I Heart Slug Face

A hot air balloon-sized slimy thing hangs underneath a bridge, kinda looking like Godzilla’s snot. It drops into the dirt-colored water and makes its way to the shore, where it goes on a kick ass dine-n-dash spree.

A cross between a lizard, fish and a sci-fi prehistoric thingamasaurus, this “host” is responsible for spreading a virus that makes those around the river sick as though they drank the vitamin-enriched commode liqueur.

The creature is never given a name and only referred to as the Host. (I hereby name him Slug Face.) A fair amount of unlikely but entertaining plot turns and twists make up the time between the Slug Face’s dining habits. (You gotta see what he does after he eats people. It’d be funny to do that in a family restaurant.)

The best part is how freakin’ real they made Slug Face look. I was expecting a cornball digital monster, but was downright jubilant in my Underoos™ at the realistic nature of the beast. How the beast gets around is also so cool as to be, like, double cool.

There’s a butt-load of gnarly stuff (human eating, human digesting, human regurgitation), and the ending — not what you’d expect OR predict — is nicely orchestrated. The Host (2006) is a superbly satisfying giant monster movie that doesn’t suck. I totally heart you, Slug Face! 

Devil Dolls, Witch Wedding Crashers, Sharks

Been toying with the idea to do a run-down of all the streaming horror/sci-fi movie chanels. Turns out there’s a lot, so that means work. I’ll probably call in sick so as to not work. Shudder™ tops the short list of good ones, but it can’t match YouTube™ for its unlicenced use of practically every horror movie ever made in broadcast quality ranging from beer goggles to bent antenna. Anyway, try Midnight Pulp, American Horrors and/or Frightpix (warning — if you don’t pay Frightpix’s admittedly cheap subscription, you’re gonna have to endure a commercial every two minutes.)

Speaking of wading in crap, here’s a few upcoming ones to consider stepping in…

HEIDI (Available now)
“After investigating a neighbor’s attic, two high school pranksters are increasingly plagued by a series of disturbing, supernatural events involving a creepy, vintage doll named Heidi. As she stalks them day and night, no one will take their claims seriously until it is too late.”

An odd trend in horror movies these days, using painted wooden dolls as the source of all which plagues non-painted/non-wooden citizens. It came back with the Puppetmaster series and got more mileage with Annabelle from The Conjuring franchise (the doll now has its own stand-alone film coming out in 2017). Its moderate success spread to horror lite flicks as The Boy (2016) and The Doll (2016) to rat out a few.

This is nothing new; possessed dolls go way back in time and have a long history of gooning out people who own them. The one that got to me as a kid was that messed up Zuni hunting fetish doll in Trilogy of Terror (aka, Terror of the Doll) back in 1975. Soiled my Underoos™, I did.

7 WITCHES (April 14, 2017)
“As their big day approaches Cate and Cody should be celebrating, they’ve got their family with them, and rented an island for the big day. Unbeknownst to them their wedding falls on the day when a 100 year old curse comes to fruition. Instead of celebrating they find themselves fighting for their lives as a coven of witches rise for revenge.”

Time to fire your wedding planner. Geez, of all the things to disrupt the happiest day of your life (for a few months, anyway), you’d think it’d be a drunk relative and not a flippin’ witch. Wonder what the witches will give the bride as a household wedding gift — a broom? Heh.

SHARKNADO 5 (August 6, 2017)
“With much of North America lying in ruins, the rest of the world braces for the inevitable — a global sharknado. Fin Shepard and his family must put a stop to this disaster before Earth is completely obliterated.”

Man, this joke has worn itself so thin, it should be shown on wax paper. The best — and worse — part of these Sharknado droppings are the C-list “celebrities” lining up with make cameos inside the shark’s mouth. I don’t know if I’ll be flattered or insulted if they ever get around to calling me.

NAILS (2017)
“Dana Milgrom, a track coach who, having survived a near-death car accident, finds herself completely paralyzed and trapped inside her own body. While recovering she becomes convinced that an evil presence exists inside her hospital room and is intent on killing her. Believing her to be experiencing a mental breakdown, Dana’s family brush away her concerns. Becoming increasingly terrified, Dana soon realizes that she may not be the only target. Unable to leave her bed, she risks losing the ones she cares for most.”

If you’re seeing an evil presence in the hospital, it may be time to up the morphine drip. Then you won’t care who the entity goes after. High or not, it’d be really funny if the evil presence tripped over a full bed pan. Just thinking about it is making me LOL.

Flaunt Your Haunt

Frederick Loren, millionaire, knows how to throw a party. First, he has five guests (who don’t know each other) picked up and dropped off at his creepy mansion in hearses. Then he offers each of them $10,000 to stay the entire night. ($11,000 if they do it without pajamas.) There’s a catch – the freakin’ place is freakin’ haunted.

In order to help them sleep better, each is given a loaded gun. So far, so good. Throw in a little booze (what is a personal firearm without alcohol but a harmless party favor?) and it’s an easy eight hours to Spend City. Or is it?

During the night the guests are made Underoos™-staining frightened by animated skeletons, bodies with no heads (I know, I could’ve used the word “disembodied” here), and one of the scariest floating old women you’ll ever see this week. 

Horror icon Vincent Price as Frederick Loren is priceless as the manipulative millionaire whose wife is a royal pain in the pocket book. But then that’s why he threw the party – to make everyone realize what a royal pain she is. I totally would’ve shot her with my party favor.

Made in 1959, House on Haunted Hill (1959) thing stands as one of the coolest all-time spookers.