The Horror Show (aka House III) (1989) | James Isaac

July 24, 2021Evil ElectricityAlan Smithee, Allyn Warner, Aron Eisenberg, Brion James, cleaver, cop, David Blyth, DeDee Pfeiffer, detective, electric chair, furnace, James Isaac, Lance Henriksen, Leslie Bohem, revenge, Rita Taggart, Sean S. Cunningham, serial killer, supernaturalqwipster

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After viciously murdering over 110 people, the serial killer known as ‘Meat Cleaver Max’ Jenke (Brion James) gets the death penalty, sentenced to fry in the electric chair. Max doesn’t go easily, staying alive for nearly ten minutes as they zap him with everything they have before expiring. However, something happens in the process of electrocution that allows Jenke to live on as a supernatural entity of electricity – one that seeks revenge on the cop that arrested him, Lucas McCarthy (Lance Henriksen). McCarthy suffers from PTSD, forced into a leave of absence while seeing a psychologist until well enough to return as a detective. However, despite seeing Jenke executed with his own eyes, McCarthy sees him everywhere – in his dreams, on his TV, and popping up whenever he’s out and about. Either Jenke truly is a supernatural being taking up residence in McCarthy’s furnace, or McCarthy’s delusional and putting his family in grave danger.

Erratum: Once again, I refer to composer Harry Manfredini as Henry Manfredini, likely because of the composer Henry Mancini.

Shocker (1989) | Wes Craven

July 11, 2021Evil ElectricityCami Cooper, electric chair, electricity, football player, Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, psychopath, Richard Brooks, serial killer, television, wes cravenqwipster

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A college football star named Jonathan (Peter Berg) experiences horrifically vivid hallucinations following a concussive collision with a goal post. His first vision depicts the murder of his foster mother and siblings. When he awakes, he finds that his dream actually happened. He’s an eyewitness, but wasn’t physically there, leaving the cops skeptical. Jonathan realizes his visions are a telepathic link to the murderer, Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), which he uses to thwart the next murder in the Midwestern town of Maryville before he kills again. Pinker gets caught and his verdict is death by electrocution. Before Pinker sits in the electric chair, he makes a Faustian deal his jail cell to a television set that allows him to live on after the experience as an entity of electricity that can channel into any electrical network, including people’s bodies, the power grid, and anything plugged into a wall socket, including televisions from coast to coast. After he reveals himself to b Jonathan’s biological father, Pinker makes a violent escape, only this time, he can be anywhere – or anyone – and only his son’s psychic powers might be able to stop his rampage. Wes Craven writes and directs.

Pulse (1988) | Paul Golding

June 19, 2021Evil Electricityapplicance, Cliff De Young, divorce, electricity, haunted house, Joey Lawrence, Matthew Lawrence, Paul Golding, Roxanne Hart, television, troubled childqwipster

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Electricity lines between the houses in a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood allow an unseen but powerful malevolent force to enter homes, where it begins twisting the house’s wiring and everything that is plugged into it to its liking. Eventually, it begins using the home’s appliances to torture the inhabitants within. In one home on a cul-de-sac, the father went crazy and began destroying his home. Now it seems to be threatening the home across the street, where an 11-year-old boy named David (Joey Lawrence) is visiting his divorced father (Cliff De Young) for the summer. David seems to know what’s going on, but he can’t leave until he convinces his skeptical father before they’re stuck in a high-voltage death trap.

Roxanne Hart and Matthew Lawrence also appear in this 1988 eerie story written and directed by Paul Golding.

Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)

June 8, 2021AmityvilleAron Eisenberg, Brandy Gold, cat, demon, electricity, Frederic Lehne, Geri Betzler, grandmother, Jane Wyatt, lamp, mother, Norman Lloyd, parrot, Patty Duke, possession, relocation, Sandor Stern, The Amityville Horror, widow, Zoe Trillingqwipster

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In this made-for-network-TV entry, a crack team of Catholic priests comes in to exorcise the demonic presence within the possessed Amityville home. Cornered, the demon finds refuge by traveling through the power cable into a hideous-looking floor lamp. Sensing the evil is gone from the home, the contents of the home are put up at a yard sale, where a frolicsome older woman spies the lamp for a hundred dollars that would make for a great gag gift to send her sister in California.

That sister is Alice Leacock, who lives in a Victorian house overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the fictional northern California town of Dancott. Alice is a bitter fuddy-duddy set in her ways, and unhappy to have to take in her newly widowed daughter, Nancy Evans, and three grandchildren until they can get back on their feet. Alice receives the lamp, placing it prominently in her home, despite her household cat and parrot reacting with alarm to its presence. Not long after, strange occurrences erupt as the evil gets unleashed throughout the house, with the malevolent spirit especially targeting and influencing the youngest of the grandchildren by convincing her that it is her dead father. Meanwhile, one of the priests concludes that the evil may have transferred into one or more of the house’s yard sale items and begins sleuthing, trying to warn the family that they are in possession of a powerful demonic presence that will surely destroy them all.

Amityville 3-D (1983) | Richard Fleischer

May 30, 2021AmityvilleCandy Clark, David Ambrose, demon, Dino de Laurentiiis, flies, haunted house, hoax, John Harkins, Lori Loughlin, Meg Ryan, mythbusters, Neill Barry, ouija, Richard Fleischer, Robert Joy, Tess Harper, The Amityville Horror, Tony Robertsqwipster

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John Baxter is a recently divorced journalist working for an investigative magazine called Reveal. Baxter’s latest assignment exposes a seance scam operating within the abandoned Amityville home on Long Island, New York. Afterward, Baxter finds that the house is immensely affordable due to its sordid history of terrible things happening to those who’ve been inside. Baxter, apparently needing to find a new place following his divorce that has fourteen rooms covering three floors, moves into the house certain that all prior calamities were coincidences, delusions, and hoaxes. That bottomless pit in the basement others have claimed a portal to hell? Oh, that’s just an abandoned well. It has plenty of space for himself and his teenage daughter when she visits, as well as solitude for writing the “great American novel” he’s been talking about for years. Others around him experience strange events and implore him to leave. He won’t because he’s convinced the house’s reputation is causing mass hysteria. Unfortunately, with his daughter staying with him on occasion, he soon discovers that being wrong might be dead wrong.

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) | Damiano Damiani

May 24, 2021Amityvilleabuse, Brent Katz, Burt Young, Damiano Damiani, demon, Diane Franklin, Erika Katz, evil, exorcism, fratricide, haunted house, incest, Jack Magner, James Olson, Leonardo Cimino, matricide, Moses Gunn, murder, patricide, possession, Rutanya Alda, The Amityville Horror, Tommy Lee Wallaceqwipster

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In this prequel of a sort to The Amityville Horror (1979), the dysfunctional Montelli family moves into their new home and finds many curious things right away, including every window being nailed shut and a secret room in the basement of the house that is full of flies, muck and smells to high heaven (or down to low Hell). The longer they stay, the more they begin to witness strange events, and bicker violently with one another, until the eldest son of the family, Sonny ( Jack Magner), actually begins to exhibit behavior that may not be his own, including a desire to kill his abusive father, Anthony (Burt Young), and defile his younger teenage sister, Trish (Diane Franklin). Before things get completely out of hand, the mother requests that a local priest, Father Adamsky (James Olson), come out to investigate the supernatural events of the place, but without the backing of his superiors, he’s going it alone against what appears to be a portal to unfathomable evil that resides below the house. Rutanya Alda and Andrew Prine also appear. Directed by Damiano Damiano from a script by Tommy Lee Wallace.

The Amityville Horror (1979) | Stuart Rosenberg

May 10, 2021Amityvillebased on a book, based on a true story, demon, demonic possession, Don Stroud, flies, haunted house, imaginary friend, James Brolin, Margot Kidder, Murray Hamilton, new home, pig, priest, Rod Steiger, spirit, The Amityville Horrorqwipster

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The Amityville Horror is based on a popular novel by Jay Anson with a little longer title, “The Amityville Horror – A True Story”. The true story is, at this point, well known to be fictitious, but it did give the public quite a rise for a while. In the story, a young man ends up shooting his parents and sibling while they slept in the middle of the night for reasons even he couldn’t begin to explain. The horrific events shocked the small town, but the house was still deemed worthy for sale. Enter the Lutz family, who buy the house because it is going for a relatively cheaper rate than if it didn’t have the malevolent stigma, but they can’t pass up the price. However, weird things start happening, starting with the fact that the preacher (Rod Steiger,) who comes to bless the house is scared out of his wits, soon after suffering from an unknown ailment he feels has been inflicted by the evil within the house. The Lutz family themselves start exhibiting weird behavior themselves, with the father, George (James Brolin), always feeling cold, and having little motivation to do anything more than chop wood for the fire. Doors and windows open and close, the daughter starts talking to an imaginary (?) friend, and the dog starts sniffing around the cellar trying to dig up something only he knows is there. Margot Kidder costars.

Poltergeist III (1988) | Gary Sherman

April 26, 2021Poltergeistalternate dimension, apartment, building, Chicago, Gary Sherman, ghost, gifted child, Heather O'Rourke, high-rise, Kip Wentz, Lara Flynn Boyle, medium, mirror, Nancy Allen, Nate Davis, Poltergeist, portal, psychic, school, spirit, Tom Skerritt, Zelda Rubinsteinqwipster

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Heather O’Rourke and Zelda Rubinstein are the only players from the first two films to cross over into the light of Poltergeist III. Here, O’Rourke’s character, Carol Anne, seemingly dumped by her parents for reasons unknown, is taken care of by her Aunt Patricia (Nancy Allen), Uncle Bruce (Tom Skerritt), and teenage step-cousin, Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle), living in a high-rise building in Chicago. Carol Anne has been enrolled in a school for gifted but troubled kids, as her therapist, Dr. Seaton (Richard Fire), thinks that the young girl has the ability to hypnotize people into believing her delusions about seeing ghosts. Seaton forces Carol Anne to speak about her experiences, which brings to light her involvement with the dreaded Reverend Kane (Nate Davis), and this talk has caused the late Reverend to cross over into trying to get in contact with the girl again. For some reason, the entire building is chock full of mirrors at every turn, which is convenient to the haunting that emerges, as most of its haunting involved scaring the bejeesus out of the family and their cohorts through reflections in whatever mirrors they happen to be looking at.

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) | Brian Gibson

April 13, 2021Poltergeistafterlife, Brian Gibson, cave, Craig T. Nelson, cult, demon, ghost, grandmother, Heather O'Rourke, JoBeth Williams, Julian Beck, Mark Victor, Michael Grais, Native American, Oliver Robins, Phoenix, Poltergeist, possession, reverend, shaman, Will Sampson, worm, Zelda Rubinsteinqwipster

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Poltergeist II: The Other Side seeks to give more back story to the events of the first film, why the youngest child in the Freeling family had been wanted by the spirits, and the nature of the cult from which the spirits culminated, headed by Reverend Henry Kane (Julian Beck). Kane manifests himself in human form in this sequel, tenacious in his pursuit of young Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke), now moved away with her family in the hope they could start a new life for themselves. Tangina Barron (Zelda Rubinstein), the paranormal investigator from Poltergeist, sends out a Native American shaman (Will Sampson) to help protect the family once she discovers the hidden cave buried in the ground where Kane and his followers died, knowing that the family will not be able to escape Kane’s interest no matter where they might go. Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, and Oliver Robins return.

Poltergeist (1982) | Tobe Hooper

April 2, 2021PoltergeistBeatrice Straight, Craig T. Nelson, Dominique Dunne, Heather O'Rourke, James Karen, JoBeth Williams, Martin Casella, Michael Grais, Oliver Robins, Richard Lawson, Steven Spielberg, Tobe Hooper, Zelda Rubinsteinqwipster

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In the film, a family of five known as the Freelings lives in idyllic suburbia – or so they think. Strange things begin to occur in the house shortly after their cherubic 5-year-old daughter (Heather O’Rourke) begins receiving communication from someone she refers to as the “TV people” through the static on their television set. Their pet bird dies, furniture begins to move on its own, and other such oddities, but things take a turn for the deadly for the family when the tree outside their home seemingly becomes animated and threatens to engulf the middle child (Oliver Robins) into its wooden maw. The boy is saved, but their young daughter ends up missing, ostensibly stolen into another dimension by forces unknown, although she is able to still communicate through the television. The family enlists the services of a group of parapsychologists to investigate the strange phenomena, and hopefully get back their beloved daughter, but the forces that currently dominate the house prove to be much stronger than anything they’ve ever seen before. Tobe Hooper directs this Steven Spielberg production.

Beetlejuice (1988) | Tim Burton

March 16, 2021Kooky Spooksafterlife, Alec Baldwin, art, Beetlejuice, Catherine O'Hara, Connecticut, Danny Elfman, exorcist, exterminator, Geena Davis, ghost, Glenn Shadix, goth, haunted house, imp, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Keaton, Michael McDowell, sandworm, Tim Burton, Warren Skaaren, Winona Ryderqwipster

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Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland (Geena Davis) love the little home in the country they’ve built for themselves, but after they are killed in a freak accident and come back as ghosts, they are appalled to find that their house has been sold to a tasteless and unpleasant family, who plan one tearing down all they’ve built to redo the house in the tackiest way possible. Now they are determined to do what they can to scare away the family and serve out their 125-year term as apparitions before moving on to the next phase, but a wrench stops up the works when the new owners are pleased with the financial possibilities of the attraction of a haunted house, and it seems the more they scare these new inhabitants, the more amused they get. The Maitlands call on the services of Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a crazy and psychotic ghoul who seems to do more harm than good for the Maitland’s tastes. Tim Burton directs.

Ghostbusters II (1989) | Ivan Reitman

February 25, 2021Kooky SpooksAnnie Potts, baby, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, ghost, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, New York City, Peter MacNicol, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, single mother, slime, spirit, Statue of Liberty, Wilhelm von Homburgqwipster

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Five years after the events of Ghostbusters, the heroes are zeroes again, bankrupt after getting sued by the city for the destructive aftermath of clearing out the city of spooks. There’s also a Federal restraining order prohibiting them from continued ghostbusting. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is now the host of a cheesy local cable talk show called, “World of the Psychic.” Occult bookstore owner Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) gets side work with Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), cosplaying as Ghostbusters for childrens’ birthday parties. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) is back at Columbia University, investigating how human emotions affect psycho-magnetic energy. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) is a single mother after leaving Venkman for his inability to commit, having a baby, now eight months old, with another man. Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) applies his knack for accounting to become a tax lawyer.

They reunite after being approached by Peter’s ex, Dana, who reports a strange occurrence involving her baby’s carriage traveling on its own. They discover rivers of mood slime running beneath the city, converging on the Manhattan Museum of Art, where Dana works as an art restorer, including a life-size portrait of Medieval sorcerer warlord, Vigo the Carpathian. Vigo’s spirit lives within his portrait, and to enter into the realm of the living, he needs a baby to be his vessel to come to the mortal realm and continue his reign of terror. He makes a deal with Dana’s boss, Dr. Janosz Poha (Peter MacNicol), to secure her baby, Oscar, in exchange for a date with her.

Ghostbusters (1984) | Ivan Reitman

February 11, 2021Kooky SpooksAnnie Potts, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, ghost, Ghostbusters, going into business, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman, New York City, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, William Athertonqwipster

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Ghostbusters centers on three university researchers (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis) of paranormal activity who go into business of their own once they get into trouble for their uncouth antics, and their grant money runs out. They emerge on the scene as the “Ghostbusters”, a trio of exterminators (of sorts), willing to investigate phenomena from anyone in New York City willing to call their number and pay their fees. Though the public is initially skeptical, these men soon become heroes, then celebrities, for their success rate, drawing the attention of the media, as well as the EPA (who are curious about their containment system), as the amount of ghostly appearances seems to be on a major upswing.

Sigourney Weaver co-stars as a cellist named Dana Barrett, who is one of the first in her old building to begin seeing strange things in her refrigerator, causing her to make the call she never thought she’d have to make. Along with her neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), she becomes the conduit for the rise of the malevolent Babylonian spirit, whose aims are to bring darkness onto the world. Directed by Ivan Reitman.

Erratum: The artist friend Aykroyd used for conceptual art on Ghost Smashers was John “The Viking” Deveikis, not the cited Thom Enriquez, who made additional conceptual art once Reitman was on board.

Prince of Darkness (1987) | John Carpenter

January 28, 2021Evil OozeAlice Cooper, Anti-God, Catholic, church, Dennis Dun, Donald Pleasence, God, graduate student, Jameson Parker, John Carpenter, Lisa Blount, priest, professor, quantum mechanics, quantum theory, Satan, Victor Wongqwipster

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The diary of a reclusive priest named Father Carlton reveals a centuries-old secret sect in the Church called the Brotherhood of Sleep. Carlton was on the verge of revealing their existence to the Archbishop that Brotherhood is guarding an ancient cylinder filled green fluid hidden in the basement of an abandoned 16th Century-built chapel in Los Angeles. The dormant entity inside the cylinder has been awakened by the force of a distant supernova that exploded long ago, a chaotic chain reaction disrupting order on Earth.

Another priest discovers the diary and key to the basement, encountering the cylinder and a mysterious book written in ancient languages containing mathematical and physics references. The priest contacts his former TV debate sparring partner, advanced physics professor Howard Birack, to decipher what it all means. Birack brings a research team of graduate students to investigate, who collectively experience tachyon transmissions in their dreams from the future warning about the re-emergence of an ancient evil.

The book reveals the truth: Jesus was a descendant of a human-like extraterrestrial race killed for delivering scientific warnings that no one understood. His disciples hid these warnings until such a time when science could catch up and decode the truth. The church lied publicly, telling followers that evil lies within them and could be controlled through faith.

Meanwhile, the Prince of Darkness, aka the Devil, has remained dormant in the cylinder there for two-thousand years, placed there by his father, the Anti-God. The anti-God once roamed the Earth before humankind’s existence but now resides within subatomic antimatter awaiting a time for his son to reemerge to help him cross from the mirror dimension into the material world.

Something’s growing in the prebiotic fluid, leaking up toward the ceiling, squirting into the mouths of the students, using psychokinetic energy to turn them evil. Satan’s searching for a host to bring himself into the world to help the father escape.

John Carpenter writes and directs.

The Stuff (1985) | Larry Cohen

January 17, 2021Evil OozeAndrea Marcovicci, body snatcher, commercials, Danny Aiello, dessert, Garrett Morris, ice cream, Larry COhen, Michael Moriarty, parasite, Paul Sorvino, satire, Scott Bloom, spy, yogurtqwipster

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Larry Cohen concocts this comedic horror-thriller involving an ex-FBI agent turned industrial spy hired by a desperate ice cream industry, trying to steal the secret formula from a corporation pushing a newly marketed yogurt-like food substance called The Stuff. He discovers the substance, which is found bubbling up from seemingly unlimited deposits underground, is deadly and humanity hangs in the balance. The Stuff is a delicious, no-calorie dessert that is highly addictive to all who eat it. So addictive that all people want to do it continue eating it, while the living parasite inside controls their minds as it eats them from the inside until it reproduces and the human host expires. Michael Moriarty, Andrea Marcovicci, Scott Bloom, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello appear.

Around the World in 80s Movies Podcast

A concise podcast reviewing the films released in the 1980s, with history, trivia, fun facts, and film critic Vince Leo's personal recollection with the era that defined a generation's taste in movies.

The Horror Show (aka House III) (1989) | James Isaac

Shocker (1989) | Wes Craven

Pulse (1988) | Paul Golding

Amityville 4: The Evil Escapes (1989)

Amityville 3-D (1983) | Richard Fleischer

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) | Damiano Damiani

The Amityville Horror (1979) | Stuart Rosenberg

Poltergeist III (1988) | Gary Sherman

Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986) | Brian Gibson

Poltergeist (1982) | Tobe Hooper

Beetlejuice (1988) | Tim Burton

Ghostbusters II (1989) | Ivan Reitman

Ghostbusters (1984) | Ivan Reitman

Prince of Darkness (1987) | John Carpenter

The Stuff (1985) | Larry Cohen