(1990)
Dir - Frank Darabont
Overall: MEH
The directorial debut from Frank Darabont who had written a number of horror screenplays before and would go on to helm Shawshank Redemption four years later, Buried Alive was a made for TV movie that USA premiered in 1990 and has no relation besides its title to Edgar Allan Poe's Buried Alive produced the same year. This one has Jennifer Jason Leigh and Dickless himself William Atherton from Ghostbusters as a pair straight out of a Tales from the Crypt episode. The entire film in fact plays as a ninety-minute version of such a thing, with all the proper comeuppance and evil plan reversed on the evil-doers shenanigans those stories frequently thrived on. It even boasts a silly, sexy Lethal Weapon-esque score that dates it to the early 90s ever so deliciously. While it passes the test of being an enjoyable thriller, it is incredibly predictable and generic. Judging by the title alone and the first five to ten minutes of the movie, you can guess almost every detail that is to follow. Throw in a couple of unnecessary one-liners and a tame, TV friendly presentation and there is just not much to make it standout.
(1991)
Dir - Mark Herrier/Alan Ormsby
Overall: MEH
There is a lot going on in Popcorn, a film with two directors that comes off overstuffed. Mark Herrier, (Billy in Porkys), was replaced early by Alan Ormsby who was a frequent collaborator with Bob Clark and no matter what scenes where handled by whom, the end product is confused. The story begins interesting, but ends up making itself less clever as it goes along not only because it regrettably formulates into a conventional slasher movie, but also because plotholes and other obnoxious moments keep getting in the way. The incidental music is fine and typical, but there is a horror rap and worse yet, a horror reggae song that are just atrocious even taking into account the movie's clear comedic tone. The death scenes are as foreseeable and as derivative as can be, (they are in a movie theater showing crappy B-movies with William Castle-esque gimmicks so of course, the victims mostly die by variations of such gimmicks). The villain is a deformed, manically gestured lunatic who ends up being one of the last people you expect, ironically making who he turns out to be expectable. The script is quite sloppy, often breaks its own rules, and throws supernatural elements at you early on that end up being completely unexplained given what turns out to actually be happening. Popcorn does come close to being fun in a kind of silly, absurd way, but its issues just keep on piling up.
(1993)
Dir - Abel Ferrara
Overall: MEH
The 90's interpretation of Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers by provocateur filmmaker Abel Ferrara follows two previous versions that where of such outstanding quality that a third reworking logically would only disappoint. This is indeed the case as Body Snatchers is so misguided in some respects that it is nearly a disaster. Underwritten characters and stiff performances from the non-alien versions of people, (including Terry Kinney and Billy Wirth who comes off looking and sounding like a poor man's Andrew Dice Clay), make things distracting for Ferrara to build any genuine tension with. Most annoyingly, one of the best, most strikingly visual horror movie moments of all time from the 1978 Invasion is legitimately exploited here with hokey, embarrassing effects that completely undermine their intent. The ending seems tacked on and almost confusing, plus the narration from Gabrielle Anwar is poorly written and acts more or less as a plot synopsis for dummies. In another five or so years we are do for yet another Body Snatchers installment, begging the question more as to why not just leave well enough alone and quit while they are ahead.
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