Obsessed fan Max (Adam Noble Roberts) spends his days watching ‘80s and ‘90s horror films, and laments the fact that his favorite Scream Queens are getting older by the day.
So, with the help of his devoted mother (Maria Olsen), Max sets to work kidnapping these actresses, namely Brinke Stevens, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, Denise Duff, Jacqueline Lovell, and Darcy DeMoss (all playing themselves), then forcing them to appear in video reenactments of scenes from their most popular movies.
Only this time, the scenes will have a very different ending!
As much a comedy as it is a horror film, Trophy Heads has moments that will make you laugh out loud. When Max finally tracks her down, Linnea Quigley, a born-again Christian, is knocking on doors and asking people if they’ve been “bathed in the blood of Jesus Christ”.
In addition to the Scream Queens reunion, we’re treated to scenes from some of Full Moon’s classic movies, which play on a monitor for each of the actresses to “enjoy” during their incarceration in Max’s basement. Among the titles featured are Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity, Creepozoids, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama, and Bloodstone: Subspecies II, which, incidentally, are the very movies the actresses are forced to “reinterpret”, with Max serving as both their co-star and director.
Everyone seemed to be having a great time throughout Trophy Heads, and that went a long way in making it so much fun.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Clearly, the young characters in Fred Olen Ray’s 2000 film Sideshow never saw Freaks, and some would pay the ultimate price for their ignorance.
Bobby (Jamie Martz) and Tommy (Michael Amos) take their dates for the night, Melanie (Jessi Keenan) and Jeanie (Jeana Blackman), to a traveling carnival. Unfortunately, Bobby also brought along his handicapped brother Grant (Scott McCann), which puts a bit of a damper on the evening. To make matters worse, Tommy at one point insults Abbot Graves (Phil Fondacaro), the diminutive sideshow barker, picking him up and treating him as if he were a child.
After visiting a fortune teller (Brinke Stevens), the five are given free passes to the “Freak” show, and though Bobby is a little reluctant, the remaining friends make their way to the sideshow tent. Alas, not all of them will walk away from it.
Produced by Full Moon, Sideshow was done on the cheap, and features mediocre performances (though Fondacaro does an admirable job as Abbot Graves) and low-grade effects. Yet while the make-up and special effects aren’t all that convincing, I got a kick out of the various sideshow attractions, some of which are damned creative.
There’s Hans the Bug Boy (Fred Pierce), and “Conjoin-O” (Peter Spellos), who has a face growing out of his stomach (the face is played by Luigi Francis Shorty Rossi). It’s the female attractions, however, that steal the show. First up is Digestina (Shyra Deland), who sits in a tub of stomach acid and consumes whatever drops into it. And then there’s the sexy Aelita (Curran Sympson), the “Inside-Out Girl” whose dance is fairly sexy… that is, until she finally displays her particular “talent”! Also handled in a very imaginative way is the “retribution” brought down on the young friends, featured in the film’s final 10 minutes.
So, while Sideshow may occasionally let its budget limitations bleed through the cracks, they won’t detract one bit from your enjoyment of the movie.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Starring the great Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator, From Beyond) in the title role, Doctor Mordrid tells a basic story of good versus evil; for about a century now, the powerful wizard Doctor Anton Mordrid has been watching over the citizens of earth. But the re-emergence of his old nemesis Kabal (Brian Thompson), an evil sorcerer intent on taking over the world, has put Mordrid on high alert.
As Kabal and his henchmen gather up rare elements from around the globe, which they will use to open a portal between earth and the Fourth Dimension, Mordrid joins forces with criminal psychologist Samantha Hunt (Yvette Nipar) and prepares for the inevitable showdown against Kabal and his evil minions.
Inspired by the Marvel comics hero Doctor Strange (which, initially, was the movie Albert Band wanted to make, but couldn’t work out a deal for the rights), Doctor Mordrid combines fantasy, sci-fi, adventure, and even horror to wonderful effect, delivering a movie that’s an incredible amount of fun. From the stylish set piece of Mordrid’s lair to the film’s various fight scenes, culminating in a final showdown between Mordrid and Kabal in New York’s Cosmopolitan Museum, this movie has creativity to spare.
And while the effects may be showing their age, they are far from mediocre. I especially enjoyed the stop-motion dinosaur skeletons that spring to life in the final scene.
Much like they did with Dollman, Trancers, Puppet Master, and Subspecies, the creative forces at Full Moon have proven once again with Doctor Mordrid that they can take a small budget and a good idea and turn it into a motion picture that generates a million dollars worth of entertainment!
Rating: 9 out of 10
Puppet Master II opens late at night, with the puppets standing around an open grave. Pinhead (the puppet with a tiny head and large human hands) pours a green liquid into the grave, at which point the corpse that had been resting in it for 50 years, that of the great puppet master Andre Toulon (played this time around by Steve Welles), springs back to life!
It’s a crazy, ridiculous opening, but it’s also kinda awesome.
A team of paranormal researchers, led by Carolyn Bramwell (Elizabeth Maclellan), descends on the Bodega Bay Inn to investigate the recent, unexplained murder of Megan Gallagher. They’re joined by psychic Camille Kenney (Nita Talbot), who warns the team – which also includes Carolyn’s brother Patrick (Greg Webb) and their friends Lance (Jeff Wetson) and Wanda (Charlie Spradling) – that she’s picking up a lot of negative energy. Later that night, Camille disappears and Patrick is murdered by the puppet known as Tunneler.
It’s around this same time that a shadowy stranger, his head wrapped in bandages, shows up on the scene, claiming he owns the hotel. This stranger is actually Andre Toulon, whose ultimate goal is to resurrect his beloved wife Elsa (also played by Maclellan).
Joining forces with Michael (Collin Bernsen), Camille’s son who was called in to help locate his mother, Carolyn sets out to uncover the mystery behind Toulon, including what it is that gives him the power to bring inanimate objects to life.
Steve Welles is quite good as the enigmatic Toulon, and Puppet Master II also ups the ante effects-wise, utilizing stop-motion more frequently than the first film did. I also liked the brief flashback to 1912, which provided a backstory for Toulon and how he acquired his unusual talents. In addition, Puppet Master II features a tense scene set inside a cabin, where this entry’s newest puppet, Torch, burns a woman alive.
Not everything impressed me; the story centering on the researchers is weak, and a romantic subplot involving Carolyn and Michael felt forced. As it was with the first movie, the puppets are what make Puppet Master II an entertaining watch, but at least this time they didn’t have to do it all on their own.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
1989’s Puppet Master gets off to a great start; flashing back to 1939, we’re introduced to an elderly puppeteer named Andre Toulon (William Hickey), who, with the help of ancient Egyptian magic, has found a way to bring his beloved puppets to life. With a pair of Nazi spies closing in on him, anxious to get their hands on his secrets, Toulon places his creations in a chest, hides it in the wall of his hotel room, and commits suicide.
Alas, this opening proves to be the best sequence in the entire movie. Once the story switches to present day, Puppet Master is more hit and miss.
Jumping forward to 1989, several psychics, including Professor Alex Whitaker (Paul Le Mat), fortune teller Dana Hadley (Irene Miracle), and researchers Frank Forrester (Matt Roe) and Clarissa Stamford (Kathryn O’Reilly) are contacted by their old partner Neil Gallagher (Jimmie F. Skaggs), who invites them to join him at the Bodega Bay Inn, the very hotel where Toulon hid his puppets all those years ago.
When Alex, Dana and the others arrive there, however, they are surprised to discover that Neil is dead, and his widow Megan (Robin Frates) is the hotel’s current owner. The confused psychics do their best to figure out what’s going on, never realizing that Toulon’s puppets have somehow returned, and are determined to kill each and every one of them!
Directed by David Schmoeller (who also penned the screenplay), Puppet Master has several weaknesses, chief among them it’s story. After discovering their old partner is dead, Dana, Frank, and Clarissa just sort of meander around the hotel, wasting time, while Alex tries his best to cozy up to Megan. Also lackluster are the performances of its main cast; even Paul Le Mat, who was quite good in American Graffiti and Melvin and Howard, is flat. The lone exception is William Hickey, who does a remarkable job in his brief appearance as Andre Toulon.
Fortunately, Toulon’s puppets are themselves worth the price of admission, and the scenes in which they’re featured are far and away the movie’s strongest. Among the puppets who make their presence known are Blade (thus named because he walks around with a knife), Pinhead, Tunneler, and Leach Woman (who regurgitates leeches, resulting in some of the movie’s most uncomfortable moments). I also liked how director Schmoeller occasionally shot from the puppet’s POV (which, seeing that they are about a foot tall, means his camera was very close to the ground), and while the final scene (twist and all) was only so-so, the fact that it featured all of the puppets, each doing what they do best, was a definite plus.
Rating: 6 out of 10