meghancoker Reviews

Fleshpot on 42nd Street (1972)

Engrossing Exploitation

[7/10 · 13 December 2021]

Dusty, a small time hustler, moves out of her boyfriend's apartment when he finally confronts her about not paying any of the rent and refusing to get a job. She's back on the streets where she reconnects with her transgender prostitute friend, Cherry. Cherry agrees to let her room with her and help her turn some tricks, but things get complicated when Dusty starts to develop feelings for one of her clients.

Andy Milligan isn't a filmmaker known for class or his strong narratives, but Fleshpot on 42nd Street is about as strong an effort from him that I've seen. Milligan has created a group of interesting lowlifes who ran the gamut from sexist to racist, but there's a sweet loyalty between them all even as they curse each other out and insult one another.

The film dabbles in hardcore pornography as well, but it feels oddly important to the story and some of the moments between Dusty and her new lover, Bob, are surprisingly sweet and touching. Not all of the acting is great and, in typical Milligan fashion, it won't be winning any cinematography awards, but it sets out to tell a memorable story and succeeds.

Censor (2021)

Stylish and Bold, but Confusing

[5/10 · 13 December 2021]

Repressed British film censor, Enid, is getting so wrapped up in her work involving gory horror films that she starts to think one of the actresses she's just seen is her long lost sister. This puts her on a path of trying to figure out who made these movies and if her sister is even still alive.

Censor starts off strongly with a solid premise, beautiful cinematography, some interesting political commentary on the nature of film censorship, and some intriguing character work around the character of Enid. Her pain over losing her sister, her fractured relationship with her parents, and her horrific loneliness come through loud and clear and you feel for her. It's here where star, Niamh Algar, really shines.

Midway through, the film abandons any logical narrative sense and becomes a neverending series of dreamlike moments where Enid imagines she's in one of the trashy horror films she's been watching and it's hard to tell what's real and what isn't and what the film is even about. While interesting at first, it soon becomes incredibly frustrating and the film ends with no clear idea of what it's trying to say.

Murder Weapon (1989)

Cheap and Hilarious

[5/10 · 13 December 2021]

Two friends with mobsters for fathers get out of an asylum and plan a party for all their male admirers, but a psychotic black-gloved killer crashes the party and begins killing them one by bloody one.

Part slasher and part exploitation cheapie, Murder Weapon somehow has both way too much going on and not enough going on. It feels as if most of the script was written by throwing darts at a list of character types, themes, and genres and the overall mix can be a bit mystifying.

It's very hard to hear a lot of the dialogue and film equipment frequently make cameos, but Linnea Quigley is nothing if not dependable, lending a lot of tongue in cheek charm to her role. Some of the makeup effects during the death scenes are very impressive and some are painfully hokey, but that's all part of the fun. Have a few beers, sit back, and enjoy the movie.

Blind (III) (2019)

Wait Until Dark Turned Slasher

[4/10 · 12 October 2021]

A blind actress gets stalked by someone wearing a creepy mask in her secluded home far up in the hills of Hollywood.

Blind obviously takes a few cues from Wait Until Dark with its blind leading lady being menaced by a psycho and many of the stalk scenes featuring the masked killer peering into the heroine's full length glass doors call to mind Halloween. Despite a decent visual style and somewhat higher than usual production values, the story isn't very gripping and some of the acting is so bad it pulls you out of the film when it should be drawing you in. The killer is also such a blank mystery that you wonder what his problem is. Even Michael Myers had some past or history. The killer does have a striking mask at the very least.

There's Someone Inside Your House (2021)

A Bore

[4/10 · 12 October 2021]

A serial killer targets the teenage residents of a small town by exposing their secrets to everyone before slicing and dicing them while wearing masks of their faces.

There are several interesting ideas throughout There's Someone Inside Your House, but the plot trucks on in the most turgid way imaginable and you stop caring about who lives, who dies, or even who the killer is midway through. None of the characters are compelling and there are so many of them that it's easy to get confused as to who is who, especially some of the football jocks who resemble each other.

There are 2 or 3 decent stalk and kill scenes that would have been much more effective if we'd gotten to know these characters more. The killer reveal will lead to mostly groans and head bobs of recognition instead of shock or surprise.

Bluebeard (1972)

Could Use Some Editing

[5/10 · 12 October 2021]

A young woman marries a wealthy man and discovers that all his other wives have come to violent ends and she might be next.

Bluebeard has the star power and the budget to impress, but the film doesn't find its footing until nearly 45 minutes into the movie and, up until that point, it's rather a bore. Once Burton's Bluebeard starts telling Heatherton's Anne about the ways in which he dispatched his previous wives, the film perks up and takes on a more darkly comic tone that keeps things moving at a decent pace for most of the rest of the movie. Raquel Welch isn't even on screen for 10 minutes as one of Burton's former wives and she threatens to steal the entire film with her nymphomaniac nun.

Superhost (2021)

Entertaining Modern Slasher

[8/10 · 12 October 2021]

YouTube vloggers, Teddy and Claire, rent a secluded vacation house run by Rebecca who seems more than just a little bit strange at first glance, but they're about to find out just how strange she can get.

Superhost gets to the point quickly and is incredibly well shot and paced with great performances all around with special mention going to Gracie Gillam who creates a character who is memorably scary, funny, and pathetic all at once. It's also nice to see genre icon, Barbara Crampton, in a small but important role. Your enjoyment of the film will depend on how much you can tolerate characters who aren't traditionally likable.

Death Drop Gorgeous (2020)

Too Long, But Entertaining

[6/10 · 12 October 2021]

Someone is killing drag queens at a dumpy gay club, but who could it be?

Death Drop Gorgeous is a strange mix of Girls Will Be Girls and an Italian giallo film with garish lighting, lots of gore, and zany one liners. It seems the filmmakers didn't have much of a budget to work with and that becomes apparent when some shoddy camerawork and less than ideal performances by non-actors appear, but there's enough to recommend including some interesting commentary on aging in the LGBTQ community. It's a film that would have worked better with a slightly quicker pace. It does have the tendency to ramble a bit too much, but it means well.

X-Ray (1981)

Weirder Than Usual Slasher

[7/10 · 29 September 2020]

Barbi Benton is in trouble. You see, she went to the hospital to get her routine checkup results, but a psycho has switched them with the x-rays of someone who has some sort of deadly disorder and, now, the doctors won't let her leave, because they need more tests, putting her in the perfect place for this crazy man to kill her and everyone else he comes across.

There isn't a lot of mystery to Hospital Massacre and you always know who the killer will turn out to be. They're barely disguised with a doctor's hat and surgical mask on, but some of the set pieces are interesting and it's not completely devoid of suspense.

The Last Horror Film (1982)

Smarter Than Expected

[9/10 · 19 December 2019]

The Last Horror Film might be one of the first meta-horror movies. It reunites Joe Spinell and Caroline Munro from Maniac, but the tone is slightly different from that film. Maniac reveled in the grit and sleaze of early 80's NYC, but this film takes us to the Cannes Film Festival where a lowly NYC taxi driver tries to persuade a scream queen to be in his next film. As he attempts this, someone is killing off a lot of the people in said scream queen's entourage in a variety of gruesome ways. Is this cab driver desperate enough to kill?

The Last Horror Film ditches the realistic grit of Maniac and gives us a campier, more fun experience. It's hard not to laugh at scenes where a jury of Cannes voters sees a clip of Munro getting her face burnt off with a torch and decides to put her as their number one choice for best actress next to the likes of Jane Fonda and Faye Dunaway.

If you want gore, they've got it, but I appreciated the odd story they were trying to tell a lot more. I wonder how a double feature with this and Maniac would fare. This movie could certainly act as a good palate cleanser.

Slumber Party Massacre III (1990)

The Worst of the Series

[6/10 · 12 September 2019]

Slumber Party Massacre III doesn't have the jokey, satirical edge of the first film nor the absolutely bats#@t insanity of the second film. It feels mostly like a typical late 80's/early 90's straight to video slasher flick with very little imagination.

In spite of this, there's still fun to be had.

The Pit (1981)

A Laugh Riot

[6/10 · 12 September 2019]

I can't tell you what the filmmakers originally intended for The Pit, but given some of the choices made throughout, they had to have at least been going for intentional comedy every now and then.

The Pit involves a pervy, awkward little boy who's only friend is his teddy bear who speaks to him and tells him to do bad things like spy on neighbors, cut pictures of naked women out of library books, and feed his enemies to hungry creatures who live in a huge pit in a wooded clearing right around his house.

Everything in The Pit is pitched a bit too high. The over the top performances and blaring music don't seem to be taking the material seriously, so I'm assuming we shouldn't either. Once you settle in and figure out what tone The Pit is going for, it becomes an incredibly good time. It's perhaps a bit overlong and, right when you think it's almost over, it adds an additional 10-15 minutes. I still can't not recommend it, because it's such a blast overall.

Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990 TV Movie)

Norman Has A Baby

[8/10 · 19 July 2019]

Norman Bates is back out of the funny farm again (after the events of II and III, why would they ever let him out again?) and this time, he's taken a liking to talk radio and decides to call in to his favorite show and fill everyone in on what he's been up to and how he became the man he is today. He's also terrified that the baby his wife is carrying might turn out like him.

Anthony Perkins get a fairly decent send off here and he's just as great as ever. The real surprise here is Olivia Hussey as Norman's abusive, mentally ill mother. She's stunningly beautiful which makes her superficially charming which makes her outbursts even more horrific and unexpected since we all assumed Norman's mother was originally some creaky old crone.

Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)

A Little Bland, But Far From A Disaster

[7/10 · 10 July 2019]

Urban Legends: Final Cut seems to have a bit of a bad reputation in horror circles. I've never heard anyone say a decent thing about it and I can't understand why. It's well made and never boring. Some of the twist are a bit silly, but when a film is clearly just aiming to give the audience a good time, why bother trying to nitpick?

Final Cut takes place on the campus of a prestigious film school where someone is murdering the students in order to kill off the competition for the Hitchcock award that will almost guarantee the recipient a place with the Hollywood film elite.

Some of the death scenes are a bit tame and uninspired (most horror films were at this time post-Columbine i.e. Cherry Falls, Valentine, Scream 3, etc.) but the "kidney heist" scene somehow ends up being one of the goriest and most ghoulish death scene in a post-Scream horror film that I've seen. The acting is all fairly solid with a few up and coming faces that have managed to stick around for a while (Jennifer Morrison, Anthony Anderson, and Eva Mendes) and the entire film has a slight giallo feel more than a traditional slasher feel with its emphasis on the mystery and sleuthing. There's even a ridiculous twist involving a twin brother that feels like it came right out of a dime store Italian thriller.

Loretta Devine shows back up as the only major returning cast member from the original film and, while she could have phoned it in, she manages to turn in an alive and enthusiastic performance that shouldn't be missed.

Urban Legends: Final Cut might not be the scariest, goriest, or most surprising movie ever made, but there's more than enough to make it worthy of recommending.

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

A Bit Dull

[6/10 · 10 July 2019]

After the wild, funhouse-like Dream Master, Freddy returns in The Dream Child, but it's a lot less fun this time. It turns out that The Dream Master's survivors, Alice and Dan, are going to have a baby and Freddy sees this as an opportunity to take a few more victims by getting into the baby's dreams.

It's an interesting concept and there are several really excellent moments, but something feels tired and lethargic about it. To be fair, the first act is fairly solid, but it starts getting really slow in the middle of the film with only a murder or two to spice things up. Thankfully, the murders (there seems to be a very small body count this time around) are fittingly fantastical with a girl being turned into a doll and force fed her intestines being particularly gruesome.

Lisa Wilcox still makes for a great heroine even if the material is a bit more dour this time around. Freddy seems to have lost a bit of his jokey quips this time, too, which is a welcome relief.

Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Give It A Shot

[7/10 · 30 March 2019]

Listen, I'm aware that I'm in the minority here, but I really don't think Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is all that bad. If Jason was back and doing the killings, I think people would feel differently about this one. No, it doesn't really need to exist and it doesn't have anything new or interesting to say about the human condition, but it's infectiously fun and incredibly stupid.

The death scenes are creative (if, sadly, edited to oblivion by the MPAA), there's some suspense here and there, and the characters are a colorful and memorable bunch. It has everything people usual clamor for in slasher movies.

Give this one a shot. It's really not that bad.