Watch it:
What Happens
A group of friends play strip poker, and the guys are losing badly. They casually mention that there’s no cell service as someone bangs on the door. Kevin leaves to go check the door and comes back with a knife in his chest. There’s a note: “We play games too.” The group’s troubles are just beginning.
Commentary
It’s a touching tale of friendship and support.
It starts like a typical campground slasher story, but then it takes a turn. I wonder if “The Strangers” went through all this before attacking helpless families?
It’s important to remember that, yes, slashers have feelings too.
2024 Short Film: Residual
· Directed by Asa Brader
· Written by Asa Brader
· Stars Bill Hand, Jimmy Merchel, Tristan Johnson, Kyle Hardy, and Damien Kira
· Run Time: 10:14
· Watch it:
What Happens
Sam and Joey were hired to clear out houses after tenants had been evicted. Joey, who is new, asks old-timer Sam about any crazy stories from his years on the job. Joey drives them to the next house on their list, and Sam gets really uncomfortable and refuses to go inside. As Joey goes in alone, Sam has a flashback to hisfirst day on the job…
Commentary
Sometimes, it’s better to not know all the details of your job.
This is amazing. It’s clearly shot and very well acted, and the chemistry between the two main actors is very realistic. The flashback, in black and white, explains all we really need to know.
2024 Short Film: The Eyeless Man
· Directed by Scott McMillan
· Written by Scott McMillan
· Stars Susan Sims, Paul Lapsley
· Run Time: 4:48
· Watch it:
What Happens
Kirsten is home alone, standing at her window, smoking. She sees a strange bald man with no eyes outside. She reaches for her phone to take a picture, but he's gone when she turns back. Then she starts getting calls from an “Unknown Caller” and soon regrets answering…
Commentary
With only two actors and one simple set, this probably didn’t cost much to make, but it’s still a full story, with suspense, and you can always tell what’s going on at all times. We never find out WHY, but that’s part of the mystery.
2024 Short Film: The Vampire Theory
· Directed by Dominic Grose
· Written by Dominic Grose
· Stars Corinne Strickett, Tom Harden
· Run Time: 11:33
· Watch it:
What Happens
A woman hears something moving around upstairs and then kills her cat to feed Oscar, her son, who’s locked upstairs. Laurie calls in a doctor and tells him that her son has vampirism, but it’s taking a long time for the effects to fully manifest. She’s been helping Oscar as much as she can, but she needs the doctor to assist.
Commentary
It’s one of those “is he or isn’t he?” kinds of stories, but it’s really well done. Laurie seems like she may be unhinged and imagining her son’s condition, but we aren’t really sure. On the bright side, we see that the cat is actually just fine at the end.
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Websites:
· https://www.horrorguys.com
·https://www.horrormonthly.com
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