(1990)
Dir - Fred Olen Ray
Overall: WOOF
A hilariously awful and aggressive hodgepodge of all things hack is what makes up Fred Olen Ray's ridiculous Spirits; a movie that channels so many other movies that one could make a drinking game out of spotting the references. This drinking game would result in alcohol poisoning to be sure, but such a low-rent and embarrassing conglomerate of cliches is exactly what makes it a fun, stupid mess. The Amityville Horror, The Evil Dead, The Legend of Hell House, The Exorcist, nunsploitation, and good ole late night cable sleaze all come together with an unmistakably ill-equipped budget. Ray even managed to score veterans Erick Estrada as a troubled priest and Robert Quarry as an inquisitive scientist, with the director's usual sidekicks Brinke Stevens and an uncredited Michelle Bauer showing up, though the later only does so to take off her clothes in one scene because of course. Some naked boobs, prosthetic demon make-up, a little indoor fog, and an obnoxious cheap keyboard score that never once shuts the hell up provide some exploitative and atmospheric ingredients, but Ray's unabashed presentation is what beats the viewer over the head. One can either applaud or feel sorry for these actors who get/have to chew the scenery in a cheap haunted house setting, but it never stops being ridiculous, which in this case, is as it should be.
(1991)
Dir - Doug Robertson
Overall: MEH
The only movie of any kind from Kentucky native Doug Robertson, HauntedWeen continues a long tradition of Z-rent regional horror movies made by nonprofessionals, with equally inexperienced people in front of the lens as well. On paper, it has a typical "guy in a Halloween mask goes around murdering sexually promiscuous college kids" slasher framework, but it does not get to this until about fifty minutes in, that is unless you count a prologue where we meet our clandestine killer when he was a creepy kid that accidentally murders another kid when trying to scare her in a makeshift haunted house. The majority of the proceedings is just a boner comedy with terrible music. Shot on 16 mm, Robertson pulls off some acceptable results though, with plenty of fog, naked boobs, colorful atmospheric lighting, slow motion kill scenes, and competent if unremarkable cinematography. Aside from some cringe dialog and one of the actors putting on an exaggerated cartoon-character hillbilly accent, the cast of unknowns handle the tongue-in-cheek material with a sense of surprising professionalism, plus the movie even manages to be intentionally funny at irregular intervals. This can be said about the entire production actually which is far from great by its very design and meager means, yet also not as embarrassing as it has every right to be.
Dir - Daniel Taplitz
Overall: MEH
Casting Judge Reinhold as the lead in a goofy witch movie seems logical enough, yet casting him as the romantic lead may teeter on the side of ill-advised. Black Magic was the second supernatural-themed made-for-TV comedy/horror film from writer/director Daniel Taplitz, which appeared on Showtime without making a memorable dent on anyone's radar. This is easy to understand since the results are formulaic and forgettable, with a plot that takes a page out of John Landis' An American Werewolf in London by having Reinhold hounded by his presumably dead cousin, (Anthony LaPaglia), that keeps telling him that he will not leave him alone until he kills someone. That someone is his old fling/Reinhold's new fling Rachel Ward, a smirking minx who runs a bowling alley and practices the mystical arts. Brion James is also present and is either dubbed or does a smashing Ross Perot impression, but the minimal star power can only do so much with juvenile gags and a dragging plot that never seems to land its tone. The attempted funny moments are hit or miss, and Reinhold and Ward, (though both professionals), play things more seriously than silly.
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