Next Door Vampires, Ghost Studies, Mexican Haunted Houses

Fright Night, a highly entertaining suburban vampire movie, was released back in 1985. It spawned a same-named re-boot (not half bad) in 2011 and a toothless sequel (Fright Night 2: New Blood/2013). Despite Hollywood’s inept handling of a milkable franchise, the original film has since reached cult status and, like me, has a legion of fans. Ahem.

To commemorate writer director Tom Holland’s clever take on the theme (a teenager is convinced a vampire has moved next door to him), the rights to the film are being returned to him as part of the U.S. Congress’ Copyright Act of 1976. (Basically, the act granted artists the possibility to reclaim previously licensed works after 35 years. A cake walk — vampires can easily live was longer than three decades.)

But that’s not all — a 300-page paperback written by Holland is titled Fright Night Resurection and is being released on February 20, 2018. Hopefully someone will catch the typo in the header before they actually go to print. (Somebody should call Waterside, the publisher, to break the bad news.)

While we wait for someone to catch the embarrassing goof, here are a few just released/upcoming horror and sci-fi movies that may or may not feature sixth grade grammar…

COFFIN 2 (available now)
“Bobby Church is tasked with following up on a lead that the infamous Deathstalker killer has taken five hostages, including a cop. With help from some new friends and old enemies he must find their location before time runs out.”

Sounds like another rip-off of Saw. Must be rough going through life with the last name of “Church.” Does that mean when he he takes off his shoes, people go, “Pew!”?

THE GATEHOUSE (December 5, 2017)
“Jack is a struggling writer recovering from the death of his wife. In a coincidental turn of fate, Jack agrees to undertake a writing project about the ‘legend of the black flowers’ at the same time that his 10-year-old daughter Eternity discovers a mysterious object in the woods, and the forest wants it back. They’ve unlocked an ancient curse and must now fight for survival.”

Probably spoiler: the mysterious object the forest wants back is a pine cone. But not just any pine cone. This one is cursed. No big deal, though; like evil racoons and/or poisonous bears, most pine cones come pre-cursed.

GHOST STORIES (2018)
“Professor Phillip Goodman, psychologist and arch-skeptic, has his rationality tested to the hilt when he stumbles across a long lost file containing details of three cases of terrifying ‘hauntings’. Shaken by what he has read, Goodman embarks upon a quest to find rational explanations for these stories. As Goodman digs into their stories, his carefully maintained rational world starts to dissolve around him – a trick of the mind or are darker forces at work?”

Sounds like a re-working of Skeptic (2009). I’m oddly okay with that. And yes, darker forces are at work. That, or cursed pine cones.

DEADTECTIVES (2018)
In this hilarious take on the paranormal, TV’s DeadTectives are dispatched to Mexico’s most haunted mansion and are charged with the task of bringing ‘real’ scares and big ratings or face cancellation. However, when the true dark secrets of the mansion begin to reveal themselves the hapless presenters quickly discover that this house is no hoax. With zero ghost-hunting skills (or really any other applicable skills) the team has to figure out how to bust the ghosts, deliver the episode of a lifetime and escape the house with both their lives and their dignity.”

Great kicker line: “Fake hunters. Real Ghosts. Complete Dicks.” This one goes on the grocery list. But why go to Mexico to explore a haunted mansion? We have one on almost every block in the U.S.. In fact, I’m going to visit the one next door as soon as I drink some tea made with holy water.

New Age Gargoyles

In Curse of the Talisman (2001), an ancient curse unleashes a flock of evil gargoyles that are compelled to adhere to the curse’s rule of die, kill, bleed. Good for them.

This happened in London’s village of Yorkshire (home of that expensive pudding) in 1100 A.D. Artifacts of the gargoyles made its way through the magic of time to a modern museum of today. But a shifty shipper intercepts one of the gargoyle statues and a Goth talisman necklace and sells it to a New Age bookstore (run by a guy who looks more like a motorcycle thug than someone who would own a New Age bookstore), thereby setting into motion the return of the gargoyles.

Enter a British priest hot on the trail of the talisman. No one likes pompous Limeys demanding things, so they give him a good ’ol U.S. run-around. The gargoyle, now flying around and killing people, wants the talisman as well. Seems he needs it to release his winged brothers of doom from inside the thirty or so statuettes on display at the museum.

There’s a LOT of pointless running around/running away just to get to the showdown at the museum. The gargoyles, which look like death metal seagulls, belong in a Gremlins (1984) movie where they’d be more at home alongside stuffed toys with teeth. As far as ancient curses go, you’d be better off with a case of medieval jock itch.

Dolls and Vomit

According to Guatemalan folklore, worry dolls (about half an inch high) are given to children who tell them their worries before they go to sleep. They place the worry dolls under their pillow and in the morning the dolls have taken their worries away. I think it’d be really funny to swap out the worry dolls with some tried ’n true rubber vomit while the kids are asleep. That’d give those little brats something to worry about. Heh. So the comfort device now gets drafted into the horror realm with upcoming Worry Dolls movie, premiering at England’s Film4FRightFest in August, 2015. (Their website said is was coming out summer of 2014. Liars.) Nevertheless, Worry Dolls, with a really slick ad poster, goes a little something like this: “In the aftermath of the hunt for a serial killer, an ancient curse consumes a city, causing a series of brutal murders and pits a detective against the clock to save his daughter’s life.”

I bet the ancient curse somehow involves the use of rubber vomit. There were worry doll horror movies before this. First up was Dangerous Worry Dolls (2007), this one had the title characters coming out of a swollen hole in your forehead meant for a pineal gland gone wild. (See From Beyond/1986.) Here’s how dangerous these worry dolls are: “While serving time in a brutal women’s detention center. Eva wishes away her troubles to a set of tiny worry dolls. The dolls crawl in her ear at night and soon Eva becomes possessed.” And, for those of you with a more sensitive horror stomach, Worry Dolls, featured as an episode on R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour: The Series, aired in October of 2013. There were no pineal glands in that one, which is why it sucked. You can find worry dolls on Etsy™ for $19.95. But you can get yourself outfitted with a timelessly hysterical rubber vomit novelty toy for $7.30 (+ $2.04 shipping) on eBay™. Talk about putting the gag in gag gift. Heh.

Aliens and Werewolves

Some new horror offerings, in case your daily recommended allowance of horror has not been met by watching the evening news.

First up is Area 51, in production since 2009 and just now hitting VOD and is YET ANOTHER one of those flippin’ annoying hand-held camera jobs. In this Area 51 (not to be confused with 2011’s Area 51 Confidential), as a class project several conspiracy theorists break into the legendary military base out in the Nevada desert said to house a junk yard of broken down UFOs and even an alien body or two. Or six.

Here’s the official rundown: “In 2009, three friends travel to the infamous Area 51 in order to uncover its secrets. They infiltrate the base using freon filled body suits in order to mask their body temperature. Once inside, the group discovers incredible technologies before finding themselves running for their lives from an unknown force.”

The “unknown force” probably has more to do with farting inside their body suits and not being able to escape the ensuing terror. AVClub.com’s review, though, says it all about Area 51: “A few fun and creepy effects shots, nothing that happens here couldn’t be surmised from simply reading the film’s title. What we really get is a complete failure of imagination.” Ouch.

If probing for government secrets or being probed by aliens isn’t your cup of beer, then you might be up for Uncaged (2015), a new werewolf movie that mixes found footage with trad-style filming.

Plot: “After several nights of waking up in the woods, a troubled teen straps a camera to himself to document how he’s getting there, only to find some things are better left a mystery.”

So a teen wolf doing selfies. I’m intrigued, though a werewolf running around with a GoPro™ strapped to his fuzzy head seems highly improbable. With all that wolfing around, you’d think the camera would fall off.

“Something’s lookin’ for food – and it found us…” Great line in Dark Was The Night, arriving in theaters on July 24, 2015. An ancient curse, a small town out in the trees, and stat worthy body counts.

Synopsis: “Maiden Woods is a remote and quiet town of decent, hard-working people, but something stirs in the dark woods surrounding this isolated community. After a logging company decimates an area of the forest, a rash of increasingly violent and unexplainable events transpires. Sheriff Paul Shields and his deputy struggle to confront their own personal demons while facing down a new breed of raw terror that is possibly older than humanity itself…and much hungrier.”

Is the monster a werewolf? Bigfoot? A hillbilly with abundant facial hair? Probably all three. Better be if they want my movie coupons.